Escape to Eden

by Rachel McClellan

  “I don’t want to hurt you,” I say, but Earless doesn’t give any indication that he understands what I’m saying and keeps coming toward me, his hands extended. Blood gurgles in his throat; some of it sprays outside his mouth.

  Just then there’s a loud popping sound. A whole bunch of them. And voices shouting.

  He looks back.

  “Go on,” I say. “Shoo!”

  The Junk behind it runs away, but Earless hesitates for a moment longer until another series of pops echoes through the tunnels. It snarls once then disappears through the opening.

  I exhale and drop the knife. “It’s okay, Max. They’re gone.”

  I want to go to Max, but I need to see what scared away the Junks. I peek around the corner. The area beneath the hatch is clear, but further down the Institute’s guards are yelling and fighting with Junks.

  I rush back to Colt and Max. We have one shot at this. It’s now or never.

  “Come on, Colt,” I say. “Wake up!”

  I sit him up by pushing against his back. He moans a little and his head sways, but at least he doesn’t fall over.

  I rotate in front of him and pat his face with my hands hard. “Look at me, Colt. Wake up!”

  His eyes come into focus and stare back at me.

  “I’m going to stand you up, but I need your help. We’re in trouble, do you understand?”

  His head lobs forward. I take that as a yes and slip my arms under his and press up. He struggles, but at least he’s helping. In just a few seconds he’s standing.

  With my free hand I take hold of Max’s arm and pull him forward with us. Stuck in his alternate world, he tries to resist, but I don’t let go. I am practically carrying Colt and dragging Max.

  The voices in the tunnel grow closer. There’s no more shooting but a lot of yelling.

  “Sage!” It’s Anthony’s voice.

  “Anthony! Over here.”

  Anthony hurries in and comes to Colt. I let him take Colt, and I pick up Max.

  “Is anyone hurt?” Anthony asks, looking us over.

  “We’re fine, but guards are coming.”

  “Let’s go then.” Anthony lifts Colt’s arm and wraps it around his shoulders. “You’ve got to help me, Colt. Can you do that?”

  Colt mumbles something unintelligible.

  I carry Max ahead of them and jog back to the hatch. It’s wide open, and I look up. The light from my wristpad shines through the darkness and onto Jenna’s face.

  “You completely ruined your hair,” Jenna says from above. “And what did you do to the dress?”

  “Improved it,” I say and climb up the ladder.

  As soon as I’m at the top, I set Max down and go back inside to help Anthony. Light flashes at the end of the hallway.

  “Hurry!” I say.

  Colt reaches for the ladder but misses. I hold his hand to the ladder and do the same with the other. In his ear, I whisper, “Please. We’re so close.”

  This seems to wake him up. He places his foot on the bottom rung and pushes up. I climb up with him, keeping a steady hand on his back.

  “Stop!” a man shouts. He runs toward us. Two more appear behind him.

  Jenna reaches a hand down. “Grab it!”

  Colt takes hold and she easily lifts him out. They are all so strong.

  “Go up, Sage,” Anthony says. “I’ve got these guys.”

  He’s holding the same dagger I had in my hand earlier.

  “I’m not leaving you alone,” I say.

  “Three guys is nothing. I’ll be fine. Go.”

  I look up toward where my brother sits waiting for me and then back at Anthony.

  “Stop right there and we’ll let you live,” a guard says. He has a single spike sticking out of his otherwise bald head.

  “Don’t listen to him, Sage,” Anthony says. “You’re too valuable. Just go before they capture Max again.”

  This makes me move. I scramble up the ladder. When I’m at the top, I shout down, “Come on! You can make it.”

  He stares up at me through the narrow opening and smiles. “Change the world,” he says just as an invisible blast knocks him to the ground.

  I’m staring at Anthony’s unmoving body when Jenna shoves me aside and closes the hatch. She jams a long rod into the handle of the door and twists it around, preventing it from opening on the inside.

  Max presses against me.

  “He’s not dead, right?” I ask, placing a protective arm around my brother. The night is cold and seeps through the thin material of my dress.

