I did.
Breaking into the fresh evening air was perhaps as joyous as witnessing a new life being born into the world. I collapsed onto the wet grass, turned onto my back and gazed into the purple sky darkened by the smoke. I breathed amazingly clear breaths; the smell of the grass and the pure Pangean air had never been more blissful.
Penny threw herself onto my chest and wrapped her small arms around me. Immediately, she was squeezing the deliciously crisp air back out of my lungs. I laughed with the air that remained.
“You did it, Quinn! You were like Spider-Man! You ran so fast and you jumped so high!”
“Thanks, Penn.” I was squeezing her back.
“Pretty impressive, baby. Good job.” Alice said after leaning down to kiss me.
Violet pounded my fist when I reached it out to her but her eyes stayed locked on our burning house. I sat up, pulling Penny and Alice with me. The foundation collapsed. The roof caved in completely. The walls crumbled. The place we had grown to love as our home was gone. Violet ran her fingers through her hair before scooping Penny up.
“Come on. We need to hide before they find…”
The native that tackled her knocked every breath from her body. They tumbled end over end across the grass. Violet was sprawled out on her stomach, trying to gather her strength and wind. Penny was sobbing in pain after smacking her head hard on the ground. The native had landed gracefully on all fours and was charging them both again.
“NO!” Alice screamed. None other than Rich Bachum was storming towards us, pointing a gun and firing with a steady hand.
“Run!” I shouted after them, but Alice had already charged him. When she reached him, she wrapped her arms around his middle and threw her full weight against him. He fell to the ground and reached for the gun that had flown to his left.
“Penny! Violet! Run!” I shouted deafeningly to them.
I went storming towards the native that had attacked them. Violet hesitated for a minute too long, wondering if she should stay and help us fight. Her personality was structured very similar to how Brynna’s was built; they would never leave those they cared for behind to face a threat alone. In that moment when she decided that she would stay and fight, one of the other Bachum men picked Penny up by the back of her shirt as though she was a dog that had to be carried by the fat at the back of its neck. He ran away with her under his arm.
“Allie, he’s taking her!” Violet screamed as she chased after him. Alice had been busy punching Rich Bachum repeatedly and cursing him for all he had done. But at those words, she rolled off of him and landed crouched over with her hands and feet both on the ground. She followed after Violet, and I ran beside her.
Violet fell over suddenly; once she hit the ground, she screamed in horror and grabbed at her neck, her legs kicking violently.
“Violet!” My exhausted voice cracked under the strain of the desperate shout.
I struggled to push through a crowd of our people that were running from the gun-wielding Bachum soldiers. By the time Alice and I had cleared the herd of people fleeing for their lives, a native man had thrown Violet over his shoulder, started running, and put at least half a mile between us and him. Violet was motionless; I assumed that they had shot her with some sort of tranquilizer dart.
Alice and I stopped running. We were grasping our chests as we gasped for breath but our bodies and minds physically ached to continue in pursuit of our friends.
“Where’s Nick?” I asked her.
“What?!” She asked through her tears that had emerged suddenly.
“Where is Nick?!” I grabbed both of her arms and shook her.
“I don't know! He was just with Violet before! He was inside the house…”
“If you see him, tell him which way I went. When James, Elijah and Brynna get back, tell them what happened! I’m going after them!”
“Quinn, wait!”
“You stay here!” I called over my shoulder.
To say that I sprinted is an understatement. To say that I ran so quickly that the trees around me became an indiscernible blur of brown and green is more accurate. I felt like a hamster in a wheel; my feet pounding the ground were spinning the planet in rapid circles and everyone I knew was struggling to hold on. I didn’t stop on their account. I only stopped when stars began to glisten against the navy blue backdrop of the evening sky. There was no way of knowing exactly how long I had been running. But I turned back, dreading the moment I saw Brynna and Elijah. When I saw them again, I would have to tell them that I had failed. I would have to tell them that even after they asked me to look after their sisters, I had let them get taken.
In the present, Brynna and I were side by side, kneeling beside the river.
“I’m sorry about Violet and Penny.” I told her, choosing to for-go an easy descent into the conversation in favor of swift entrance and hopefully, swift exit. We were filling our canteens and splashing the wonderfully cool water on our sweating faces. We were, according to James, seven miles out from the mountains. The air was beginning to freeze over; after filling our canteens, we were going to change into our sweatshirts and heavy pants. Luckily, our luggage had only just been retrieved from the campsite at the time the fire had started. In fact, while I had been chopping wood with Eric and Teresa, I hadn’t even known that it had arrived. All of our suitcases were waiting outside for us to pick through when the fire had destroyed the house. We had only brought what we needed with us on our journey north.
“Excuse me?” Brynna looked over at me, inhaling smoke from the cigarette that was burning between her lips and exhaling it through her nose.
“I’m sorry that Violet and Penny were taken. I should have…”
“Don’t.” She whispered to me and I looked up at her, shocked by the defeat in her voice. I understood then that her strength and resistance were beginning to fail her. The worry was just too much to bear.
