Eve of Man (The Harvest Book 2) (18 page)

Zack smiled back. He was probably imaging things.
After all, the lighting in the dining room was set for mood, not for sight.
Zack relaxed and began telling Roxanne about the bunker, a topic he could talk
about for days. Roxanne turned out to be a good audience, asking intelligent
questions and keeping up, even when Zack got too deep into the details. He
found her fun to talk to and almost let himself think she was a beautiful
woman. And she was, but the image of Austin exploding into the hulk and
pounding him into the ground stopped cold that line of thinking. 

A half an hour flew by and the cooks returned with
stacks of chocolate chip pancakes, orange juice, hot coffee and cinnamon buns.
The mouthwatering smell permeated throughout the bunker, and no sooner had
Austin set the platter down when the door opened. Colin, Charlie and Jeremy
were the first in, followed by Zoe and German. German, as was his habit of
late, lay near Roxanne’s chair.

Charlie took a seat next to Roxanne, while Zoe sat
down next to Madison and hugged her arm. “When are we leaving?”

“As soon as all of you girls are ready.”

“Oh God, that’s like gonna take forever,” Zoe sighed.

“Ok then, how about we leave at ten, ready or not?”

“Awesome. I’ll let everyone know.” She stuffed a fork
full of pancakes in her mouth, grabbed her plate and hustled from the room.

“Bring that plate back when you’re through,” Madison
hollered.

“You’re sticking to Pueblo right?” Austin asked.

“Right. We should be able to find everything we need
there,” Madison answered

“Pueblo? Why can’t we go to Colorado Springs?” Colin complained.

“Because you can’t twerp,” Zack responded.

“It’s not safe,” Roxanne added, which raised several
eyebrows, since she rarely spoke and most of the bunker’s residents didn’t know
what to make of her.

“Why do you say that?” Madison asked.

“It’s the truth,” Roxanne replied, offering little
else. From behind Roxanne’s green eyes, Eve observed Madison with interest.
Most human females Eve had encountered were silly creatures, but this one was different.
“The Svan patrol often, and not only at night,” she added, wanting to say they
shouldn’t leave the bunker at all, not now, not for a long time, but she kept
silent. They would not listen and she felt no compulsion to act as their
protector. As a species they were still very young and had yet to learn the
most valuable lessons of survival.

“Aren’t you hungry?” Madison pointed to Roxanne’s
plate, where a stack of pancakes sat untouched.

“Extremely, but I don’t usually eat this early in the
morning.” Roxanne smiled at her.

Roxanne’s smile held not an ounce of warmth and
Madison could have sworn the room’s temperature dropped a few degrees. She
turned her attention back to her food, which had turned from hot to cool. Stirring
her pancakes around in the congealed syrup, she wished she hadn’t been born
with a sixth sense, the one telling her to pay attention, to watch her back.
Justification for this wasn’t within her grasp, not yet, but it was close. She
knew this without a doubt, and knew, as in the past, that her intuition would
prove to be right.

Madison ate a few more bites and excused herself from
the group. Forgetting Roxanne and her odd behavior, Madison hurried to her
suite to get ready for shopping. Even saying it in her head sounded wrong. The
planet was buried under ice, and they were on the cusp of becoming an extinct
species. What were they doing going Christmas shopping? It was insane.

She looked at herself in the mirror.  “You have no one
to blame but yourself.” She nodded. “You’re right. Why’d I open my big mouth?”
She pointed at her reflection. “Because you were feeling all happy and shit and
decided to be Ms. Susie Social, which you’re not. And now you’re stuck going
shopping. So suck it up sister.”

Madison gave her reflection the middle finger before
turning off the bathroom light. In her bedroom she stopped to look at the bed, still
disheveled from the night before. A smile replaced her scowl. All was good for
the moment. If the Sundogs came for them, at least she wouldn’t die a lonely
bitter woman. No sir, not her. This woman was happy and so what if her sister
had planned to marry her ex fiancé. Her smile faded. She hadn’t thought about
Sydney in months. She’d thought of her mother often, but not Syd so much.