  “It doesn’t matter,” Jenna says. “We have to get out of here.”

  “What do you mean it doesn’t matter?”

  She helps Colt to his feet, completely ignoring me.

  “Answer me! Is he dead?”

  She whirls on me, her golden eyes cold and cruel. “If I’m lucky that rod will hold for maybe five minutes, and then a whole lot of people, who none of us are equipped to fight, are going to come pouring out like locusts. Do you want all of us captured?”

  I glance at Colt, but he’s staring at the ground as if he’s trying to remember what happened. “Fine,” I say, and tighten my grip on Max.

  “Can you run?” Jenna asks Colt.

  “I think so,” he stutters.

  “Good. The car’s this way.”

  She cuts into the forest, followed by Colt, who’s half-running, half-limping. I stay as close behind them as I can but I’m not as fast. Max feels like he weighs a hundred pounds. But I don’t stop. The burning in my muscles is nothing I haven’t felt before. I’ll go until my body gives out.

  The forest is dark, lit up only by the fractured light of each of our wristpads, moving in sync with our swinging arms. Shadows stretch and break, bend and twist; the motion is nauseating if I don’t stare straight ahead. We reach the car, which is a ways off the main road. There’s a jagged trail behind the tires of torn-up earth and grass as if Anthony had been driving a hundred miles an hour before he stopped.

  Jenna opens the passenger door for Colt, but before he gets there he falls to his knees and vomits in the dirt. I wonder if it’s because he’s pushed himself too hard after just having a seizure or because we left Anthony.

  I unhook Max’s arms from around my neck and place him in the backseat of the car before I go to help Colt. He waves me away.

  “I’m fine,” he says and wipes his mouth with the back of his hand. He stands up, stumbles a little, but then recovers. He still hasn’t looked at me.

  I slide next to Max while Jenna revs the engine to life.

  “Is Anthony alive?” I ask again as the car shoots forward.

  It takes her a few seconds to say, “He was only stunned. So, for now, he’s alive.”

  “What will they do to him?”

  Her fingers twist around the steering wheel. Her knuckles are bone white. “For the first twenty-four hours they will try to get him to give up the names of everyone involved and our locations. If they can’t get him to talk, which they won’t, then they’ll drug him to get the truth, but even that won’t work. He’s built up a tolerance. We all have.”

  “Then what will they do?”

  Her eyes meet mine in the rearview mirror. “They’ll kill him.”

  When I suck in air, she adds, “Or they may choose to send him where everyone else goes who opposes the Institute: Purgatory Island, which is the same thing as a death sentence.”

  I’ve heard the name before but can’t place it. “What’s that?”

  “It’s an island that was set up as a prison over a hundred years ago. It came at a time when the population had exploded, which meant more bad guys. Prisons were so overcrowded that wardens had to start letting people go, the least of the offenders first. This outraged and scared a lot of people.” Jenna turns the steering wheel, putting the car back onto a main road. I think we’re heading in the direction of her mom’s house.

  She continues, “So the lawmakers at the time came up with an idea�
�a three-strikes-you’re-out sort of thing. Except for murderers. They went straight to the Island. But for other criminals they were given a few chances. If they couldn’t shape up, then they were shipped away.”

  “What’s on the Island?”

  “At first, absolutely nothing. They let people fend for themselves. The inmates had to find their own food, shelter, everything, so of course, the majority of them died within months of getting there, whether from starvation or each other. The only ‘supervision’ they had were eight guard stations a hundred yards off the coast in the water. They were connected together by strings of barbed wire that go all around the island to keep people from coming and going by boat without authorization.” She takes a breath. So do I.

  “Crime in America went down, but very few knew about the conditions of the Island. They were happy in their ignorance. This also happened to be during the boom of Prime DNA. Everyone was trying it, mixing it, shooting it. Eventually it found its way to the Island. All sorts of crazy things happened. Techheads that had been sent there survived by learning to manipulate human DNA so they didn’t need normal food, but that changed a whole bunch of other things about them too. Unsupervised, they conducted all sorts of experiments, not only on animals but humans too. It was rumored that they had created some sort of monster race that could destroy all of society.”

