Escape to Eden

by Rachel McClellan

  I swipe down at the Canine, catching him just under his eye. He cries out and falls back to the ground, but at the last second, he manages to claw the back of my leg, his sharp nails cutting into my calf.

  I scream as pain shoots up my leg. My grip in Colt’s hand weakens, and my hand slips. The ground isn’t too far below us. If I fall, I might not break a leg. My main concern is the Canine who I can’t see anymore, but now that doesn’t matter. He will find me now wherever I go.

  Colt extends his wings again and flaps hard to get us back into the air. My eyes are closed tight, not because I’m worried about falling, but because of the Canine. He has my blood and now everything has changed.

  Colt lands by the car with a painful grunt and together we ease Anthony, who’s sitting up against the wheel well, into the backseat. As soon as we’re done, we scramble into the front, and before my door’s even closed, Colt’s pressing on the accelerator.

  “You know what that was, right?” I say, but by his hurried movements I already know the answer. I reach down and press my palm to the back of my leg where blood is soaking through.

  “A Canine.” His voice is grim and the gravity of the situation fills the car.

  I glance back at Anthony lying in the backseat. His breathing is labored, but his eyes are closed.

  “We saved him,” I say, trying to be positive.

  “You did.”

  “Actually I remember you flying him to safety. I probably couldn’t have gotten him out of the building.”

  “But if it weren’t for you, I wouldn’t even have tried.” He glances at me briefly before returning his gaze to the road. Trees race past us, and the car vibrates from a speed it wasn’t meant to reach.

  “I don’t believe that.”

  His Adam’s apple moves up and down. “You were right about what you said back there. Our world has gotten so twisted that we’ve lost sight of what’s important.”

  “Then we’ll change it.”

  He shakes his head. “It’s too late for that. All we can do now is save Originals and hope they can make the world right.”

  “You’re wrong. There are still good people left. They just need to be shown another way. Look at Tank. And he figured it out all on his own. Others can too.”

  His hands tighten on the steering wheel. “If Tank is so super duper at everything he does, why did he abandon you in the stairwell? Seems like a coward’s way to me.”

  “I’m not going to defend him, but he did come through for us in the end.”

  “As long as his precious identity isn’t exposed.”

  I glance out the window, keeping silent. I may not agree with what Tank did, but I don’t know him either. Maybe he is right, and his position within the elite’s inner circle is crucial to the goals of HOPE.

  “How’s your leg?” Colt asks.

  “Not bad. I’ll bandage it later,” I say, even though it’s burning something awful. Right now we just need to get as far away from the city as possible.

  Twenty minutes later we’re turning down Jenna’s street. Colt takes a deep breath. “As soon as we stop, we’re going to have to hurry.”

  “I understand.” I feel bad about Max. He’ll barely have rested before I’m already moving him again.

  Colt pulls into the garage. I’m about to open my door when he reaches across the seat and grabs my arm to stop me and then lets go. “I’m sorry this happened. Maybe if I’d done something different . . .”

  “It’s not your fault. Let’s hurry. The Canine won’t be far behind.”

  I hurry into the house. Colt starts packing a bag and grabbing a couple of blankets near the couch. I run downstairs and do the same, but first I have to change. I’m a little slow on account of my leg. The open wound is still bleeding so I quickly tie a cloth around it until I can dress it properly later. After I change into jeans and a t-shirt, I pick up the vials next to my backpack, wondering if I should take them. Space is limited, but these could prove valuable.

  Nearby is a small blanket. I wrap the vials and stuff them into my bag along with random clothing from the closet. I don’t even bother waking Max. I pick him up and carry him upstairs.

  Colt is in the kitchen throwing food into a box.

  “What’s with all the noise?” Jenna says from the top of the stairs. She’s rubbing her eyes, which are still red and swollen.

  “Long story short,” Colt says, “we went back to the Center and saved Anthony but a Canine snagged Sage’s leg. We have to leave now.”

  Jenna jogs down the stairs. “You saved Anthony? Where is he?”

