The Shattered Genesis (Eternity) (56 page)

             
We heaved ourselves over three oaks that had fallen one right on top of the other. Our leap over them was effortless. After we landed, Brynna skidded to a halt. James stopped beside her. I slid in the leave
s and she was forced to reach back and grab a hold of my shirt to keep me from falling flat on my back like a total square. She didn't turn her gaze away from whatever was in front of her, though her face was taut as she suppressed some unpleasant emotion.

             
I looked and my eyes widened.

             
I had little need to wonder why the scent of blood was so strong...

             
Alice was bent over one of the natives, her teeth sunk deep into his stomach. With a loud
screech, she pulled back and ripped his skin away. Blood sprayed
into the air like erupting fireworks from the gaping wound.

             
“Allie?” My voice was trembling and my stomach was turning over in revulsion. Her head jerked up. Her white eyes met mine. For a moment, she spider-walked forward quickly on all fours, hissing.

             
“Allie!” I exclaimed as James raised his machete. I reached out, pushing his hand down abruptly. “James, don't!”

             
Her eyes dissolved back into their normal brown and she pushed upwards so that she was standing.

             
“Quinn? They've been on me for hours. This
one...” She pointed at the man lying face down in a pool of blood. “He was the first one. I didn't know there were two of them until I took him down. I know it's weird and it's creepy...”

             
I backed away from her when she reached out to me. I had known that
we were changing over to something that wasn't human. I had known that we could fight an enemy until they were hovering close to death. I had no idea that we were actually going to kill people. I had seen her shoot that creature and collapse into a fit of
rage, guilt, fear and self-loathing as she realized that it was her mother. To take a human life, especially one of someone she loved, had been far too much for Alice to bear. Now, she was trying to justify what she had done.

             
“Quinn, I didn't have a choi
ce. You saw what they do to people! They were going to do the same thing to me.”

             
“So why didn't you knock them out?” I demanded of her furiously. I was shocked at my own anger and disgust. I had never been able to picture her killing something living. Unf
ortunately, I had stumbled upon her while she was in the act of it. It changed her in my mind from an innocent human girl whom I loved dearly to a monster I didn't recognize and couldn't possibly love at all.

             
“Don't tell me that you wouldn't have done the
same thing if it had been you being attacked!” She replied defensively. “They were going to kill me. I wasn't taking them down. I was taking them
out
. It was the only way.”

             
“It wasn't. We got past those guards without killing them, Alice!”
             
“We were just
trying to get onto the ship to get Brynna. Plus, they were only human! Quinn, please try to see this the only logical way. They were going to kill me so I killed them! I don't understand why you're so upset!”

             
“Because you think this is alright, just beca
use we're here! You think it’s okay to kill people. You, the religious one out of the two of us, think it's okay to kill people without at least trying to find another way!”

             
“When they were ripping my head back, getting ready to rip my throat out, I wasn'
t looking for another way! I had no choice!”
             
“Well, you might not think so, but I do. And if I had been in your situation, I would have done everything in my power to avoid
murdering
someone, even a native! I might have been able to let it go if you weren
't being so chill about it! If you had a little remorse, I might have been able to see you the same way. But no, you're perfectly fine with this and I can't agree with it, no matter who they are!”

             
“Children, we're departing.” Brynna spoke loudly over our
shouts. “I hope your marital woes will soon yield a resolution that caters to your undying love.”

             
“We're not married.” Alice snapped at her, “Thank God! He's being unreasonable, right? Tell him he's being ridiculous!”

             
To be pulled into an argument that c
oncerned neither of them apparently stunned them both because their facial expressions were priceless. They were torn between trying to find the right words to say and wishing to keep silent. They wanted to stay safely out of the way of our anger.

             
Of cour
se, Brynna, just like her mother, had an opinion on everything.

             
“Indeed, he is being unreasonable.”
             
And just like her mother, she was wrong about
everything!

             
“Thank you!” Alice held her hands up in victory.

             
“Wipe the blood off of your face. It's disgus
ting!” I snapped. Admittedly, my outburst was immature, but seeing the way the natives' blood was dribbling from her lips down her chin and onto her neck was only making me angrier. It was a reminder of what she had done.

             
“Let’s walk away.” James grasped
Brynna’s hand.

             
“Yes. These conflicts do so often become contagious. Smart idea, honey.” Brynna nodded.

             
But as they walked away, Alice stormed after them, leaving me alone.

             
Maybe it was ridiculous. Maybe my anger was out of proportion. But imagine for a
minute, stumbling upon the person you love snuffing out the life of a human being. Even though the Pangean people were not humans, they resembled us perfectly. They had all the characteristics of beastly creatures, but physically, they were just like us.
They had been born to parents who had loved them and raised them and now, a family somewhere was going to be grieving because Alice “had no choice.” I tried to see the situation from her perspective as I walked but I knew that I couldn’t kill something of
a human likeness. I couldn’t take someone out of this world that had an almost tangible history.

