Free Eden by Keary Taylor

chill of evening started to set in.  We both
huddled closer to the fire, palms raised to the flames.
    “ What do you remember from
before the Fall?” I asked, my voice quiet. 
    West glanced at my face
for a brief moment, taken off-guard by my sudden, very serious
question.
    “ I lived with my father
and my grandfather.  My mother left when I was really
little.  My grandfather was a scientist, my dad was a
doctor.”
    “ What kind of a
scientist?” I asked.  Just the word scientist brought up all
kinds of hateful feelings in all of us.  It was the scientists
who had ruined our world, our race.
    “ He did experimental
stuff.  It was weird; I was always around other adults. 
I never even knew any other kids really.  We lived in a unit
that was attached to where they worked.  A woman came to take
care of me during the day while they were at work.  When she
couldn’t come they would take me to work with them.”
    “ I bet that wasn’t too fun
for you,” I said as I stared into the flames.
    “ It was all I really
knew.  It might have been harder if I’d ever lived any
different,” he said with a shrug.  “And you don’t remember
anything?” he asked.  “Nothing before you came to
Eden?”
    I shook my
head.
    “ No parents?  No
childhood friends?”
    “ Nothing.  I know
everyone has lost someone, but I don’t even remember there being
anyone.  People talk about electricity and running water in
houses, but it’s just a story to me.  A myth even.  The
world in Eden, the world of raids and running is all I’ve ever
known.”
    West looked over at me and
I looked back at him, watched the flames dance in his eyes. 
“Maybe it’s better you don’t remember.  Not everyone has had a
happy childhood.”
    I wasn’t sure how to
respond to that as I looked back into the fire.  Even though I
didn’t feel cold often, the wind that gusted through suddenly shook
me with a shiver.  West draped an arm across my shoulders,
squeezing me to his side.  As he did, I felt something square
and flat press into my side.
    “ What is that?” I asked
him again as I indicated it. 
    “ Nothing,” he said,
suddenly tensing up.  “Just… a connection to my
past.”
    I looked at his face for a
moment, observed his dark eyebrows, the way they furrowed over his
earthy brown eyes.  His hair fell across his forehead in the
unkempt mess everyone but Avian had.  More secrets.
    “ We should probably get
some sleep,” I finally said as I looked away from him.
    “ Good idea,” West said as
he stood.  We both kicked dirt over the dying fire until it
was smothered.  Even though it would be cold tonight, it would
be dangerous to keep it going all night.  It would be spotted
easily from a helicopter above.
    West helped hoist me up
into the hammock and I pulled him in after me.  Despite how
uncomfortable and awkward I felt, we wrapped our arms around each
other in an attempt to keep warm.
    As West quickly drifted
off to sleep, I felt myself relax.  I considered the fact that
I was going to be sleeping in the arms of the boy I wasn’t sure if
I could trust and could hardly stand just a week or two ago. 
The fact that he had chosen to take off with me into dangerous
woods with no hesitation washed away the majority of any doubts I
had about him though.
    And, for the second time
in the last week, I was being touched in a way I never had
before.  While it didn’t have the safe familiarity Avian’s
touch did, it still felt good.
     
    I didn’t sleep more than a
total of three hours.  Every little sound made me jump, ready
to pull my handgun out and unload it.  West slept like the
dead.  Good thing I didn’t need much sleep.
    We got moving long before
the sun came up, as soon as it was light enough to make out the
trees that surrounded us.  We were quiet again as we moved,
each feeling the seriousness of what was coming soon.  The
closer we got to the city, the more Hunters there would
be.
    We managed to keep