Eve of Man (The Harvest Book 2) (27 page)

Each one in that room had faced the ultimate challenge
and came out the victor in the game of survival. No easy feat for even the
strongest of souls. This game came with all sorts of options and no rules. It
required skill, luck and something most did not possess on a good day. It
required true grit. It was putting the gun barrel in your mouth and not pulling
the trigger. It was sitting in the bathtub with a sharpened razor in one hand
and a bottle of Jack in the other and not slicing open your veins. It was
pouring your fifth cocktail and not using it to wash down a handful of sleeping
pills. It was not listening to the devil’s call for surrender. Each one had
battled the ultimate demon and decided life was still worth living, but no one
shared those tales of woe. Rather they offered Kyle false hope, knowing he
would figure it out eventually, but at least he wasn’t doing it alone.  

“I need some fresh air,” Kyle stood up. “Is it safe to
go outside?”

Austin checked his watch. “Two hours left till dark.
Mind if I join you?”

“Suit yourself,” Kyle replied, although he would have
preferred being alone in his misery and grief.

“I don’t talk much,” Austin offered.

Kyle smiled. “Neither do I.” He held the door open for
Austin.

As Zack watched them go a random thought occurred to him,
one he quickly, but not completely, dismissed. Anything was possible. If it had
teeth, it would nibble at him later. The important stuff always nibbled and
sometimes bit hard, usually at three in the morning. A popular time to bite
into those ideas that hadn’t warranted the proper amount of attention during
the day.

Zack got up with Luke trailing behind, quiet and uncommunicative.
Zack noticed and worried, but left him alone. He’d tried finding him after
Austin left with Caleb, but couldn’t and, upon deciding this was intentional, he’d
stopped searching. They parted ways at Luke’s suite. Zack went on, but not to
his suite, instead he went to Madison’s, where he’d spent the past week
drowning his sorrows. It was time to figure things out. To come to terms with
life’s latest blow. Time was short and Austin was right, his daughter was going
to need him. A thought occurred to him and he laughed out loud. He wished his mother
was there with him, to know he was going to have to deal with raising a child
genius. And he knew what a pain in the ass he’d been. Ah the poetic justice of
it all.

***

Austin and Kyle stood inside the open barn door
looking out over the frozen landscape. Kyle took a swig from the bottle he’d
grabbed from his suite on their way up. Austin declined his brother’s
invitation to join him; having tasted whiskey once was all he needed. Watching
Kyle chug the liquor like it was water reminded him of dear old dad.

Ole Donny would toss back his first bottle in under a
half an hour. ‘Just getting’ warmed up,’ he’d say before cracking the cap on a
second. Austin could judge the evening’s outcome by how many bottles the old
man had before teetering off to the local, and only, watering hole in the wall.
Where they served non-alcoholic beverages. Wink. Wink. And the town’s one and
only trooper was a regular.

On a good week, when the old man held onto a paycheck,
he’d stock up. Not on anything quality like Southern Comfort or Jack Daniels or
Crown, not for Donny, he was strictly bottom shelf. If Austin was lucky,
stocking up might include a pack of bologna or some of those red hot dogs from
the gas station, but never bread or buns. Those were extras and a boy shouldn’t
expect to eat like a fucking prince when the king of the castle needed to stock
up. No, if Austin wanted bread he had to find it himself. This usually meant a
trip to the dumpster behind Kwiki Pete’s gas station.

All that changed when Eve came into his life. She’d
made sure he never went hungry. Austin often wondered how she’d managed her
hunger while living in Deadbear. The community was too small and tight knit for
people to go missing for long and often. The occasional drifter wandered
through, lost or running from the law. Those sorts wouldn’t have missed. Maybe
that was how she’d survived.

“How’s Grace doing?” Austin asked to take his mind off
things he’d rather not think about and Kyle’s mind off returning to Germany.
They were going to find death and probably nothing more.

“Really good. I mean, considering the circumstances.”
Kyle’s hand gripped the bottle tighter.

“She’ll be ok,” Austin assured him.

