Part 12: Infected

The Promised Land:
(Part 12) Infected

Eden wasn’t sure how long she stayed with the children. It could have been years. The sun, if this future had one, must have been starting to set because it was growing dark. The streets, once filled with casualties of genocide, were nearly clear. The dead had all been moved away for burial. The injured were stabilized and moved to homes that would care for them. The group of children had dwindled, as relatives of the deceased took in their own. Caden came up to Eden’s group of cold and exhausted children.

“We can go now,” he whispered as he picked up a little girl and carried her in his arms. The girl fell asleep on his shoulder almost instantly. As Eden stood up, an older woman joined them. An orange scarf pulled her curly black hair away from her face. A worn smile was swiftly replaced by a heavy sigh as she observed the kids. She picked up one of the sleepy toddlers and took the hand of an older child. Eden took hold of the remaining two youngsters’ hands and followed the woman to a dark blue minivan. All the children piled in with Caden and Eden. The woman took the wheel and started the trip back. The darkness outside deepened. Eden looked for stars, but saw none. She found herself nodding every now and then as she struggled to keep her eyes open. Before she knew it, they were already at the school. Eden yawned as the lady ushered the children out of her vehicle. Looking for Caden, Eden saw him entering the doors of the building. Jogging around the crew and to the door, Eden nearly ran into the girl in the yellow dress.

“You’re looking for Shiloh too, right?” the young girl asked. Her golden dress and bright eyes reminded Eden of a ray of sunshine. After Eden nodded, the girl pointed down a long hallway. “Second door on the right.”

Muttering her thanks, Eden followed Sunshine’s directions. She entered a small room lined with several beds, but only one was occupied. Shiloh was asleep and seemed to be breathing normally. Caden sat on one side of the bed and an older woman on the other.

“Is he… Is he going to be ok?”

“Yes, dear,” the woman replied. It was then that Eden realized she was sitting in a wheelchair. The woman rolled away from the bed and toward the door. “He is going to be just fine. I’ll just leave you kids alone.”

Eden moved aside so the lady could leave the room without restraint. Once she left, Eden pulled a chair over to the bed and sat down. Just as the woman said, Shiloh seemed to be doing just fine. He appeared to be sleeping peacefully. His twin, on the other hand, looked about to collapse. Caden folded his arms on the side of the bed and rested his chin on them. Aside from the bags under his eyes, he had dust, dirt, and dried blood on his clothes and in his hair. The poor kid actually looked worn out. Eden felt she was seeing Caden for who he really was: a child in the middle of a war and he was tired of acting like an adult.

“How are you holding up?” Eden asked.

It took a minute for him to realize she was talking to him. Either that or he didn’t feel like answering right away. “I’ll live.”

“Doesn’t sound very reassuring.”

“It’s more than can be said for a lot of people in Jericho today,” he answered in a low tone, trying to let his brother sleep.

“You’re still upset about that?”

Caden’s eyebrows scrunched up and Eden thought he was glaring at her for a moment. “How can you not be?” His tone of voice suggested his question was genuine.

Eden was hit with a wave of guilt, but she defended her position. “It’s not my world. What happened to those people is horrible, but I don’t want any part in this. I have a home I need to get back to. I’m sorry, but I’m sick and tired of living in this infected world.”

Caden’s head shot up. “YOU’RE sick of it?! You’ve been here three days,” he said, trying to keep his voice down. “You just got here! You haven’t been living in this world since the day you were born! You aren’t the father spilling his blood for his children. You aren’t the mother watching her kids die slowly one by one. You aren’t-”

At that moment, Shiloh shifted in his sleep. Caden sighed and waited a moment before continuing in a whisper. “You aren’t one of millions waiting… fighting… every hour of every day for a cure.”

Eden folded her arms and sat back in her chair. “Is that what these people are looking for… or just what you’re looking for?”

Again, he left the question unanswered.

“Caden… What if no one finds a cure?” Eden asked.

A soft knock interrupted them. Sunshine was standing in the doorway. “Dinner’s ready.”