Guilt was vicious and if allowed free reign it could
destroy a person, heart and soul, so she kept a tight lock and key on those
memories. The only person who knew her story was Ed, who was a vault for
keeping secrets and why she’d trusted him. He hadn’t passed judgment, but
insisted she was vindicated in being pissed off at her sister and even more so
towards her ex. Who wouldn’t be angry if they found out only a month after having
a miscarriage, that fiancé was in love with another woman, who happened to be her
sister?

Madison couldn’t speak for how other women might react,
but she’d been furious when Sydney broke the news to her. Later, after stewing
over the news, murderous thoughts had plagued her on a regular basis. She
hadn’t confessed so much to Ed, that on more than one occasion she’d sat in her
car outside her ex’s house, waiting for him to come out. She’d held a loaded
gun in her lap, safety off. She wouldn’t have shot him, he wasn’t worth prison.
She’d only wanted to scare him, to make him feel some of the pain she’d felt.
In the end she’d done nothing. In the end she’d buried her pain in her work and
shielded herself behind a hard-nosed persona. In the end, her last conversation
with her sister was an argument. Regret was a bitch to live with. This time
absolution or redemption was not an option to ponder.  

Madison heard a knock on the door and grabbed her
shoes from under the bed. She checked her watch before answering the door, 9:30,
they were early.  

“I’m almost ready— Oh. Jenny. Hi,” Madison said. “Is
everything ok?”

“Yeah fine. I’m fine. Thought I might go shopping with
you. If it’s ok.”

“Sure of course it is.” Madison glanced at Jenny’s
sweat pants and t-shirt. “Maybe we should find you something warm to wear?”

Jenny let out a little embarrassed laugh. The hint of
a smile brightened her face. “Oh please do, that would be great. Ed didn’t have
much to offer in his wardrobe.”

“I have some things that would fit you perfectly.”
Madison stepped aside allowing Jenny to walk in. She looked down the corridor
and spotted Ed watching from his doorway. She gave him a smile and thumbs up.
He smiled back; his relief obvious even from where she stood.

 Fifteen minutes later Jenny stepped out, transformed
from shabby to chic. Ed leaned against his doorway staring in disbelief at his
wife, who was starting to look like her old self again. He made a mental note
to buy Madison something special for Christmas. 

Ed walked up and hugged Jenny. “You look great. How do
ya feel?”

“Good. Not tired at all,” Jenny replied and for the
most part this was true. She didn’t feel tired, but she felt something better
than good as if a dense fog had been lifted. She felt invigorated, like she was
twenty years old again. It was strange to feel this good after having been
close to dead for over a year. It didn’t make sense and at the moment she
didn’t care, she had more pressing things to worry about, things like finding
her son. After Ed told her about the building in Wyoming, she’d made up her
mind to find her son, with or without anyone’s help. This with or without
resolution included Ed, but she already knew he wanted the same.

 Jenny’s motives for going to Pueblo were not driven
by Christmas shopping alone. She needed survival gear and although the bunker probably
had more than a few things stored about, she didn’t want to ask Zack for help.
Voicing her plans out loud meant answering questions and listening to why she
shouldn’t look for her son. She wasn’t going to listen to such talk.

They met up with the others and everyone talked at
once. Grace wished them fun as they loaded into the vehicles. Jeremy joked with
her about not having their baby while he was gone and then finding his joke not
so funny after all offered to stay behind. Grace insisted she was fine and that
he should go on.  It was only after Zack assured the young father to be that he
had nothing to worry about, Jeremy relented and closed the door.

Ed was behind the wheel of a brand new metallic gray
Jeep Grand Cherokee, the latest addition to the bunkers vast array of vehicles,
while Madison drove a new black Range Rover.  Both were top of the line models,
fully equipped with all the bells and whistles one could want, but would never
use. Ed put the Jeep in gear and was about to put foot to gas pedal when he
spotted Caleb running towards them. Ed lowered his window.

“What’s up Caleb?”

“May I come with you Mr. Ed?” He smiled up at Ed. “My
mother said it was ok.”

“What about your father?” Ed didn’t want to upset
Roxanne, but desired more to not upset Austin.

“He agreed with my mother,” Caleb replied without
hesitation.

Although Ed thought it strange Austin wasn’t present,
he nodded his head and told Caleb to jump in the back. Once the boy was secure,
Ed again shifted into drive and crept up the ramp. Zack hit the button raising the
door at the end of the ramp. He watched until they were out of sight before
hitting the button a second time. A sense of foreboding washed over him when he
heard the soft thud of the door hitting the ground.

