PART EIGHT

 

--AVIAN--

The house I chose was comfortable.  Three bedrooms, two bathrooms.  Not that the water was running.  But the walls throughout the house were a soft yellow, warm and inviting.  The bed was comfortable.

I finally slept for what felt like the first time since…

It was quiet out here and infinitely dark.  When morning came, I looked out the window, over the lake.  I could see the field from here.  Pulling some clothes on, I slipped outside.

Clouds hung low over the lake and mountains.  Moisture was thick in the air.  I stopped outside the house, picking a single wild daisy that had grown up between the grass and the concrete footing.  I crossed to the field and the mound in the middle of it.

Someone had carved her name into a flat stone.  EVE.  Simple, solid letters.  Just like her.

I placed the flower on top of the mound.

I was drained, with nothing left to feel.  This was just me, standing outside, next to a mound and a body that had been returned to the earth from whence she came.  These were just facts.  No emotion involved.

Perhaps this was how the Bane had felt.

Lucky, dead bastards.

 

The next morning, I got in the car and drove back to New Eden.

I was going to need supplies.

It seemed like the drive went by in an instant.  One second I was seeing the lake in my rear view mirror and the next I was in the underground parking garage.

I went up to my room.  No one saw me since almost everyone had moved out of the hospital again.  I filled bags with my clothes, boots, coats, everything I would need.  I set my two bags out in the hall and crossed to Eve’s old room.

I collected my things that had been left in here, trying not to look at her belongings that lay about like she would return for them at any moment.  Someone else would have to take care of them.  That was something I just couldn’t do.  Lin would take care of it.  Lin loved Eve like that.  Like Sarah had loved her.

Swallowing hard, I went back out in the hall and grabbed my bags.

After putting them in my vehicle, I went back inside.  I was almost to the armory when Royce called out to me from behind.

“How are you holding up?” he asked, a wary look in his eye.

“Please don’t ask me that question,” I said, my eyes darting away from his.

“Of course,” he said with a nod.  “Sorry.”

“It’s fine,” I responded, shifting uncomfortably from one foot to the other.  “What are the reports coming back?”

“We’ve gotten two thousand miles out so far,” Royce said, stuffing his hands in his pockets.  “They’ve come across three armies.  All dead.  Reports are the same everywhere.  They’re all wiped out.”

I nodded and swallowed hard.

“She did it, Avian,” Royce said.  “She saved the planet.”

“Yeah,” I replied as I stepped into the armory.  “I knew she would.  Just not at this cost.”

He didn’t respond as he watched me collect my firearms, as well as Eve’s.  I placed them all in a long canvas bag.  I started stacking up boxes of ammunition.

“What happened with Lex and Jeb?” I asked.  The soldiers who had been infected just before the Nova went off.

“Jeb is fine,” Royce said.  “The Extractor pulled enough out of him that when the Nova went off, he was fine.”

“And Lex?” I asked when Royce stopped talking.

Royce just shook his head.  I could only nod.  And think about his poor wife and son.

“So,” he said, dragging out the word.  “What are your plans now?”

I picked up the bag and slung the strap over my shoulder.  My eyes didn’t meet his right away.  “I promised Eve that when everything was over that I’d take her out of the city.  That we’d find a place that felt like home.  I’m keeping that promise.”

I saw it in his eyes, just for a moment, that he wanted to argue with me.  That I didn’t need to fulfill a promise to a dead woman.  But he had more respect for me than that.  For Eve.

“You’re moving out to where you buried her,” he stated.

I nodded.  I was about to walk out the door when I paused, turning back around.

“Royce, there’s something you need to know,” I said, meeting his gray eyes.  “Eve was waiting to tell you until after the Nova went off, she knew your work was more important at the time.  But well…  I just, I think you should know.”

“What is it, Avian?” Royce asked with furrowed brows when I started rambling.

“The reason she asked you if you had a brother named Rider, was because she found out that was her father’s name,” I said.  “You’re Eve’s uncle.”