The Shattered Genesis (Eternity) (51 page)

             
I stopped running suddenly and thrust my
arm back to keep them from continuing on. The three of us carefully moved to see around the wall. With a drop in each of our hearts, we watched as Daniel Olivier began to walk in our direction, his brows furrowed in a question. He thought he had heard som
ething and he was coming to see if he really had.

             
“Elijah!” He called down the hallway, “Go back outside.”

             
Elijah went to move around us but Alice reached out and grabbed him, shaking her head. However, after looking into his eyes, she let go of him. Tho
ugh there was rage clearly displayed in them, it was not the rage that we had to embrace before we could hurt someone. The same way Alice had a plan, he did as well.
             

             
“Has she eaten?” He asked Daniel sourly.

             
“She had a few scraps of something. That’s all
she’s getting right now. I know that it seems cruel, Eli. But I need to know what’s going on. I can’t protect you, your sisters or Maura without knowing what exactly it is that’s happening to her.”

             
“And you think she knows?”

             
“I do. I think she knew this
was going to happen to her. I think she knows what those natives want. You saw how calm their leader was when he spoke to her. It was only after we interrupted them that he threatened us.”

             
“That’s ridiculous, Dad. She just knew what she was doing. But as
far as whatever made her change over to that, I don’t think it’s a threat. So you need to go get her something else to eat.”

             
“No,” Daniel's voice was beginning to tremble slightly. Alice and I looked at each other, both worrying that any minute now, thin
gs were going to spiral completely out of control, “If anyone would be going to get her something else to eat, it would be you. But she’s not getting anything else. We can’t waste our food on someone like her.”

             
“
Someone like her?
” Elijah repeated in incre
dulous animosity, “She’s your daughter!”

             
“I don’t know what she is. But I know that if there’s one thing she’s
not
, it’s my kid. People are afraid of her. It’s my job as the person that is leading this group to make sure everyone feels secure.”

             
“And they
feel secure while you’re starving them or threatening to shoot them if they walk near the forest or try to go off on their own?”

             
“I am doing that for our own good! If we give rations to everyone, every day, we’ll be dead in a month! I’m not exaggerating
when I say that! We did the math! We never thought that so many people would come. We never…”

             
“So let people go off on their own, if that’s what they want!”

“Yes, let’s go into the forest, Elijah! The natives have already showed us what they’re capable
of, so let’s piss them off even more by going into their territory.”

“This whole planet is their territory!”

“So what should we do? Do you want to load everyone back on the ship so we can fly around for a few thousand miles, if we even break through the at
mosphere at all? Do you want to keep going until…” He stopped and looked up as he took a deep breath. When he spoke again, his voice was firmly calm, “I am doing the best I can. I have to make the hard decisions. That’s fine, because I know I can do it. Ca
n you say the same, Eli?”

             
“Are you asking me if I can starve people? Are you asking me if I can shoot people? Because the answer is no. If you’re asking me if I can make the hard decisions…” There was the sound of impact on someone’s face and Alice and I
jumped out from behind the corner to see that Elijah had rammed the butt of the gun into his father’s head, “the answer is yes. But then again, that wasn’t hard.”

             
I exclaimed in stunned elation, laughing as I walked out from behind the corner.

             
“That was
badass, man!” I told him after clapping him on the shoulder, “Pistol-whipping him,
what you said... You're like Clint Eastwood right now!”

             
“I
feel
like Clint Eastwood right now.” He grinned broadly.

             
“You don't look like Clint Eastwood when you do that.” I scorned him jokingly, “You look like Hannah Montana.”

             
“Sorry. How's this?” He scowled darkly and we both laughed again despite the situation. My
heart was racing and I had the weirdest urge to jump from one end of the hallway to the other while laughing maniacally. But then, I also wanted to find my own evildoer to pistol-whip. The evolutionary change was wreaking not-all-that-unpleasant havoc on
my brain, too.

             
“Dude…” Alice whispered as she looked down at Daniel lying unconscious on the floor, “You just knocked your dad out!”

             
“Did I give you the impression that I was fond of him?” Elijah asked through another slight chuckle that was offset by th
e way his whole body was still shaking with fury. “That couldn’t be further from the truth.”

He pushed open the door to the storage room. All excitement and enthusiasm disappeared as he looked into the room where Brynna was being kept. “Wait out here.”

             
We
didn’t follow him into the room but we did look inside after he went in. Brynna’s head was hanging forward, her chin resting on her chest. Her face was beginning to swell on one side from where her dad had beaten her. I looked at Alice to find her looking
at me. In her eyes, I saw the same question: What had been the point of hurting her? The answers to the questions he asked were lost on everyone who was changing over, including us. If her bruises and cuts were the physical evidence of a brutal interrogat
ion, I couldn’t help but wonder if soon I would be sporting some of my own.

Or maybe it had been personal. Maybe it was just more evidence of her father’s cruelty.

             
“Do either of you know anything about First Aid?” Elijah called out to us. Alice had worked
at a daycare on Earth and was certified in both CPR and First Aid. She went into the room and I followed behind her.