He shook the feeling away. This wasn’t a suicide
mission to the mountain or a manic trip through a wormhole to planets unknown.
They were going shopping. His thoughts turned from doom and gloom to Madison’s
Christmas present, which turned his stomach into a sailor’s knot. Was he insane
for even thinking she’d want to marry him? Of course he was crazy and stupid on
top of being crazy. Zack sighed. Had he met her in another life things would be
different. As soon as he finished this thought Zack laughed out loud. If they’d
met in another life Madison would have arrested him, doing so without probable
cause. Hell who was he kidding anyway? It wasn’t like he’d been the marrying
type, far from it.

That was the past Zacky boy. You’re not that spoiled
kid any more. No he wasn’t, he amiably agreed with that thought. He was a man
responsible for the lives of thirteen people. For the first time, since he was
five years old, Zack felt fear, but this was different. When he was five, Bobby
the monster had given him plenty to be afraid of, but the old man was only
human and outsmarting him hadn’t been hard to figure out for a boy genius. Zack
wondered if the aliens could be outsmarted. And he wondered if he was smart
enough to do so.

Madison pulled the Range Rover up in front of the
mall. On the way they’d discussed the possibility of bodies being inside the
mall and in the stores. Certainly a sight everyone was accustomed to seeing,
but no one wanted to see, not while Christmas shopping. Sitting in the parking
lot, Madison laid out the plan and the ground rules. They would stick together
no matter what. No shouting or screaming and if anyone became separated from
the group they were to return to the vehicle and wait. Madison put the spare
keys under the floor mat.

The girls piled out of the vehicle anxious to get
started. They had exactly three hours to shop, not a minute longer. Everyone
had a flashlight, a two way radio and a shopping partner they were to stick
with at all times. They waited at the doors for the guys to catch up. Madison
pushed through the doors first, pulling out her gun as she walked inside. Ed,
who also carried a weapon, followed in behind her. As they were expecting, a
few corpses could be seen inside the doors. Other than that, it appeared safe
and the others piled inside. The girls went to the right and guys to the left.
Charlie and Colin spent an extra thirty seconds kissing good-bye as if they
were going to be separated for weeks and not a couple of hours.

 Madison watched them, not with envy or disgust, but
with understanding as she also felt giddy in love like a teenager. She wished
Zack had come with, but he had a more serious matter to attend to. She smiled
to herself happy in knowing thinking of Austin no longer caused her anxiety.
This pleased her, as much as it provided needed relief from the guilt.

“Ms. Madison?” Caleb tugged on her sleeve making her
jump.

“Yes sweetie.”

“I would like to shop with you, if you don’t mind very
much.”

So polite, Madison thought and so not normal. “Why of
course you can. And you can call me Maddie. Ok?”

“Ok.” He took hold of her hand.

Madison looked down at the boy’s curly haired head.
This was Austin’s son. He looked like Austin, no doubts there, but he didn’t
act like a normal child. Her common sense and her lack of nerve had stopped her
from asking Austin about the boy’s age. As much as Madison didn’t want to take
the cop walk at that moment, she couldn’t stop her mind from strolling down
that path. She scratched her head, wishing to satisfy the itch, but no such luck.
If only it were that easy, she thought and sighed out loud.

“Are you bothered by something in particular?” Caleb
asked.

“Hm?”

“You sighed. I thought something might be troubling
you.”

“Not at all dear. Now what do you think you want to
buy for your mother?”

Caleb thought about this for a minute, but more for
effect than something to ponder. His mother didn’t celebrate Christmas or
expect gifts. The Adita only celebrated victory by drinking the blood of the
conquered. The thought of drinking blood made him queasy. His grandfather had
called him an unsophisticated barbarian when watching him eat animal meat.
Caleb wasn’t so sure drinking the blood of humans or others for that mattered was
all that sophisticated. He would never say so out loud or allow the thought to
surface from the depths of his mind, but the Adita seemed more the barbaric
creatures than the humans.

“I’m not sure,” he answered. “I’ll have to see.”

“What about Aust... I mean your father?”