             
It makes no sense today. But in the moment, nothing could have been worse than knowing Alice’s blood was that of a killer’s and mine, in all honesty, was that
of a coward’s. When I look at it in its most basic element today, that is the only conclusion to be drawn.

             
As I meandered about behind them, stuck in a frenzy of thought, I only saw the issue as Alice being a murderer and me being a moral person who woul
d not take a life. Cowardice played no part in my beliefs. But the truth is, she was braver than me and always had been. It had been her idea to rescue Brynna. Before that, it had been her who had shot the creature that had broken into her house. I hated m
yself for it, but I felt emasculated by her drive to put an end to a threat whereas I could only hinder its violent efforts.

             
I didn’t realize that, being so young at the time. I just believed that I was right and she was wrong. I was a good person and she
was a sadistic killer. Black and white thinking never helped anyone and my own was making it impossible for me to see her in the same light that I had always seen her in.

             
I was stuck with her, though. We had come to Pangea together and even though my fee
lings were irreversibly changed, I still couldn’t leave her. She was the only constant in my life. Pangea was a dangerous place and not only because of the bloodthirsty natives. It was a one-eighty change from everything I had ever known and Alice was the
calm, stable center of it all. For her, I held the same role. Our relationship might have been effectively terminated before it had even truly begun, but I couldn’t imagine living my life without seeing her every day.

             
Those thoughts were too much for me,
in my young days. I thought I was so mature. After fleeing the earth, I assumed that I had to become a man by force of fate. I was nothing more than a little boy still, even after everything that we had survived. But, in perhaps undeserved fairness to me,
I have to say that I couldn’t be blamed for still possessing such immaturity.

             
I looked at Brynna as she walked beside James. She was barely four years older than me and yet the distance between our dead Earth and Pangea was shorter than the distance betwe
en our maturity levels. There she was, searching for her brother and sisters, whom I knew, from hearing Elijah talk, she had raised. Her body was that of a young adult but her mind was on par with the man she was currently walking beside. I understood thei
r attraction to each other more than I could understand anything else, including what I was feeling myself.

             
“I am glad you understand me. That was, strangely enough, my one goal in life.” She replied dreamily over her shoulder as her fingers linked with J
ames’s.

             
“Stop it!” I exclaimed after covering my ears. She looked back at me and grinned in triumph and also, in curiosity.

             
“What is it about covering your ears? I am starting to believe that it means something. Maybe it is your instinct telling you that
it will keep me out if you just try hard enough. Trust me, Quinn; I do
not like hearing your thoughts as much as you do not like me hearing them.”
             

             
“Then stop!” I yelled again.

             
“Don’t worry about him, Brynna. He has always thrown tantrums like a spoiled
baby.”

             
Brynna turned back to Alice, brows furrowed. For a moment, she just stared at her. Then, she spoke while shaking her head slightly in arrogant disbelief:

             
“We really need to work on your use of similes, darling.”

             
With that, she continued walking
ahead. Alice watched her go, her face betraying how confused she was by what Brynna had said.

             
“What?” She called, but Brynna didn’t reply. She was bent back over the ground again, studying the footprints.

             
“Natives.” She replied carelessly before standing
up and walking normally again.

             
“How do you even know?” I snapped irritably. I was starting to get very annoyed by her all-knowing presence. Was nothing sacred anymore? It wasn’t right that she allowed herself to travel so casually into my private thought
s.

             
“Don’t you just know things?”

             
“I do,” Alice answered, “Sometimes I do, I should say. You seem to be grasping whatever this is more than we are.”

             
“Some of us are more apt to embrace such gifts, especially when we were already predisposed to them. I am
a genius, first and foremost, which makes the slight adjustment to my newly enhanced instincts and intelligence much easier.”

             
“Just because you can form long sentences doesn’t mean you’re a genius.” I told her icily.

             
“Trust me, man, she is.” James repli
ed surely.

             
“Of course you’re going to say that.”

             
“Do not pass your animosity off onto us.” Brynna responded as she ran her hand over James’s back. Though she was speaking to me, her eyes were locked on his. “I have known you scarcely more than twelve hou
rs. I will not bear the brunt of your emotional burden. I do not carry anyone’s baggage but my own.”

             
James kissed her quickly and out of the corner of my eye, I saw Alice’s head cock to the side and her face contort in surprise. She hadn’t been aware that
they were together.

James hung back to talk me down when I went to argue with his girlfriend further. Alice walked quickly ahead to accompany her through the thick brush up ahead. Clearly,
my
girlfriend (or ex-girlfriend now) was going to be asking Brynna
some very personal questions about her and James. I knew that she was suddenly very curious about their relationship.

             
“Just to let you in on the big secret, I’ll tell you that she does that to push people away. She’d hate me for telling you that, but tha
t is why.”