What truly takes her breath away is the view. The paned windows gift her with a perfect perspective of the treetops and the sun, barely visible along the ridgeline beyond. The sky is pink and orange, covered in soft fluffy clouds with nowhere to be in a hurry.
When she dies, Eve wants to be buried in this bathtub.
Especially when she finds out that, yes, there is hot water. Within a sliding compartment, opening in the floor next to the tub, she finds every toiletry that she requires—including stacks upon stacks of various-sized clothing. The Zappers really do think of everything.
Clean and refreshed, Eve walks with slightly more confidence across the suspended bridge once more.
Stepping through and shutting out the wind, she is surprised to see that they have visitors.
Riley and Beth are standing in the kitchen. Martin is back as well. They are huddled, their voices muffled as they discuss—more than likely—her.
And there is Luca.
His back is to Eve, his hands in his pockets as he stands near Maggie and Tate. The eldest Quinn must have heard her come in, but he doesn’t acknowledge her entrance.
“Luca?” she calls out, desperate for him to turn around.
His muscles tense, but he stays facing the television. It is as she had feared.
She and Luca are no more.
“Eve, good to see you. Will you join us?” Riley motions for her to approach, taking a seat at one of the dining tables. Beth looks kindly at Eve, patting the spot next to her.
Soon, everyone is in one of the chairs, and the TV has been flipped off. Eve feels like she has been punched in the gut. Staring at the table, she waits for Riley to lead their makeshift meeting.
“First off, Eve, I apologize for these conditions. It’s not that we don’t trust you, but you can understand our need for caution…” Riley begins.
“I also apologize for your quarters the past week. Martin needed to run some tests and get to the bottom of what occurred at the power plant. He thinks he’s discovered the cause, but we are in entirely new territory with you.”
“I’m a hybrid, aren’t I?” Eve whispers, already knowing the answer.
Silence. A needle could drop and they would all hear it.
Martin sees this as his cue to chime in.
“In layman’s terms, yes. Adel and Orion have somehow halted a full transformation. Hitting pause on your mutation, you are not one or the other. You’re somewhere in the middle. We are also aware that you didn’t know. You were telling the truth when we questioned you right after the attack, based on software analysis of your vitals during your divulsions. I am still puzzling out how exactly your parents were able to mask your memories. They might have inserted a sort of block in your hippocampus….”
“Martin,” Riley interjects.
“Apologies.”
Riley takes the lead once more.
“We do not believe you are a threat. If anything, you might be the tipping point in our war. But we are unsure of your capabilities, and we are concerned about areas in your makeup that might have been…tampered with.”
“You think my parents might have installed some sort of ‘failsafe,’” Eve mutters, again, spot on.
At least Riley is honest when he answers, “Yes. We are concerned that this was their plan all along. Abandon you, we take you in, you win over our trust, and when the time is right, you turn on us.”
“You’re dumb as rock if you think that Eve is anything but good. You saw what she did at the power plant!” Maggie says, coming to her defense.
“No, Maggie, he’s right…” Eve agrees, placating her sibling.
Maggie flashes her a look that says, “No, he isn’t,” but backs down.
“What now?” Eve asks, resigned.
“Now, we see what you can do.” It’s Luca who speaks this time, but every word is acid.
Eve now wishes she was back in her glass-like cell, in the mountain, alone.
Instead of here, with witnesses to her heartbreak.
She has tried to prepare herself for this moment, convince herself that Luca’s reaction was to be expected. But if she hadn’t gotten out of that car, and did what she did, there would be no more Luca.
Either way, she would have lost him.
But it doesn’t make the pain of the loss any easier.
Chapter 36
Sharing a room on the second floor with Beth and Maggie, Eve tosses and turns in her top bunk. The room can sleep six, three bunks on either side, and Eve chose the uppermost mattress on the opposite side of the space, Beth and her little sister claiming the bottom and middle adjacent.