Caleb knew the answer to this one, but shrugged his
shoulders. His father wanted Roxanne back, his human wife, but that was beyond
anyone’s powers, even his grandfather’s. Not that Agra would grant such a thing
to a human. If Caleb had the power he would make his father love his mother and
forget about Roxanne. That would heal the hole in his father’s heart and then
his father would love him the same as Edward loved his son. And more important,
his mother would no longer be sad. They would be a family, like the humans. He
liked the way the humans interacted, although he didn’t always understand their
feelings, being he was more Adita than human himself.  

Behind Madison the girl’s flashlights bobbed up and
down with their footsteps. Had this been a normal shopping trip they would have
been giggling at boys and squealing each time they passed a store front
containing the latest heartthrob boy band’s life size cut outs. As the
situation demanded, they spoke in hushed tones and huddled close together.  At
each store they hesitated, deciding in the end to not go inside.

Madison knew they were worried about stumbling over
corpses. Hell, couldn’t say she blamed them. With the cold and dark, it felt
more like a morgue than a mall. They walked the entire mall not entering one
store and, upon meeting up with the guys back at the front of the store, found
they had not managed to find anything either.

“Well this was a bust,” Ed noted, looking around the
group.

“I don’t feel like shopping,” Charlie said and went to
stand next to Colin. 

“Maybe we should go back to the bunker,” Ed suggested.

“Is that what you all want?” Madison asked.

They nodded.

She shrugged. “Ok. Let’s load up then.”

They walked in somber silence back to the vehicles. Madison
opened the door and fished the keys out from under the mat. She leaned out and paused
keys in hand. Underneath her, the ground vibrated, a slow unsteady sensation.

Madison turned to Jenny. “Did you feel that?” Jenny
shook her head. Madison walked to the front of the vehicle. The ground shook
violently and Madison braced herself against the vehicle’s hood. “What the
hell?”

Ed hurried to his wife’s side and took hold of her
arm. “You ok?”

“Yeah.” She held onto Ed’s hand for balance.

Ed looked around the parking lot. “An earthquake?” he
asked.

“I don’t know, but we better get back to the bunker,” Madison
replied.

Another rumble, stronger than the first, knocked
Charlie to the ground and Colin had to twist his upper body, then dance in a
circle on one leg in order not to fall on top of her. He knelt down, helping Charlie
to a sitting position, brushing the snow off her back as he did so. “Some crazy
shit happenin’ folks.”

The tremors eased and then stopped, but no one felt
relieved. Relief was not a luxury in this world. Madison felt the hair rise on
her neck and took a few steps away from the vehicle to get a better view of the
parking lot. She shaded her eyes and squinted in the direction of the highway. No
signs of movement, coming or going.

A third shock rocked them all sideways. Everyone knelt
on the ground except Madison. In that very moment she saw, out on the highway, something
that was there and then it wasn’t. Something wavering in the distance, like a
mirage. Ed crawled over to her and stood up.

“Do you see it?” She pointed.

Ed shaded his eyes and looked out towards the highway. 
He saw it. “It’s them.”

“It’s them. The Adita. Don’t you see them?”

“The Adita? What are you talking about Ed?” Madison
switched back and forth from looking at Ed to the shimmering highway, stopping
suddenly when she saw the ‘them’ Ed was referring to. From across the highway
the Adita wavered in and out of view, getting closer without seeming to move at
all. Za was in the lead followed by the three guards who had accompanied him to
Wyoming, plus five more. 

“Oh shit.” Madison pulled out her gun, but Ed grabbed
her arm.

“You can’t shoot them.”

She pulled her arm from his grasp. “Why the hell not?”
she demanded, preparing to pull the trigger.

“You can’t kill them with bullets,” Caleb answered
from behind.

Madison and Ed both turned, neither one having realized
the boy was standing next to them.

“Caleb honey, go back to the vehicle with the others,”
Madison instructed. Caleb didn’t move. “Please Caleb,” she begged.

“It’s ok Miss Madison,” he replied with a smile. “They
can’t hurt me.”

Madison looked down at the boy, noticing for the first
time he wasn’t wearing his coat or hat or gloves. Before she could ask him about
this, he was running towards the Adita.

“Caleb no!” She grabbed for him, but came up with air
and went running after him.

Ed tried to stop her, but he was also too slow and
couldn’t grab hold of her. Jeremy’s hand on his arm kept him from following
after her.

