Part 7: Toy Soldiers

The Promised Land:
(Part 7) Toy Soldiers

Eden sat on the ground with her legs crossed. “He took all our gear.”

“Including my best artillery,” Caden lamented.

Shiloh held up his hands with his index and middle fingers touching and waved them apart. After a moment of silence, Caden turned to his brother. “You could have saved the bacon, you know.”

“We had bacon?” Eden asked.

“Had. Now that that’s over with…” Caden stood beside Eden and extended an open hand. “Can I have the package back?”

Eden reached into her pocket and pulled out the odd parcel. She stared at it for a few moments, turning it over in her hands. It wasn’t all that big, maybe six inches in length. It felt like a sturdy box beneath the brown paper wrapping, tied with hemp twine. Eden’s curiosity grew as she wondered why Caden tried to hide it from the soldiers. She looked up at Caden for an answer, but found him glaring at her through crimson eyes.

“Can I have it back… please?”

Eden held the package close and leaned away from Caden. “Why is it so important?”

“That’s none of your business.”

Eden pointed in the direction of the vehicles, steadily becoming upset. “You knew those soldiers would kill you if they found out we had it. If I’m traveling with you, it IS my business! I deserve to know!”

Caden remained stoic, his voice void of any emotion. “You don’t deserve anything. Now give it back.”

She stood up and backed away with a brazen glare. “What if I don’t want to?”

In a split second, Caden drew his handgun and leveled it with Eden’s face.

“WHOA! Hey now!” Eden jumped back and raised both hands. “Put that thing away!”

Caden made no move to lower the gun. In fact, he hardly moved at all as he spoke in a firm, calm voice. “Not until you give it back.”

His apathetic command scared Eden more than his irritated smart talk normally would.

“Fine, keep the dumb box! Take it!” Eden’s hand shook as she held out the package.

As promised, Caden didn’t put the weapon away until he had the parcel back in his possession. His eyes didn’t turn back to black until after he had the package either. As soon as he had it, he loosened up and spoke with his usual sarcastic flavor. “I knew you could be reasoned with.”

He handed the brown object to Shiloh, who had come closer to the pair after watching the events unfold from a safe distance. Shiloh tucked the parcel into his case and slung it over his shoulder. He then pulled out a small, electronic device from one of his pockets. Shiloh tapped it a few times and showed it to his brother. Caden nodded and looked at Eden. “Shall we keep moving?”

“Are you kidding? I’m not going anywhere with you!” Eden said with her hands balled into fists at her side.

Caden shrugged and began walking away. “Your funeral.”

Shiloh lingered behind his brother and motioned for Eden to follow.

“Thanks, Shiloh, but there’s no way I’m hanging around a PSYCHOPATH WITH A GUN!!” Eden shouted the last part to make sure Caden heard her.

He kept walking, but still replied. “I’d hate to be in your shoes when you come across wild animals. Or bandits. Or more soldiers, for that matter.”

“At least they’d treat me better than you do!” Eden folded her arms and turned her back to them.

“Wanna bet?” Caden muttered.

Eden gazed at the wilderness around her. Rolling hills of brown grass and black splotches of dirt spread out before her. The trees that weren’t broken were bare, black branches reaching to an overcast sky. The clouds were not as green as they were back at Freedom. Here, they were more of a steel grey color. Except for the wind and crunch of Caden’s boots on the ground, silence enveloped the scene. No people. No birds. Come to think of it, Eden hadn’t seen any animals at all. Her imagination kicked in as she wondered if they were all killed off or if they mutated along with the humans. Speaking of humans, she wasn’t thrilled about the idea of running into more soldiers. Her last two encounters did not leave a good impression. She was thinking about why people in the future seemed so fond of pointing dangerous weapons at her when she realized Caden stopped walking. 

He looked over his shoulder and said, “If you’re not coming, I want my coat back.”

Pursing her lips and deciding once again to stay with the crazy drifters, Eden shoved her hands into her pockets and marched toward Caden and Shiloh.

“Thought not,” Caden muttered as he and Shiloh resumed walking.

They went along for ten minutes or so before Eden cautiously spoke up. “So… that box… If it’s so important to you, why didn’t you just shoot the soldiers? Or keep driving? I mean, when armed soldiers drive up, you chicken out. But when it comes down to a helpless girl, you pull out a gun. I don’t get it.”

“It ‘s mandatory to give any vehicle bearing the national flag the right of way. I was trying to keep us under the radar. I was hoping they wouldn’t stop.”

“But they did and the first thing you do is hide the box.”

“You do realize it was nine against three, right?”

“So?” Eden rolled her eyes. “That’s only a three to one ratio.”

“It wasn’t worth it,” Caden said as he kicked a rock in his path. “Blood upon blood doesn’t help anyone.”

“Didn’t stop you from aiming a gun at me,” Eden said with a sidelong glare.

“For the record, I wasn’t actually going to shoot you.”

“Pfft, like I’m going to believe that.” Eden struggled to keep anything excessively rude from escaping her mouth.

Caden shrugged as he walked along. “I don’t expect you to believe me. I just thought it was worth mentioning.”

“What about that guy back there? He pulled a gun on you and you didn’t even blink.”

“He wasn’t going to shoot either.”

“How do you know?”

Caden hesitated for a moment before answering, “He was a different shade of blue.”

Eden recalled that the commander’s uniform was navy blue. “What does that mean? You kill them based on fashion choice?”

“You wouldn’t understand,” he said with a sigh.

“I could if you explained it.”

“You still wouldn’t get it.” Caden increased his pace so he was ahead of the two. He didn’t say anything more, just kept walking.

Eden exchanged glances with Shiloh, who had been walking beside Caden up to this point. Shiloh shrugged and some of his silver hair fell into his eyes. Eden thought back on the discussion between Caden and the weirdo.

“It’s because I’m a Pure, isn’t it?” she asked finally.