  “The car. He’s hurt pretty bad.”

  Jenna runs outside.

  “Do you have medicine and bandages?” I ask.

  “Already got it. What else do you think we might need?”

  I open my mouth to speak when Jenna bursts into the house and wraps her arms around me and Max.

  “Thank you, thank you, thank you!” she cries.

  “Let’s do this later,” Colt says. “We have to get out of here.”

  Jenna lets go and looks from me to Colt, sniffing and wiping at her eyes. “What? Why? Anthony’s in no condition to move.”

  Colt picks up the box of food and carries it into the living room. “Didn’t you hear? A Canine is on to us.”

  Her eyes widen. “Oh no.”

  “Exactly.” He pushes open the door leading to the garage with his foot.

  “I’m coming with you,” she says after him.

  “No. The Institute doesn’t know about your involvement, I don’t think anyway, and besides, you still have your mother.”

  “Who will be dead in a few weeks. I’ve already said my goodbyes. There’s nothing left for me here but memories. I’m going.”

  “But who will care for her?” he asks.

  “A nurse will be here in the morning.”

  “Then pack your stuff fast,” I say and walk outside after Colt.

  The fact that she could leave her mother in her last hours disturbs me. I don’t think anything could drag me away if a loved one of mine was dying, but then again I didn’t grow up in this world.

  It takes us a minute to reposition Anthony to where we can all fit in the car. He moans a couple of times but doesn’t say anything. I stay in the backseat next to him, Max curled up on my lap.

  “Should I go in and get Jenna?” Colt asks, but just then she appears, carrying two big bags.

  “You’ve got to be joking,” Colt mumbles and presses a button to open the trunk.

  A moment later she slides into the front passenger seat. “So where are we going? Have you even thought this through?”

  “Out of the city. South,” he says.

  “That’s all you have?”

  Colt doesn’t answer until we’ve backed out of the driveway. “If you haven’t noticed, the one man who knows where we should be going can’t talk, so until he can, we’re driving.”

  Jenna leans over and looks at the dashboard in front of him. “You have half a charge.”

  “That’s enough to get us to Providence. Save your energy and sleep, which means don’t talk. It will take us at least two hours to get there.”

  “What about Anthony?”

  “I’ll bandage him up,” I say, already opening the medical kit at my feet.

  “Don’t hurt him,” Jenna says.

  Colt turns to her and moans. “Because that’s exactly what she wants to do—save him then hurt him. Go to sleep, Jenna, please.”

  “Fine. Whatever.” She leans her head against the door.

  Colt glances back at me. “Make sure you get your leg, too.”

  “What about your wing?” I ask.

  He’s quiet for a few seconds, then, “There’s nothing in there that will help.”

  I wish I knew how to help him, but I have no idea what his wings are made of. Maybe nothing can help but time. Inside the medical kit I find the same cream Colt had put on my hand earlier. I tighten my hand, feeling very little pain from
the blisters. I’m amazed at how well it worked. We had medicine back at our home in Maine, but nothing that worked this quickly.

  I squeeze some of it onto my fingertip and gently press it to the wound on Anthony’s chest. He doesn’t move, not even flinches. It takes some time since the cut is long, and I’m trying to be careful, but eventually I have the wound dressed and can turn my attention to his less serious wounds.

  After I finish with him, I examine my leg. It’s worse than I thought. The cut is deep, and blood has soaked through my pants and run into my shoe. It squishes between my toes when I curl them. Very carefully, I remove my shoe and dress the wound properly. It takes a lot of control not to flinch in pain every time I touch it. I’m acutely aware that Colt keeps spying on me in the rearview mirror.

  I attach the last strip of tape onto the wide bandage, and glance at Max, who is curled up in the seat, a blanket loosely on top. I tuck it tight around him and stare out the window, my eyelids growing heavy. I can’t remember how much sleep I’ve had in the last twenty-four hours. Jenna is snoring softly in front of me.

