“I can take care of myself,” I said as I rolled my eyes at him. “I think you would know that by now.”
“Even so, I’m not going to just sit here,” West said as he locked eyes with Avian. And the argument over me continued silently.
“Get over it you two,” I said in an exasperated tone as I jumped out of the trailer and started walking toward the looming buildings. A moment later another set of feet jumped to the ground and jogged to keep up with me.
West and I padded silently across the sand and clay, guns in hand, ready to fire at the slightest movement. As we approached the buildings my eyes grew wide.
“They’re huge,” I breathed as I took the size of them in. The thing just went on and on, a massive landscape of waved metal. I had never seen a building so big.
“You should have seen the building we used to live in,” West said, again without thinking. I gave him a hard look before he let out an awkward chuckle. “Okay, maybe it’s better you don’t remember it.”
We found a door in the vastness of the north wall. It was locked. I tapped it, testing its thickness. “It’s pretty thin,” I said as I squinted through the dark. “Ready to see how enhanced I am?” I chuckled. West just shook his head and gave me a half smile.
I punched a hole through the waved aluminum without too much effort. A thin scratch ran down the length of my hand, a few tiny drops of blood dripping to the ground. Ignoring it, I reached through and opened the door from the inside.
The interior of the building was massive. Everyone in Eden could have set up their tents inside and still had plenty of room to be comfortable. “They must have put those planes in here,” West said as he too took our surroundings in. There were no traces of any life around, cybernetic or organic.
“Come on,” I said. “Let’s get moving.”
We jogged along the perimeter of the building, finding a few rooms in one corner. One contained a desk, papers and books scattered around the room. We found a handgun in one of the drawers and a small box of ammunition. The other room was used for storage. We found a few pairs of shoes and pairs of pants to bring back with us.
We went back outside and jogged to the next building. It too was locked. Five seconds later it wasn’t.
Proof of West’s theory was found inside this building. Through the darkness we could make out the figure of one of the massive planes.
“Isn’t that amazing?” West mused. “That we used to have control over the sky like that? I would have loved to learn to fly one of those.”
“Maybe someday you’ll get your chance,” I whispered as I started along the perimeter of the building. We found a kitchen but there was no food left in it. It was in the next room we struck gold.
“Here we go,” I said with a smirk as I stood in the doorway.
The walls were lined with all kinds of weaponry. Handguns, shotguns, things I had never even seen before but would learn to use shortly. “Grab everything you can,” I said, grabbing the nearest menacing looking piece of destruction and salvation.
I filled my pockets with ammunition until my pants threatened not to stay on my hips from the weight. I grabbed three oblong balls with small pins stuck in the top. I wasn’t sure what they would do but if they were in this room they must have had destructive force. I shoved them into one of the pockets at the side of my knees.
“What Avian said, about you only blacking out around me, it’s true, isn’t it?” West said as he continued to load up.
“I told you that myself,” I said as I strapped two guns to the side of my pack.
“I guess I thought you were just mad at me before, when you said it, as usual,” he said quietly as he worked. “Why do you think that is?”
“I don’t know,” I said, feeling a little frustrated. I just wanted to be doing something useful and not have to deal with my feelings right now.
“Do you think what Avian said is true?” he asked quietly. “That feeling those things kind of… overloads you?”
“Maybe,” I said as I felt along an upper shelf. I pulled down another box of bullets. “All of my emotions were supposed to be blocked. Now that I’m starting to feel things again I sure feel like I don’t know how to handle it.”
West was quiet for a while after that and I could sense all the turmoil he was in. “I don’t want to be putting everyone at risk but I don’t know how to stay away from you, Eve. I don’t think I can just shut my feelings for you off.”
I finally fell still at his words. “I don’t know how to shut them off either. I’m trying to see where the line is between acceptable risk and feeling alive.”
I heard him walk up behind me. I felt his hand on my arm, slowly turning me around. I met his brown eyes, alive and dancing in the darkness. His hands came to my waist, softly pushing me back against the wall behind me.
“I know how I make you feel, Eve,” he whispered, his lips only an inch away from mine. “Does Avian make you feel the same way?”
Before I had a chance to answer, West pressed his lips to mine. His entire body molded against mine. My pulse skyrocketed, my breath catching in my throat as West’s lips moved with mine. I felt as if my body had exploded, a raging torrent of wanting more, more, more.
And then the lights went out.
THIRTY
When I opened my eyes the sky was starting to lighten, a pale shade of blue and pink. The tips of trees surrounded my vision and as I rolled over I was momentarily confused. For half a second I thought we were back in Eden, back home. But the shape of this lake was different, the trees a different species, though similar. And there were only nine tents instead of a few dozen.
The people of our group bustled around, finishing setting up the tents, putting their belongings inside, washing their sweat-crusted clothes out in the small lake.
How long had I been out for? It must have been a few hours if we had finally left behind the desert and found a forest.
I sat up, realizing I was still lying on the trailer. I shook my head, trying to clear the fog that felt like it was still nesting in my brain. It was then that I spotted West at his tent. He glanced over at me and my eyes narrowed at him. His left eye was surrounded with a ring of black.
My eyes then found Avian. His bottom lip was split.
I didn’t even have to ask what had happened. West had sent me into overload again. I’d blacked out. Avian wasn’t too happy when he found out. They’d finally gotten physical.
I got up, feeling a little strange still, and went to look for my tent in the back of the truck. It was then that I realized that it was already being set up. To my surprise it was Tuck who was assembling it.
“Thank you,” I said as I grabbed a pole and helped him. “I can take care of it.”
“It’s no trouble,” he said, his lips pulling into a small smile.
I tried to return it, unsure if I had succeeded. It felt strange working next to him, I didn’t know him well. Tuck had only been with us for just over a year. I wasn’t sure how he had come to join our group.
“Was it bad?” I asked him quietly.
“What?” he asked as he started hammering a stake into the ground.
“The fight between Avian and West.”
Tuck gave the smallest of chuckles. “A few fists flew but it was over pretty quick. I reminded them that we didn’t have time for squabbles.”
I just shook my head, letting out a frustrated breath. “I didn’t do anything did I? Nothing… I don’t know.”
“Just zombie walked,” he said as he stood and wiped his hands off on his pants. When I gave him a blank stare he continued. “You just walked back to the truck with West, loaded up with weapons. But your eyes were just…”