Unsure of the hour, tear after tear rolls from Eve’s swollen eyes, onto her hair and the pillow below her head. Silent in her misery, she is surprised when Maggie sits up, throws off her covers, and climbs down a ladder to the pine board flooring.
Pattering feet, she then climbs all the way up to Eve, peeking her head over the low railing.
“Scoot.”
Eve obliges, a sob unwillingly escaping.
More pattering of feet, climbing, and Beth joins them as well, crawling over to the other side of Eve, smacking her head on the low ceiling in the process.
“Ouch, man!” Beth giggles, holding her temple as she and Maggie sandwich Eve in the middle.
All three lay on their backs, side by side, waiting for Eve to talk when she is ready.
“I am so sorry….” Eve’s voice cracks, the depth of her sorrow on full display.
“For what? Saving mine and my brothers’ lives out there?” Beth says with total conviction.
“Really? I thought… You didn’t say anything to me in my cell,” Eve says cautiously.
Beth punches one of Eve’s pillows, fluffing it. Turning on her side to face her, she says, “I was instructed not to speak to you. And I was on camera. After you…did whatever you did, Evergreen was in chaos, so I had to fall in line. Eve, Riley and anyone that isn’t trusting you right now is a fool.”
“Especially the tall stupid one with the shaved head,” Maggie growls, all three of them knowing she is referring to Luca.
“Wait, before you cast judgment, there is something that you need to hear,” Beth starts, cautiously. “And I honestly never planned on telling either of you, but I think you need to know this, to truly understand him.”
Eve quiets, waiting for whatever this latest secret might reveal.
“You may have noticed—we never talk about our parents. Maybe you assumed that they were on assignment somewhere, or we’re not very close, but that’s not the case….”
Eve can tell that this is a difficult topic, but Beth proceeds.
“Your parents and our parents were…close. They came up at Evergreen together, were assigned to the same pod in Seattle, and started having children around the same time. When Adel and Orion were discovered doing what they were doing—playing Frankenstein only to create stronger mutants—they assumed that the raid on their lab was our parents’ doing. That they were the ones who ratted them out. The same night your parents disappeared, our parents were found in Saintsville, in the house across from your grandmother’s. Both of their throats had been slit.”
Eve and Maggie gasp. In the darkness, their hands cover their mouths as both sisters try to sit up in the cramped space.
Now everyone, not just Eve, is crying.
“Our parents killed yours? I am so, so sorry….” Maggie reaches across Eve and squeezes Beth’s arm.
Begging for Beth to believe her, Eve adds, “We didn’t know, I swear, we didn’t….”
But Beth’s shushing silences both of the Abbotts.
“You and Maggie are innocent. You are good, and loving, and fiercely devoted to those you care about. You’re nothing like Adel or Orion, and I trust both of you with my life.”
“Careful… Maybe just trust me? Eve is unreliable at the moment….”
Thanks to Maggie’s comment, all the girls erupt in giggles.
But then Eve stops. F
reezes. She slaps her hands to the girls’ mouths, silencing them.
Snappers.
She can feel them, on the bridge and the walkways.
One is right outside their quarters.
The hinges on their door starts to squeak, and slowly, ever so slowly, it opens.
Beth stealthily moves to lay across the mattress until she is peeking through the railings toward the entrance. Maggie and Eve follow suit.
Steam and smoke start to fill the room as a giant, scorpion-like creature slithers through, stopping in the center.
With two stingers instead of one, the all-black insect is the size of a lion as it unfolds. In the middle of its pincers is a human-like face. A face exactly like the smoker Eve had first encountered. Its long neck makes three loud clicks, tilting to look at the girls.
The hairs raise on Eve’s arms. It’s staring directly at them.
Without warning, Beth screams “Snappers!” and leaps from the top, landing and rolling so that she is directly in front of the monstrosity…putting herself immediately in harm’s way.
