Yes. This was all coming from a man hired to mold impressionable young minds.
“Another world war is just around the corner and you're laughing!”
“I'm not laughing,” Alice had replied but she was still covering her face to hide her smile, “I'm taking this very seriously.”
“They're stepping on those other governments because they're afraid of them calling our debt! We’re all indebted to each other after the Expansion and yet here we are, ordering them to pay us back when we have so much to pay ourselves! If it were me, I would be down on bended knee, trying to please them.”
“This is America, Mr. Frank,” Alice grinned, “We don't get down on bended knee for anyone.”
Our like-minded classmates had clapped after she said that. But I had known that despite his flair for dramatics, he was right.
It's amazing how the things I had learned in school, while seeming so tedious and pointless in the broad outline of our young lives and our futures, made so much sense now when it meant nothing. At the time, even though I knew that what my teachers had said about things had varying degrees of truth, I still wasn't worried. But now, my knowledge yielded to understanding. My understanding yielded to anger. They had done this to us. To speak broadly, we had fled our earth for Pangea to avoid a disaster they had created. To narrow it down, if Alice was dead now, it was their fault.
It's so easy to pass the blame sometimes.
I forced myself to push away my insight into the deeper meaning of all that was happening to focus on the task at hand. I needed to find Alice. Together, we would find the Oliviers. First and foremost, I was afraid for my girlfriend. But I also couldn't stand the idea of Elijah and Brynna's younger sisters out in the woods, alone.
“You're going to dehydrate if you keep walking briskly that way.” A voice said behind me. I whipped around abruptly, pulling a thick branch from the tree closest to me without realizing I was doing it. I turned and held my makeshift weapon out in front of me, ready for the fight.
My impulse to attack was stopped dead by the sight of Brynna and the man who had accompanied her out of the ship standing before me.
“Put it down, honey.” She said softly after turning back to the man with her. When he did not lower the large knife he was outstretching, she pushed his hand down gently. I was thankful that she was there to stop him because I knew that if I had encountered him myself, he would have killed me. Looking into his eyes, I was sure of that.
“This young man was part of my retrieval operation.” Brynna explained to him. “I owe him quite substantially.” Her tone fell upon saying that. Brynna was not comfortable being indebted to anyone, even someone as non-threatening as me.
“Forget it. Have you seen my girlfriend? She's about 5'4, blonde, blue eyes...”
“I know what she looks like. I saw her when we were fleeing the campsite.” Brynna replied shortly.
Her disdainful tone was just about the strangest way to thank me for saving her life. I figured I wouldn't call her on it just yet. But if it continued, I would surely bring up how Alice and I risked our lives to help her.
“How very stereotypical of youth, Quinn Wesley.”
“I never told you my name. How do you know my name?” I demanded, wondering if I should have dropped the branch. Maybe she really was a Pangean spy...
“I can read your thoughts. Basic information like that stays at the forefront of our minds, strangely enough.”
“What are you talking about? What's stereotypical?” I asked.
“Your need for thanks. Your need for recognition of your heroic actions. I do very much appreciate it. However, I am not going to change my inherent behavior in order to make that gratitude known.”
“You'll warm up to her. If I can, anyone can.” The man behind her told me. In his voice, I heard a slight exasperation.
“Who are you?”
“You ask a lot of questions.” Brynna told me.
“I'm James. You're Quinn. Nice to meet you.” He reached out his hand to me and I shook it. He might not have thought twice about killing me had he stumbled upon me while alone but then, I probably would react the very same way. The territory was hostile and our lives were all we had.
“Have you seen my siblings running through here?”
“Don't you think I would be with them if I had?”
“I do not know. Maybe you are like this odd man and you enjoy being alone.”
The way she wrapped her arm around James's back as she said that alerted me to the fact that they were a couple. I looked between them, trying to calculate the age difference. At the very least, it was twenty years.
“I don't enjoy being alone. I didn't really have a choice last time, did I?” He grinned broadly at her. With a slight smile on her face, she rolled her eyes.
“I suppose not.” She replied before looking back at me again. “Oh, look, he is very confused. That is also quite stereotypical of youth.”
“Aren't you like, twenty?” I asked her, though her age was none of my business.
“Twenty-two, dear.”
“Okay. Well, first of all, I'm only eighteen.”
“Hmm...” She replied carelessly as she and James continued walking.
“So, that makes you only four years older than me.”
“Your point?” She asked patiently. She was not looking at me as she strode along lightly but instead, was gazing at the ground and up at the trees as though following a shouting match between the two. She was so incredibly odd, even back then.
“When you comment on youthfulness or whatever the hell it is that you're commenting on, you're being weird.”
“That is her typical state of being. You might as well get used to it.” James responded over his shoulder.
“You're not that much older than me, so you're still young.”
“Only in physical age, Mr. Wesley.” She was looking up at the sky that was darkening overhead. “It is going to rain. Your girlfriend is very close. Her scent is on the trees and her footprints are on the ground.”
“What do you mean, her scent? You can smell her?”