Dinner? After all the adventure in her day, Eden hadn’t even thought about food. Or rather, she thought about it a few times in the moments of frequent silence, but she hadn’t realized exactly how hungry she was. Eden lightly patted Shiloh’s bed before getting up and heading to the door. When Caden didn’t follow, she turned around and asked, “You coming?”

Caden shook his head and returned to resting his chin on his arms.

“I’ll bring you a plate then,” Sunshine commented as she and Eden left the room.

“Thank you, Hope,” Eden heard Caden whisper as they left.

Eden wanted to ask Sunshine, whose real name was apparently Hope, how she knew Caden and Shiloh. And who the two older women were and why Caden seemed to trust them so easily. And how they managed to stop Shiloh from bleeding to death. Eden had so many questions, but she was too tired to put in the effort of asking. The two walked down the hall, turned a corner, and walked until they reached a room that looked like a refurbished school cafeteria. Many children were already eating at the long tables stretched across the room. Eden made sure to wash her hands at a sink in the back. She had actually forgotten about her bloodstained hands in her conversation with Caden. Her meal that night wasn’t much: a bowl of vegetable soup and slice of bread with a glass of water. She would have complained about it, but she was too hungry to care. Eden was still hungry when she went to bed that night, but the food was warm, the bed had a pillow and blanket, and she could rest in security. Just as soon as she crawled under the clean sheets that night, she fell asleep with one thought, “This isn’t real.”

Part 11: O Fortuna

The Promised Land:
(Part 11) O Fortuna

The tune in Eden’s head was the same song she sang to Shiloh earlier. She hummed for the majority of the journey.

She stopped humming when they approached rundown houses on the outskirts of a larger city.

The closer they got, the more houses showed up on each side of the road. Narrow streets appeared on either side.

“Take a left at the next intersection,” Caden said calmly.

With further instruction, they weaved through side roads until they drove up to a once-red brick school building. Eden parked the truck by the main entrance and ran to get help.  She came up to the doors only to realize there were metal bars covering all the entrances.

“Ask for Ezra!” Caden shouted from the truck.

Eden reached through the bars and pounded on the rotting wood door. “HELLO?!” she shouted. “Is anyone there? We need some help out here! PLEASE! Somebody!”

A slot in the door slid open and a pair of narrow brown eyes appeared on the other side.

“Who are you? What do you want?”

“Please, you’ve got to help us!” Eden pleaded. “I have a friend who’s been shot and he needs attention. I need to see Ezra!”

The door opened and a young girl, about fourteen years old, wearing a dark pink bandana and yellow dress peered through the rusty bars. “Ezra’s not here. She’s back in town.”

“Great,” Eden muttered as she headed back to the truck. “She’s not here!” she shouted.

“Wait!” the girl cried out, causing Eden to stop and turn around. “You’re not going to Jericho, are you? It’s not safe there!”

“We have to. Shiloh’s going to bleed to death if we don’t get him some help!”

“Shiloh?” The girl gasped and disappeared in the shadows behind the door. With a jingle of keys, she returned and unlocked the bars. She ran by Eden and straight to the truck. To Eden’s surprise, five other kids soon followed.

By the time Eden got to the truck, the girl had the back door open and was helping Caden ease Shiloh out.

“What are you doing?! I thought you said Ezra wasn’t here!” Eden was probably more upset by the fact that the children were acting and she was left out of the loop again than she was about the prospect of being lied to.

“She isn’t, but you can go find her while we take care of Shiloh.” The girl carefully took over Caden’s role as the other young ones helped carry him out. “Don’t worry, Cay. Mom and I will do our best.”

Eden wasn’t so sure about leaving Shiloh with a bunch of children and she really didn’t see how wasting time in the extra trip helped him at all. “Why don’t we just take him with us?”

“Because we can’t keep moving him around like this,” Caden responded, already in the driver’s seat. “Get in.”

Eden obeyed and they were off toward Jericho again. Folding her arms, Eden said, “I don’t think we should leave Shiloh with a bunch of kids.”

Caden didn’t look away from the road. “Most of them are just a few years younger than me. Grace and Hope have done more than their fair share of nursing. He’ll be fine.”

“Then why do we need Ezra?”

He didn’t answer. Eden was beginning to expect silence whenever she asked questions Caden didn’t want her to know the answers to.