Chapter 37
Maggie and Eve do not hesitate. Quickly climbing down three or four rungs each, they jump the rest of the way, landing close to Beth.
So far, their parents’ latest concoction seems to be waiting for something. Its eight legs shuffle, moving slightly backwards, then slightly forwards. It hisses at them, sending Eve’s body into overdrive. From within the treehouse, they hear chaos being unleashed. Lights flash and dim, yelling, the boys’ electrically charged superweapons indicating that their backup is delayed.
The boys, whatever they’re fighting, currently have their hands full.
“What I need…is in my bunk….” Beth snarls.
“How can we help? Distraction?” Maggie’s eyes dart around the space, looking for anything that could be used to buy Beth some time.
Then they hear it. What sounds like thousands of nails tapping on glass. The sound grows louder and louder, until more of the scorpion-like creatures pour into the room. Crawling up the walls and pushing the girls to the far back, cutting them off from the only exit. A single window is placed high on the wall and unreachable, but at least the moon is bright, granting them a clear picture of what they’re about to face.
“We are seriously screwed,” Maggie groans.
Then one, two, the entire room starts to hiss. The noise is deafening. Eve knows, somewhere deep inside of her, that they are gearing up for the kill.
Then she feels it. A few sparks erupt on her exposed areas, extinguishing as quickly as they manifest. Her skin starts to heat, and total calm takes over, only to be interrupted by a stabbing pain in her neck, dropping her directly to her knees.
“Dammit! Damn Martin and his stupid chip!” Eve roars, clawing at her neck.
“What are you doing? Eve, stop!” Beth begs.
She does stop; she freezes.
Every single cell in her body is at her command, as she sends positively charged molecules to surround the chip. She feels it, small and flat, connected to her spinal column. It doesn’t have a chance. Attacking it from every angle, surrounding it, she fries the chip, disabling it with ease.
Then she smiles.
The darkness comes once more.
Small tendrils of smoke start to crawl from her fingers. They are beautiful as they extend, twisting and flowing carefully outwards. Paper thin, they split, and split again, until each branch of her intricate web dangles directly in front of each one of her brethren.
She feels their confusion. Hypnotized by the smoking, glowing lines, her trap begins to resemble a honeycomb, the lines connecting, spreading, and connecting again, until each mutation is wrapped in their own electric cage.
The hissing turns to shrieks as a few touch the glowing lines, only to lose a pincer or a leg. Piles of mutant dust collect around them, raining from the monstrosities positioned on the ceiling. And then her cages start to shrink. And shrink, and shrink, and shrink. Eve relishes in their agonizingly slow demise as she feels their fear and feeds on it.
The shrieks intensify to a deafening howl as Beth and Maggie cover their ears, until the room explodes into a cloud of ash.
Eve’s eyes fade from black to clear blue. Her raised hair, moving in non-existent wind starts to lower. Shaky, but she doesn’t black out after this episode. Good, Eve is making progress.
Helping her sister to her feet, she adamantly says, “No one is putting a chip in my neck again.”
“I’d like to see them try….” Maggie coughs, lifting her night shirt to cover the lower half of her face, acting as a sort of filter in the foggy room.
Beth, coughing as well, mimics Maggie, swatting at the thick dust coating every inch of the dormitory. She manages to say, “Who are you?!” between wheezes.
“I have no clue.” Eve’s answer is so honest that they all erupt in laughter.
Chapter 38
Eve didn’t just take care of the scorpions in their space. She had exterminated every threat, inside and out, all at once.
Nausea starts to roll over her in waves, causing her to put her palms on her knees. Maggie hurries over, thinking her injured.
“I’m fine. I might just throw up,” Eve whispers hoarsely.
“She needs water, she is probably dehydrated again. I’ll be right back!”
Beth sprints in her mutant-covered pajamas out the door, passing Luca and Tate on the way.
“Everyone is fine! Eve just needs fluids!” she yells from somewhere on the outside railing.