“I hope so.”

“Has she picked out a name yet?”

“Gisela or Emil.”

It was Austin’s turn to feel like he’d been punched in
the stomach. Gisela was his mother’s name. Austin closed his mind to Kyle’s
thoughts. It would have been too easy to listen in on the memories Kyle had of
his family and growing up. It would have been easy and it would have been painful.
Austin didn’t need to spy to know his brother had lived a better life than he
had, and most certainly never dug through a dumpster looking for food.

“You were the one who killed Roth?”

“Huh?”

“Grace said you killed General Roth.”

“Yeah. Shot him in the head,” Austin replied,
unapologetic.

“Thank you. You know for saving her. She’s all the
family I got left.” Kyle choked on his words.

“You’re welcome,” Austin replied, having trouble himself
getting the words out over the lump in his throat. The pain Kyle’s statement
caused squeezed his heart to the breaking point. Kyle was suffering himself and
it would have been so easy to tell him, to say, ‘Hey, guess what man? We’re
brothers’, but Austin refused to give in to self-pity or selfish desires. Kyle
and Grace’s safety had to come first.

“So you were a Marine?” Kyle asked.

“Still am.”

“Ed let me borrow that book, Africa Rising. Pretty
impressive.”

Austin groaned. He was going to have a talk with Ed
about all this sharing. It was embarrassing to say the least and the most.
Austin never would have agreed to do the story if his teammates hadn’t
insisted. And the photo was never supposed to make it into the book. It had
compromised his safety and that of his team. He remembered sitting at the
kitchen table holding the book, groaning over that picture. Roxanne had sat on
his lap, kissed his cheek and told him not to worry.

“No one can touch you. I won’t let them.”

That’s what she’d said.
I won’t let them
. Of
course he didn’t think anything of it back then. She was his wife and being
protective, was saying things a wife is supposed to say. How many other
instances had he missed for not paying attention to his wife? He had a hunch
there had been many.

“That was a long time ago,” Austin remarked to himself
as much as to Kyle.

“Still impressive.”

“What about you? What were you doing before you went
to Germany?” Austin asked, eager to change the subject.

Kyle smiled. It was a bitter sweet smile. They’d been
living right here in Colorado for about a year when he’d decided to join the
Army. He wasn’t cut out for college and couldn’t go on living off his mother.

“What about your father?” Austin asked.

“He died in a plane crash when I was five,” Kyle
replied. “One of those small two prop jobs. They never found his body.”

“And your mom?” Austin asked, unable to resist hearing
about her.

“My mom,” Kyle paused. “My mom was great. She had this
way about her that always let you know where you stood. She never sugar coated
things, but you knew she loved you. Anyway, right before I left for Germany she
was diagnosed with cancer. I wasn’t going to go, but she insisted. Grace said
she died in Cheyenne.”

Austin felt guilt upon hearing this, upon finding out
Kyle’s life hadn’t been picture perfect and because he felt a small sense of
joy or relief that his mother had suffered some. It was a jackass thing to feel
and think, but it was there and Austin wasn’t one to apologize for having
honest feelings.

“What about you?” Kyle was asking.

“Me?”

“Yeah. What about your mom?”

“She split right before my fifth birthday. Never heard
from her again.” The words sounded as bitter as they tasted. 

“Ah man, sorry to hear that.”

“Doesn’t matter anymore.” Austin replied and, until
meeting Kyle, this had been true.

“No I guess it doesn’t.”

The two men stood inside the barn door, the younger
leaning against the jamb, the older standing arms crossed, both staring out at
the blank white landscape. Kyle hit the bottle, taking a long draw this time.
He’d hit the halfway mark, but felt no number than when he’d first opened the
bottle and asked himself why he kept trying. No amount of alcohol would make
this thing any easier.

He glanced at Austin, curious at what made him tick.
He knew guys like him back in Cologne. Rock solid no matter what kind of shit salad
they got tossed into. Loyal and honest to a fault. Although, Kyle couldn’t help
thinking something about Austin was different, almost supernatural. A mental
image of Austin with a large S on his chest and a red cape billowing out behind
him came to mind. Yet that didn’t quite fit. Superman was clean cut, wholesome.
Austin was dark, maybe even a bit menacing, more like Batman or The Hulk.