Looking ahead, Eden realized they were getting closer to the city. A rusted wire fence, which probably once surrounded Jericho, stood in some places and sagged in others. At least one section of it was torn down completely. The sky was greener here, like it was back in Freedom.

Smoke billowed from black houses beyond the fence. A yellow, triangular biohazard symbol hung on an old wooden sign that read, “Welcome to Jericho.”

Caden, unfazed, continued driving. As they passed the wooden sign, a bright yellow sign read, “Warning! Infected Area!”

“Caden?” Eden could feel the panic building up again. “What happened here?”

“Don’t worry. Those are just left over from the war.” His composed voice did nothing to quell Eden’s nerves. In fact, her worry grew.

Before long, they came to a great big fountain in the center of the city. The fountain was dry and cracked, as if the very heart of the city had taken a devastating blow. Caden slowed down and parked next to the ashen spring. A number of people were moving around very quickly, as if they were in a hurry to get someplace. The people were working, moving objects to and from the other side of the fountain.

“Follow me!” Caden jumped out of the truck and pushed his way through the crowd. Eden tried to follow, but she lost him in the sea of moving faces. “Where did he go?” she thought.

She continued through the crowd until she came to the source of activity. Before her, in a small clearing of people, a number of figures covered in blood lined the street. Some were alive and groaning in pain, but most weren’t moving at all. People were moving in and out of the outdoor infirmary. Some people were covering bodies and carrying them away. Others were attempting to dress the wounds of the perishing. What really caught Eden’s attention were the children, the ones kneeling alongside dying fathers, mothers, and older siblings.

Frozen by the horror, Eden could only think of the words spoken by the one who did this, “It was in their best interest to relieve their misery.”

“Eden? Eden.” She blinked, realizing Caden was standing in front of her. “You need to focus. I need your help.”

Eden barely nodded before being pulled toward a group of sobbing children.

“Can you take care of them while I go help Ezra?”

Before she could answer, Caden disappeared into the crowd again.

She was next to a group of eleven or twelve children, the oldest of which was probably younger than ten. Some were just toddlers. All were crying, their worlds of love and care shattered.

Eden found herself gently hushing the weeping children as she wrapped her arms around the youngest two and began rocking. “It’s ok. It’s going to be alright.”

Part 10: The Catalyst

The Promised Land:
(Part 10) The Catalyst

Shiloh’s bloodstained hoodie was on the ground next to him. He white t-shirt was soaked in red. Caden was applying pressure to Shiloh’s side. He looked up to see Eden and asked, “Where’s the car?”

 “About that… I found a couple of trucks, but I can’t find the keys.”

“Shiloh’s bleeding and you’re worried about finding a set of keys?” There was that sharp tone in his voice again.

“I…I’m sorry. I don’t know what else to do.” Eden’s voice squeaked with terror. She had never seen this much blood before nor had she ever felt so helpless.

“Get over here.”

Eden did as commanded and knelt beside Caden.

“Hold this in place,” he said calmly as he grabbed one of her hands and pressed it against the wound. “I’ll go get the truck. Don’t you dare leave him and don’t ever let go. If anything else happens to my brother…”

Caden shot up and ran to find the trucks. Eden kept her eyes fixed on Shiloh. He was still conscious, but he looked to be in a lot of pain. This close, Eden could see that he was actually a lot thinner than she first thought, almost sickly thin. His breathing was shallow.

Eden looked on, anxiously trying to stop the blood from seeping through.

“I’m sorry this happened,” Eden started nervously rambling. “If I didn’t run off like that... if I hadn’t been here at all, you wouldn’t have been hit. I’m so sorry. I wish there was something more I could do to help.”

Shiloh’s left hand started scrawling in the dirt. When he finished, the lines spelled a word.

“’Sing?” Eden read the word in confusion. “You want me to sing?”

He slowly nodded.

“At a time like this? What am I supposed to sing? I don’t know what you want me to…” Eden quit rambling long enough to take a shaky breath and calm her nerves. After a few seconds to clear her thoughts, a familiar tune came to mind.

“Okay.”

With another deep breath, she starting singing softly, “I am a poor wayfaring stranger just traveling through this world of woe, but there’s no sickness toil or danger in that bright land to which I go.” She sung a little louder at the chorus.