  A shiver races up my spine and explodes on my skin. Max crawls onto my lap. I should ask Jenna to stop, but I have to know more.

  “By this time, almost a century later, the human race had died off significantly thanks to pDNA, so the whole crowded prison thing no longer applied. This, combined with the rumors of a monster army, made the government shut down the Island, but that doesn’t stop the Institute from still sending people there who threaten their way of life. They don’t even bother shipping offenders out there. They simply drop them out of a plane with a parachute and hope they can figure out how to land.”

  I lean back into the stiff seat, my thoughts racing. How do I not know any of this? My father taught me so much. Why not this? I shake my head. None of that matters right now. I have one goal.

  “We need to rescue Anthony,” I say.

  Jenna shakes her head. “Not going to happen.”

  “How can you say that? He’s been like a father to both of you!” I look at the back of Colt’s head, which is leaning against the window. “Colt?”

  “Anthony’s not a young buck,” Jenna answers for him. “In less than a few years he’ll be dead. You’re in our world now, Patch, where survival means everything. Anthony knows this. Hell, he taught us this.” She speeds up.

  I stare at her, reminding myself that she’s only thirteen. What a sad world she lives in. And the way things are going, her life isn’t about to change.

  “I’m sorry, Sage,” Colt finally says. “Jenna’s right. But we can fulfill his last wish—to make sure you and your brother get to Eden. HOPE was all he cared about.”

  “That’s a lie! He cared about you two. And as for surviving your world, I’m glad I wasn’t a part of it. Clearly it’s made you forget the worth of a person’s soul.”

  I say nothing else. Just hold onto Max until we pull into Jenna’s garage. No one says a word until we are inside.

  “I’m going to bed,” Jenna says. “There’s food in the kitchen if you want it.” She bounds up the stairs without looking back.

  Colt drops his backpack to the floor next to mine. “I’ll crash on the couch. You and Max can have the downstairs.” He sits down and rubs the back of his neck.

  “Are you going to be okay?” I ask.

  He nods. “Already feeling better.”

  “That’s not what I meant.”

  “Loss is something I’m used to.”

  “That doesn’t make it any easier.”

  He lies back on the couch, his eyes closed. “I’ll be fine.”

  He doesn’t say anything else so I take Max into the kitchen and get him some bread and milk. I even find some chocolate chips for him to snack on. All the while, my thoughts are on Anthony. Different scenarios flash in my mind, many of them dangerous. I weigh the risks and the benefits.

  Max eats slowly, his hand never leaving mine. Despite my racing thoughts, I say soothing things to him, recalling our childhood. When I mention our father, his grip tightens.

  “We’ll see Daddy soon,” I say and wonder if I’m lying. My father knew so much more than he ever told me.

  When Max is done, I walk back into the darkened living room. Colt has one arm draped across his face. In case he’s still awake, I whisper as I pick up both bags, “I’m taking these downstairs.”

  Holding Max’s hand, I head to the basement and lay him down on my bed. “I’m so glad I got you back. You’re such a bright boy, more so than anyone knows, but I see you.”

  I rest my head against his shoulder, breathing slow until my breaths match his. My hand strokes his head. His hair feels like silk against my fingertips.

  The next words I say knot my stomach. “I have to go out for a little bit.”

  His eyes meet mine, but they reflect a calm serenity.

  “I’ll come back, but if for some reason I don’t, Jenna and Colt will take you to Daddy. You can trust them.”

  His eyes close. I wish I knew what that meant. Part of me thinks he knows me better than anyone and that he understands my motives. The other part hopes he won’t feel abandoned.

  I wait a few more minutes before I straighten and sit on a chair across the room from him. In the moonlight barely filtering through the window near the ceiling, I sort through my backpack. I find the vials I took and hold one up to the light. The liquid is clear. I set it aside, along with my backpack, then look through Colt’s.

  I find a stunner and a small knife. Rescuing Anthony won’t be easy.

