Finding Eden

by K R S McEntire

  He’d need to use his other senses to assess the situation. He listened to Lilah’s, Jesse’s, and Angela’s whispered voices nearby. The wind no longer tousled his hair, so he figured that he was indoors.

  “Let me out!” Adam demanded. The whispered voices grew silent, and footsteps approached. Without warning, someone slapped his face. It was a brutal backhand slap that all but spun his head around.

  “Ow!” Adam cried out. An uncomfortably warm hand pulled a cloth from his eyes. Lilah stared him down, eyes ablaze.

  “I should have been the one to knock you out the first time,” she said. Then she shook her head, sinking to the floor in exhaustion. “Tell me the truth, Adam. Are you a Warden?”

  Adam’s eyes shot to the others in the room. All of Eden was inside, examining him as if he were a specimen in a laboratory. A feral rat they had to figure out how to extinguish.

  Adam couldn’t lie to them anymore. “Yes.”

  He prayed Lilah would put him out of his misery quickly, but instead, she closed her eyes, inhaled deeply, and let it out slowly.

  “This is all my fault,” she said to the others. “I’m sorry.”

  “No, it’s not.” Angela's voice was soft. “He fooled all of us.”

  “Lilah, please hear me out,” Adam pleaded.

  She turned to Adam but said nothing.

  “I didn’t come here to hurt you,” Adam continued. “I was just doing my job. How can humanity get back to where it was before the Bio Wars when there are people with dangerous powers running about? I didn’t expect to meet anyone like you.”

  “What do you mean by ‘like me’?” Lilah asked.

  Adam attempted a shrug, but he wasn't sure if it was visible with his arms unable to move. His shoulders ached from trying. “You are nice.”

  Lilah rolled her eyes and chuckled. “You think I’m nice?”

  “Not always,” Adam clarified. “Obviously, nice isn't the correct word. But you’re so…human.”

  That seemed to anger her even more. She closed her eyes again, and Adam could see her lips moving softly, like she was reciting a prayer to herself. When she opened her eyes the rage was gone, but her lips were curved into a deep frown.

  “We’re all human, Adam,” she said. “But people like you can’t see it.”

  Adam’s eyes shifted to Angela and Jesse. “They killed three innocent people in cold blood, Lilah.”

  “Cold blood?” Angela exclaimed, “I was trying to save my father's life! The Wardens were seconds away from shooting him in the head.”

  “He must have done something wrong,” Adam insisted. “Wardens don’t kill without reason. We protect the settlements, enforce laws, and bring order and justice.”

  That was when Nathan moved from where he was waiting with the crowd. He took three slow steps in Adam's direction.

  “Do you know why I left the settlement?” Nathan asked.

  “Of course not,” Adam said.

  “Because I knew my daughter would be killed just for being who she is. She didn’t choose to be born with a mutation, but I was given a choice. Like any decent father, I did what I had to do to keep her safe. I gave up my CitCard, moved out here, and created a home for just the two of us. A year ago, she ran off with that fool.”

  His fists punched the open air in Jesse’s direction. “The Wardens captured me because I didn’t have a CitCard. They were going to kill me for trying to save my child. In the end, my child and her new friends saved my life by taking those Wardens down. Tell me, if your family was in danger, would you do anything differently?”

  Adam remained silent, unsure of what to say. Before Eden, his world was divided into men and monsters. People were heroes or villains, good or bad. They chose to follow the law, or they paid the price. By joining the Watch, he was aligning himself with the good guys. Or so he thought. Now he could see that there was some gray area. There were people who didn’t have any other options but to live on the fringes.

  What was so bad about allowing them to stay out here in peace?

  Outside the cabin, a series of loud thuds shot through the garden, followed by what sounded like something large crashing to the ground. Adam flinched, and, after a moment of uncertainty, his captors raced outside.

  Alone in the cabin, Adam lunged forward to loosen his binds, hoping to detach himself from the chair. He lost his footing and his chair toppled to the ground.

