The Shattered Genesis (Eternity) (45 page)

             
“What are we going to do, Dad?” Elijah demanded as our father turned and stormed back towards our campsite. A long, seemingly endless line of people stood there, gawking and muttering quietly amongst themse
lves in speculation. It seemed as though every survivor had risen from their slumber. One slight whisper of some strangeness afoot and they were all awake to witness it.

             
“Who was he?”

             
“Is he from here?”

             
“What does he want?”

             
Surely, our group suddenly s
peaking at a volume that rivaled a stadium during the Super Bowl was very disturbing to the natives we now knew existed. One of my father’s cronies came up with his trusty megaphone. They even placed a box down on the ground for him to stand on. I covered
my mouth as a small smirk crept onto my lips.

             
“Ladies and gentlemen, we now know that there are others on Pangea. They have asked that we refrain from littering and straying too far into the forest.”

             
I was laughing hysterically now and covering my mouth
to hide it. When my father shot me a look of warning, I did not suddenly pretend to be seized by a coughing fit; I merely laughed harder.

             
He cleared his throat and looked back at the crowd.

             
“They say that if we do either of those things, there will be c
onsequences. Therefore, anyone that strays too close to the tree-line will be shot.”

             
I must have looked slightly crazed for a moment as I turned my head to stare at him with eyes widened and all traces of that boisterous humor from a moment earlier gone i
n a flash. First of all, I had been unaware that guns were on the ship. That was just what we needed on an “uninhabited” planet. Clearly, he had known that Pangea was populated long before we got there. Secondly, I was shocked at the brutality of his new o
rder. He was already starving people in hopes of lowering our numbers. Now, he was threatening to shoot people if they got too close to the trees? Was being put in front of a firing squad for leaving one's dishes on the ground the next step in his plan?

             
“
You haven’t thought this through.” I told him as he walked behind the ship, flanked by his goons. “He said nothing about littering, for the sake of all deities and Gods!”

             
“I hate when you say that!” He snapped after turning around to point his finger at m
e.

             
“Would you just listen?!” I grabbed his arm and he shook me off forcefully, almost knocking me to the ground in the process. “This is his planet and he wants us off. They are threatening us with murder!”

             
“Do you think I am so stupid that I zoned off d
uring our conversation? I heard him! There is no use repeating it, Brynna Claire. What would you have me do? Do you want to be the one to tell people that we have to get back on the ship, leave here, and fly around until we run out of gas? We have no choic
e but to stay here. My guards will watch over the campsite. If they come for us, we’ll shoot them.”

             
“Why did you bring guns to a planet that wasn’t populated?” I challenged him after grabbing his arm again. “You knew they were here! You knew we were invad
ing their planet!”

             
“We didn’t want anything from them but a place to live. How many times do you think these people have been on Earth? We’ve never told them to leave!”

             
“We didn’t know they existed!” My voice had risen. My tone was betraying my growing t
repidation that the situation would soon spiral completely out of control. In fact, I
knew
it would.

             
“Of course we didn't know they...

             
“If they were on Earth, so what?!” I continued furiously, “They did not drop five thousand of their people on us and
demand that we let them stay! They know that what happened to Earth was our fault. If it was nuclear, we started the war. If the sun exploded or the ozone layer depleted suddenly, it was because we burned too much fuel or threw our plastic bottles in river
s... I do not know what the environmental implications or the catastrophic consequences of all of that would be! You will have to ask your son! Either way, why would they let us stay here? In enough time, we will do the same thing to this place!”

             
“So, you
believe everything was all our fault? It wasn’t! I don’t know what happened. I don’t know why the earth had to end! But...”

             
“Yes, you do!” I interrupted him loudly, “You are lying! I will have no parts of this! I am telling everyone everything!”

             
He grab
bed my wrist in a hold so painful that I was forced to wonder very briefly how I would make a splint after he shattered the bone.

             
“If you say a word, I’ll give you over to him. That’s how they do it in those stories you read, right? To create an alliance,
they arrange an exchange of a female? If it’s through marriage or through slavery…”

             
“I never pegged you as a reader.” I snarled at him through a sardonic grin. “If you want to hit me and I can see that you do, then do it. But I am taking people who want
to go. I am well aware that
we cannot leave the planet but we sure as hell are not staying here.”

             
When I broke free of him, he reached out to grab me again but I dodged him. I will admit that I did not expect him to try again. That is the only reason why
he was able to succeed in getting a firm hold on me. After pulling me backwards and slamming me against the outer wall of the ship (again), he backhanded me hard across the face. If his hands had not been pinning me to the side of the wall, I would have fa
llen to the ground, only this time, James would not be there to scoop me up. As my ears rung and my eyes struggled to move back into focus, I heard my father shouting about “remembering who I was talking to” and “watching my (expletive) mouth.”

