Evolution (22 page)

"If you don't mind a little air," he hollers back
sarcastically.  He's right, though.  Any faster and we might lose
control on this uneven ground.

"Just do it!"  My fingers fumble with the
dials of the aether trap.

He doesn't reply.  Just revs the motor.  The bike
lurches underneath us and accelerates, bouncing wildly over the broken
concrete.  Jonas has to lower his gun to hang on.  He glances at me
and sees what I’m doing.  His eyes go wide.  He drops and tucks into
a little ball in the sidecar.

Clutching Apollon with one arm, I swing the aether chamber
over to our left side, leaning to dangle it over the speeding pavement.  I
kick the go button with one toe and drop the trap simultaneously.  The
chamber snaps out of my hand as the prongs engage with the ground.  I want
desperately to look back and see the collision, but my instincts know
better.  I clamp my eyes and shield my face against Apollon's back.

There’s the crash of metal and glass, an explosion, and a
big
whoomph
as heat rushes at my back, too close for comfort.  The
air, for just a moment, is hot and scented of chemical vapor.  Then cold
air rushes into my face.  We're still launching over the pavement.  I
breathe the freshness of the night.  Flames crackle in the distance behind
us, and there is a smaller, subsequent explosion.  Apollon slows the
motorcycle and brings it to a halt.  We risk a look back.

My friends stare at my impromptu bonfire with open mouths.

"Holy hell, Eden," Apollon finally whispers.

I manage to subdue my shock, take a deep breath. 
"I guess aether trapping
is
a little badass," I say, as lightly
as I can manage.

Jonas' eyes flick to me, followed by a little smile. 
He pats me on the shoulder.  "Let's get the hell out of here."

"Agreed," Apollon says.  In only a second we
are again flying through the darkness.

The stench of death fills my nostrils, making me want to
puke.  The only reason I don't is because my stomach is already
empty.  We had to stop, twice, nearly an hour ago, so that all of us could
vomit.  It's impossible to see this and not.  The bloat, the sagging,
putrid flesh, the escaping decomposing gasses and protruding bones.  At
least it's winter.  If it were summer, it would be far worse.

Apollon navigates the twists between the piles of bodies as
quickly as he can.  The road is narrow, barely existent in some places. 
We had to drive right over some bodies a while back.

"How do they... how do they get here?"  I
manage.  It's taken me this long to speak.

Apollon seems not to hear me.  After a moment, Jonas
quietly says, "I'm not sure.  Maybe some of the people who die in the
city are hauled here.  There's nowhere else to put the bodies, is
there?  But I think a lot of them are travelers, too."  He eyes
a fresh corpse we pass.  A pack is still strapped to its back, torn open
and empty of its belongings, like the gut of the body next to it.

We fall silent again, choking down the defiled air.

Movement rushing over the top of a pile of limbs makes me
scream.  Jonas raises his gun and fires three times.  Three bodies
join the pileup in an instant.  He checks his gun, frowns, and tucks it
away.  “That’s it for the ammo.”

I clamp my jaw, breathing through my nose.  My chest
feels heavy.  It's hard to drag any air in at all.

"It's OK," Jonas says quietly, touching my arm.

I turn my wide eyes to him.

"They're crazies mostly that hunt out here," he
says.  "You can't be here long without losing it.  The ones that
are a real threat are on the open road."

That doesn't stop the chill in my spine.  I glance back
at the three men he's just shot.  Their faces are marked with dark lines—paint,
or blood?  Either way, they don't look human.

I try to breathe normally, but I'm on edge.  I can feel
that Apollon has gone stiff as well.  His back muscles are taut.  He
must be exhausted by now, but he keeps his eyes on the road.  It's halfway
through the night.  How much longer before we get where we're going? 
Before we get out of this nightmare?

Eventually, the bodies give way to open road, and after
that, it's not far until we see the dull glow of the city.  We drive up to
the gates, our hoods pulled around our faces.  It's still the late hours
of the night, or the early hours of the morning.  Either way, it's dark,
and people should be sleeping.  They're not.

Inside is chaos.  That's the only way to describe
it.  People are whooping, running about.  At first, I think that
something must be happening.  Then I see that there's no direction to it,
no real emotion.  This is a city that has entirely lost it.  People
are breaking things, breaking each other.  Laughing wildly.  Painting
graffiti on a wall.  Dancing and jumping over a bonfire.  Drinking
and stumbling down the street.  Talking to shadows.  Crooning
tunelessly and thumping a metal can.  Fist-fighting.  Making faces at
a Sentry.  It could be a party gone entirely wrong, only it's all disconnected. 
Random.  Just plain weird.

We drive into Damoynz, seeing weirder and weirder things the
further we go.  The motorcycle is starting to sputter now—not a good
sign.  We've only just made it here, so we're lucky, but we'll need more
aether to go on.  Turns out it doesn't matter.