  He hit the wood floor with a thud, causing the rest of his body to ache as much as his knees already did. His head landed in a pile of dirt that had accumulated on the floor.

  Adam craned his neck over to look out the door, but all that he could see was the piano sitting solemnly in the garden. Kevin was standing near the cabin entrance scratching his head nervously, unwilling to join the others in whatever battle they might have found.

  Brice walked through Adam’s field of vision, holding a large slab of fence in his hand. Adam gasped. Had Brice ripped out a piece of the solid, ten-foot-tall gate? He carried the slab of wood over his head that was larger and wider than him. Brice grinned as he charged toward Kevin, let go with his left hand, and, with a swoop of his right hand, slammed it into Kevin’s body.

  Adam flinched and shut his eyes as a weak cry escaped Kevin’s lips. When he opened them, Brice was gone, and blood spilled from Kevin’s body.

  It was impossible to rip a fence so strong and sturdy from the ground with your bare hands—unless you happened to be a mutant. Was the Wardens’ “lab” turning men into mutants? Why would the Wardens do so if the mutants were the very thing they were trying to eliminate from the world?

  Brice walked into Eden with bravado that he had not possessed on the plane, the other human-looking Wardens following close behind. Eden’s residents raced back to the cabin to grab their weapons, but it was too late. The group of Wardens readied their weapons and fired.

  All Adam could hear was gunfire and screams. He prayed the screams were from shock. The Wardens were supposed to be using tranq guns.

  Some residents ran out of eyeshot, but Angela and Jesse ran into the cabin. Lilah wasn’t far behind them, and Adam was happy to see her alive and well.

  “Lilah,” Adam called, “let me out. I can talk to them.”

  “I think you’ve talked to them enough,” Lilah growled at him.

  “Trust me!” Adam said.

  They ignored Adam. Angela hopped into the closet under the stairs and started passing out weapons to the residents who’d made it back inside.

  Adam waited for more residents of Eden to trickle in, but no one else made it back. Adam shut his eyes and tried to control his breathing, to lull himself into tranquility.

  Kane wanted to kill them in town, he reminded himself; They were only going to be tranquilized here.

  Once his heart rate returned to normal, he peeked out the door again. He looked back to Kevin’s still body. The crimson pool sinking into the green grass told him otherwise.

  A heartbeat later, Brice was in the cabin with a weapon in hand. Adam blinked. He hadn’t even seen him walk in. He looked even more buff up close, like a miniature hulk, his veins seeming to bulge from his skin.

  Jesse and Angela fired at him in unison, but the bullets’ impact didn’t seem to faze him. He took out a small tranq gun and shot three sure shots. Lilah, Jesse, and Angela fell back, and the world was silent.

  Even outside the cabin, there were no more screams. The birds and crickets seemed to be holding their breath.

  Eden was always full of music. The silence sent a chill through Adam.

  Brice walked over to him, a smirk on his face as he knelt down to where Adam was bound on the ground.

  “Looks like those mutants bested you,” he said.

  “We were ordered not to kill,” Adam said, nodding toward Kevin’s bleeding body through the open door. “To take them all back to Chicago.”

  “Relax,” Brice shrugged. “Kane expected there to be a few casualties. We still have enough of them alive to do the
execution.”

  He pulled out a pocketknife. Adam's muscles tensed as Brice’s sharpened blade moved closer to his wrists.

  “You all right?” Brice raised an eyebrow. “This place really put you on edge, huh?”

  “I’m fine,” Adam spoke through gritted teeth as Brice sawed the rope from his wrists and ankles.

  Adam rubbed at his sore wrists and stood up, brushing the dirt off his shirt and shaking it out of his hair. He glanced over at Lilah, assuring himself that she was only sleeping.

  “‘On edge’ is an understatement,” Brice continued. “Don’t worry about them. They’re out cold. You’re safe.”

  Adam looked Brice up and down. The whites of Brice’s eyes were blood red and his once-green pupils were an icy gray color. His veins protruded out of his forehead.

  “What happened to you?”