  It’s dark outside, but I can still make out an outline of trees as they push themselves against the road. Not many people travel like this anymore—drive from city to city—not since the human race started dying off anyway. Smaller towns were abandoned as people moved to bigger cities to find jobs. This gave the forest free rein over the land, and it consumed it like wild fire. Only major highways were maintained, mostly, but all other roads only received the attention of tree roots and other natural elements. These are the roads we’re on now, and Colt has to drive slowly around broken-up chunks of gravel or deep potholes.

  “Is it possible?” I ask through a yawn.

  Colt looks at me in the rearview mirror. “To what?”

  “To outrun a Canine.” Of all the Primes my father taught me about, they were the ones he told me to avoid the most. They only had one weakness, but unfortunately it wasn’t one that could easily be exploited. Canines hate bright lights.

  “It’s next to impossible.”

  “But my father did, right? Otherwise he would’ve been caught by now.”

  Colt doesn’t say anything for a long time. He shifts in his seat like it’s suddenly too small. “Your father didn’t outrun it,” he says. “I killed it.”

  This startles me. “When?”

  “About a week after the raid on your house. Of course I didn’t know it was your house at the time. I just knew a Canine was after the founder of HOPE, the man I had turned over to the Institute. For months and months I searched for the Canine. His name was Erik, and he had been working for the Institute for over five years. Whenever I heard about his whereabouts, I’d try to find him, but I never could get the jump on him. Eventually I found out where he lived, and decided the only way I was going to get him was if I waited for him at his house. He was rarely there, probably because he was always tracking your father. After spending weeks in front of his house, I finally got lucky. He showed up and we fought.” He swallows and takes a breath. “I obviously won, but just barely.”

  I’m too stunned to say anything. My mind is racing, swirling all sorts of directions. He turned my father in for money, but ended up saving him? Everything I think about him is so confusing, and it’s giving me a headache.

  “I know you may never forgive me,” he says, “but I am sorry. I was at a dark place in my life when I did what I did. I know that’s no excuse.”

  “Thank you for stopping the Canine from getting my father,” is all I can say.

  Colt doesn’t say anything after this, and neither do I. In a few minutes, my eyelids grow heavy and finally close.

  I don’t dream, which makes me think I haven’t been sleeping long when a frantic voice wakes me. The sun is up, just barely, and its light filters through the breaks in the trees. I bolt awake when I realize Anthony’s hands are grasping at the air, and he’s struggling to sit up.

  “Hold still,” I say. “It’s okay. We’re in the car.”

  “Water,” he says and coughs.

  I unzip my backpack and open a water bottle. Very carefully I pour it though his cracked lips. After a couple of gulps, he pushes my hand away.

  “Thank you,” he says.

  “How are you feeling?” I ask.

  “A little better. Where are we going?”

  Colt takes a few minutes to tell him what happened. During this time Jenna wakes up and swivels around in her seat to listen. Max is breathing peacefully next to me. I reposition his head to make him more comfortable.

  When Colt finishes, Anthony shakes his head. “You shouldn’t have come back for me. The Canine would never have known about you otherwise.”

  “But then you would’ve been shipped off to Purgatory Island where you would surely die,” I say.

  “But you and your brother would be safe.”

  “Oh shut it, Anthony,” Jenna says. “Patch did what we wouldn’t, even though she had more to lose.” She turns to me. “I’m only saying this once, so listen good. You showed more bravery than anyone I’ve ever known. Thank you. You taught me something, big surprise I know, but you did. I wish I would’ve had the courage to do it.”

  “I only did what I thought was right,” I say, not even bothering to correct her on my name. “What’s our next move?”

  “What direction are we heading?” Anthony asks.

  “South,” Colt says. “Toward Providence so we can charge the car.”

  “Good. From there we can go to New York City. There’s a safe house there where I’m told your father is staying.” Anthony shifts uncomfortably in the seat, favoring his left side.

  “But what about the Canine?” Jenna asks. “He won’t give up until he finds Patch, which means we’re all in danger.”