A wave of stampeding people comes at us out of
nowhere.  They're rushing forward, screaming like banshees, brandishing
sticks and teeth. The motorbike refuses to go.  We've no choice but to
abandon it, grab our packs, and run for our lives.

We manage to get out of the way of the mob.  They don't
seem to be after us in particular, but they swarm over the bike and it
disassembles beneath them in a matter of seconds.  They take its parts
with them, leaving nothing.

When we think it's clear, we come out and look at the spot
where our motorcycle was a moment ago.  There's nothing left but a single
bolt.  I pick it up and hold it in my palm.  "Would they have
done this to us, too?"

Apollon makes a noise between his teeth.  We turn and
start walking.  I'm really not sure where we're going.  Beyond
everything else, we need a safe place to rest.  To sleep off this night
and then talk out our plans with clear minds.  I glance above us, looking
for a rooftop that might be suitable, but I don't see anything that looks like
we'd be able to reach it.

Damoynz is less packed than Minneapolis, but I still feel
smothered by the looming buildings, dense population, and narrow streets. 
It smells just as bad here, too.  We wander, staying away from people, all
of our eyes scanning for a place to rest.  I feel like I could just fall
over right where I am.

"We're going to have to sleep in shifts," Jonas
says under his breath.  "Maybe we can just find an empty alley, and
one of us can stand guard."

I don't like the idea, but I think I could sleep anywhere
about now.  I have a horrible headache swelling behind my eyes. 
Everything seems disjointed and out of place.  It's definitely time for us
to stop. So after Apollon and I nod stiffly, we find an alley and settle down
like dogs.  Jonas volunteers to take the first watch.  He remains
standing, probably because he would fall asleep if he sat down.  I don't
bother unrolling my blankets, but use them like a pillow instead.  I'm
asleep the second I'm horizontal on the pavement.

Sometime later, I wake suddenly with an image of a white
tower burned into my mind.  I glance around and find that Apollon is on
duty and Jonas is curled up against the wall.  Daylight is creeping into
the alley, dusky and red-tinted.  I yawn and Apollon turns toward
me.  He offers me a tired smile.

I walk down the alley and find a place to pee behind some
old boxes.  I return, still yawning.  "My turn."

Apollon just shakes his head.  "I got a little
rest," he says, keeping his voice low.  "I think we should get
out of this place as soon as Jonas wakes up."

I frown at him and peek curiously out the end of the
alley.  "That bad?"

"These people are bonkers," Apollon says. 
"Whatever you do, don't drink the water.  Or eat anything from here. 
Something must be causing it."

I make a noise and lean back against a wall, crossing my
arms.  "We need to figure out what we're doing.  I still think
there has to be a way to help the Outpost."

Jonas groans suddenly, possibly in protest of being woke up. 
His eyes are still clamped shut.  He throws one hand over them. 
"Seriously," he complains.  "Can we not just forget about
the Outpost, Eden?"

I glare at him as he sits up.  He returns my glare.

"What do you think we could possibly do now?"
Apollon asks, sounding reasonable.  "It kind of seems like that
didn't work out."

"I don't know."  But my gut instinct is still
the same.  "Maybe...  I think I need to go to the tower
again."

Apollon shakes his head.

"I don't think we could get back there, even if we
wanted to," Jonas says, standing and stretching.  "Half of
Minneapolis has us on their hit lists, now.  It would be stupid to try to
go back there."

"Not there.  Here.  This tower."

Their eyebrows come down in the middle as they consider me.

Finally, Jonas says, "Is there really a point to
that?  We were amazingly lucky to find anything before.  But now that
we've found it, and it's gone..."

"I just... I really think I need to go there," I
insist.  "I know it doesn't make sense.  You're right.  I
just think... maybe there's something.  An answer within the tower
itself.  I just know the tower is the answer.  It doesn't matter
which one."

The boys share a look, then sigh in unison.  The tower
it is.

We pick our way through the streets toward the center of Damoynz. 
"After this," says Jonas, "we have to get out of this
city.  I wish we could get out of civilization altogether...."

Apollon and I give him a look of longing and
understanding.  When we first went into the wilderness, it was wide and
frightening.  I felt exposed.  But now, I just feel suffocated. 
"I think I even miss the damned bears," I say with a little laugh.

"The bears maybe," Apollon says, "but not the
foxes."  He rubs the lingering sore on his wrist, more out of habit
than because it's giving him any trouble.  "Freakin' foxes," he
mutters.

"Freakin' foxes," I agree, but I can't help the
little smile that twitches at my lips.

Jonas eyes me from the side and says nothing.  I'm
about to recount the story for him when the tower comes into view in front of
us.  I close my mouth on my words and pick up the pace.