“I’m going there to see my father. I’m going there no more to roam. I’m only going over Jordan. I’m only going over home.”

Her voice started quivering with just the mention of home. Turning her mind back to Shiloh, she couldn’t help but think of what would happen if he died right in front of her. Feeling tears start to well up, she continued singing. “I know dark clouds will gather round me. I know my way is rough and steep, but golden fields lie out before me where the redeemed shall ever sleep.”

She was sniffling by the time she came to the chorus. “I’m going there to see my mother. I’m going there no more to roam. I’m only going over Jordan. I’m only going over home.”

She found herself mentally pleading, “Please don’t let him die. Not here. Not now. Please.”

Eden was familiar with loss, but funeral parlors and formalities had a way of diminishing the battle between life and death. She could see the war in front of her and she was terrified of losing.

“When did children become soldiers?” she thought to herself. “These kids should be playing football in a grassy backyard with other children their age, not getting shot at. Shiloh needs a mother to comfort him in time of pain, not a lost college student. Caden needs a father to protect him from the harshness of this world, not a loaded gun. Where did things go so wrong?”

She dared not sing the last verse for fear that Shiloh would actually fade as she sang, so she sang the chorus again. “I’m going there to see my father. I’m going there no more to roam. I’m only going over Jordan. I’m only going over home.”

As she finished, the roar of an engine grew louder and a dingy red, four-door truck pulled up. Caden hopped out of the driver’s seat and opened the backseat door.

“Here’s the plan,” he said as he rushed back to his brother. “We need to get him into the truck. You keep the pressure on his wound. Whatever you do, don’t let go. Come on, Shy. We need to get you help.”

Ever so slowly, with Eden pressing firmly against Shiloh’s side to keep the blood at bay, Caden transported his brother by piggyback to the backseat of the truck. The whole process probably took about five minutes, but it felt like an eternity to Eden. Once they were in the backseat, she desperately wanted to change her job for another.

After Caden returned with all their belongings, Eden asked, “Can we trade? I’ll drive.”

Tossing their stuff in the back, Caden took over for her and she went around to the front. She wiped her shaking, blood-coated hands on her jeans and wiped the tears from her face. As soon as she was in the driver’s seat, Caden said, “We need to get on the road in front of us and follow it until we reach Jericho. I’ll tell you where to go from there.”

She nodded and drove off. A few minutes in, Eden realized Caden was staring at her through the rearview mirror with red eyes and a weird expression.

“What?”

“Nothing.” His eyes returned to normal. “I’m just confused. You keep changing colors.”

“What color now?”

“Orange.”

“Is that better than grey?”

“Always. Orange is a good color.”

“I don’t know why it changed.” Eden said as she looked back at the road. “How is he?”

Eden could see a pale hand lifting a thumbs-up in the back.

She heard Caden whisper, “Liar.”

The vehicle was swallowed in silence as they continued down the road. Silence led to contemplation and wandering thoughts led to worry. No longer able to stand the quiet, Eden began humming.

Part 9: Dead Man

The Promised Land:
(Part 9) Dead Man

Eden ran around the truck and ducked behind a broken wall. She peered over the crumbling brick to look for Caden. A few toppled cars littered the ground in front of her hiding place. There he was, huddled behind a smashed vehicle with his weapons ready. A few more shots went off from an unknown location. With a deep breath, Caden spun out from behind his shelter and ran into enemy fire. Swerving to the sound of gunshots, Caden leapt to the hood and top of a car. Without missing a beat, he somersaulted over the side, shot three bullets from each gun mid-flip, and rolled into a crouch when he landed with two dead men behind him. Sprinting once again, Caden fired into enemies on either side as he ran by their rubble hideaways. He darted into an opening of a two-story building with a large chunk of wall taken out of the corner. Eden could still hear gunshots, but she couldn’t see where Caden disappeared to. Within a few minutes, she spotted him on the rooftop. He jumped from the roof to a barren flagpole and slid down like a firefighter. Upon reaching the ground, he stood straight and rolled his shoulders back. Walking back to the truck, Caden scooped up a rifle and rested it on his right shoulder.

