The Shattered Genesis (Eternity) (44 page)

             
“This guy, James, took off into the woods. He’ll die o
ut there, but maybe that’s for the best. How can anyone steal from other people now? I lived in Burma on Earth. I saw people starving everyday. But I rarely saw a man steal. Is this James man close to you?”

             
“To my sister.” I told her.

             
“Well, your sister
had better think twice about him. What he did was wrong. Something like that shows a man for who he truly is.”

             
She turned away from me now and I knew that our conversation was actually finished that time.
I looked at Nick and we turned without a word to h
ead back the way we had come.

             
My search for James was over. Not only was he a liar who didn’t deserve my sister but now he was also a thief. He had taken off like a coward to live by himself in the woods.

             
The woman was right, though I was ashamed to have
such a terrible thought. Maybe James dying would be the best outcome for everyone including, if not especially, Brynna.

Brynna

             
It was night the first time we saw someone that was not of our world. I was pacing in front of the tent as Maura, Elijah, Pen
ny, my father and Violet slept. Maura was sleeping in my father’s tent at night and the thought was so sickening that I found myself unable to sleep. The already turbulent, anxious energy was rolling in filthy disgust and pin-sharp betrayal. Even resting q
uietly was not an option for me anymore.

             
Violet was keeping something from me. Somehow, she blocked me out of her mind when I tried to decipher exactly what her precious secret was. She did not realize she was doing it, but every time she saw me coming, a
wall went up inside of her mind that forced me out.

             
I still did not know why I could hear peoples’ thoughts. When they passed by me, I could listen in to not only their meandering, ordinary musings but also their fears. They were afraid of starving. They
were wary of my father. Both were valid anxieties.

             
I sat down in front of the fire pit and watched the embers as they died away only to be replaced by gray, crumbling ashes. I stared at the dying light, thinking of James. Just as the fire burned itself i
nto nonexistence, so did my feelings for him. I had never been clear on exactly what those feelings had meant. They were as hazy to me as other peoples’ innermost thoughts should have been. I had to trust what was sure: He had lied to me. I could not forgi
ve him for that.

             
Plus, there was a faint whispering in the camp amongst the fearful survivors. People were beginning to embrace the lawlessness of this new land. Innermost desires to cause pain were being worn proudly, emblazoned on the chests of the evil
for all of us to see. Selfishness and cruelty were flavors of every day.

             
I knew, from seeing into someone’s mind, that James was responsible for some of it. Exactly how much remained unclear.

             
It would only get worse. It would grow in intensity until my
father was forced to act. When he did, the consequences were too horrid to picture. The brutality of it would stun everyone into submission. I knew my father was capable of such atrocity even if he didn’t yet.

             
James.

             
My mind tormented me by dropping some
subtle clue to his continued existence. Sometimes it was just his name appearing like a ghost in the darkness of my thoughts. Sometimes, it was that overwhelming warmth consuming me; it hypnotized me into a daze where I saw only his face.

             
Looking back no
w, I know that I was foolish to believe that I could let him go.

             
“There are plenty of fish in the sea.”

             
Maura’s first words to me after several days were both insulting and annoying. A cliché? Really? Also, how could she allow herself to assume that I wa
s so devastated over James that I needed her comfort? How could she suggest that I still felt anything for him at all? Did she not know me even after so many years?

             
I looked up after throwing my cigarette into the embers. The paper burned to a charred bla
ck, causing smoke to flow steadily in my direction. I looked up, squinting as my eyes watered. When I gazed out into the darkness, I saw the man standing far off by the trees.

Ours was the camp closest to the forest on that side, so I had the best view. My
heart began to bang painfully against my chest as a fear I could not fathom filled me up like scalding hot water.

He was wearing black pants and a loose-fitting black long sleeve shirt. Besides his eyes, which I
could see even from a distance, he looked j
ust like the rest of us. I could see a faint glow in the blackness of his eyes; it was a light within darkness.

His intentions were unknown. His identity was a mystery. All that could be known in certainty regarding him was that he was not one of us.
             

I s
quinted hard, trying to read into his mind. Instantly, a searing pain shot through my forehead and spread backwards to the base of my scalp. I collapsed to my knees and grasped my head in my hands.

I must have given a cry of pain because Elijah came runnin
g out of the tent.

“What is it? What is it?” He demanded quietly as he held my arms. I looked up to see the man still standing in the same place. He had not moved an inch but his eyes were rested on me now.

With a shaking hand, I pointed.

“What the…”
Elijah whispered. He did not take his eyes off of the strange man as he pulled me to my feet. “Dad!”

As if our father would be brave enough to approach the stranger… I could have laughed.

However, our father proved me wrong when he immediately began to sta
lk across the grass.

“Danny!” Maura exclaimed behind me and I scowled at the heavens. I could have turned around and slapped her. Now, she was addressing him by an affectionate nickname. Vomit…

“Keep Violet and Penny back.” I had felt them awaken from thei
r sleep and heard their curious thoughts rise quietly to life. They were wondering what exactly was going on.

