The Shattered Genesis (Eternity) (112 page)

             
“I understand that with all the tension and anger in the air that the blood starts to run hot and all that. It's very diffi
cult to suppress every animal instinct, including the urge to mate.”

             
I looked at James before bursting into laughter and burying my face in his neck to stifle the sound. Don's words were not that of a brutal, bloodthirsty tribe leader but of a high school
biology teacher awkwardly preaching abstinence. My raucous laughter set James off, though he never quite achieved my level of amused hysteria. Men were always angrier at interruptions than women were. I certainly hated that James and I could not continue;
my body and mind pleaded with me to forget Don's presence. But I could certainly recognize the humor completely in Don's gentle prodding while James barely could.

             
I pulled my shirt on, still chuckling softly to myself. When we returned to Don, he was loo
king away from us.

             
“I do apologize. Believe me, I'm all about doing what makes you happy. You two are well aware of that. But we've got a fight to get to. After that, do what you want.” He turned and walked away,
muttering to himself about rambunctious,
horny teenagers and forty-something year old men who should know better. I practically collapsed as the fit of giggles took me. James was the rock-solid pillar that kept me standing.

             
He wrapped his arm around my neck. We continued our walk behind Don.

             
Fo
r a few precious moments, we had forgotten the battle that was to be waged. We had allowed our spirits to join together in a moment of primal impulse and human connectivity. Our closeness had erased the fear we carried as we both silently pondered how we w
ould continue our lives on Pangea without one another. I grasped James's hand tightly in mine for a moment. My breathing had suddenly gone shallow and I struggled not to stop walking, turn to him and throw myself into his arms. I wanted to cry hysterically
while begging him to come home with me. How could I live without him?

             
My heart literally skipped several beats at the thought. When I looked up at him, his lips tenderly caressed mine.

             
“I'm right here.” He whispered to me. We were close to the others
and he knew that I would not want anyone to know I was suffering from any ill emotion. I needed to be seen as fearless, lest I wished my fellow soldiers to pity or disrespect me.

             
“We're going to be fine. We're going to see the end of this. We're going to
get home to Penny and Violet before you know it.”

             
“Whatever happens, just make it out of this.” I looked at him with the very plea I had just spoken even clearer in my eyes. “Promise me you will still be here tomorrow. You will do whatever is necessary to
survive and go back home with me.”

             
He kissed me softly again.

             
“I promise,” He smiled crookedly, “I'll meet you at the finish line.”

             
I rested my head against his shoulder. We continued walking.

XXX

             
The Bachums' devotion to a higher power certainly pai
d off for them. They moved north quickly with nothing but their luggage and whatever supplies they could carry. I cannot imagine how they survived the biting cold unless a miracle had been bestowed upon them by God or the Gods. After a day of walking, our
heightened immune systems were crashing, leaving us open to frostbite and unknown Pangean diseases. I could not help but worry for our lives.

             
“We have to stop!” Elijah shouted to Don as the wind and snow cast an almighty shield between us and the Bachums.
“We have to camp for the night, Don!”
             
Don turned around to observe the “soldiers” he had such pride in. Several were stumbling along, shivering so violently they appeared to be seizing. Ones that could not walk were being carried; James and I were pullin
g Wes between us. No matter how aggravating the boy’s repulsively foul sense of humor was, we could not leave him behind to die in the snow.

             
“No!” Don called back to us, “They could pass by here! They'll kill us all!”

             
“We don't have a choice!” Christina,
another woman who had joined our cause, shouted furiously, “We need to wait until this storm passes!”

             
“We need to keep going!” Don yelled insistently, “Come on! We can make it!”

             
“You're wrong!” Christina's son, Derek, bellowed in a rage that matched his
mother's.

             
“Just start pitching the tents!” I called over the howling wind, “He'll stop!”

             
I was surprised that everyone obeyed my command immediately. Of course, my order was the more popular of the two. Of course they would follow it. I caught Don's sco
wl. Instead of shrinking back as I am sure most would have done after seeing the overly emotional performance he churned out the night before, I stared back, my eyes blazing with a fire that far surpassed his.

             
Don and I were no longer seeing eye to eye. G
one were the moments of levity between us. He was well aware now that I was becoming the more popular leader between the two of us. I understood what people wanted, needed, feared and loved far more than he was capable of knowing. I could not
help but smil
e to myself. Immediately, I erased the smirk from my face out of fear that it would freeze there. I reached up to feel my nose and gasped in pain at my own touch.

             
“Please don't hit me with that.” I managed to gasp out to James as he got ready to hammer th
e stake for the tent into the ground.

             
“No. You haven't made me that mad yet.”

             
Even in the worst circumstantial binds, he managed to make jokes. I laughed and held onto the stake even more tightly. I only flinched the first time. After that, I knew that h
is hands were steady despite the cold and he would not hurt me.

