The Shattered Genesis (Eternity) (71 page)

             
“I don't want to swim anymore.” Penny was telling Violet as she shook
her head back and forth with wide eyes.

             
“Me neither. Not around here, anyway. When that thing popped up...” Violet giggled half-hysterically now as she shook with adrenaline.

             
“I think if I had had to pee, it would have happened right there...” Elijah rep
lied.

             
“You're telling me.” Alice responded, “I'm surprised Brynna and I didn't fall over dead at the sight of it.”

             
“This is some place, isn't it?”

             
“Guys, come here!” Nick called from a few feet away. We followed his voice.

             
We found him standing, surrou
nded by the mouth of a cave; apparently, we had run parallel to the cliff as we floated downstream. I didn't want to think, even for a second, about having to climb up the steep slope.

             
“Well, it's either walk all the way back up the river and climb or try
it this way.” Elijah told us grimly.

             
“Try it through the cave?!” Alice exclaimed in shock.

             
The trek back would be long and tiring. We had no way to camp now, as we had lost our supplies in the river. We also had no food again. However, once we arrived
at the campsite we could look for rations boxes. Going into the cave didn't guarantee that we would end up where we needed to be, though. I was not looking forward to exploring the darkness inside.

             
Just as I went to voice all of these concerns, the noises
of the forest silenced suddenly. We were all on edge; everyone except for Penny was looking around with white eyes. I looked up with my own, smelling the air and observing the thick, light gray clouds that blocked out the brilliant blue of the sky.

             
The n
atives were coming straight for us.

             
“You made peace with them, didn't you?” Elijah whispered to Brynna and James hurriedly, and we all looked abruptly in the direction where we had just seen a flash of movement.

             
“No. He healed her but he never said he
would leave us alone.”

             
“But he let you leave the city!”

             
“He likes the chase, Eli. How many times must I explain this to you?” Brynna barked back in a furious whisper. We jerked our heads in another direction simultaneously.

             
“How do we know he's even com
ing for us?” Violet asked, “Maybe there are others around that they're after.”

             
“Everyone make sure that you can see in the dark. The sun is setting.” Alice instructed us quickly.

             
We all stood perfectly still, awaiting their first move. Maybe we would hea
r screams in the distance. Maybe Brynna and James had inadvertently made peace with them. We couldn't be sure.

             
A scream sounded, high-pitched and girlish, behind us. We all whipped around to see Penny being dragged into the cave by hands that had suddenly
appeared from inside of it.

             
“PENNY!” Brynna screamed, darting forward as the others descended on us.

             
I picked up a thick stick covered in thorns, barely wincing as my hands began to bleed. A man was running towards me, hissing and roaring with spit drip
ping from his large, lion-like fangs. I understood now. I understood why Alice had to do what she had done. That man, given one small chance, would kill me without a single blink or a second of remorse. If it was possible, he would rip into me while I was
still able to process the pain. It was kill or be killed, a very old notion generally used to justify the taking of a living being's life. In this case, it really was the only way. No justification was necessary on Pangea.

             
I swung the branch with all the
force I could summon. The man ducked the swing and instantly lunged forward to tackle me around the middle. As his arms locked around me, I recovered from the shock of not hitting him and swung downwards. The thorn-covered branch plunged into his back and
he fell to the ground, wounded but not out completely. I hit him over and over again until a spray of blood splattered onto my face and he didn't move anymore.

             
“Quinn, let's go!” Alice's voice called.

             
She was grasping the rocks at the corner of the cave'
s entrance. They were headed inside. James, Brynna Elijah and Violet were already gone. Nick, Alice and I were going after them. The other natives were retreating, watching us fall back into the darkness of the cave. They had little need to wonder if we wo
uld meet our deaths inside because one of their own had pulled Penny into its depths and would definitely finish us off. That's what I thought, anyway.

             
But no, as I turned back to watch the five remaining outside, I saw that their eyes were wide in terror
as they watched us disappear.

             
“Guys,” I muttered back to Nick and Alice, “Maybe we shouldn't...”

             
“Come on.” Alice grasped my hand and pulled me deeper into the cave.

             
“I don't know what we ever did to them. They're accusing us of wanting to do something
that no one wants to do. Not one of us wants to destroy this planet the way Earth was destroyed! But that's what they're accusing us of! It's not right!” Nick was exclaiming angrily as he stalked ahead of us.

             
“Look!” Nick and I watched as she picked up a
large stick and Brynn's lighter. “She must have left this for us. Yeah, this is what she was burning the other day to make a fire. See this sap?” She held the branch right under my eyes that were already confused by such vast darkness and their ability to
see in it. Alice struggled to light the lighter and I reached out to take it from her.

             
I held the flame to the branch and watched it catch onto the wood. The sap fizzled and cracked, sending sparks dancing towards the stone ceiling of the cave. Alice swu
ng the torch around to see the cave walls.

             
“Alright. It should burn for awhile. Come on!”