“That hasn't happened to you yet?” James asked me and I looked at him in complete bewilderment as he pressed his nose to a tree and smelled it. “What do you think, baby? Maybe twenty minutes ago?”
“Less. Weren't you shouting for her at the very least?” Brynna asked as she walked past me, looking at the ground.
“Do you hear my voice?” I pointed at my throat as though she could see my voice box that I assumed was hemorrhaging from the force of my shouts.
“Did you bother to look down?” She replied as she delicately moved some leaves off of the ground to reveal more obvious footprints. “She was treading lightly. Perhaps something was in pursuit of her.”
“Yeah, something was in pursuit of her: Me.”
“Well, did you give her any reason to avoid you?” Brynna asked before looking up at me over the tops of her glasses disdainfully.
“Of course not! The last time I saw her, we were running from the natives.”
“Is that what you've been avoiding telling me?” James demanded suddenly as he turned to face her abruptly.
Her jaw opened and closed once as she tried to come up with a quick answer to his question. After scowling at me darkly, she found her words.
“I have only avoided it because now is not the time to discuss it. You said you have seen other people that you did not recognize. They were not ours. There are other people here. What other knowledge do you require?”
“Are they dangerous? Are they...”
“Very dangerous. They can come up on you without you even seeing them.” I answered, “And they're strong, too. I saw one of them force his hand into someone's chest without cutting them open or anything.”
“I saw one rip a man's head from his neck.” Brynna added, “James, I was going to tell you all of this. Is there truly a goal that can be achieved by knowing all of this now? We should not be talking
about this now while we are searching for Elijah, Penny and Violet.”
“Hold on, I'm still lost. They've been killing people?” James continued the conversation, completely ignoring her request to stop it. We both stared at him, neither wanting to answer his question though we already had with our details. James had looped his large knife into his belt buckle at the back of his pants but he reached back and pulled it out, checking the blade to make sure that it was still sharp enough to slash down a threat if we encountered one.
“They want us to leave Pangea immediately. They ordered us to get on the ship and go. We tried to explain that there was nowhere for us to go but they already knew. Apparently, they have been studying us. They can speak English because they have been watching us since the beginning of time.” Brynna explained grimly, “I do not know what their motive is. They said they would take ten of our number every night until we left. As you are very well aware, we do not have a planet to which we can return so lest we wish to live on Mars, we need to make peace with them.”
“How?”
Brynna's expression darkened as her mind traveled to some not-so-distant memory. We would learn the details of her quick reminiscence much later. She never offered a verbal response but her boyfriend appeared to know that look and its implications.
“We are going to talk more about this later, Brynna. Right now, we need to find everyone.”
“And then?” I looked between the two of them.
“That is the million dollar question, isn't it?” James replied with a nonchalant shrug. “I have enough rations to get us through a couple of days. Oh...” He reached into his bag and pulled out a bottle of water. “You're starting to look peaky.” He tossed it to me and I caught it in one hand.
I took a grateful chug, relishing the coolness as it traveled through me. No drink had ever been so glorious.
They started to whisper softly, not realizing that though I hadn't developed a super sense of smell, my ears had begun to pick up the tiniest sound. As I sat and focused, I could hear the sound of some unknown animal treading lightly across the soft forest floor. My instinct told me that the creature was harmless and therefore, there was no need to run. I could hear the leaves as they fell and their soft impact as they hit land. I could also hear James and Brynna's secret conversation.
“I was going to tell you all of this.” Brynna informed him softly.
“You keep saying that.”
“Yes, because I am being honest.”
“What are you hiding from me? There's something else. I know it. There's something that you don't want to say.”
“Don't you know by now that if I do not want to say it, it will not be said, James?”
“I'm not telling you that you have to say it. I'm asking you to.”
“I am well aware of that. I will say it when the time is right.”
“It's something that scares you.”
“It does not scare me. Stop your dramatics. You know that I am very difficult to scare.”
“I know that if you were scared, you wouldn't admit it. What does your father have to do with this?”
“It does not matter. Not at all, James.”
“It does matter. You should see how red your eyes are.”
“Do you have a mirror?”
“Ha-ha, you are so funny, baby.”
“We cannot have this conversation now while Violet, Penny and Elijah are out there alone. We are discussing this later.”
“Yes. We are.”
“Okay.”
“Okay.”
A smooching sound and they were walking away from me.
“Hey!”
I ran after them, watching as they both bent over to observe the ground.
“She was running erratically.” Brynna told me lightly, “There are two bigger sets of footprints here. She was being followed. Well, not followed, actually. It appears that she was being chased.”
“By what?”
“They are human footprints so we can assume the natives.” Her head jerked up suddenly and she smelled the air. “I smell blood.”
I almost collapsed. But somehow, I was able to suppress my fear of stumbling across Alice's dead body long enough to run after James and Brynna when they took off speedily. We pushed through trees and bushes, hurtled over fallen logs, and jumped over a ravine at least eight feet wide and bottomless. All along, Brynna led us.