             
We crawled into the tent finally, watching as the canvas over our head shook violently in the wind. My clothes were soaked through from the constant assault of snow and ice. I turned around t
o see him already peeling out of his equally saturated garments. I began to do the same.

             
“James!” I exclaimed in horror as I tried to unzip my light sweatshirt only to find that my fingers were no longer functional. He whipped around, his eyes wide in mom
entary terror. Upon finding me perfectly well except for the partial paralysis, he moved over to me.
             
“They're just cold, baby.”

             
The cold had weakened us both so terribly. Even whispering was painful. Every word jerked out of us as our bodies contorted
in violent shivers. His blue-tinted lips worked into a frown of concentration as his fingers maneuvered around the zipper of my sweatshirt. He pulled it down slowly and then pushed the jacket off when the zipper finally broke apart. He pulled my shirt over
my head with great effort but the real challenge was getting my jeans off.

             
“How do you like these tight jeans now?” I gasped out, prompting him to laugh weakly.

             
“We really didn't think this through at all, did we? Going north... gets colder, right?
Simplest concept... Baby, you're the genius... I blame you...”

             
“Shut up... James...” The laugh that escaped me almost brought me to my knees. I had never been so cold. I had not thought it possible for the body to withstand such extreme freezing. I did no
t understand how it was possible to survive such an assault on the sense of touch. My skin burned even as it froze, the perfect paradox...

             
“Come on.” He urged me softly. I stepped out of my jeans, holding onto his firm shoulders to keep from falling over.
“That's it. Whoa, whoa!” My legs gave out beneath me and my arms flew around his neck; I held on to avoid hitting the hard, frozen ground. He was on his knees, holding me around the middle.

             
“Easy, baby. Let's go.” He turned me sideways and let me collaps
e into his arms. Being so near death was provoking emotions in me. Luckily, my tear ducts seemed to have frozen shut, forever locking my rare tears inside. My frozen tears stuck in place forever were a permanent, tangible reminder of something I had always
known; I could not cry.
How ironic...

             
James made sure that I was deep inside the sleeping bag before he crawled in beside me. I cuddled up against his chest and locked my trembling arms around him. His were around me, too, holding me snugly.

             
“Remember w
hen I commented on your chivalry?” I whispered to him.

             
“Yeah.”

             
“You just proved it again.”
             

             
Another laugh. A kiss on my forehead.

             
“I try to make up for all the times that I'm a dog, remember? It’s just…” He shuddered for a minute. “…good karma.”

             
“Good
to know.” I whispered, “James…” My voice rose suddenly as fear began to fill my chest with a cold almost as deadly as the stinging air outside of our tent. I would be nothing but a solid block of ice soon; I had always been so cold internally, ever since
I was young and made the decision not to feel. Now I would be frozen externally as well.
How ironic…

             
“
Shh
…” James whispered, “We’re alright, baby. Everything is going to be okay.”

             
I shook my head, cringing when my muscles, also frozen, were forced to jer
k back to life with the movement.

             
“This is it. We’re going to die, aren’t we?”

             
He kissed my forehead and held me to him even more tightly.

             
“You’re asking me? You’re the one that knows everything.”

             
“I don’t see anything right now. That can’t be a comfor
ting sign, can it?”

             
“We’re immortal. Can we die?”

             
“I feel like I’m dying. So yes, I suppose we can.”

             
“Just keep talking. Just stay awake.” He urged me, “We’re going to get through…”

             
His silence alarmed me. I sat up, turning our bodies so that he was ly
ing beneath me. I grasped his face in my numb, almost unmovable hands.

             
“James?” I shook him only slightly. My strength was failing. I could summon not even a quarter of the power I was able to wield normally. I wanted to lay my head on his chest, close my
eyes and let destiny have its way with us both. I did not want to fight anymore, in any sense. I did not want to awaken the following morning to continue our trek to the Bachum camp. I did not want to fight this war Adam had started. I understood that ext
erminating the other side was our only chance of living an immortal life on Pangea. If we wanted peace, we had to earn it. Though surely, there had to be another way. There had to be a way for us to exist harmoniously. But then, was there really? The Bachu
ms and their mindless followers hated us for what we were. We resented their hate. While we lived by Don’s lack of rules, they lived under too many rules to count. We were too different to coexist.

             
Hadn’t that always been the way, even on Earth?

             
“James,
wake up!” My voice broke in the effort it took to speak passionately. I was begging him now, the fear in my heart so strong, I believed it would kill me long before the cold could. I could not lose him now. I could not bear to be without him. I loved him.
I needed him. As I tried to wake him, I realized that I no longer felt any shame in how desperately I needed him or how deeply I loved him.

             
How many more were clutching their loved ones in the tents that surrounded us, watching as they breathed their last
breaths? How many would we have lost by the following morning? Don’s fight would have to be postponed if our number was eradicated by the frigid conditions. But I did not care about Don’s war. I only cared about James, Elijah, and the people who had becom
e my friends. We had family back at the house that had become our home. Violet, Penny… What would happen to them?