             
I looked over my shoulder one last time before hurrying along in their wake. Both were on their mission to go after James, Brynna, Elijah and Penny but I wanted not
hing more than to turn back.

             
Something was waiting for us deep in the cave. Perhaps it was more than one thing; I had no way of knowing. But that familiar tugging had resumed in my chest, reminding me that all the decisions made up until that point had le
d to disaster. Our group was impulsive at best and suicidal at worst. I was the only level-headed one of the bunch. My head always overrode my heart and I wasn't ashamed to admit it.

             
Now I was allowing my heart to guide me. I would not let Alice face anyt
hing alone now that I understood her ability to kill. I had experienced the same drive while facing the prospect of my own
death. I had almost seen her get eaten by that river monster. I had seen her fight expertly when we were overrun by those Shadows. Sh
e was the one always protecting me and making the hard decisions, though I would never tell her that. I silently vowed to start splitting the heavy weight fifty-fifty.

             
I knew that no speculation or temptation would convince her to turn back. Nick was alre
ady five feet ahead of us, walking blindly into the dark with just a faint glow from Alice's torch.

             
“We've got to start thinking this stuff through.” I muttered to Alice, “We need to start planning, learning to defend ourselves. We need to make weapons.”
             
“Those are all good ideas, babe, but none of that helps us now. We need to focus on what we're doing. We'll talk more about that later.”

             
“I'm just saying. We're only going to get lucky so many times. Every time we've survived these random things this pla
ce throws at us, it's been because of luck.”
             
“That's not true.,” Alice replied with a quick shake of her head, “It's been a miracle, actually. But only partly. The other part is that we're stronger now. We're faster and we're better fighters. We're adapti
ng. It's an even split.”

             
“I guess so.”
             
I didn't actually agree.

Violet

             
James and Brynna were ahead of Elijah and me. James held the torch up and its flame lit the cave with an ominous orange glow. We were unstoppable, walking quickly after Penny. We
couldn’t pinpoint exactly what had grabbed her, though we assumed that natives had been hiding out in the cave, waiting for us to be foolish enough to enter it. When we had been hesitant, they had taken Penny, knowing that we would follow.

             
“I just want to
offer a fair warning to each of you, though my justification is more than likely unnecessary.” Brynna told Elijah, James and me quickly without looking back at us. “I am going to kill a lot of people.”

             
She was right; her justification really wasn’t neces
sary. We would all kill anyone that threatened Penny.
             

             
“She’s just a little girl.” I whispered tremulously, “Why would they take her?”

             
“Their business should have been with us!” Elijah spat furiously, “She’s five. She has nothing to do with this.”

             
“We’r
e keeping at least one alive.” James told us and in his voice, I heard no room for negotiation. I didn’t want to spare a single one. I wanted them all dead for taking Penny. I could feel her fear in the back of my mind. It was distant, like a sickness held
off by a vaccine but still present in the blood. Brynna could feel the full force of it. I knew by the way her body held tension in every muscle and her eyes bugged like she was expecting a physical blow. Once or twice, she looked over her shoulder at me.
I knew that she was remembering scooping me up after I had been attacked. I knew thinking that I was going to die had petrified her. I wanted to apologize, but it wasn’t the right time yet. Soon, the opportunity would present itself and I would tell her t
hat though it wasn’t entirely my fault that I was attacked, I was still deeply sorry for what my almost-death had made her feel. I understood her anger at me.

             
“I’ll stay close, Brynn.” I muttered to her quietly after walking up behind her. She gave me an
almost imperceptible nod in response. I watched as her hands balled into fists and then released over and over again. “We’re going to find her, I promise.”

             
“I should be reassuring you. I know you are as afraid as I am. I should be telling you everything i
s going to be alright.” There was a soft pain in her voice that I had never heard before. Her genuine regret had surfaced because she thought she was falling short of her self-appointed duties. I walked up beside her quickly and squeezed her hand, feeling
that her palm was wet with a cold, nervous sweat.
Losing Penny was her worst fear. I had always known that.

             
“It’s okay,” I told her gently, “Just let me be there for you right now. It’s alright.”

             
This time, she didn’t nod or even look at me. Giving herse
lf over to be cared for by another was not something she was comfortable with. But she squeezed my hand when I went to let go of hers;  I had been ready to retreat from her when her anger and self-righteousness made themselves known. Instead, she was keepi
ng me beside her and allowing me to silently soothe her fears by just holding onto her hand.

             
“Stop.” James held his hand up and we halted but continued to stare ahead with our white eyes. Brynna tilted her head back to take one long inhalation.

             
“Natives.
” She whispered to James.

             
“A lot of them,” James agreed, “Too many to count. We’ll never be able to handle them all.”

             
“Not in this tight space, no.” Brynna crept around the wall of rock that was in front of us. When she came back around, her skin had pal
ed even more. “There are at least one hundred of them. I do not know what they’re doing.”