SIXTEEN

 

All along the freeway there was city after city.  I saw Bane waking to life off the side of the road, but by the time they reached it, I was long gone.  The Bane were fast, but this bike’s speedometer read over one hundred miles an hour when I really pushed it.

I realized just how far I’d been taken north by how much longer it took the sun to faze into the sky.  It was also nearly the end of December and the days were at their shortest.  I had turned off the freeway onto Tristan’s highway 101 for a half hour before the sun started lightening the world.  The air was crisp and had I been normal, I would be freezing with the thin jacket Tristan had brought me.  The moisture in the air hung between the point of dew and frost.

A tiny costal town had just fallen behind me when I decided it was time to hide for the day.  I left the motorcycle on the side of the road, next to an abandoned bus, and headed into the trees.  The scarce grass crunched under my feet as the temperatures hovered at freezing.

Finding an ancient maple tree, I climbed high into its branches and settled.

Taking out the pocket knife Tristan had given me, I felt along the crown of my head.  The stitches were pulling tight.  The incision line was completely healed.  I tried not to wonder if they had pulled my entire scalp off to dig in my brain.  Or if they cut the top of my skull off… 

Trying my best to be careful, I slipped the small knife under the thread, and cut.

Small trickles of blood traced their way down my face and neck by the time I was done, but I cut each of the stitches and piled them on the branch.

The back of my throat swelled.

I’d never given much thought to my hair before.  Many times it had felt like a nuisance, always getting in my vision.

But for the first time in my life, I actually felt ugly.

My hair was now shorter than Avian’s.  And Avian very nearly didn’t have hair with how frequently he shaved it.

How long would it take to grow back?

I collected myself after a few minutes.  I had to survive a fifteen-hundred-mile journey.  I didn’t have time to mourn the loss of something as silly and unnecessary as hair.

The sun broke over the tops of the trees, and through them, I could just barely make out the ocean.

It seemed Tristan was right.  This highway literally ran right next to the ocean, and so far, there had only been small towns along it.  Towns small enough to not even have any Bane in them.

But I was grossly underprepared for this journey.  I had no idea what had happened to my pack.  In a way that almost felt like losing an arm.  I would have been just fine if I’d had that.  Now I had no food, no water.  I had no extra clothing and I was nearly soaked through.  I had none of my familiar firearms and this shotgun Tristan had given me wasn’t exactly in prime condition.

I was going to have to raid one of these towns.  And search for gas before too long.

As badly as I wanted to deny it, my body was exhausted.  The raid would have to wait.  I didn’t last much more than a few minutes before I drifted off.

 

 

A bird squawked.  I opened one eye and saw it standing on the branch above me.  It looked right at me, so focused and so precise it didn’t even really look like a real bird.  I didn’t recognize its species; he must have been native to this area.  But he was big.

My stomach rumbled.  I had no idea if the people in Seattle had starved me those fourteen days they’d had me under or not, but I was famished.

And that bird looked like a meal.

Moving very slowly, I pulled the knife from my pocket.  I opened the blade and pinched it very carefully between my index finger and thumb.

I flicked the blade and threw it before the bird could even blink.  The knife embedded itself in the creature’s throat and he dropped from the branch.

A smile threatening to cross my face, I pulled myself half into a sitting position, about to jump off the branch and retrieve my meal when I froze.

At least twenty Bane stood at the base of the tree.  Just staring up at me.

A curse slipped over my lips as I scrambled higher up the tree.  Branches and bark scraped my skin, but I felt nothing as I fled, trapping myself in the tree.  I leveled my shotgun at the nearest Bane.

But they didn’t move.  They didn’t blink.

They just stood there staring at me.

My heart thundered in my chest.  My breaths came in quick spurts.  My hands grew slick with sweat.

Why weren’t they attacking?

Why weren’t they acting like Bane?

What were they waiting for?

And then one of them raised an arm, straight up towards me.  Clutched in its hand was a water bottle.

Another one raised its arm as well.  It held a can of baked beans.

Another held up a handgun and another a box of ammunition.

And another gripped a backpack.