Austin found his brother’s ponderings amusing, having
never considered himself a superhero of any kind. “We best get inside. The Svan
will be patrolling soon.” Austin grabbed the handle on the barn door. The
smaller suns had faded into the gray. Soon blackness would fall heavy on the
land. The night still belonged to the Svan. Austin often heard them. They usually
patrolled in pairs, out looking for stragglers, out protecting the land. Humans
had nowhere left to hide, their home no longer belonged to them.

A musical mobile twirled small brown bears dressed in
pink satin tutu’s and pink satin ballet slippers above a sleeping baby Gisela, 
who was now a week old. The happy little tune plinked away as she slept unaware
of the world she’d been born into. Next to her in separate cribs Anne’s twin
girls, Valerie and Kathryn, also slept.

Kyle stood looking down at his niece feeling elated,
yet incredibly sad and scared. Grace had gone into labor two weeks early thus
postponing their trip to Germany. Looking at Gisela, Kyle couldn’t fathom
leaving her behind, unprotected. Having gone through the agony of losing his family
once already he didn’t want to do it again. But, and this was a big but, Will
and Ada might be alive. How could he turn his back on them? In either case,
whatever he decided to do, he would feel like he’d abandoned those he cared
about most.

The door to the nursery opened. “Can I come in?”
Austin asked in a hushed voice.

 Kyle waved him in. Austin walked over to the
bassinette and took a long gaze at his niece. It was already evident she would
have dark hair and a darker complexion than Grace and Kyle. He wasn’t sure if
that came from the Reynolds’ side or from the baby’s father who had similar
features. Not that it mattered. He loved her all the same and again questioned
his decision on not telling Kyle they were brothers. Austin tapped Kyle’s arm and
motioned for him to come out into the hall. Kyle nodded and followed Austin to
the door, looking back one last time before leaving.

“What’s up big man?”

Big man, big brother. It would be so easy. Austin
rubbed his face and sighed. “I wanted to talk to you about Germany.”

Kyle’s face fell a little. “Yeah I know. Time is
running out. We need to get going, I know. It’s so hard to leave her behind.”
He tilted his head towards the door.

“Which is why I’m going without you,” Austin said.
“Luke and I are leaving in the morning, but I need a little more information
about the facility where the science lab’s located.”

“Aw man. I can’t let you do that. It’s not your
responsibility,” Kyle argued although his heart wasn’t in it.

“It’s ok Kyle. I understand how you feel,” Austin
assured him. “You’ll be distracted the entire time and that’s a quick and easy
way to get killed. Luke and I got this. It’ll be good for Luke anyway.”

“Is he ok. I mean can you trust him to have your
back?” Kyle worried about Luke’s mental state more than he did his own.

“He’s fine. A little stir crazed from being cooped up down
here, but that’s all. Madison’s death was really hard on him.” Austin let it go
at that, knowing Luke’s issues ran much deeper. Taking him along to Germany was
more to get him away from the bunker than Austin needing someone to watch his
back. He had Eve to look out for him. Or at least he hoped so. She’d been gone two
weeks now and he was beginning to worry. Caleb assured him she was fine and
would be back soon. Austin had no reason to doubt his son, but all the same couldn’t
shake the nagging feeling something was wrong.

Kyle accepted Austin’s offer, thankful to have that
burden off his shoulders. “I owe you big time.”

“No you don’t,” Austin assured him. “You’d do the same
for me.”

Kyle nodded in agreement. He was glad it was Austin
going and hoped he had success. He hadn’t known him long, but he liked and
trusted him, as if they’d been close friends, even like brothers.

Austin turned his head to hide a smile in hearing Kyle’s
thoughts. Maybe one day when all of this was over he would tell him and Grace
the truth. Maybe one day they could live as a family. His smile faltered as he
pictured this. No point in daydreaming about a life he would most likely never
have. The future was impossible to guess but didn’t seem to promise good things.

