The Promised Land:
(Part 26) Astronaut
Eden stood up and wiped her eyes
with a sleeve. Extending her hand to Caden, she asked, “Friends?”
“Close enough,” Cay responded as
he grabbed her hand.
She pulled him up and immediately
had to steady him when he started swaying. “You all right?”
“Head hurts,” he muttered.
Eden winced when she recalled
using the block of wood like a bat. “Sorry about that.”
“I deserved it,” he said getting
into the backseat again. “Just forgot you could hit that hard.”
As Eden got into the front, she
could hear him buckle the seatbelt. “Where to?” she asked Shiloh.
The silver-haired youth pointed
straight ahead.
Taking the phone and charger out
of her pocket, Eden made sure they were plugged in before getting back on their
journey. A few moments slipped by before another word was said.
“I don’t hate you, by the way,” an
exhausted voice spoke from the back.
“What?”
“I think you’re really annoying
some times. All the time. But I don’t hate you,” Caden muttered, head resting
on his backpack and eyes closed. “Just thought you should know. Might make this
easier.”
“Aww, you do care.” Eden smirked.
“Blame it on the concussion.”
They went the majority of the ride
in silence, much to Eden’s dissatisfaction. Had she had a way to play music,
she might have played something with a heavy bass. Ironically, loud music
calmed her. Even so, she found herself with a particular melody in her head.
The lyrics to the chorus came to mind after she thought through the first few
bars.
“Cause tonight I’m feeling like an astronaut,
sending SOS from this tiny box,
and I lost all signal when I lifted off.
Now I’m stuck out here and the world forgot.
Can I please come down?
Cause I’m tired of drifting round and
round…”
She almost started singing a
couple times throughout the trip, but that might have woken the sleeping teen.
The poor kid needed rest, especially after his eventful days of fighting. Eden
did feel bad for whacking him so hard. Sort of. It achieved its goal, so she
felt that she couldn’t be too upset.
He was right about Shiloh’s directions.
The silent navigator let Eden know which way to go. When he signed left or
right at any given turn, Eden felt like she was following a muted GPS. She
wished he could talk without blasting out her eardrums, even if just to break
the silence. They stopped three hours later for food. Apparently, the car was
designed to be a getaway vehicle for the contact as there were food rations and
extra gasoline in the trunk. They only stopped for half an hour before getting
on the road again. Two hours in, Eden found herself yawning and Shiloh offered
to drive for a while. She meant to stay awake for the entire trip, but dozed
off.
When she woke up, her neck was
stiff and it took a few minutes before her eyes adjusted to the lighting. It
had grown quite dark as she slept. She then realized Caden was in the driver’s
seat. “How long have we been driving?” she thought. “When did they switch
seats?” Looking out the window, they were pulled up to a large metal gate. Behind
the gate stood a tall, concrete building. She couldn’t see much of it, but what
she did see wasn’t very promising.
“Where are we?” Eden asked as she
stretched in her sear.
“Here,” Caden got out and walked
over to a panel near the gate. Blue light emanated from the panel as he typed
away on a holographic keyboard. As the light died, Eden was startled when the
car stated to sink. Eden struggled with the seatbelt when Cay got back into the
car.
“What’s your problem?” he asked
with a smirk. It was then that Eden realized that, as the car lowered, an entrance
was forming in front of her. Once they stopped moving, Cay drove into a large
area, reminiscent of an underground parking garage. Only this was far larger
than any parking garage Eden had ever seen. The sidewalls that could be seen
were grey slabs of concrete, but they extended to such a distance that Eden
could not fathom their end.
A number of soldiers surrounded
the entrance. At least, Eden felt the term “soldier” was general enough to
encompass the individuals standing on guard around her.
These people looked more like a
group of guerilla fighters than soldiers from any conventional army corps. The
faces of the men and women behind the various shades of camo and loaded
automatic rifles wore the same expression: weariness.
As Caden parked and got out of the
car, a young woman jogged over with a pair of goggles on her head and a clipboard
in her hand.
“Blitz! Where have you been?!” she
demanded with a huff. “We haven’t received word from you in over 72 hours! Do
you know what the protocol is for that?”
“Dead or taken,” Caden answered
while opening the trunk and pulling supplies out. “Obviously, we are neither.”
Eden helped Shiloh get the things
from the backseat.
“Obviously…” the woman repeated
absently as she jotted a few notes down. “Who’s she?” Eden looked up to see the
woman pointing at her with a pen. “I don’t think she’s authorized to be here.”
“She’s with us.” Caden slammed the
trunk closed. Dropping two of the backpacks at the woman’s feet, he added.
“Fully stocked. Find someone who needs them.”
Taking the remaining backpack from
Shiloh, Cay threw it over a shoulder and walked right by the lady. Shiloh, with
his violin case in hand, followed his brother. Eden ducked back into the car to
get her phone and charger before catching up to the two.
“Let Xidorn know we’re heading to
see him,” Caden called over his shoulder.
“You can’t right now,” the woman
said while writing on her clipboard. “He’s in a meeting.”
“Not for long,” Cay muttered under
his breath.