  Brice smiled as he spoke. “Man, you won’t believe it if I tell you. At the facility I work in, we are learning to harness powers from the mutants. Doesn’t permanently change my DNA, but who doesn’t want to be Superman for a day?”

  “Why would Kane do this if he’s trying to rid the world of these mutant abilities?”

  Brice shook his head. “No, he’s trying to rid the world of mutants. Mutant abilities are awesome if they are in the right hands.”

  Suddenly Adam felt angry, though he wasn’t sure why.

  “We can use these powers when we need them, then we’ll go back to our normal selves when we don’t,” Brice explained. “It could benefit the Watch greatly. We have developed so many new formulas, vaccines, and cures. I’ll give you a tour when we get back.”

  Adam frowned. Lilah didn’t have the option of getting rid of her abilities when they were no longer convenient.

  “We are learning how to recreate these mutations and take on the abilities temporarily. We just developed a pill that hardens the skin, making us practically bulletproof. I took a cocktail of different medications before coming here today to make sure I was ready.”

  “That’s wild,” Adam said. “I didn’t even know facilities like that existed.”

  “Kane started the first one in Chicago right after the incident. Got most of the mutants from the City Below, used some animals with mutations from the woods,” Brice said.

  Adam looked around the garden. Other than Kevin’s dead body outside and Lilah’s, Jesse’s, and Angela’s sleeping bodies in the cabin, he didn’t see any of the other residents.

  “Where are the other bodies?” Adam asked.

  “The other Wardens are collecting them,” Brice said. “Obviously there are no roads in the forest, but Kane’s sending a small chopper to ship them back. For now, can you help me gather the bodies? I’m going to pile them up right outside the cabin. If any of them are dead, just leave them.”

  Adam nodded. “I’ll bring the ones in here outside.”

  After Brice raced back out, Adam walked over to Lilah. He fell to his knees beside her and held her hand. It had never felt this cool before. He pressed his index finger on the pulse in her wrist. It was beating slowly. He didn’t want to be the reason it ceased beating.

  “I’m sorry,” Adam said. “You are going to survive this.”

  He looked to Angela and Jesse. “You are all going to survive this.”

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Lilah

  Lilah opened her eyes to complete darkness.

  Pain radiated through her body as she pushed herself off the ground. Why did every inch of her body hurt? She groaned as she surveyed her surroundings.

  She was alone in some type of jail cell. Possibly inside the old abandoned prison in the settlement. Through the bars, she could see a row of empty cells and a narrow hallway. Her vision was hazy, and her body felt heavier than usual. Had she been drugged?

  She couldn't remember what had happened to bring her here. It was as if her mind was covered in fog, muddled with strings of letters it could not organize into words.

  Lilah reached out and held onto the cool metal bars that trapped her, steadying herself as she tried to remember what had happened. One minute she had been reprimanding Adam and the next…

  Adam.

  He was a Warden. There had been an ambush. Did he bring her to this jail?

  She gripped the metal bars as tightly as she could and allowed her rage to radiate through her body. She doubted she could summon enough anger to melt metal, but it wouldn't hurt to try. She needed to do whatever she could to get out of here alive. She held the bars tightly and let her rage come to the surface, envisioning the metal melting under her touch.

  A streak of light shot through the room as a distant door swung open. Lilah squinted as her eyes adjusted.

  A man walked in, his features eclipsed by the light from whatever room he emerged from. Lilah wondered if it was Adam, but the closer he got, she doubted it was him. His silhouette was too short and his shoulders too broad to match Adam’s slender frame.

  As he got closer, Lilah took note of his clothing. He wore a tailored suit, the kind she’d only seen in movies. She swallowed. This wasn't one of the Wardens that invaded Eden.

  This was their leader.

  “Kane,” she said, trying to keep her voice steady. It cracked despite her efforts.

  She couldn't stop herself from taking a step back from the bars. This man was the cause of all of her troubles. She wanted to spit in his face but thought better of it. She’d rather live to see another day.

  “Lilah,” he said. His voice was pleasant. Too pleasant. “Nice to finally meet you.”

