“Eve,” someone called out to me as I approached the stairs.
I turned to see Susan stepping out into the hallway.
“You made it,” I said. A smile crossed my lips.
She nodded. “We actually just got in yesterday.”
“Did you have any troubles getting back?” I asked. I stuffed my hands into my pockets and leaned against the wall.
She shook her head. “We didn’t see a single Bane, just like you said. Which I think was almost scarier than if we had seen them. I kept expecting them to jump out at us any second.”
I chuckled and nodded. I understood the feeling. “How’s Karmen?”
“She’s good,” Susan smiled. “There are a few others here that speak Spanish, so that’s nice.”
I nodded once more. “I’m glad you made it okay.” She smiled and then turned to walk the opposite way down the hall. I headed back for the stairs.
There were two weeks between now and knowing our future. What was I going to do with myself for two weeks until the transmitter was finished?
That would put us to the end of February. The gardens wouldn’t quite be ready to till. I would be too on edge to go to my tent out at the beach. I supposed I could join security detail, now that there was a need for it once more. I wondered how much further into the city the Bane would have gotten in the two weeks we had been gone.
I was just about to head down the stairs to the main floor when I ran right into Avian. He tripped backwards and I reached a hand out and gripped the front of his shirt just in time to keep him from tumbling back down them.
Pulling him back into standing position, he started laughing. “That would be just my luck, getting within two weeks of the apocalypse ending, and meet my demise by falling down the stairs.”
“I’ll have to wrap you up in layers of blankets to get you there,” I said as he turned and walked down the stairs with me.
We exited into the hall of the main floor and walked together toward the dining area for dinner.
Everyone sat at tables, quiet and so seemingly unaware of the changes that were about to descend upon our already crazy world. They smiled and talked, and if someone from before the Evolution were to observe them, they wouldn’t think anything had happened to end their way of comfortable living.
“Things seem too calm,” Avian said as we sat at a table with our meals. “Don’t they?”
I nodded and forked the canned green beans into my mouth. I swallowed. “The last year has been so crazy and life-threatening, this almost seems scarier.”
“The calm before the storm, maybe,” Avian said.
“Things are falling into place too easily.” I ate half of my roll in one bite. “It feels like we’re missing something. Like we’re overlooking an important detail, or something is brewing just under the surface where we can’t see it.”
Avian grunted in agreement as he finished off his own roll. “Maybe the world has just made us paranoid. We’ve had to fight so hard for so long, that when things get easy, we start getting suspicious.”
“I don’t know,” I said, wiping crumbs off my hands. “I think maybe everyone is too confident that this machine is going to work. What if it doesn’t go any further than New Eden’s borders? No farther than the state this used to be? What if they can’t even get it to go off? What if there isn’t a single satellite up there that will work? What if I can’t really connect with the Bane?”
“It will work,” Avian said, looking up at me from his plate. “It has to.”
“I guess that’s the storm, isn’t it?” I said, picking up my fork but not grabbing any food with it. “If this doesn’t work, that’s the end of the human race.”
Avian reached across the table and covered my free hand with his. I met his eyes again. “It will work,” he said.
TWENTY-FIVE
First thing in the morning, Royce called a meeting.
Every member of New Eden, including the refugees, and now Karmen and Susan, gathered in the auditorium, facing Royce with expectation. Gabriel stood to his side, hands crossed behind his back.
“First, as I’m sure you’ve all already seen, our solar crew has returned safely,” Royce said, clapping. Everyone followed his lead and clapped loudly. My face grew red and I was glad I was in the second row of seats so I didn’t have to look at anyone. West, who was just to my side, smirked down at me. Vee, next to him just stared forward at Royce.
“Most of you have wondered what their exact mission was,” Royce continued. He held his hands behind his back and paced across the stage. “You’ve heard that the man who created TorBane is still alive. Eve and her chosen crew went with Dr. Evans back to NovaTor Biotics. They were on a mission to get a certain code.”
The room had grown silent and I could almost feel everyone leaning forward, on baited breath, waiting for him to continue.
“A kill code,” Royce said. As if on cue, everyone inhaled sharply. Several shouts of what does that mean? were thrown into the air. Royce held his hands out as if to push their questions back at them. “It is exactly like it sounds. This is a kill code that will instantly wipe out the Bane. It is difficult to fully explain how it works. There is a lot of mixed up history to it, but our own Eve is the key to making it work.”
Instantly, I felt hundreds of eyes on the back of my head. Avian shifted beside me and I could tell he was fighting the urge to wrap a supportive arm around me. Instead, he discreetly slipped his hand into mine.
“You know she can communicate with the Bane, control them. She already has this kill code programmed inside of her,” Royce said. He didn’t look down at me, which I appreciated. His eyes were fixed firmly on those before him. “This code she and her team went after unblocks it.”
Royce placed his hands behind his back again and paced toward the other end of the stage. “While they were gone, our scientific teams have been working on a device that will amplify this kill code. It will send a signal up twenty-three-thousand miles above us to an orbiting satellite. This satellite will transmit the code to all other satellites that are still in orbit around planet Earth. There are hundreds of them up there, floating around the entire globe. Not all of them will be useful after so long with no attention and maintenance, but there should be enough to carry the signal around the globe.”
Another intake of breath, followed by loud murmurs. Royce paused for a long time, letting everyone draw their own conclusions.
“Yes,” Royce said, stilling in the middle of the stage. He stood with his legs in a wide stance, his arms grasped firmly behind his back. “If all goes as planned, it will do what you all are thinking it wilclass="underline"
“Wipe out the Bane. Worldwide.”
The room erupted.
Some were saying it was impossible. Some burst into tears of joy. Others opened and closed their mouths, not knowing what to say.
I turned in my seat, observing their disbelief and hopeful, cautious dreaming.
“Prepare to be worshiped,” Avian said quietly.
“I am not finished,” Royce bellowed. Not in an unkind way, but a way that demanded attention once more. The room quickly grew quiet once more.
“There is no guarantee that this will work,” Royce said, his voice grave sounding. “Any number of things could go wrong. I do have every confidence that it will work. However, if it doesn’t, you all need to know the conditions of the world outside of our safe haven.”
He held their attention with a hook and line once more.
“I am sorry to say we have kept information from you,” he said, his eyes falling from the crowd around him. “Once again, our information is linked to Eve. When she was taken earlier this winter, she came back with reports of a Bane army.”