“Brynn, we'll find them. Come hell or high water, we will…”
“Hell or high water,” She laughed bitterly, “Such an interesting expression, if you think about it. It invokes both Satan and God, respectively. It is further proof of the never-ending battle between the two. For the record, I would take both the flames of the underworld or a flood from God over facing the Bachums. They are a force of the universe all their own. Their devotion to God has allowed them to recruit devout followers who will gladly die for the cause. Most of them are decent people who are just scared of the unknown that awaits on the road ahead of them.”
“Yeah, but most of them would think nothing of killing every last man, woman and child we know. They would justify it by saying that we had been taken over by Satan because we’re different than they are.”
“Indeed. But I cannot justify taking a life simply because we disagree.”
“So, what are you going to do when we get there?” A soft chuckle of derision escaped me. “Ask them politely to give Violet and Penny back? Tell them you’ll trade some damn corn and orange cabbage for your sisters? It doesn’t work like that anymore, Brynna, and you’re smart enough to know that.”
“What I find so funny is that mere months ago you were ending your three year relationship with your girlfriend because she killed a native. Now, you are encouraging me to slaughter our opponents swiftly and without a second thought. It was you who decried the loss of our humanity, Quinn Wesley, not I.”
She was right. The hypocrisy being brought to my attention was unwelcome yet inescapably groundbreaking. We stared at each other for a long moment before she looked away; she was giving me space and silence to maul over her words.
“You’re right.” I told her suddenly as I filled my canteen up to replace the water I had just chugged back.
She grinned at me.
“Are you really surprised?”
She yelped and dodged quickly when I swatted water from the stream at her.
“Do that again and you will not like the consequences, Quinnevra. A very wise man once said,
'You better check yourself before you wreck yourself.’”
The hysterical laughter that erupted out of me actually made her jump. Alice came over, looking between the two of us in surprise. I doubled over and grasped a rock to support myself.
“You’ll never believe this, baby!” I gasped out to Alice, “Brynna Olivier can be funny!”
Alice looked at Brynna, who rolled her eyes to the heavens as she tried to suppress a smile.
“He only thinks I was being funny. I do not succumb to the drunken state of whimsy on any occasion, least of all this one. Come along, children. Let us continue the walk to our deaths.”
Alice was laughing now, too. We watched as Brynna sauntered ahead of us, knowing that she was grinning to herself.
“Oh, and did you just call me ‘Quinnevra?’” I asked her when Alice and I caught up to her.
“Indeed, I did. That name will more than likely stick, so you might want to set the wheels in motion to begin getting used to it.”
“Where in the world did you come up with that?”
“Ginevra was a very strong character in my favorite book series of all time.”
“So you think I am a very strong man, then? Well, thank you for the compliment, Brynn. It’s unexpected and it really makes me feel good about myself. Thank you.”
“You’re very welcome. Ginevra was a female.” She wrapped her arms around James’s middle as she walked beside him. She smiled up at him when he placed his arm over her shoulders.
“Oh!” Alice was cracking up and clapping her hands.
“You’re on her side now? Traitor…” I muttered.
“Estrogen club. You cannot fight biology.” Brynna called to me over her shoulder.
“Stop!” Alice exclaimed as she laughed harder.
“Well, I don’t know how you two did it. She’s been a zombie for hours.” Elijah told us quietly.
“She just needed to get her mind off of it for a few minutes.” Alice replied, “Plus, she’s getting ready for the fight. We all are.”
“Yeah, I noticed that.” Elijah nodded, “I’m starting to feel stronger. It’s like an adrenaline rush, you know?”
“That’s exactly what it’s like.” I agreed, “Except it happens without being provoked and it doesn’t go away. I have to admit, I dig it.”
“I dig it, too.” Elijah laughed, “The Bachums don’t know what they’re missing. Well, I guess they’re about to. We’re about to show them.”
“Yes. We are.”
A darkness came over all of us, erasing the lighthearted humor from only seconds earlier. I looked at them, seeing my growing blood-lust reflected in their eyes. Whatever naive, boyish morals I had preached before were gone; now, I understood the necessity for violence.
“Hey, Brynn!” I called up to her.
“Hey, Quinn.”
We all chuckled at the rhyme.
“I have a question.” I told her when the laughter had died away again.
“Well, you can be sure that I have an answer.”
“You said that you’re worried about taking lives of people that disagree with you.”
“That was a statement, my dear, not a question.”
“Just keep listening, my dear. I asked you this question already. What are you going to do when you get there if you don’t want to kill anyone? They’re going to try to kill you, right?”
“I said that I would not harm anyone that simply disagrees with me. I said nothing about not killing anyone. It is Don who wishes to completely eradicate the other side. As I have stated, I believe that more than half would be willing to live peacefully amongst our kind. Furthermore, I will only harm those that seek to harm myself or any of you. Those that were responsible for Violet and Penny being taken will also pay the ultimate price. Now, is that evil or is that necessary?”
“Or is it necessarily evil?” James asked. Brynna looked up at him. “I know that was profound. You don’t have to tell me.”
Brynna giggled softly and stood on her tiptoes to plant a kiss on his cheek.
“You are very humorous, Mr. Maxwell.”