One held up a gas can that sloshed.

“What is going on?” I whispered.  My eyes grew wide, my grip on the branches I clung to tightening.  “How…?”

They continued to stand there, looking up at me with their empty eyes.

I’d thought about every one of these things before I’d fallen asleep.  I knew I was going to have to go after these supplies if I was going to survive.

And these Bane had brought every single thing I’d needed.

“Put them on the ground,” I said, my voice cracking on the word ground.

Every one of them put their items in the dirt at their feet.

“Back up,” I said, climbing down one branch tentatively.

The entire group stepped back exactly ten steps.

“What…?” I whispered.  I’d been able to control one or two Bane at a time before.  But there were twenty-four of them here, and they’d obeyed me precisely.

And somehow they’d known exactly what I’d needed.

I climbed down a few more branches, watching them the entire time I moved.  I kept my shotgun aimed at them, but they just stood there, watching me as I descended.

I dropped to the hard ground, just in front of their stash.

They just continued to stare at me.

Had I finally become enough like them that they no longer felt the need to try and infect me?  Were they recognizing me as one of their own?

But they wouldn’t bring supplies to one of their own.  The Bane would have no use for them.

“Lift your arms,” I said hesitantly, keeping my shotgun pointed at them.

Every one of them instantly raised their arms to the sky.

“Holy…” I breathed, shaking my head.  I took another step closer, stepping over the backpack.  “Turn around once.”

They all turned in a full circle before facing me again.

“Now leave,” I said, keeping the shotgun pointed at them.  “Head north, and don’t come back.”

Instantly they turned as one and marched north.  I watched as they retreated through the woods.  None of them looked back.

I stood there, stunned, long after they disappeared from sight.

This was new.  This was game-changing in a way that I didn’t really understand yet.  This could either hurt us or maybe save us.

Either way, the world of the post-Evolution was changing once again.

Turning back to the scattered supplies, I grabbed a can opener one of the Bane had brought and opened the beans.  They felt cold and slimy as they went down, but they calmed the rumbling in my stomach.

More than one of them had brought water.  I counted six water bottles.  I drained one and packed the rest into the backpack.  I tried to ignore the math homework and diary I had to pull out of it and discard. 

I grabbed the handgun and checked the ammunition.  They’d brought the right kind.  The Bane really were getting smarter.  They’d checked to make sure it was the right caliber.

There was other food as well.  Granola bars, all of which were moldy and rotten when I opened the wrappers.  Guess the Bane weren’t smart enough to make sure the food was edible.  But there were two cans of green beans that were still good, as well as three cans of soup.  I loaded it all into the backpack.

Peeling off my soaked clothes, I changed into the dry ones.  They were too big—men’s—but they were military grade and durable. 

I left the dead bird, now sorry for needlessly killing it, and collected Tristan’s knife.

I walked back out to the road and my motorcycle, gas can in hand.  I looked both ways.  The road was empty.

Judging from the position of the sun in the sky, I would guess it was four in the afternoon.  I’d slept for a long time.  I shuttered to think how long the Bane might have waited below me, watching me while I slept with supplies I needed, but hadn’t told them to collect.

I couldn’t sleep any longer and there was no way I was going to sit around and wait until dark.  Strapping the pack to my back tight, I topped off the motorcycle with the gas.  It didn’t require much and I had plenty left over once it was full.  Finding some ties in the tiny storage compartment in the back of the bike, I strapped the gas can on for when I would need it later.

The motorcycle growled to life and I took off down the coast.

This had to be an advantage for me, for New Eden.  The way the Bane had listened to me was precise.  There was no hesitation in their obedience.  They’d gotten exactly what I’d needed without me saying a word.

There had to be a way I could use this to help me get home.  To protect those around me.

It started raining not five minutes after I got back on the road.  I was soaked once again in under a minute.  It was a relief to not have my hair sticking to my face from the rain, but my head was freezing cold.

The rain would start and stop for the next hour but the gray clouds overhead never left.

Something loomed ahead and I wiped the water from my eyes, trying to see what was coming up.