My senses came alive during that sprint. I could smell the blood mixed in with the scents of the greenery and mid-afternoon haze. Together, they were a tantalizing mixture that should have lulled me into hypnosis. I could hear animals stomping their way away from us in fear as though we were lions on the hunt. I could see clearly in my side vision deer-like creatures dropping to the ground and camouflaging in the dirt. Weird...
We heaved ourselves over three oaks that had fallen one right on top of the other. Our leap over them was effortless. After we landed, Brynna skidded to a halt. James stopped beside her. I slid in the leaves and she was forced to reach back and grab a hold of my shirt to keep me from falling flat on my back like a total square. She didn't turn her gaze away from whatever was in front of her, though her face was taut as she suppressed some unpleasant emotion.
I looked and my eyes widened.
I had little need to wonder why the scent of blood was so strong...
Alice was bent over one of the natives, her teeth sunk deep into his stomach. With a loud screech, she pulled back and ripped his skin away. Blood sprayed into the air like erupting fireworks from the gaping wound.
“Allie?” My voice was trembling and my stomach was turning over in revulsion. Her head jerked up. Her white eyes met mine. For a moment, she spider-walked forward quickly on all fours, hissing.
“Allie!” I exclaimed as James raised his machete. I reached out, pushing his hand down abruptly. “James, don't!”
Her eyes dissolved back into their normal brown and she pushed upwards so that she was standing.
“Quinn? They've been on me for hours. This one...” She pointed at the man lying face down in a pool of blood. “He was the first one. I didn't know there were two of them until I took him down. I know it's weird and it's creepy...”
I backed away from her when she reached out to me. I had known that we were changing over to something that wasn't human. I had known that we could fight an enemy until they were hovering close to death. I had no idea that we were actually going to kill people. I had seen her shoot that creature and collapse into a fit of rage, guilt, fear and self-loathing as she realized that it was her mother. To take a human life, especially one of someone she loved, had been far too much for Alice to bear. Now, she was trying to justify what she had done.
“Quinn, I didn't have a choice. You saw what they do to people! They were going to do the same thing to me.”
“So why didn't you knock them out?” I demanded of her furiously. I was shocked at my own anger and disgust. I had never been able to picture her killing something living. Unfortunately, I had stumbled upon her while she was in the act of it. It changed her in my mind from an innocent human girl whom I loved dearly to a monster I didn't recognize and couldn't possibly love at all.
“Don't tell me that you wouldn't have done the same thing if it had been you being attacked!” She replied defensively. “They were going to kill me. I wasn't taking them down. I was taking them out. It was the only way.”
“It wasn't. We got past those guards without killing them, Alice!”
“We were just trying to get onto the ship to get Brynna. Plus, they were only human! Quinn, please try to see this the only logical way. They were going to kill me so I killed them! I don't understand why you're so upset!”
“Because you think this is alright, just because we're here! You think it’s okay to kill people. You, the religious one out of the two of us, think it's okay to kill people without at least trying to find another way!”
“When they were ripping my head back, getting ready to rip my thro
at out, I wasn't looking for another way! I had no choice!”
“Well, you might not think so, but I do. And if I had been in your situation, I would have done everything in my power to avoid murdering someone, even a native! I might have been able to let it go if you weren't being so chill about it! If you had a little remorse, I might have been able to see you the same way. But no, you're perfectly fine with this and I can't agree with it, no matter who they are!”
“Children, we're departing.” Brynna spoke loudly over our shouts. “I hope your marital woes will soon yield a resolution that caters to your undying love.”
“We're not married.” Alice snapped at her, “Thank God! He's being unreasonable, right? Tell him he's being ridiculous!”
To be pulled into an argument that concerned neither of them apparently stunned them both because their facial expressions were priceless. They were torn between trying to find the right words to say and wishing to keep silent. They wanted to stay safely out of the way of our anger.
Of course, Brynna, just like her mother, had an opinion on everything.
“Indeed, he is being unreasonable.”
And just like her mother, she was wrong about everything!
“Thank you!” Alice held her hands up in victory.
“Wipe the blood off of your face. It's disgusting!” I snapped. Admittedly, my outburst was immature, but seeing the way the natives' blood was dribbling from her lips down her chin and onto her neck was only making me angrier. It was a reminder of what she had done.
“Let’s walk away.” James grasped Brynna’s hand.
“Yes. These conflicts do so often become contagious. Smart idea, honey.” Brynna nodded.
But as they walked away, Alice stormed after them, leaving me alone.
Maybe it was ridiculous. Maybe my anger was out of proportion. But imagine for a minute, stumbling upon the person you love snuffing out the life of a human being. Even though the Pangean people were not humans, they resembled us perfectly. They had all the characteristics of beastly creatures, but physically, they were just like us. They had been born to parents who had loved them and raised them and now, a family somewhere was going to be grieving because Alice “had no choice.” I tried to see the situation from her perspective as I walked but I knew that I couldn’t kill something of a human likeness. I couldn’t take someone out of this world that had an almost tangible history.
The Shattered Genesis (Eternity) Page 34
