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. Freezes. 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.