             
My head
was turned away from him and his hand was holding my chin. I only smiled slightly as blood dribbled out of my mouth onto the ground; I was thinking over and over again that what he was doing was more of a sign of weakness than of strength. Even as the tear
s of pain stung my eyes, I thought how humorous it was that he believed himself to be such a man and yet he could not tolerate my scathing sarcastic nature, my threats to leave the land he ruled so cruelly, or even my demands for common sense.

             
“We are sta
ying together.” I heard him clearly now. “If you’re not here, then I guess it will be Violet, right?”

             
I stopped smiling abruptly and looked up at him, livid beyond my wildest dreams. I know now that he saw my eyes turn red. They were redder than they had
ever been. I could almost feel them burning.

             
“If you try anything like that with her, I will rip your heart out!”

             
I do not know where that violent sentiment came from but I pictured disemboweling him clearly. I was drunk on the image of ripping his heart
from his chest and biting into it. Something was seriously beginning to go wrong in me. Screws were loosening and some creature I had no knowledge of before was taking hold.

             
“What is wrong with your eyes?” He demanded, but through his rage, I could hear
the slight tremor in his voice. I had shaken off his hand but he grabbed my face again to get a better look. The moment he touched my skin, though, he exclaimed in agony and pulled his suddenly reddened hands away.
             

             
“Do not try to stop me.”

             
“Don’t you u
nderstand that there is strength in numbers!?” He yelled after me as I began to walk away. “I will never let you take Penny! You goddamn freak, I will kill you before I let you take her! You won’t take Elijah or Violet, either. Or Maura!”
             
“Keep her. I don
’t want her.” I replied quickly and with an air of blatant arrogance that I am sure only infuriated him more. As I walked back around to the front of the ship, I heard him yelling still but did not care enough about what he was saying to listen. Once I was
physically out of his presence, I could feel the cold night air on my face again. I could smell the sweet aroma of the white flowers that grew at the sides of the field where there were no tents.

             
I had returned to normal.

             
“Pack your stuff.” I told Viole
t.

             
“What? Why?!” She demanded before jumping up and looking at me with eyes widened in terror. “What happened?!”

             
“Penny, honey, get your bag.” I called into the tent.

             
“What are you on about now, Brynna?” Maura demanded. “What is going on?” She saw my fa
ce and grimaced. “Sit down. Let me get you some ice. I will talk to him later.”

             
I chose to answer the first two questions she asked but ignored the second part of what she had said completely.

             
“We are leaving. Now that you are newly reunited with the lov
e of your life, you will feel no need to join us, I assume. But we will not stay here long enough to experience what is to come.”

             
“What is to come, dare I ask?” Maura asked as she crossed her arms over her chest, rolled her
eyes and yawned.

             
“I apologize.
It is clear that what that man said is boring you. Please, go back to sleep if you are exhausted. Explaining the severity of the situation is slowing me down.” I told her hurriedly

.
             
“Look, I am as stunned by the fact that there are people on this planet
as you are.” She chose to ignore my momentary rant. “But I am not going to be afraid until I have reason to be.”

             
“There is reason to be afraid.” Elijah told her bluntly as he stood and watched me throw my own things into my small suitcase. “Brynna, we can
’t leave her and Dad here.”

             
“Really? He knew those people were here. He was just going to make them accept our presence. I do not want any parts of that. I do not want any parts of the massacre, either.”

             
“Maybe he was bluffing.” Elijah reasoned. “Maybe h
e was just trying to see if we really needed to be here.”

             
“I doubt it. What would you do if someone just dropped in on you the way we did to them? You would be angered greatly, would you not? We are getting out of here.”

             
“But Dad said that if we go into
the woods…” Violet started.

             
“That native man said nothing about the woods. He told us to pack up our things, get back on the ship and leave. We have no home to go to, as you know very well.”

             
“I think he was just trying to see if we really needed to be he
re. Brynna, please…”

             
“Here.” Maura stuck her hand in between us and dropped an icepack into Elijah's lap. “Make your stubborn sister put some ice on her face.”

             
She strode away before I could offer a snide retort to that comment. Elijah pressed the icepac
k to my face and I cringed before moving away.

             
“I do not want that. I am perfectly fine.” I snapped at him as I busied my hands with untangling Violet's headphone cords. She had asked Maura to do it earlier but instead, our nanny had decided to take a lo
ng, extended walk to the ship with our father.

             
“Shut up and put this on your face, asshole.”

             
“I should punch you in the throat for calling me such a vile, unoriginal name.” But I finally did put the icepack on my face. His eyes flashed red and I reached
over to grasp his hand. “Let it go, Eli. He is nothing of concern for us.”

             
“He
is
of concern...”

             
“We are not going to talk about this. We are going to pack our things and go.”

             
“Let’s just see what happens tomorrow.” He told me. “How dumb will you feel
if you take off and nothing happens?”