They went to the command center, where Luke joined
them to discuss details of the trip. It was the first time Austin saw a light
in Luke’s eyes and an uptick in his mood. Maybe he was doing the right thing by
taking him along.

***

The next morning around four o’clock Luke and Austin,
along with Caleb and Zack, met again in the command center. Zack was the only
person who knew they were leaving. Austin didn’t want a big send off. The less
witnesses the better. The plan was to leave at 5:30 am, putting them in Cologne
around 2:30 pm. They had no idea if a time differential still existed around
the planet, or if everyone was now on the same day and night pattern controlled
by the Adita. Arriving in the middle of the afternoon seemed like the best way
to go at it.

The plan was to search for Will and Ada in Cologne
first. The question of other survivors had come up, and after a long tense
discussion they agreed to only bring Will and Ada back to the bunker. Ed had
argued they were picking and choosing lives. Austin stood his ground. The
bunker was a safe place where they all got along, but every person they brought
into their group threatened that balance. In the end Ed went along with the plan,
although it left a sick feeling in his stomach.

Austin assured him they would help anyone they found.
They would teach them how to survive, to avoid the Svan. Chances were if they
survived the purge, the Svan didn’t want them, but they wouldn’t hesitate to
kill them either.

“So how are we getting there?” Luke asked.

“Through space.”

Luke groaned. “God that hurts. And how? Eve?”

“No.”

“Then who?”

“Me,” Caleb answered.

Luke turned at the sound of Caleb’s voice, having
forgotten the boy was present. He looked back to Austin. “You sure about this
man?”

“I’m perfectly capable of transporting you both,”
Caleb answered.

“It’s fine Luke. He can handle more than you and I put
together,” Austin added. “And we’ll need him to help us find Kyle’s friends.”

Luke’s expression said loud and clear he had his
doubts, but he said no more. The boy was better than the mother.

Austin checked his watch. It was time to go.  They
donned backpacks and weapons.

“I feel like I’m always sayin’ goodbye to you or be
careful or some shit. Like I’m your wife or something,” Zack joked.

“We’ll be back man. Walk in the park,” Austin replied
and believed it. “You take care of everyone. Don’t take any chances. Don’t let
anyone else down here.”

“Yeah, I won’t.”

Zack held out his hand to Austin, who surprised him by
grabbing Zack into a bear hug.

“See you soon,” Austin laughed.

Austin and Luke joined hands with Caleb. The air
around them swirled, shimmered and they vanished from the room. Zack shook his
head. He still couldn’t get used to the whole space travel thing and often felt
he was living out some drug induced fantasy. Or maybe he’d ended up in a mental
institution where he was catatonic around the clock and this was his mind’s way
of dealing with shit.  Zack pondered various scenarios as he took his usual
walk around the bunker checking that everything was in working order.

Along the way a random thought stopped him. What if he
had killed the ole man like he planned and his mind had slipped down the rabbit
hole? Zack shook his head. No way. He wouldn’t lose it over that douche bag.
Over his mom yeah. Colin definitely, but not the old bastard.  Certain he
wasn’t insane, Zack opened the door to his suite, and closed it. Since
Madison’s death, being alone wasn’t something he looked forward to anymore.
Maybe Jenny would be up soon.

Thoughts of his daughter helped temper the grief and
many hours went by thinking about her. He’d already decided to name her Madison
and hoped for her sake she looked like her mother rather than him. If he’d known
Eve was going to do her voodoo on the baby’s genetics, he would have requested
this in advance. Considering the possibilities of what changing her DNA might
offer, was as nerve racking as it was exciting. What their scientists could
have come up with if they had that capability. A super human race?

Zack paused. But wasn’t Agra after that very thing? A
superior race of Adita? Although their methods to achieve this were not
favorable to man, he couldn’t in all honesty fault them. If humans could have altered
DNA they would have used questionable and even unscrupulous methods to
accomplish the task. The government would have stepped in and fucked it all up
anyway. With this thought and many others tossing about, Zack opened the door
to the diner and was surprised to find Charlie sitting at the counter sipping
on a cup of coffee.