  “Where…where are my friends?” Lilah asked. She wondered if anyone else had survived the attack.

  “Elsewhere,” Kane said. “I wanted to talk to you alone.”

  “Why?”

  “You’re different from the other mutants,” Kane explained. “The local Wardens say that until only a couple of weeks ago, you were a carded citizen. Granted, a citizen with a hidden mutation, but I've heard you had a good reputation in this town. You regularly attended school. Good grades. Great family.”

  He placed his hand on a bar and leaned closer to the cage. His hand touched the spot she had warmed, and he looked down at it, alarmed, jerking back and placing his hand into his pocket. Lilah smirked. If only she had time to make it hotter. If there had been anything other than metal and concrete around her, the entire jail would be in ashes by now.

  “So how does a girl like you learn about a place like Eden?” Kane asked. “Who told you about its existence?”

  So that's what this was about. Kane was trying to find information about the Resistance. She’d rather die than help Kane, but it wouldn’t hurt to toy with him.

  “I’m not telling you anything!” Lilah's voice was a low whisper as she walked closer to the metal bars. Kane leaned closer. His ears perked up in anticipation. Lilah looked him dead in the eye. She managed to collect enough saliva in her parched mouth to spit through the bars of the cage. The satisfaction she felt eclipsed all thoughts of repercussions.

  It landed on Kane’s forehead. Before he could react, Lilah turned her back to him and started to walk away.

  “You brat!” Kane’s arms reached through the bars and grabbed onto her t-shirt, preventing her from retreating. Lilah lifted her hand to push away his arm, the heat from her touch scorching Kane’s arm. He yelped and let her go.

  “If you don’t tell me what I need to know by tomorrow, you’re gonna die like the rest of them!” he said as he surveyed the damage on his arm. Her touch had affected the fabric of his suit but little else. Kane swiftly turned his back on Lilah and marched out of the room, slamming the door behind him. He looked more like a child having a temper tantrum than a president.

  Lilah’s heart sank. What did he mean by “die like the rest of them”? Were the other residents of Eden already dead? Earlier, he’d said they were “elsewhere.” Was that just a lie to get her to talk?

  Short of trying to melt metal, there was not much to do but to rest. Lilah moved
toward the back wall and lay down on the cold floor. No matter how much she shifted, she could not fall asleep. As the sedative made its way out of her system, she started to remember the ambush clearly. How long had it been since then? Danger felt too close.

  She shut her eyes and focused on the steady beat of her heart, reminding herself that she had survived up until this point. Seventeen years. Was that too much time allotted for a mutant girl?

  Hours later, she heard the door creak open. She didn’t move. Maybe if Kane thought she was asleep, he would go away.

  “Lilah?”

  The voice that whispered wasn't Kane’s.

  She opened her eyes and scrambled to her feet, frowning when she spotted Adam quietly closing the door.

  At least Kane never pretended to be her friend.

  “Good, you’re awake,” Adam said.

  “Leave me alone, traitor,” Lilah growled, but she moved toward the bars. Was he here to offer some kind of weak apology?

  “Look, I know I’m the last person you want to see, but you have to listen to me if you want to live,” he whispered.

  Lilah wasn't completely sure she wanted to live anymore. Her family had sent her away. Eden was gone. What was there to live for now?

  “I’m trying to help,” Adam continued. “If I don’t do this, everyone will be killed.”

  “Everyone?” Lilah asked. That meant the others were alive. “Who survived the attack?”

  “Kevin didn't make it,” Adam admitted. “Everyone else is alive.”

  A life had been senselessly lost. She wanted to weep from the injustice of it all. She hadn't had a chance to form deep bonds with most of the residents, and now she never would.

  “This is all your fault!” Lilah cried. “You came to Eden just to get us killed.”

  “It’s not that simple!” Adam raised his voice. Then, realizing how loud he was being, he glanced back at the door.

  “I thought mutants were all monsters, like the man in the cave,” Adam said, his voice a whisper this time. “I’ve decided things are a little more complex.”