What Beth fails to notice are the weapons that Tate and Luca are still holding. Martin and Riley soon join them, as they stalk into the room, forming a V, with Riley at the helm. Eve soon learns Riley’s weapon of choice—a boomerang. Dwarfed in size by his muscle-bound arms.
Seeing these warriors in their full glory, tattoos red and alive, they are one with their artillery. Eve can’t help but feel a pang of sadness. She’ll never be like them. They need their guns and knives—where she, Eve, only needs herself.
She is the weapon.
Maggie and Eve hear Beth cry out, “Wait, no! What are you doing?” hurrying through the doorway, holding two partially full glasses. Most of the water having spilled in her haste.
“You were warned what would happen if you did not comply, Miss Abbott. You knew the consequences, yet you disobeyed a direct order. We can do this here, or outside, away from your sister. I will give you the choice.”
Maggie gasps, and she isn’t the only one.
Beth drops the cups she is holding as they shatter.
Luca lowers his gun in shock and Tate his blades. Even rule-abiding Martin glances between his siblings, unsure of how to proceed. Their leader is going off script—the Quinns had not been informed that Riley intended to end Eve’s life because of her disobedience.
“Riley…no. We are not killing her.” The menace in Luca’s voice is a clear threat.
“This is insane bro, I’m not doing this….” Tate chimes in as well, stepping out of the V, his blades slowing to a stop.
“You. Will. Obey. A. Direct. Order!” Spit flies from Riley’s mouth like a rabid dog.
The nausea worsening, Eve has had quite enough of this. She steps forward, raises her hands, and before any of them have time to react, Eve flicks her wrist and their weapons flash white. Each solider dropping them to the floor, in reaction to Eve giving them a jolt.
Riley roars and goes to charge, but Eve stops him in his tracks just by holding out her sparking hand. They dance on her fingertips, daring him to come closer.
Riley is dumbfounded. Rigid, he is frozen in shock.
Maggie claps and whistles, leaning against the back wall next to Beth.
“Don’t mess with my sister, Ri-Ri!” she taunts.
“But the chip…how?” Riley stumbles, at a loss for words.
“I put it in a microwave and hit start. I am grateful to you, all of you, and my time spent at Evergreen, but I think my sister and I will be going
now.”
“What about West?” Maggie whines.
“He can choose. With them, or with us. But I am sick of being a puppet. I cut the strings, time to leave.”
Another voice chimes in behind her.
“I’m coming with you.” Beth steps forward, defiant.
“Absolutely—” Riley begins to bellow, but stops again, barely containing his fury.
And then Eve feels it. Every hair on her body rises as she turns her back on Riley and the rest, facing toward her beautiful little sister.
“Maggie, come over here,” she instructs, staring at something that only she can see.
“No way. I’m good, thank you!” Maggie is enjoying watching the soap opera unfold.
“Maggie. Get away from the wall!”
Eve’s hair starts to rise, and all color drains from her irises, replaced with an inky darkness.
That can only mean one thing.
One step. Maggie only takes one step before the wood paneling splinters and blasts open.
Time stops. Everything seems to be in happening in slow motion as Eve watches massive scaly talons breaking through. One grabs Maggie before shooting straight into the air.
But not before Eve saw someone riding on the flier. Someone who has haunted her every second of every day, since she had left Eve behind.
Adel is there, in all black, the lines of her tattoos a puzzling purple instead of the red Eve had grown accustomed to. She sees her mother, their eyes locking for a split second.
And her mother’s smile is victorious.
Someone is screaming. Long and loud, the sound of total and utter devastation.
Eve realizes that it’s her.
She can already feel the flier traveling farther, and farther away, too fast for her to catch up. And then nothing.
Dawning realization hits, as her head snaps toward Beth.
“What is today?” Eve demands.
“Huh?”
Beth is confused, unsure why in this moment it matters.
“Today, today! What is today’s date?!”
Saintsville Page 18