  Anthony takes another sip of water. “We need to get far enough ahead of it that he loses her scent. As long as he doesn’t come within a hundred miles of her, she’ll be fine.”

  “Unless he goes looking for her,” Colt says.

  I close my eyes, thinking how I might need to be on the run for a very long time. What would that mean for Max? I need to find my father, let him take Max to be sure he’ll be kept safe, and then I can figure out what to do about the Canine.

  “Why don’t we just kill it?” Jenna says. “Use Patch to lure it in and then slice its head off.”

  “Because Canines never come alone. The Institute’s Prime army will be right behind it,” Anthony says.

  Jenna begins to argue, saying something about tricking the Institute, but I can’t listen anymore. I lean back and snuggle against Max. Bad things are coming for me; it’s only a matter of time.

  Max finally wakes. I’m surprised he slept through all the arguing. I stayed out of the conversation, lost in my own thoughts of how I can protect those around me. Canines are ruthless, driven more by animal instincts than human emotions.

  After some time, the others grow tired of the debate and fall into an uncomfortable silence. Max tugs on my shirt.

  “Are you hungry?” I ask and smooth his messy hair.

  He pats my arm.

  I reach into my backpack and remove a cereal bar. I open it and hand it to Max. Colt’s muttering under his breath, his back muscles tight.

  “What’s wrong?” I ask him. We’re in another city, my guess Providence. It looks similar to Boston, but smaller and shinier, if that’s possible.

  “Colt?” I ask again.

  “I can’t find an active charging station,” he says.

  I look at the screen on the dashboard. Where I’d normally see images of many small, lit-up batteries on the map, there’s nothing. “Maybe the dash screen is broken?”

  Jenna sits up in her seat and looks around. Anthony’s eyes are closed, and I wonder if he’s fallen back asleep.

  “It’s not. I drove by a couple. They’re all shut down.” Colt’s fingers twist around the steering wheel then straighten. “Do you know the odds of that happening?”

  “
What are you thinking?”

  Colt pulls over on the side of the road, parking in front of a newer-looking, blue home with shiny, black metal trim. He swivels in the driver’s seat, his expression grim, but when he sees Max, he smiles. “Hey little man. We haven’t properly met. I’m Colt and this moody girl is Jenna. Don’t worry about remembering her name. She’s very forgettable.”

  “Ugh! I can’t stand you!” Jenna says then turns to Max. “Don’t listen to this mean guy. I’m the nicest, smartest person you’ll ever meet.” She ruffles Max’s hair, but he immediately withdraws into me.

  I wrap my arm around him. “Max doesn’t like to be touched.”

  “Then Max and Colt will get along well,” she says.

  Anthony moans and looks around. “Why are we stopped?”

  “I can’t find a live charging station,” Colt says.

  No one says anything, making the air feel thick and heavy.

  “What’s going on?” I ask.

  Jenna collapses back into the seat, her head dropping back. “We are so screwed.”

  “We don’t know anything yet,” Anthony says, but his hands have tightened into balls. “Go to the north side, on the outskirts. They might be active there but not showing on the city’s map.”

  Colt faces forward and maneuvers the car back onto the road while Jenna turns on her wristpad and expands a virtual keyboard into the air. It’s good one of us has one. Colt had ours deactivated after the party to make sure we wouldn’t be tracked. Jenna types fast, soundlessly clicking and swishing through various screens.

  “I still don’t understand what’s going on,” I say again. My heart is pounding, telling me that whatever it is, it’s bad.

  “Charging stations are on their own power grid. My guess is someone has shut it off,” Anthony says. He’s staring straight ahead, looking stronger somehow. Maybe it’s because he’s leaning forward, seemingly oblivious to the wound on his chest.

  “Does that happen often?”

  “They’re off,” Jenna says. “The announcement is all over the net. The government is claiming they don’t know what happened, but promises to restore power as quickly as possible. In the meantime, if someone needs a charge they can go to one of five battery-operated stations provided by the Institute.”