It looked like there was a big river or maybe a bay ahead of me.  A bridge stretched over a huge expanse of water and on the other side there looked to be a town.  I started across.

Just then, the sun broke from the clouds and the rain stopped.

And as soon as the sun broke, Bane erupted from every building, every car, and every overhang.

I screeched to a halt on the bridge, the back tire of the bike lifting slightly.  My chest bumped the fuel tank as I slid forward with my abrupt stop.

The ground looked like it was moving, constantly shifting, there were so many bodies.  There had to be hundreds of thousands of Bane.  I’d seen a sign as I hit the halfway point on the bridge, a sign that had said some town name and listed the population as just under ten-thousand. 

These Bane had come from somewhere else.

I narrowed my enhanced eyes, trying to make sense of what I was seeing.

Batches of them crushed cars to flat metal disks.  Others broke windows, and things started flying out them as they ransacked the buildings.  And then the explosions started.

Building after building started coming down.

They moved like clockwork.  Thousands of them moved in a direct line, going block by block, searching each building and then leveling it.

A small flash of light caught my eyes.  There were five Bane standing in a line behind the others, in a straight line.  But these looked different from the others.  They literally had no flesh left on their frames.  Metallic bones held in pulsing and ticking organs. 

“What are you doing out there?  Are you trying to get infected?”

My head whipped to the right, toward a hissing voice.

A pair of brown eyes peaked up at me from the side of the bridge, down on the small beach at the land and water’s edge.  He waved me over.

Glancing back at the unbelievable scene before me, I climbed off my bike, leaving it in the middle of the road, and ran to the man’s hiding place.

“What are you doing out here?” I asked as I ducked under the road next to him.

He was dressed in survival gear and had one rifle and one shotgun crossed over his back.  He held a crossbow in one hand.

“Studying,” he said, his voice gruff.  He looked to be in his forties, wrinkles sprouting from the corners of his eyes.  His hair was shaggy, his beard knotted and tangled.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” I asked.

“Something’s changing out there,” he said, his expression growing dark.  “I first noticed it in Minneapolis.  You saw those freaky looking ones?  The ones with no traces of skin on them?”

I nodded.

“They’re first gens,” he said, his eyes glancing back toward the road, and then back to me.  “The source.  They were the first ones to get TorBane.”

“How do you know?” I questioned.

“Because one of them is my father,” he said, his jaw tightening.  “He got a heart upgrade in the beginning.  I’d been overseas in the Navy when all this happened.  When I got back, he’d already lost his humanity.  A lot of people had.  So I watched him.  I’ve been tracking him for the past six years.  He’s one of the first gens.”

“Okay,” I said, nodding.  It made sense.  The longer you were infected, the more machine-like you became.  I’d already seen that.

“Two other first gens found him about three months ago,” the man said, again looking toward the road.  “They started going through houses and tearing them apart.  And I mean leveling them.  They’ve been looking for people, anyone who’s left.  And as they moved through the city, any awake Bane they came across went with them.  They started growing an army.  All the others, they seem to be following the first gens.”

“Hang on,” I said, holding a hand up.  “That can’t be possible.  The Bane cannot be smart enough to create an army.”

“Did you not just see what is happening in that town?” he asked, his eyes blazing.  He pointed a finger toward the city.  “Can you not call that an army?”

I swore under my breath.  He was right.  It was an army.

“They’re moving like the black plague,” he continued.  “They’re marching in a line, perfectly east to west.  They’re leveling houses, forests, anything that might hide people.  And anyone they find, they infect.  They’re thinking like a machine.  They’re doing precise sweeps.”

“They’ve reached the coast now,” I said, trying to bring up a map I’d seen of or continent.  “What do you think they’ll do now?”

“I expect they’ll turn, make a sweep west to east until they reach the east coast.  If they’re really thinking like a machine, that’s how a machine would do it.”

“And you’ve what?” I asked.  “You’ve just been following them?”

He nodded.  “I have an all-terrain vehicle,” he said, inclining his head back toward the city.  “I’ve been trying to get out ahead of them, find anyone I can.  Warn them to get out.”