Charlie spun around looking like a deer caught in
headlights. “Zack!”

“Sorry, didn’t mean to startle you.”

She laughed, sounding nervous and insecure. “I was
zoned out, you know, thinking about stuff.” Charlie turned back to the counter
and set her cup down. She didn’t know why, but she always felt like an idiot
around Zack and wished Colin hadn’t told her about him being a genius.

Zack walked around the counter and poured a cup of
coffee. He topped Charlie’s off. “You’re up early.”

“I couldn’t sleep.” She sipped on her coffee, avoiding
looking directly at Zack. “Do you have anything I can take? You know to help me
sleep?”

  Zack frowned. “What’s wrong Charlie?”

About to raise her mug again, she paused mid-way and
lowered it back to the counter. She clasped her hands together to keep them
from shaking.

“You can talk to me Charlie. I’m good at keeping
secrets.” He reached out to her, but stopped short of touching her hand.

A tear fell on the counter. She wiped her face, angry
at herself for crying. Angry at herself for not being strong, like the other
girls. They’d all suffered at the hands of her father. They’d all suffered, but
for her the ordeal had been different.  

Zack waited and watched while Charlie fought her
silent battle for control, handing her a napkin to blow her nose.

“Is it Colin? Cuz I’ll thump the little twerp if he’s
treating you badly,” Zack offered in a joking manner, all the while hoping it
wasn’t Colin causing her problems.

Charlie shook her head and couldn’t hold back a tiny
smile. The Londergan brothers, when they were together, always made her laugh.
Aaron would have liked them. Thinking of her brother took away her joy and the
tears threatened again.

Zack reached out, this time taking her hand. “Life ain’t
easy Charlie, trust me I know.”

Charlie raised her head. “I’m sorry about Madison. I
know you miss her. I still miss my brother.”

“Yeah, it hurts like hell. Makes me want to beat the
crap out of something. Won’t bring her back, but sure would make me feel a hell
of lot better.”

A full smile graced Charlie’s face. “Don’t you have a
punching bag somewhere?”

“You know what? I don’t. I’ll have to put that on my
shopping list.” He pretended to look for paper and pen. “A punching bag.
Perfect.”

“You’re funny.”

“A real clown right?”

“No. You make me laugh. Let’s me forget about...about
the past. About my father.” She sobered on this comment. Just saying it out
loud caused a panicky feeling deep in the pit of her stomach. Her father was
why she couldn’t sleep, why she was afraid to close her eyes. Chase, the
beatings, the other men, these she could forget, but not her father. Those
memories were embedded too deep.

Zack watched the emotions play out on her face and knew
the damage was caused by something more than they had imagined. His stomach
turned at the thought. “You want to know something I’ve never told anyone?”
Zack asked. Charlie turned to him, nodding. “I was going to kill my old man.
Yep. When I was seventeen I planned to blast him with his own shotgun, but
someone beat me to it. And you know what? I was pissed off that I didn’t get
the chance. I wanted to kill him so bad, it was all I thought about. And then
he was dead. When I saw him there, in his coffin, I wanted to punch him in the
face. Instead I stole his ring.” Zack pulled a chain out from under his shirt.
A ruby pinky ring hung from the chain. “The mob gave him this after he became a
made guy. He prized this ring over everything.” Zack took the chain off. “Here,
you wear this. I don’t need it anymore.” He placed the chain over Charlie’s
head. “He can’t ever hurt you again Charlie. You remember that ok?”

Charlie held the ring in her hand rolling it around
watching the ruby sparkle in the light. “Thank you Zack.”

Zack came around the counter. “One day you’ll be able
to take it off. I promise.” He hugged Charlie, shocked to feel she was not much
more than skin and bones. “Is my cooking that bad?”

Charlie laughed and hugged Zack tighter. He held her
close, hoping he helped her, hoping he wouldn’t find her in a pool of her own
blood, like his mother.