“There’s nothing you can do,” Jeremy said. “You can’t
protect them now.”

 “Damn it.” Ed stamped his foot in the Adita’s
direction. Ed knew Jeremy was right. He knew he was powerless. They were all
powerless and all they could do was watch to see what happened next.

Across the parking lot at the edge of the highway
Madison came to a sliding stop behind Caleb, who was only feet away from Za.
She reached for the boy’s hand. “Come on Caleb.”

Za raised his hand, picked Madison up in the air, and
flung her through the air like a rag doll. She landed several hundred feet
away, rolling and coming to a stop in a motionless heap. 

“Where is your mother?” Za asked Caleb, unaware of the
storm brewing behind the child’s eyes. As a rule Za avoided looking at the
child and even more were his efforts to not look into those freakish blue eyes.

“She’s not here,” Caleb replied. “And you shouldn’t be
here either.”  He addressed Za as a man would have, not as the child he
appeared.

Za snatched Caleb up by the hair. “Who do you think
you are speaking to?” He held Caleb inches from his face, bearing his pointed
fangs.

Caleb was calm and focused. “A corpse,” he answered.

Za hissed and shoved Caleb away, sending him farther
than he had Madison. The boy, however, landed on his feet and disappeared.

“You shouldn’t have done that,” Caleb said from behind
them. They all jumped and turned at once to face him. Caleb had positioned his
hands in front of him palms facing each other, with about a foot of air in
between. “You will leave now and return to Paru.”

Za, angry beyond reason, moved forward past the
assassins, but stopped and fell to his knees moaning in pain. Caleb squeezed
the air between his hands, crushing Za’s thin frame as he pressed his hands
closer. The guards moved to stop him and were met with the same force. They
writhed about on the ground running out of air, unable to escape the crushing
pressure.

“Caleb!” Eve’s voice carried across the parking lot
and then she was standing next to them. “Caleb, let go.” She laid her hand on
his head.

Caleb lowered his hands, releasing his prisoners. Mere
seconds were all they had left. Had Eve chose to not interfere, Za and his
trash would have been turned to dust and blown away. 

“I’m sorry mother.” Caleb appeared shaken and dazed.
“I don’t know what happened.”

Eve pulled him to her. She knew he was not playing
games, he was telling the truth. Much like her, Caleb had no idea the strength
or the power he possessed. Eve knelt next to Caleb and whispered in his ear. He
nodded. Eve stood and watched Caleb return to the humans. She waited until they
loaded Madison into the vehicle and drove away, before turning on Za.

“You over step your position Za.”

“Who do you think I represent? Myself? I am a member
of your father’s council, his eyes and ears. I am here on his behalf. You
question my authority? You are very stupid.”

The guards snickered. Eve ignored them, for the day
was not far when they would snicker at her no longer. “You are nothing more
than an errand boy.”

Za bristled. “Agra has asked that you stay here on
Earth. He does not want the human brought back to Paru until he is ready for
him.” 

 Eve stood still for a long moment.

“Do you understand? Or are you dimwitted like the
humans?” he demanded. “Have you lived so long amongst them you’ve lost the
ability to think? To speak?”

Eve folded her hands behind her back and looked in Za’s
direction, but not at him. She heard more of what he was not saying than the
drone of his lecture. A piece of information was missing, a piece not being
shared with her father’s lackey. Agra was hiding something important, something
that made him on edge about the time, about the harvest. Za might have an idea what
it was, but Agra was shielding him from her. In the same manner Eve shielded
Caleb from Agra.

“If you do not answer I will be forced to tell your
father you have disobeyed him and you—”

“Why didn’t Agra ask me himself? Why send you?” Eve
asked, her contempt obvious.

“I do not question his actions and neither should you.
Now do you understand this order—”

“I understand. I will await to hear further
instruction from my father,” Eve replied, cutting him off.

Za’s shoulders relaxed. “Agra will be pleased.” With a
wave of his arm Za and the guards vanished in the same way they had arrived. Eve
waited several minutes to be certain they had returned home. Soon Agra would
search and listen. Eve waited, but Agra did not come to her. That he trusted Za
to carry out something as important as delivering this order confirmed Eve’s
suspicions. She was tempted to follow Za, but other matters required her
attention.