“How can a preteen have that much skill?” Eden asked herself in surprise. She was both amazed and terrified by what she just witnessed. “Were this a movie, I wouldn’t think twice about it.” Eden wasn’t quite sure if this increased or decreased her trust in these two mysterious wanderers. She turned around and screamed when she saw a pale and silver face in front of hers. Shiloh jumped back with his eyes incredibly wide. Apparently, he hadn’t expected her to turn around so fast, just as she hadn’t expected him to be standing behind her.
“Sorry, Shiloh,” Eden said as she tried to get her breathing under control again. “You scared me.”

With a sheepish grin, he handed her the jean jacket she left behind.

“Oh, thanks.” As Eden took the article, something touched her shoulder and she spun around, screaming a second time.

Caden stood back with his hands up. “Jumpy much?”

Eden didn’t realize he was wearing fingerless gloves until just now. She wondered if he had them on the whole time or if he put them on when she wasn’t looking. His dark eyes were red, presumably from use in his little escapade.

“I-I just…” In her anxiety, Eden failed a few times in trying to get her arm through the sleeve. She almost put it on backwards at one point. “Never mind. How old are you?”

Caden tilted his head. “Sixteen. Why?”

“How in the world did you do that?”

“…Do what?” His confused expression melted into a smirk, which Eden found entirely obnoxious.

She crossed her arms and frowned. “You know very well what. The Jason Bourne, ninja-spawn moves!”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Caden shook his head and turned to look at the scene.

“Yes, you do!”

“Hush.” Caden dropped the rifle from its resting position on his shoulder and glanced around suspiciously. He was tense, but Eden remained oblivious.

“I most certainly will not hush. You can get yourself ki-”

“Would you just-”

Something tackled Eden just as gunfire exploded. A sharp yell blasted through her eardrums. With her hands pressed firmly against her ringing ears, Eden vaguely heard Caden fire back. Whatever force knocked her to the ground kept her pinned down. Eden had no idea where the sound blasted from, but her ears were ringing like crazy. For a moment, she thought she was going deaf. She kept her eyes shut and curled into a ball as soon as the pressure holding her down was lifted. When she cracked her eyes open, she realized something was terribly wrong. Ears still roaring and panic building, Eden sat up with her hands still clamped against her head.

Shiloh was lying on his side with Caden kneeling beside him, speaking quietly. Shiloh would slowly nod or shake his head every now and then, but his face was scrunched in pain the whole time. As the ringing died down, Eden removed her hands and crept closer.

A splotch of red was quickly spreading across Shiloh’s grey hoodie.

Stunned, Eden was paralyzed with fear. “Is he… is he ok?”

Eden glanced up to find Caden’s red glare burning through her.

“Instead of sitting here,” he said in a calm, but stern manner, “why don’t you make yourself useful and go find a car that works?”

Eden gulped. “But… what if there are more guys with guns?”

“Then use yourself as a meat shield next time.” Caden’s attention turned back to his brother. Hurt, Eden felt tears welling up as she stood. After all, it wasn’t her fault that Shiloh was injured. Right? She never asked for his protection. She didn’t even ask to be here. Everything was going just fine until she woke up in this nightmare. Nevertheless, Eden obeyed and started her search.

She hoped Shiloh would be ok. If he wasn’t… She tried not to think about it. She crept between bodies and debris. It was deathly quiet and, without Caden’s heavy coat over her thin jacket, she was cold again. She wondered if the whole country was this way: cold, dry, silent, and dead. Eden wished for something living. She wanted to see green grass, blue sky, and yellow flowers again. Thinking back to her task, Eden found two trucks that looked semi-decent parked behind a large, bare tree. They were both unlocked and the windows were down, but Eden couldn’t find keys for either one. Picturing the missing keys on a dead body somewhere disturbed her. She didn’t know how to hotwire a truck and didn’t think she could figure it out on the first try. She continued her search, but only came up with rubble. Eden made her way back to the twins. Shiloh was lying on his back now, but he looked like he was in even more pain than before. He winced with every breath. Caden ignored Eden’s approach entirely and continued whispered to Shiloh. The only words Eden caught were, “…blockhead…sacrifice…hero…Dad…”