“And you are very wise, Ms. Olivier. Not to mention, so very attractive...”
“Oh, gross!” Elijah covered his ears in horror, “Seriously, guys, I approve of your relationship. I’ve said that. But can you keep the sappy, grocery-store romance novel stuff to a minimum? It’s…”
“I know. It’s very awkward. I apologize.” James looked back at Elijah, “Seriously, I do.”
“It’s cool. You get it, though, right? She’s my little sister and she’s dating a grandfather and it’s weird, but I’m cool with it…”
“Oh!” Alice and I both exclaimed as James and Brynna laughed hysterically. James turned around and pretended to swing at Elijah’s head.
“It’s cool, though, because I’ve always wanted an older brother. I’ve always kind of wanted a dad, too, so you’re like, killing two birds with one stone.” Elijah continued.
Brynna laughed hysterically as she slapped her palm to her face and hung her head. Alice and I were beside ourselves.
James wrapped his arm around Elijah’s neck and held him tightly in a choke-hold.
“You’ve got nothin’, old man!” Elijah exclaimed as he tried to fight his way out of James’s grip.
“Really? I think I’ve got something. I’m going to have your dignity in a minute because you’re embarrassing yourself right now. You look like a mouse stuck in a hole in the wall.”
The adrenaline was coursing amongst our group like an infectious disease. We were nearing the base of the mountain now, traveling in temperatures soaring far below zero. Our winter clothes had nothing to do with the warmth that filled each of us. Our bodies were responding to the threat of the harsh conditions and the impending fight. We were preparing unconsciously. The evolutionary implications of our lighthearted playfulness were not lost on any of us. Our fear for Violet and Penny would have quickly crippled us had our adrenaline not begun to work quietly.
“Alright, ladies and gentlemen,” Elijah looked at Brynna, Alice and me, “Grandpa,” Elijah said to James who mimed kicking him hard between the legs. Elijah dodged, cracking up again, “Let’s start climbing.”
It was only after we had begun to climb that all the “whimsy”, as Brynna called it, disappeared. Our minds were focused solely on threats lurking in the snow. Our eyes and ears were alert to any signs of movement around us. Luckily, the gray clouds overhead didn’t shed the snow that lurked within them. It was only a matter of time, we knew. We had to get in and out of the Bachum camp before another blizzard hit.
At the top of the mountain, we had a clear view of the settlement. Rows upon rows of log cabins lined the snow-covered land. At the far end of the village, a tall log pyramid had been built. No guessing was necessary to determine who lived in that particular building.
“It’s weird to see a pyramid in the snow.” I commented somewhat randomly. No one responded; James, Brynna and Elijah were scanning the landscape, looking for the best spot to launch our sneak attack. I leaned forward to count how many people were meandering about; the total was zero.
“Where is everyone?” Alice voiced my internal question.
“I don’t know. Probably praying or sacrificing goats, I don’t know.” Elijah replied sarcastically. “That’s beautiful, though. We can walk right in and they’ll never know.” He looked at us, “Are you all ready for this?”
In response, Brynna began to trek down the mountain, turning her feet sideways to avoid sliding in the snow and ice. We all followed behind her, crouching low to the ground to avoid being seen.
“It’s too quiet.” Alice whispered to me. “I don’t like it. I don’t trust it, Quinn.”
I grasped her hand tightly in mine.
Brynna, James and Elijah didn’t trust it either, apparently. When we had reached the base of the mountain, they slunk forward and ducked behind the large boulders that stuck up from the earth like giant stone anthills. Even
as we got closer, no one emerged from the cabins or the pyramid at the end of the dirt path.
“Do you think they’re messing with us?” I whispered to the rest.
“Perhaps. Surely if that’s the case, then they know we’re here.” Brynna replied, “But why they would hide from five people…”
She walked forward quickly and looked all around. Alice gasped when she walked up the steps of one of the cabins and pushed open the door. James and Elijah ran forward when she disappeared into the darkness of the house. Alice and I looked at each other, wanting nothing more than to stay hidden behind the rock. The quiet of the village was unnerving; in every corner lurked a silent threat, or so it seemed. But we had suffered the brunt of Brynna’s rage when we had forced them to face the cave-dwellers alone. We knew now that we were all in that mess together; one person’s fight was everyone’s fight.
Once inside the cabin, Alice and I were both shocked to find such a reasonably sized space so sparsely populated. There were only two animal fur beds in one corner, a wooden faucet perched high on the wall in one corner with a small dial beneath it, and a hole in the floor that they clearly used as a bathroom.
“Well, I have to say that we fared better.” James commented as he looked around. “Is this their shower? I wonder if they get hot water like we do.”
“Do you see a furnace attached to these houses? No, they have only cold water. At least they have an indoor plumbing system, though, so it’s not all bad.” Brynna frowned when she looked into the hole that was carved in the floor, “Tell me this isn’t their toilet.”
“It smells like a toilet.” Alice covered her nose with one hand and grasped Brynna’s hand with the other, “This is a terrible place.”
Brynna smiled slightly at her purposely over-dramatic comment on the obvious.
The Shattered Genesis (Eternity) Page 73