“Have you found anyone?” I asked, hope surging in my chest.

His eyes grew dark.  “I’ve come across five people, in two different locations.  I told them to head north.  My guess is that they’ll shift south now that they’ve reached the coast.” 

“How long do you think it’ll take them to reach Los Angeles?” I asked, fear gripping my chest.

He took a deep breath before letting it out slowly as he shook his head.  “No for sure way to tell.  I’m guessing they’ll continue sweeping east to west, west to east.  They’re gaining speed.  They keep collecting more Bane as they move, and they haven’t even hit any major cities yet.  I can’t imagine how their numbers are going to grow when they hit Chicago or Portland.  Or, shit, New York.  The more Bane they have, the faster they can work and the wider the sweep they can do.”

“How long?” I asked again.

“I’d guess six months,” he said with a shrug.  “But probably shorter.  They could have hundreds of millions of them by the time they hit Los Angeles.  Why do you ask about that location?”

I hesitated.  My trust in mankind was greatly compromised after what had just happened to me in Seattle.  However, this man hadn’t asked me any questions before spilling all of his information.

“Because that’s where I’m from.  There are over one hundred of us living there.  There are probably still more in hiding.”

“Wow,” he said, his eyes growing wider.  “That’s the biggest colony I’ve heard of.”

“And it’s going to be obliterated if that many Bane show up to level it,” I said quietly, my thoughts racing.

We had to get the Pulse ready for more than one reason now.

We needed to build more of it if possible.

“If you’re from Los Angeles, what are you doing this far north?” he asked.  Suddenly his eyes jumped to my hair line.  “And what happened to you, child?”

“Some of us humans are getting desperate,” I said with my jaw clenched.

“It was one of us that did that?” he asked, disgust in his voice.

I nodded.

“I’m sorry to hear it,” he said, his eyes growing softer.  “What’s your name?”

“Eve,” I said.

“I’m Tom,” he offered, shifting the firearms on his back. 

“Nice to meet you, Tom,” I said.  And I meant it.  In a way, Tom reminded me of Bill.  A little rough around the edges, but at his core, he was a good man.

He simply gave a smile and a nod in return.

We hid there the rest of the day, sharing what information we each had.  But neither of us learned anything new.  The Bane were Evolving, they’d soon take us over. 

The sound of destruction from the town never stopped.

There were explosions almost constantly.  Tom said they managed to find explosives wherever they went, but much of the sounds we were hearing were gas lines being broken and lit.  There were grinding sounds as buildings came down and homes and businesses were destroyed.

“Did you find anyone here?” I asked.  The Bane had moved to the south end of the city and he and I sat on the bank, watching the destruction.  Half the city burned, sending plumes of smoke into the sky.

Tom shook his head. 

“When those people took me,” I said, running a hand over my bald head.  “They told me there was less than half a percent left of the human population left.”

“That sounds about right,” Tom said, shaking his head.

“Something’s got to happen soon or we’re done for.” 

“I’ve kept thinking that someday someone would come and light the way, to have the answers and this would all end,” Tom said, his voice growing quiet.  “Seems it’s too late for that now.”

I remembered Tristan’s words.  About me being the key to saving them all.

No matter how much I wished I could save this planet, I didn’t see how that could ever be possible.

Evening started to fall and the sounds grew less intense.

“That’s my cue to leave,” Tom said, standing.  “I don’t normally linger this long.  I’d better get moving.  There’s always another town.”

I stood as well, tightening the pack on my back.  “Thank you, Tom.  You might have just saved my family.”

“I’ll keep warning people until I get caught,” he said, giving a shrug.  “I’ll use this on myself though before I let myself turn.”  He patted his shotgun.

“Stay safe, Tom,” I said with a nod.

He saluted me and started down the road.  He didn’t go far before he climbed onto an ATV I hadn’t even noticed.  It was well camouflaged with neutral paint.  The engine growled and he took off.

I watched for an hour on the beach.  Then there was no city left.  Only rubble and smoke.

The army of Bane started marching east, just as Tom had predicted.