The Eden Trilogy, Tome 2 : The Human

ONE

Nearly everywhere I looked, there were bodies.

They lay limp in the streets. They were piled on top of each other inside buildings. They sat still and slumped over inside vehicles.

We were surrounded by over three million decomposing, cybernetic-infused corpses.

I closed my eyes as a sense of overwhelming vertigo seized me. Rubble fell from the roof, down into the street below, as I took one step back from the ledge.

There were so many bodies. They surrounded us on all sides. Silent and immobile. They were dead. They couldn’t infect us anymore.

But I had lived my whole life running from them.

Every instinct in me wanted to flee the city.

I opened my eyes, turning them east. I missed the mountains. I missed the trees. I missed the heat and the snow and the changing leaves.

I missed protecting my family. I missed staying up all night to make sure we were safe.

I missed having a purpose.

We were safe now. The Bane in the city were destroyed.

What purpose did I serve now?

I took two more steps back, bumping into the Pulse. Its sharp edges dug into my ribs, but I stayed pressed into it, hoping to feel something other than guilt and loss.

I’d had a purpose then. I’d helped to clear this city. So had many others.

But not all of us had made it out.

And my actions ate at me every day.

“Eve?”

Avian stepped out onto the roof of the hospital. A rifle was slung over his shoulder, a utility belt hanging low on his narrow hips. His eyes were serious and searching as he met mine.

I looked back out over the city to the east. His footsteps approached, slow but knowing.

He stepped in front of me, locking his eyes on mine. He placed a hand on either side of my face and pressed his forehead to mine.

“We can leave,” he breathed as my eyes slid closed. “You don’t have to stay here and torture yourself.”

I shook my head slightly and the air around me seemed to tighten and constrict around my chest and throat.

“I can’t abandon them,” I whispered, placing my hand on Avian’s chest. The only sure thing in my world, Avian’s heart beat back the echo of everything I had ever fought for. “I have to deal with the messes I’ve made.”

“You’ve saved them, Eve,” he said. His rough cheek brushed mine as his lips whispered next to my ear. “Maybe it’s time to save yourself.”

I didn’t respond because I would never be able to make him understand the weight and turmoil that burned through my veins. I simply pressed my face into Avian’s neck and crushed him into my chest.

“Come on,” Avian said after a long while, taking my hand. He pulled me toward the stairs that led back into the hospital. “Dinner will be ready soon.”