Free The Human (The Eden Trilogy) by Keary Taylor

silver cylinder.  A green light flashed at the top of it every two seconds. 
    “If I’m not mistaken,” Dr. Beeson said with a shaking voice.  “It’s a beacon.”
    “A beacon?” Avian said.  “What kind of beacon?”
    “You built a beacon to call out the Bane?” Royce bellowed.  Something hot and wild flashed across his eyes.  He slammed the butt of his gun to the back of Alistar’s head.  He collapsed in a limp heap.
    Instantly, everyone was drawing weapons and two handguns and a crossbow were pointed in my own direction.
    “You better start talking,” Elijah said through clenched teeth.  “Or this is going to turn into a blood bath.”
    “Alright,” Margaret said, closing her eyes for a moment and taking a deep breath.  “You have your devices and we have ours.  Together we could clear the entire west coast.”
    “And you were what?  Just going to set off your beacon and hope we’d power up the Pulse for you to wipe out the Bane that would come flooding into the city?” Royce growled.
    “You have a device that could save the rest of humanity and you aren’t using it,” she said, turning cold, hard eyes on him.
    “We don’t even know that it will work again,” he growled.  “It requires an astronomical amount of power that has to be built up over days.  If you’d set that thing off tonight, you would have killed us all.”
    “Surely you have it ready should the need for it arise,” she said, her voice disbelieving.
    “It isn’t something easily turned on and off on a whim,” Dr. Beeson said.
    “Are you really so comfortable here in your little city that you think it safe to let your defenses down?” Margaret scoffed.
    “You’ll leave as soon as it is light outside,” Royce growled.
    “We are not done discussing this matter,” Margaret answered.
    “Trust me, we are.”
    “And how are you certain that this is the only beacon we brought with us?” she asked.  “How do you know we didn’t plant another before you found us?”
    Royce crossed through the group and roughly grabbed Margaret’s arm.  “You’re coming with me.  The rest of you, keep them here.”
    I met the eyes of the girl whom West had been talking with.
    My stomach disappeared when a slow smile curled on her lips.
     
    We stood like that, for two hours.  Guns and crossbows and even bows and arrows pointed at each other.
    No one dared utter a word, for fear of setting everyone off.
    Finally, a voice crackled over the radio. 
     “All newcomers are to be taken out the south entrance of the hospital.”  Royce.  He said no more.
    “I want you to move out, single file,” Elijah said in his rough voice.  “Out that door, down the hall, and through the south doors.  Nick, take the lead.”
    My entire body tensed when all the outsiders looked at us for a long moment.  There was indecision in their eyes, like they weren’t sure if they should do as they were told, or stay and fight.
    I didn’t relax though when they started following in a careful line behind Nick out the door.  I glanced over at Avian once before I followed along the line.  He just nodded.
    One by one, we walked down the hall, descended the stairs, and out the front doors.
    We stopped outside the hospital, and waited for orders.
    Margaret’s form appeared in the door.  Followed by Royce.
    He had a gun pressed square to the back of her head.
    “What’s going on?” an outsider yelled.  Half of them stepped forward.
    I pressed the barrel of my shotgun to a man’s chest and shook my head.  “I suggest you don’t move.”
    “The lot of you will leave this city immediately!” Royce shouted so all would hear him.  “You will head out now or I will shoot her right here.”
    A shot rang out.  Royce darted to the left, rolling on the ground as Margaret dashed forward.
    I turned, my barrel scanning the crowd around me.
    Margaret and a few of her men had turned down the road and were sprinting west.
    I took off after them, my