The Shattered Genesis (Eternity) (60 page)

             
But it was not even close to sunset. Both James and I were dumbfounded by the sudden darkness of the world. We saw Alice and Quinn staring off, wide-eyed, into the distance and we l
ooked.

             
Of all the sights I had seen, that was by far the most breathtaking.

             
The sky over the metropolis was dark purple, like an oil painting made from the juice of smashed wild-berries. Interspersing with the vivid darkness were flecks of burnt orange s
wirled spectacularly into the canvas. The clouds hanging lazily against the backdrop were a deep hazel, though those cumulus beings stacked on top of one another were nearly transparent.

             
The city itself was alight with silver; the towering buildings and t
heir surrounding subjects were made of soft chrome. The lights burning away in their windows were as orange as the light over our heads. It was natural translucence, so unlike the harsh, white, artificial lights we had used back home. Though I could feel t
he city bustling with life, not a sound reached us. The Pangeans were quiet folk, in no rush and with no need of the excessive, deafening noises that we were so used to hearing.

             
It was the only city on Pangea. It was where its more futuristic-minded citiz
ens lived. I wanted nothing more than to run down the steep, high-grassed slope we were standing on top of and disappear into the depths of the fantastic place that stood before me. I wanted to see every part of it and experience the life of the Pangeans.

             
But they were hostile to us. Surely, we would be killed.

             
I could understand it now. We were on their land, fresh from the planet we had so dirtied and inevitably destroyed with our filth and greed. We were a plague on those people whose age-old planet wa
s as clean and pure as the day it had been born from empty space and a Godly hand.

             
Purissimus. That’s what the man had called it.
Pure.

             
I understood why they hated us. We had shunned the creation gifted to us so many thousands of years earlier. The Pange
ans feared that our kind would do to their Purissimus what we had done to our Earth.

             
I understood it perfectly. I sympathized greatly. I almost hated us for being there until I
remembered that we had no other choice. My self-interest powerfully overruled
my empathy. It certainly was not the first time that had happened. It certainly would not be the last.

             
“We have to go down there!” Alice exclaimed, and I could hear that she was beaming brightly with excitement.

             
“No.” I replied simply before turning my e
yes away from the city to squash the temptation.

             
“Come on, the wall parted for us. They want us to come down there.” Alice informed us and I suppressed a derisive chuckle unsuccessfully. I always found it so difficult not to correct people when they were
so obviously wrong. In this case, I did not even try to stop myself.

             
“Yes. So they can kill us.” I said, “Darling, you must start using your instincts. They’ve been gifted to you for a reason. Embrace a little cynicism.”

             
“That seems to have worked out we
ll for you so far.” She replied as she looked at me coldly.

             
“It has saved me and everyone I have ever held dearly to me. So yes, it has, as you say, ‘worked out.’” I said all of that without skipping a beat. I could have used my gift of reading minds to b
ring up some darkness from her history. But the dark memory I could see through a thin haze in her mind was fresh. It had only just been burned into permanence. Her mother’s crumpled body was at the forefront of her thoughts. Apparently, her trustworthy na
ture had allowed her to be fooled into letting in a Scout. That’s what I called them: Scouts.

             
“I’m going down there. There are a lot of people. I can feel them. I’ll just blend in. They look just like us.” Alice told us but Quinn grabbed her hand.

             
“You c
an’t, Alice.”

             
“Maybe we should go down there.”

             
James shocked me by spewing such empty-headed nonsense. I had been beginning to feel that he was on par with me, intelligence-wise. Part of intelligence was a firm hold on common sense. To go down into that
city filled with natives would be suicide. Suicide defied common sense.

             
My face conveyed all of that before I could even open my mouth.

             
“Baby, we could reach out to them. They might look at us coming down there as a noble act, like we’re bravely
extending them the olive branch. That could make them listen. You know it could.”

             
“Or they will rip us apart on sight. That is perhaps a predication far too extreme to be plausible. But I know that it is certainly a
possible
outcome. In fact, it is far mo
re probable than them granting us an audience with whoever their leader is so we can explain ourselves, James.”

             
“What if it’s the only way?” He asked me.

             
“What on Earth or Pangea, in this case, I suppose…” I shook my head slightly, pondering the drastic
change in a simple expression. I almost lost my train of thought, which most certainly was not new to me. With so many thoughts running wildly through my head before the change-over, I had always been apt to lose what I had been musing on silently. Now, I
had the thoughts of others to contend with. In that case, I found my way back to the point with little effort.

             
“What makes you think that this is the only way?”

             
“Because it seems so obvious.” He laughed slightly in disbelief that I was not grasping the
genius behind his great plan. He failed to realize that if a plan truly was one of great intelligence, I would have thought of it first.