“Brynna!” Maura called after me. “Elijah!”

Congratulations, you know our names. She could have called something else out. She could have at least
given us a “Come back!” or something similar.

We were following after my father who was already halfway across the untouched field where the man was standing. I couldn’t help but conjure up images of demons and ghosts appearing to humans. If I had to pictu
re their earthly forms, the man was very close to that image. The way he stared at us unblinkingly as we approached was strange enough as it was. But the pallid color of his skin and the light within his black eyes... They were downright otherworldly.

My h
eartbeat skipped into high gear when we were right in front of him. His eyes locked with mine the moment I stopped walking. Still, he didn’t blink. I will give myself credit, though, when I say that I did not look away. Perhaps the stare-down was his way o
f frightening us off of the land. I would not be so easily swayed to move a group of thousands for his sake.

“Are you Pangean?” My father asked him.

Clearly, he did not inherit any of my mother’s foreign diplomacy skills over the years of their marriage. A
simple “Hello, how are you?” might have started the conversation off a little better.

             
The man continued to look at me, even as my father gazed at him, awaiting an answer. His stare was beginning to unnerve me. I felt as though he had invaded my mind and
was listening in on every panicked thought. I could keep my composure physically but emotionally, I was crumpling. We were living through the subject of several science-fiction movies Elijah and I had watched; hostile aliens killing humans for everything f
rom territorial disputes to farming us for resources to just loathing our race. I could not peg exactly what the man’s motives were for sure but I knew an attempt to frighten better than anyone.

             
“What do you want?” My father tried again and his voice was
still infused with boldness despite the growing fear I could hear inside of his mind.

             
Still, the man did not look away from me. To break the tense staring contest, I spoke next.

             
“Do you speak English?”

             
“Brynna, be quiet.” My father snapped at me.

             
The
man’s gaze finally broke free from mine and I felt as though a tremendous weight had been heaved off of my back. My cognitive functions were chugging along speedily as they always did once again.

             
“You’re from the green orb. You call it ‘Earth.’” The man s
poke perfect English.

             
“We are.” I ignored my father’s burning glare. He wanted to handle the situation himself but somehow I knew I was more apt to diffuse whatever tension (and there was plenty) that stood firmly between us. “What do you call this place?
”

             
“This is Purissimus.” He responded vaguely but he looked back at me now.

             
“How can you speak English?” I asked him, though the answer certainly was not important
             
“We have studied your race since the Beginning. We knew one day you would come.”

             
“Our worl
d is gone.” My father chimed in. It was as though the man simply could not begin to understand the situation unless he was the one explaining it. I, for one, believed that I was doing a more than satisfactory job of handling that first meeting. But my fath
er had to be the chief, as men so often do. “We came here to escape what happened there. We’ll stay out of your way.”

             
As if I was going to allow that man to just walk away, never to be seen again! The things he could tell us would be far beyond anything w
e could ever have known otherwise. I didn’t know if he would be up for sharing but that didn’t mean I wasn’t going to ask. When I looked at Elijah, behind the fear in his eyes, I saw the same desire to learn all of that vast knowledge the man could provide
.

             
“You destroyed your home. It is gone because you squandered it.”

             
He was right about that, so I didn’t argue.

             
“It’s gone because…” My father trailed off and I smiled slightly to myself, awaiting his explanation for what had happened. “Either way, we’re
here now and we can’t leave. The ship had enough fuel to make one trip. Even if we had enough to make it back, we would have no home to go to.”

             
“You expect to keep so many people here on this field?”

             
“Do you have a problem with that?” My father's
aggravation and self-righteousness were rising quickly. He was starting to become offended by the man’s attempts to tell him what to do.

             
“Would you prefer us to move somewhere else?” I asked him.

             
“I would prefer for you to leave. Your kind is not welcome
here.” His voice did not rise in anger nor did he take his eyes off of my father.

             
“Did you not hear what I just said? We have nowhere to go.”

             
“You destroyed your Earth. You will not destroy what is ours.”

             
Now, I was panicking again.

             
“For every day tha
t you stay here, we will take ten from your number. They will not be taken from this realm peacefully. Please be aware of that.”

             
His skin seemed to glow in the moonlight just as he was beginning to slink back into the darkness of the trees. As the shadow
took him, that strange light in his eyes snuffed out and he truly did resemble a demonic creature from ancient religious literature. His eye sockets were all I could see.

             
If I wasn’t unnerved before, I was downright terrified now. Still, when I spoke, I d
id not show  any fear. If that is a surprise by this point, then you clearly have not been paying attention.

             
Elijah looked at my dad for a solution to this very pressing, very dangerous situation. But our father was staring, utterly dumbfounded, at the pl
ace where the man had stood only seconds before.