The Shattered Genesis (Eternity) (119 page)

             
Eric turned around, his eyes wide. He wasn't pulling another dead-on impression of Don; there was a rustling in the trees that had nothing to do with the evening wind. Frenzied movements were breaking sticks on the ground and
rustling the dirt and pine needles that covered the forest floor. Humans were approaching our camp.

             
I smelled the air, trying to discern a familiar scent. If any of the people had crossed my path in the campsite, I would remember their smell. We needed t
o know if we were dealing with humans or natives. My nose told me that we were dealing with both, but also that there was a fire burning close by.

             
I whipped around, being assailed instantly by a thick cloud of black smoke. My stinging eyes could see throu
gh it vaguely but the blazing fire consuming our home was bright enough that I didn't need to ask questions. Eric and I, both clutching our axes, turned to run for the house.

             
“Stay here.” I heard Eric tell Teresa behind me.

             
That was the last I saw of the
m.

             
I ran into the house through the backdoor, shouting for Alice, Penny and Violet. I choked on the smoke that had filled the space. When a beam crashed beside me, I jumped sideways and rolled away, just narrowly avoiding being crushed. In my quick dodge,
I hadn’t realized that I was rolling right towards the fire. Even after I knew that I was safe, I didn’t realize I was burning. Only when I felt the pain did my reflexes kick in, telling me to move. I ran out of the kitchen towards the stairs.

             
“Quinn! Qu
inn!” Alice was screaming.

             
“Alice! Where are you?!”

             
“At the front door!”

             
I couldn’t go forward; part of the roof had collapsed and was blocking my way. I tried to go back into the kitchen to use the back door again but an almighty rumble above my head s
topped me in my tracks. I stumbled backwards when another beam fell just in front of me, blocking my entrance into the kitchen. I swore loudly as I jumped up out of the rubble that I had been blown into by the force of the beam hitting the ground. I jumped
up and down, trying to swat the embers out of my clothes before they caught fire. Sweat poured from me and tears pooled in my eyes; the smoke was thick and the fire was strong.

             
“QUINN!” Alice screamed.

             
“You have to jump over it!” I heard Violet shouting
.

             
“What?!” I exclaimed, noting that the pile of rubble between myself and them was at least ten feet high.

             
“It’s going to hurt but it’s the only way!” Violet continued loudly and urgently, “Trust me, you’ll make it!”

             
“Oh, man…” I muttered to myself as I
looked up at the towering wall of burning debris just in front of me.

             
I backed up so that my back was almost touching the burning beam that was blocking the kitchen door. I looked up at the ceiling and pressed my hands together. “Lord, if you’re up
there,” I stopped and rolled my eyes, “Never mind.”

             
My legs carried me forward at that inhuman speed I was becoming used to. My body acted by its own accord; my hands pulled me up, ignoring the painful burning of my skin making contact with the fire. I ra
n so quickly up the mountain of splintered, burning wood that even when parts slid under my shoes, I was still able to keep moving. Once at the top, I turned sideways and heaved all the force in my body forward so that I slid quickly without stopping. Fres
h air was intermingling with the coarse smoke, tempting me to run faster towards the open door. Alice, Penny and Violet were there, encouraging me to run faster.

             
I did.

             
Breaking into the fresh evening air was perhaps as joyous as witnessing a new life be
ing born into the world. I collapsed onto the wet grass, turned onto my back and gazed into the purple sky darkened by the smoke. I breathed amazingly clear breaths; the smell of the grass and the pure Pangean air had never been more blissful.

             
Penny threw
herself onto my chest and wrapped her small arms around me. Immediately, she was squeezing the deliciously crisp air back out of my lungs. I laughed with the air that remained.

             
“You did it, Quinn! You were like Spider-Man! You ran so fast and you jumped
so high!”

             
“Thanks, Penn.” I was squeezing her back.

             
“Pretty impressive, baby. Good job.” Alice said after leaning down to kiss me.

             
Violet pounded my fist when I reached it out to her but her eyes stayed locked on our burning house. I sat up, pulling Pen
ny and Alice with me. The foundation collapsed. The roof caved in completely. The walls crumbled. The place we had grown to love as our home was gone. Violet ran her fingers through her hair before scooping Penny up.

             
“Come on. We need to hide before they
find…”

             
The native that tackled her knocked every breath from her body. They tumbled end over end across the grass. Violet was sprawled out on her stomach, trying to gather her strength and wind. Penny was sobbing in pain after smacking her head hard on th
e ground. The native had landed gracefully on all fours and was charging them both again.
             
             
“NO!” Alice screamed. None other than Rich Bachum was storming towards us, pointing a gun and firing with a steady hand.

             
“Run!” I shouted after them, but Alice had
already charged him. When she reached him, she wrapped her arms around his middle and threw her full weight against him. He fell to the ground and reached for the gun that had flown to his left.

             
“Penny! Violet! Run!” I shouted deafeningly to them.

