The Shattered Genesis (Eternity) (102 page)

             
Yet I could not help but believe that something ominous was on the horizon. The world would soon erupt into madness and no one, not even me with all of
the things I knew, would be able to stop it.

Quinn

             
I had been reluctant to believe that everything was going to turn up, but after several weeks living in Don’s house, I couldn’t help but embrace a little optimism. There were many people to talk to and
the work definitely wasn’t difficult. We never ran into any threatening forces on our trips to the campsite and we were foraging more than we needed.

             
After the first night that Alice and I took the Peace Fruit, we had witnessed the horrible after-effects
. James had attacked Brynna. He hadn’t just used his fists; he had tried to do the absolute worst. Alice was devastated; she sympathized greatly with the girl who was barely our friend. I couldn’t help but feel badly for her as well. But we didn’t judge Ja
mes. We both just silently thanked our lucky stars that we hadn’t suffered a similar episode of violence.

             
After that, though, everything shaped up. People continued to party every night but those that didn't want to take their chances again with the Fruit
hung out together. Believe me when I say that those lazy evenings playing cards, listening to music, and talking about our lives on both Earth and Pangea, were welcome moments of peace far more powerful than anything that could be achieved by the two-face
d fruit.

             
It wasn’t the log cabin that I had promised Alice, but it was a consistent lifestyle. It was the most normal life we could have had on Pangea. I went off to “work” every morning and came home to her every night. She worked in the kitchen with Bry
nna, Violet and Penny all day. Since coming to Pangea, we were living more like married people than we ever would have at our age on Earth. It was good practice for the real thing.

             
“So, what do you think, man?” Angie, one of only five women on our team, a
sked one day as we walked, “Who is going to be the first to get married? Brynna and James, or Quinn and Alice?”

             
“Don’t say that word to Brynn. She’ll flip.” I told him with a laugh. James and Brynna were inseparable but I knew that getting married was not
at the top of their priorities list, at least not yet. She would be especially adamant about avoiding marriage, given her staunch opposition to the institution as a whole.

             
“Yeah, and we’re not at that point yet.” James agreed, “Maybe in a couple of years
.”

             
“You two love each other, don’t you?” Angie pressed him.

             
“Of course we do.” James said surely. “But this is the twenty-first century. Well, who knows what century it is here. But from where we came from, it was the twenty-first and marriage was on its
way out anyway.”

             
“I heard that over in Mary and Rich Bachum’s camp, you have to be married to someone.” Bennie, an Italian-American from New York, informed us, “They’re like the Gestapo over there.”

             
“I don’t know if the Gestapo ever mandated marriage.”
James replied, “Wait, who told you that?”

             
“Gary and Danielle Hill.” Bennie answered, “They escaped from there.”

             
“They escaped? They didn’t just leave?”

             
“No. They run a tight ship up north.” Bennie continued. James and I looked at each other in
disbelief
, both of us wondering if Bennie was exaggerating or even fabricating the story all together. I made a mental note to find Gary and Danielle later that evening so I could ask.

             
“It’s supposedly like, very refined. Men have to work, women have to stay home.
” Bennie went on. “There are lots of rules.”

             
“Do they dictate how many times a week you have to screw your wife, too? I could use that rule around here.” Wes, the least popular member of our group, mused. He expected us to laugh and a few of the guys did.
James, Bennie, Frank and I gave each other the same look we always wore when he opened his mouth; one of disgusted disbelief at his ridiculous foulness.

             
“I hate that guy.” Bennie muttered as we walked.

             
“Yeah, he’s a tool.” Angie agreed and we shared a q
uiet laugh.

             
We broke through the trees, the graveyard that was once our campsite looming in the distance against the mid-afternoon sun. We climbed the hill, talking about whatever random tidbits of our daily lives popped into our head.

             
“And in response t
o your question, Frank…” I said, “Alice and I aren’t thinking about getting married any time soon, either. Besides, we’re all basically married to the people we live with, aren’t we?”

             
“Yeah, man. Plus, how would we even get married?” Frank replied, “Aisha
and I were talking about that last night. All that normal shit we’re used to from the old ways, even something like getting married, is gone.”

             
“It’s gone because it’s unnecessary.” James chimed in again, “Marriage was for show. I don’t need to be married
to Brynn for me to know that I love her. You don’t need to be married to Alice, you don’t need to be married to Aisha.”

             
“You all are such guys!” Angie groaned loudly, “Bennie, listen to these idiots. Marriage isn’t for show, you old dog. It’s for commitm
ent. It’s to show your boyfriend or girlfriend that you want to be in it with them ‘til the end. Maybe I’m just being a typical female about this, but it’s true.”

             
“Amen, girl.” Bennie replied.

             
“No, typical female.” I chimed in and the guys all burst out
laughing. Angie turned around and punched me in the arm.

             
“I’ve heard you talk, sir. You’re the most romantic guy I know. The way you talk about Allie, and you don’t want to marry her?” Angie challenged me.

             
“It’s not that. Frank is right. How would we eve
n do it? And James is right. It isn’t necessary anymore.”

             
“Yes, it is!” Angie and Bennie exclaimed.