We hesitate on the steps and listen.  Inside seems
quiet.  Outside, however, there is a group of clearly unstable people
tormenting a cat.  I want to lay into them, but they outnumber us. 
Jonas and Apollon catch my dark look, and share it.  But Apollon shakes
his head at me, just a little.  I turn back toward the tower.

"Wait here," I say quietly, glancing toward the
group.  I head into the tower on my own before my friends can
protest.  Nevertheless, I hear Jonas' voice trailing me, warning me not to
go too far.

I go to the stairs and start climbing.  Everything here
is exactly the same as it was in Minneapolis.  I don't know what I expect
to find.  A hidden code?  A secret compartment?  Why am I so
drawn to this place?  I ascend the stairs slowly, trying to take
everything in as I go.  The smooth marble floors.  The walls rising
level upon level.  The open middle chamber that seems deeper and deeper
the further I go up.

I come around a corner, and a man is sitting on the steps in
front of me.  He's rocking back and forth, muttering to himself, or
singing a tune under his breath.  I stand there and watch him, and he
doesn't seem to see me.

I can't go on without stepping around him, and I don't want
to startle him and cause a confrontation.  So I say gently,
"Hello.  I'm just going to go by you."

His eyes dart to me, widening.  I feel myself tense,
remembering the boy who attacked me by the fire barrels in the Outpost. 
The same wild glare lives in this man's blue eyes.  Automatically, I
adjust my stance in preparation to defend myself.

The man stands up suddenly, but he doesn't approach. 
He says, in a shaky voice, "Lily, don't be afraid.  You've found what
you're looking for."

I take a moment to dredge up an answer.  The man's eyes
are shifting, all over the place.  I don't trust his nervousness. 
Now that he's standing, I can see that he's built like a fighter.  There's
a scar across his cheek, and more on his arms.  He's seen his share of
action, I'd say, and he's probably formidable.  But my head is swirling
again, calming me, even though there is no way I should feel calm.

I look up the stairs past him.  "Are your friends
up there?"

He just says, "Lily, don't be afraid.  You've
found what you're looking for."

"I got that," I say.  "What about your
friends?"

"Lily, don't be afraid."

I move past him before he can finish, and continue climbing
the stairs.  "Hello," I call to the levels above me. 
"It's Lily.  You can come out."

There's no answer.  Behind me, the man trails in my
wake, muttering over and over again, "Lily, don't be afraid.  Lily,
don't be afraid."

I make it all the way to the top of the stairs, where there
is nothing but an empty, round little room.  There’s a door on the other
side, and another set of steps beyond that, steeper than before.  I take
them up and find a tiny room with four open doorways looking onto a balcony
that wraps all the way around.  There is no one else here, but the
sweeping view of the city below is enough to make me clamp my eyes shut and
grab onto something.

From far below I hear Jonas calling for me.  I turn
back down the stairs, and glare at the man who has trailed me. 
"That's Jason," I say.  "He's with me, see."  I'm
not sure what effect I expect this to have, but I expect it to do something.

The man's eyes dart around wildly.  There's something
going on in there, but what?  "Lily," he says, his voice
climbing to a new level of urgency, "don't be afraid.  You've found
what you're looking for."

"And what is that?" I almost shriek at him. 
"Tell me.  Tell me what I'm looking for!"

"Lily," he says again.

I run down the stairs, pushing past him.  "I'm
here," I call downward as I come into hearing range.  My voice is
full of annoyance.  "Apparently I've found what I'm looking
for."

Jonas and Apollon meet me at the bottom of the stairs with
quizzical looks.  They eye the guy following me.

"No way," says Apollon.

The guy gets to the bottom of the stairs behind me, sees
Jonas, and almost falls over.  He scrambles back on his hands, his fingers
clutching at the stairs as though he's seen a ghost.

"So... you found a crazy," says Apollon,
interpreting the man's behavior as being independent of Jonas.

"I found a crazy," I agree.

Jonas gives me a dark look and goes to help the man up,
taking him by his forearm.  He gazes up at Jonas with an open mouth,
having fallen completely silent.  Then he just stands there and
stares.  Really stares.

After an awkward moment, Apollon grins at Jonas. 
"He likes you.  I always knew you drew crazies."

Jonas throws him a look.  "Drew you, didn't
I?"

"See," Apollon agrees.

I put my hand over my eyes and rub, trying to think. 
What the hell do I do now?  "This is no good," I complain. 
"Whatever has happened to him, he's completely lost it.  I can't get
him to make any sense."

"Does he talk at all?" Apollon asks.

"Kind of," I say.  But now he's stopped
talking.  He just keeps staring at Jonas, like he doesn't even hear
anything we're saying.  When we finally leave the tower, he trails Jonas like
a lost puppy.  Like there's nothing else in the world.