             
“Is that normal? The way her eyes are rolling like that?” Elijah asked as he freed Brynna’s hands with the key that had been hanging by t
he door. The dark part of my brain that made unwelcome suggestions in tense situations told me that Daniel had left the key right in her line of vision to taunt her. I hoped that I was wrong about that.

             
Alice had her fingers pressed to the pulsing vein in
Brynna’s wrist. Her mouth was moving slightly as she counted out the beat, estimating when a minute was up because she had no clock or watch.

             
“Her heart rate is a little fast. But that’s better than it being slow.” Alice informed us, “I don’t think it ha
s anything to do with being hit in the head because…” Alice gently grasped either side of Brynna’s head and tilted it back. Very delicately, she pulled up one of her eyelids. We all watched as Brynna’s bright blue eyes gleamed in the dim light and as her b
lack pupil contracted to the size of a pinpoint. “Yeah, her pupils are contracting. If she had a concussion, they would stay dilated.”

             
“So what do you think it is?” Once Alice had moved out of the way, Elijah was kneeling in front of Brynna and grasping h
er face with both hands.

             
“I think she’s trying to keep herself awake. I think she’s hungry and thirsty, too. Had she been eating or sleeping well before this?”

             
“She hadn’t eaten or slept since we got here.” Elijah replied as he put Brynna’s arm around hi
s neck and lifted her into his arms.

“Adjust her so she isn’t lying back like that.”

“I’m trying.” Elijah moved Brynna up so that she wasn’t tilting back in his arms anymore. Her head was rested snugly underneath of his.

“You got her?” Alice asked softly.

“Yeah. Just to tell you, Brynn, I know I’m not rescuing you.” He whispered softly to her and I could have sworn I saw a small smile appear on her lips as though she had heard.

             
We walked quickly from the room, stepping over Daniel to continue back the way
we came. As though to remind him even in his unconscious state how severely he had pissed him off, Elijah brought back his foot and kicked his father hard in the ribs.

             
“Well, that’s a new way to say goodbye, I guess.” Alice commented as we hurried along t
he corridor.

             
“I’ve been wanting to do that for years.” Elijah replied just as two guards walked out in front of us.

             
“Elijah, what are you…” One started to say but Alice had lunged forward and tackled him backwards. A strange noise, a mix between a grunt
and a roar, forced its way from my stomach out of my mouth as I ran forward and dropped to slide on my knees towards the second guard. Once I reached him, I spun sideways and kicked my feet out to knock his from beneath him. As he crumpled to the ground, I
heaved myself up and landed on top of him. With both hands, I grasped his head and slammed it down into the floor.

             
We were running after that. We were ready for an army of them. I didn’t have to look at Alice or Elijah to know their eyes had turned over
white; we were all on the hunt. Once we reached the door that led out of the ship, Alice pushed the button and the door slid open, revealing to us that night had fallen. The second we stepped out of the ship, we heard the screams of the survivors as the na
tives attacked.

             
It was those shouts of pain and terror that awoke Brynna from whatever stupor she was in. She rolled sideways out of Elijah’s arms to land on her knees in the dirt. Before we had even turned back to look at her, she had jumped onto her fee
t, swaying as vertigo overtook her for a brief second.

             
“Penny and Violet…” She muttered to Elijah as he grasped her arms to steady her.

             
“I took care of it. They know what to do. Just run!”

             
None of us needed him to repeat himself. We took off running as
another massacre matching the one that had occurred the night before unfolded around us. It took every bit of my selfish willpower to not stop and help those I saw being ripped apart. As I ran, I was sprayed with the blood from a woman’s stomach as one of
the natives dug his clawed hands deep inside of her abdomen.

             
Senseless and evil and sadistic and cruel… Their attack infuriated me but also drove me to move faster.

             
In the chaos, we were separated.

Violet

             
Maura knew something was amiss. Though I did h
ave anxiety, I rarely shook my leg rapidly up and down to betray that I was worrying. My fears were always silent and unnoticeable, even to her. But as I awaited the return of Elijah and Brynna, I sat with Penny in my lap and bobbed her up and down on my l
egs that refused to keep still.

             
“I can’t color in the lines when you do that!” Penny snapped at me suddenly and I tried to stop. I avoided Maura’s gaze.

             
“What’s wrong, honey?” She asked in quiet suspicion after sitting down beside me.
             

             
I shook my head s
lightly and shrugged. If I opened my mouth, I would spill Elijah’s plan. If I looked at her, I would begin to cry and that would be enough of a confirmation. I was going to have to drag her off into the woods. A part of me wished that I could leave her but
I knew that I couldn’t.

             
“I know you’re scared. But your father said all we have to do is run to the door of the ship and they’ll let us in. Dad is going to take care of all of us. And he’ll come around with Brynna. He always does.”

             
I don’t know where sh
e found evidence to draw that conclusion. A look back at our history was enough for me to know that he had never come around when it came to Brynna. Since Lucien had died, he had made my sister’s life hell. It hadn’t been her fault. In her mind, she believ
ed that everyone,
including me, blamed her. But she was wrong; Elijah and I knew that whatever had caused her daze, her blind ignorance to what was occurring, had to have been serious. She never allowed herself a moment’s peace from her raging thoughts and
her constant attention to detail. Her love for Lucien had been strong.