             
“Ooh, battle of the sexes!” Frank proclaimed dramatically.

             
“Hey, if you two want to marry your significant others, then by all means, go for it.” James t
old them as he held up his hands up in surrender, “We’ll come to the festivities and drink all the booze.”

             
“Does Don allow gay marriage?” Bennie asked, “Would he even let Nicole and I get married?”

             
“Don is the most non-judgmental person on the planet. We
’re lucky in that everyone in our house is non-judgmental, or at least they seem to be. I think anything goes, really. Now, if you were over in the Bachums camp, then no. You two would get stoned to death.” Frank told her.

             
“Probably.” Bennie agreed, “I wa
nt to sneak over there and just watch them live.”

             
“You want to witness their misery. Sadist…” James shook his head in jokingly disgusted disbelief at her.

             
“Who says they’re miserable? I think some people like being restricted. It keeps them from having t
o think for themselves.”

             
“Oh, we’re getting deep!” James informed the rest of us.

             
“James Maxwell! You and your freaking sarcasm! At least Brynn gives you a run for…”

             
We stopped talking all at once. Our animal fangs shot out as our eyes turned white. The
re were others amongst us. I closed my eyes and smelled the air as I tried to determine the source of the
warning that was pounding in my chest.

             
“They know we’re here.” I muttered to the rest of our group, “Remember that they have…”

             
Frank went down befor
e the sound of the gunshot had even registered. All of us jumped to the ground before crawling to take cover behind rocks or by ducking back into the trees. The person was wielding a machine gun and firing off bullets without pause. Whoever it was, they we
re certainly not aiming. They were just firing into the distance where they had seen movement and hoping for a hit.

             
When there was a slight pause, Bennie jumped up from behind the rock she was crouched behind and pointed the Beretta we had stolen on our f
irst trip at the person charging us. She aimed and fired expertly with no hesitation. With ease, she took down the assailant from almost forty feet away.

             
“Alright, let’s go!” She ordered before moving out from behind the rock. We jumped up and followed he
r. Don had supplied those of us who didn’t have guns with knives and spears. I grasped my knife firmly, trying to ignore the trembling in my arms and noting that I much preferred just fighting with my hands. I didn’t want to stab anyone.
             

             
“We should just
go back!” Angie called to us as she and Henry, another guy on our team, lifted Frank onto his feet.

             
“You two take him back! We’ll handle this!” James ordered before looking at me, “You ready for this, man?”

             
“There’s no time to not be ready. Let’s go!”

             
We charged out, running right into two of the Bachums’ people. James made a valiant effort of trying to take one of them down by sliding in the mud towards the boy and kicking his feet out from under him. The boy he knocked down, however, pulled a handgun
from the back of his pants and aimed right at James’s head. Quick as a flash, James jumped up and ducked behind some crates. The boy fired blindly at the crates, hoping to hit him but James was crouched low to the ground, almost like he was doing a push-up
. When the gunshots stopped, he barreled over the crates and punched the kid so hard in the face that his jaw snapped. The boy yelled in agony and spit teeth out onto the ground. Then, his wits returned and he aimed the gun at James again. Blood spewed fro
m his mouth as he shouted some gargled obscenity. James’s thought processes had abandoned him the same way mine would have if I were in a fight for my life. He was not aware that the person trying to kill him was just a young boy. He brought back his fist
and hit him again, knocking him unconscious or worse.

             
For a moment, we stared at the kid, noting that he was probably younger than me. James shook his head slightly. I could see his guilt and I sympathized with it.

             
“Come on. Let’s go.” I urged him, “Take
his gun.”

             
James and I stared, hearing the gunfire all around us and the yells of the people, ours and theirs, clashing in a fight to the death.

             
“You take it.” He told me before sprinting off to find another opponent who was, hopefully, much older.

             
I st
ared at the motionless boy. I took his gun and ran after the other people in my party.

             
Several of them had wrestled guns from the Bachums’ people and were firing off bullets as best they could. I never aimed my gun at any of the people who charged me. Ins
tead, I beat them into unconsciousness, remembering how I had said that killing them wasn’t necessary. Alice had told me that I would never know until I was on the receiving end of their merciless assault. Now, I could safely continue to say that I hadn't
needed to break my rule...

             
One of them jumped onto my back and grasped both sides of my head. They struggled to twist it sideways but every muscle in my neck had tensed, making my head as impossible to turn as a rusted wheel. I flung my head back to nail
the person hard in the face. After whipping around, I jumped on top of the woman and grabbed her hair. I pulled her head towards me and slammed it hard into the ground, that animal roar erupting from me with enough force to scare the second native that was
charging me away.

             
Native…
Why were there natives?

             
In that one second that it took for me to make that realization, the woman below me brought her fists back and hit me hard in the stomach. I grunted in pain, my breaths rasping as I tried to inhale. She
pushed me backwards and got over top of me now. With a deafening screech, she brought her clawed hand back and scratched my cheek deeply. With her other hand, she did the same on the other side of my face. I spit a mouthful of blood at her; she was blinded
for only a minute. She screamed in surprise but I lunged forward to tackle her around the middle. Once she had collapsed back into the mud, I got above her again.