             
“James, do not force me to go into a lengthy, intricate tirade. I am becoming more and more exhausted as this day prog
resses. All of this running is draining my strength.”

             
“This could be exactly what we need to do. Maybe we’re meant to make peace with them, do you know what I mean?”

             
“Of course I know what you mean, James. That was not a difficult thought to decipher. Ho
wever, I think you are wrong. You did not see what they did to people. It was brutal. It was sick. I certainly do not want to be ripped apart!”

             
“I will never let that happen, Brynna. I promise.” He changed courses immediately, “Alright, I have an idea.”

             
“Dear Lord…” I sighed heavily and sat down on the ground. He knelt in front of me.

             
“I’ll go down there alone. I’ll tell them that I need to come back to get you…”

             
“Let me stop you right there. If you go down there and then say that you need to leave imme
diately to fetch me, they are going to suspect that you are a spy. That would be any person’s basic thought when the enemy strolls so willingly into their midst. Even a brain-dead, crack-addicted vagabond would suspect that.”

             
He covered his face, trying t
o hide the fact that he was laughing. I raised one eyebrow in irritation as I looked at him.

             
“Do you find me humorous, James? Because you should know that amusing you is just about the last bullet on my list of priorities.”

             
“I find you very humorous, bab
y. I know that you’re being serious and I appreciate that. But sometimes, the things you say just make me laugh.”

             
“Yeah? The scrawny body you possessed on Earth made me laugh but I did not call your attention to it.”

             
He laughed even harder now. I wanted
to slap him.

             
“What do you want me to say?” I snapped at him angrily. “Do you want me to say that I am worried about you? Is this plan you are proposing some roundabout path to get me to say that I care?”

             
“No. Baby, stop it.” He grasped my hands, “You’re
getting defensive.”

             
“You’re being stupid.”

             
“I know. I know.” He kissed my hands. “I’m sorry. You’re just funny sometimes.”

             
I studied him for a moment as he tried to suppress his crooked grin that I loved so much. I found myself fighting a smile. I was i
rritated, surely, but his amusement at what I had said did touch me.

             
“Well, I am glad you feel that way, honestly.” I told him as my shaken nerves calmed. “Not many people find me to be even slightly funny, so this is a plus, I suppose.” I looked at him,
feeling myself choking back words that I wanted to say. But those particular words were forceful and after several seconds of attempting to suppress them, they had to be spoken. Finally, they spewed forth from me as my defenses crumpled before him. “I need
you, James.”

             
Those particular words were always waiting to be said. There was never a moment when they were not true.
             

             
“I know,” He leaned in to kiss my lips tenderly, “I know, Brynna.”

             
“I have never needed another human being. I never needed a parenta
l figure, even. But I need you. I hate it, but I do.”

             
“Why do you hate it?” He asked me.

             
“I do not hate it because of you. I hate it because I cannot stand allowing myself to rely on someone. I hate knowing that at any time, I could be…” I searched for t
he right term. “I could be
damaged
by you.”

             
His warm brown eyes gazed into mine for a long time. He was stone-serious now.

             
“I can’t promise you that I won’t hurt you, Brynna, but I will try my best not to.” He told me gently after resting both of his han
ds on my face. “I know that this is all very new to you. I know that it is something you’re learning.”

             
“Splendid. You know that you are my guinea pig. That eliminates awkwardness, surely.”

             
He smiled.

“That is definitely new. I've seen you use your
disdain for people to avoid feeling things. I’ve never seen you make a joke to do it. That’s far more normal than anything I could have expected of you.”

             
“Well, I am not going to apologize for embracing a little normalcy, however unconsciously I embraced
it.”

             
“I’m not asking you to. See? I made you angry. You’re getting defensive with everything I say.”

             
“You
did
make me angry. I can admit that to you. I am so used to feeling mild annoyance. But
you are making me genuinely angry with your empty-headed sug
gestions. I have always been independent and if something happened to you down there, I would survive. But James, I would
grieve
for you.”

The words being said aloud shocked him as much as they shocked me.

             
“I would be so sad.” I whispered as I felt a rush
of tears in my eyes. Furiously, I blinked them away but they were bullheaded, with a will of their own. “Don’t look at me!”

             
Respectfully, he looked away. My own will to suppress the new insurgence of tears surpassed their own power. They never fell from
my eyes.

             
“Maybe you are right.” I told him in a voice devoid of any emotion. Whatever onslaught of feeling that had passed over me had dissipated, leaving no trace of its cruel, sudden grip. “Maybe this is our only way to reach out to them, to make them u
nderstand. But I have seen what they can do.”

             
He was looking back at me now.

             
“If they decide they want you dead, even with all of this power we have now, you would not stand a chance in a crowd of them. Do you understand?”

             
“Yes. I don’t agree. But I do
understand.”