             
I wen
t storming towards the native that had attacked them. Violet hesitated for a minute too long, wondering if she should stay and help us fight. Her personality was structured very similar to how Brynna’s was built; they would never leave those they cared for
behind to face a threat alone. In that moment when she decided that she would stay and fight, one of the other Bachum men picked Penny up by the back of her shirt as though she was a dog that had to be carried by the fat at the back of its neck. He ran aw
ay with her under his arm.

             
“Allie, he’s taking her!” Violet screamed as she chased after him. Alice had been busy punching Rich Bachum repeatedly and cursing him for all he had done. But at those words, she rolled off of him and landed crouched over with
her hands and feet both on the ground. She followed after Violet, and I ran beside her.

             
Violet fell over suddenly; once she hit the ground, she screamed in horror and grabbed at her neck, her legs kicking violently.

             
“Violet!” My exhausted voice cracked u
nder the strain of the desperate shout.

             
I struggled to push through a crowd of our people that were running from the gun-wielding Bachum soldiers. By the time Alice and I had cleared the herd of people fleeing for their lives, a native man had thrown Viol
et over his shoulder, started running, and put at least half a mile between us and him. Violet was motionless; I assumed that they had shot her with some sort of tranquilizer dart.

             
Alice and I stopped running. We were grasping our chests as we gasped for
breath but our bodies and minds physically ached to continue in pursuit of our friends.

             
“Where’s Nick?” I asked her.

             
“What?!” She asked through her tears that had emerged suddenly.

             
“Where is Nick?!” I grabbed both of her arms and shook her.

             
“I don't kn
ow! He was just with Violet before! He was inside the house…”

             
“If you see him, tell him which way I went. When James, Elijah and Brynna get back, tell them what happened! I’m going after them!”

             
“Quinn, wait!”

             
“You stay here!” I called over my shoulder.

             
To say that I sprinted is an understatement. To say that I ran so quickly that the trees around me became an indiscernible blur of brown and green is more accurate. I felt like a hamster in a wheel; my feet pounding the ground were spinning the planet in
rapid circles and everyone I knew was struggling to hold on. I didn’t stop on their account. I only stopped when stars began to glisten against the navy blue backdrop of the evening sky. There was no way of knowing exactly how long I had been running. But
I turned back, dreading the moment I saw Brynna and Elijah. When I saw them again, I would have to tell them that I had failed. I would have to tell them that even after they asked me to look after their sisters, I had let them get taken.

             
In the present,
Brynna and I were side by side, kneeling beside the river.

             
“I’m sorry about Violet and Penny.” I told her, choosing to for-go an easy descent into the conversation in favor of swift entrance and hopefully, swift exit. We were filling our canteens and spla
shing the wonderfully cool water on our sweating faces. We were, according to James, seven miles out from the mountains. The air was beginning to freeze over; after filling our canteens, we were going to change into our sweatshirts and heavy pants. Luckily
, our luggage had only just been retrieved from the campsite at the time the fire had started. In fact, while I had been chopping wood with Eric and Teresa, I hadn’t even known that it had arrived. All of our suitcases were waiting outside for us to pick t
hrough when the fire had destroyed the house. We had only brought what we needed with us on our journey north.

             
“Excuse me?” Brynna looked over at me, inhaling smoke from the cigarette that was burning between her lips and exhaling it through her nose.

             
“I’m sorry that Violet and Penny were taken. I should have…”

             
“Don’t.” She whispered to me and I looked up at her, shocked by the defeat in her voice. I understood then that her strength and resistance were beginning to fail her. The worry was just too muc
h to bear.

             
“Brynn, we'll find them. Come hell or high water, we will…”

             
“Hell or high water,” She laughed bitterly, “Such an interesting expression, if you think about it. It invokes both Satan and God, respectively. It is further proof of the never-endin
g battle between the two. For the record,  I would take both the flames of the underworld or a flood from God over facing the Bachums. They are a force of the universe all their own. Their devotion to God has allowed them to recruit devout followers who wi
ll gladly die for the cause. Most of them are decent people who are just scared of the unknown that awaits on the road ahead of them.”

             
“Yeah, but most of them would think nothing of killing every last man, woman and child we know. They would justify it by
saying that we had been taken over by Satan because we’re different than they are.”

             
“Indeed. But I cannot justify taking a life simply because we disagree.”

             
“So, what are you going to do when we get there?” A soft chuckle of derision escaped me. “Ask th
em politely to give Violet and Penny back? Tell them you’ll trade some damn corn and orange cabbage for your sisters? It doesn’t work like that anymore, Brynna, and you’re smart enough to know that.”

             
“What I find so funny is that mere months ago you were
ending your three year relationship with your girlfriend because she killed a native. Now, you are encouraging me to slaughter our opponents swiftly and without a second thought. It was you who decried the loss of our humanity, Quinn Wesley, not I.”

             
She w
as right. The hypocrisy being brought to my attention was unwelcome yet inescapably groundbreaking. We stared at each other for a long moment before she looked away; she was giving me space and silence to maul over her words.

             
“You’re right.” I told her su
ddenly as I filled my canteen up to replace the water I had just
chugged back.