  It takes thirty minutes to prepare. I stop a couple of times thinking it would be better if I stay with Max—I hardly know Anthony after all—but my thoughts always come back to the single fact that Anthony saved my life. And he barely knows me.

  I find a new outfit to wear to the party, cover my bruises with more makeup, and redo my hair into a different style to make sure no one will recognize me. As much as I can anyway. It’s a huge risk, but I could never live with myself if I didn’t at least try to save him back. Not only that, but Anthony is my best chance of getting Max and me to my father.

  I glance at the time: 11:30. The party will continue long into the night. After stuffing a small purse with the stunner and sticking the earpieces back into place, there’s only one thing left to do. I creep up the stairs, sneaking a glance at Colt. He’s fast asleep, his chest rising and falling slowly, but with his enhanced hearing he may wake easily.

  I tiptoe quietly down the hallway to Jenna’s room and quietly open her door. The closet light is on. There are piles of clothes everywhere: covering a nearby desk, hanging from a curtain rod, and crowding the floor. The only part of the brown-carpeted floor that is exposed is the path leading to a messy bed. Jenna’s on top of it, still in her clothes and curled up in a ball asleep. I maneuver my way to a dresser next to her, careful not to trip on anything.

  It’s got to be here somewhere, I think, looking over all the junk on top of the dresser. There are food wrappers, hair accessories, makeup, and books all stacked high in a precarious pile. I grind my teeth. This could take all night.

  Unless.

  I look back at Jenna. Her jean pocket. I squat next to her, trying to recall if she is right- or left-handed. I remember the way she did my hair. Definitely right-handed.

  Gratefully, she’s lying on her left side.

  Very slowly, I feel the outside of her pocket and find the imprint of a key. I’m about to smile when a shaky breath escapes Jenna’s lips, making me jump. I wait for her to settle back into a deep sleep before I attempt to sneak the key again.

  My movements are quick and steady, and Jenna doesn’t move when I slip the key from her pocket. One of my favorite lessons of my father�
��s was learning to drive. He’d let me take his vehicle on an old country road near our home, but it was so broken up that I had to swerve a lot or risk harming the car.

  I’m about to stand when I notice something crumpled in Jenna’s hand. I gently pull back her fingers so I can remove it from her loose grip. It’s a picture of her and Anthony in front of an office cubicle. Jenna’s staring up at him and smiling big.

  I lower the picture and look at Jenna. Her eyes are red and puffy in the faint light, and her pillow is wet. My heart softens. She’s just a child thrown into a world that appears perfect on the outside, but inside is rotten.

  “I’ll get him back,” I whisper, setting the picture atop her dresser.

  I sneak back downstairs and leave a note. I write it quickly, not wanting to think about what it would mean if I didn’t make it back. I barely know Jenna and Colt, but I have to trust them to take care of Max if something should happen to me. This is the hardest decision I’ve ever had to make, but Anthony risked his life for mine and that isn’t something I can ignore. I don’t care how many years he has left to live.

  I slip out the door. Night’s darkness is cold as it wraps around me, chilling my insides. It’s a welcome distraction from the ache in my heart. I only hope Max will understand.

  A few minutes later I’m driving away from Max, wiping at my eyes. I need to be strong. Stay focused.

  On an exhale, I breathe out all doubt and fear. I need to remember my father’s training and trust my instincts, the one thing I have going for me.

  I recall the path Anthony had taken earlier and turn left when I reach the end of town. There are only the car’s headlights to guide me, a stream of white light cutting its way through the darkness.

  I go over my plan again. It could work, but only if I have the assistance of the only person who can help me. I’m not even sure if he’s listening anymore.

  I touch one of the electronic dots behind my ear to activate them and say, “Tank. I don’t know if you can hear me or not, but I hope so. The Institute captured Anthony in the tunnels. Most likely he’s still at the Center. I’m coming back to get him and hope you’ll help me. I’m not sure what you can do, but I thought you should know.” I take a deep, shaky breath. “I’ll be there in twenty minutes. Please help me.”