Escape from Eden: The Original, #2

Chapter 1

Igrip the cold handle of a machete and swing hard cutting into thick overgrowth. The vines are interwoven with each other, making my job so much more difficult. I have to chop again, over and over until a day-old blister tears at the top of my palm.

I lower my hand and grit my teeth. Not because of the pain, but because I’m tired and cold. Every day it’s the same thing: cut and clear no matter how much rain, no matter how much mud. Purgatory Island shouldn't be this overgrown, especially with plants and trees that belong in jungles and not in this cooler climate, but the first Primes who were banished to this island included several Techheads. They messed with the DNA of the island's natural plants. They probably wanted to create their own food, or possibly better shelter, but the results were disastrous. It always ends that way when you mess with nature.

Sage!

I know the voice, but I don’t turn around. Even though it’s been five months, I’m still not used to this new Max. It isn’t that I don’t like him, I love my brother, but our relationship has changed since he no longer has to rely on me. I used to have to help him with the smallest things like remembering a jacket in cold weather or getting him ready for bed at night, but now it's often him telling me what to do. I'm not sure how I feel about that.

Why are you still out here? he asks. Everyone else has already gone inside.

I finally turn around. Fading sunlight shines on his face. He’s bright pink from running all the way from the complex. I’m coming. Just wanted to get some more done before tomorrow. I know Jerry’s anxious to get the new barracks built.

My brother smiles, showing deep dimples on each cheek. They weren’t so pronounced when he was bone skinny.

"You mean you are anxious."

I shrug and look past his shoulder, as if I can see through all the trees to our current living quarters. There are at least four hundred Originals and a few dozen Primes stuffed into several connecting buildings made of wooden timbers and metal sheets. There's always something needing to be fixed on the oddly shaped structures that each exhibit their own personality.

Take Zone One, for example. It was one of the first structures built on the island. It's made almost entirely of a heavy, shiny metal engineered by Techheads. The layout of the structure is organized and holds heat well, but as most of the Techheads died off while the Original population thrived, the outer structures became more wood than metal. They also became colder and more cramped. I live in Zone Three where six sleep to a room, but our room has eight. I nearly suffocate every night. As soon as the weather turns warm, I’m sleeping outside.

Max takes hold of my free hand and pulls me along. Pretend I’m your older brother, and you have to obey. You’re going to freeze out here.

Just this once, I warn, but force a smile.

I let him pull me across the muddy trail heading back to the complex. He's doing so well here at Eden, thriving actually, but part of me wants to slow him down, to let me lead again. He could get hurt being this confident in a world he basically just woke up in. This isn't my only worry.

Max is strong, stronger than a ten-year-old boy should be. He’s also grown three inches since we arrived at Eden. It worries me. Whatever our father injected him with might be harmful. If it was Prime DNA, then Dad may have shortened Max's life considerably. The Kiss, the deadly, incurable disease created by pDNA was a plague to all Primes and rarely allowed a Prime to live past the age of thirty.

Not so fast, I say. You’re going to make me trip.

He slows a little. Sorry, but I hate the sounds at night.

Just as he says it, a great moan breaks through the chill in the air. By the sound of it, it’s something large. I have yet to see what lies beyond the forty-foot, metal walls surrounding the complex. I've deliberately avoided it because I know if I get that tiny glimpse of freedom, I'll remember the passion behind the personal vow I made to take down the Institute.

We round a corner and go up a small rise. The door to Zone One is open spilling warm light across the moist ground. For most people, the soft glow probably looks inviting, but it only makes my chest tighten. Too many people crammed into a space made for much fewer.

I’m going to sit outside awhile.

Max sighs like he was expecting this. I’ll bring you dinner when I'm done.

I sit on a bench against the metal wall of the complex, right next to one of many Rule Boards that hang at every doorway. Rule number one is ‘Work hard to do your part'. I exhale and lean back.

The sunset, the color of a dying fire, slowly fades to gray. I’ll stay here long enough to see the stars. It’s the only connection I have left to Colt. If he somehow survived the fight with the Institute’s guards, and then lived long enough to get the oDNA injection from my father, then he just may be able to see the same stars.

It’s a stretch, I know. Colt was having seizures almost every day before he refused my father’s help. The chances he survived are slim. But I have to hope.

Sometimes at night I imagine him flying overhead with his great bat-like wings. These thoughts often carry over into my dreams where he scoops me up and carries me away forever. But sometimes the dreams turn to nightmares, and Ebony, the leader of the Institute, steps out of the forest and shoots Colt from the sky.

The Institute. I cringe at the thought of the huge medical corporation that controls what's left of the world's population by giving or withholding Original DNA, the one thing that helps Primes live longer. Ebony, a Techhead Prime, was the one who ordered Max and me to be captured from our remote home in Maine. I wouldn't be in this mess without her desire to hunt down every Original alive for our pure DNA—the only thing keeping her in power.

Another moan followed by a deep grunt comes from just outside the wall. The creature is closer. Maybe it can smell us. Or maybe it just wants to belong. Who knows what it was before the island's first Techheads manipulated its DNA. Techheads love to play God, but they often abandon their creations. Very unGodlike.

Max said you’d be out here.

I turn my head. Link stands in the doorway staring up into the sky, his muscular arms at his sides. People say he could be my older brother, but I don’t see the resemblance, other than our green eyes and brown hair. Max, on the other hand, despite being blond haired and blue eyed, shares my same high cheekbones, narrow nose and full lips.

You should go back inside, I say. It’s cold.

Uh-huh. He sits next to me and drops his head against the metal behind him with a dull thud. So when are we getting out of here?

What are you talking about? I ask, even though I know exactly what he means. From the day I first met him, I could tell Link wanted to leave the island. He was always asking me questions about the outside and what the people were like. And when everyone else gathered at night for a planned activity, he was rarely present. I always know where I can find him, though: pacing the outer wall. We often pace it together.

Link was born in Eden along with many others, but he isn’t anything like them. Most Originals are happy staying at Eden where they are safe but not Link. He wants to experience the whole world, whether bad or good. Maybe it's because he's never seen the real world before, except for pictures in magazines or the occasional movie that’s smuggled in. Sometimes I wish everyone here could see all the fighting going on in the rest of the world, but no transmitting is allowed except for a few times a year when the magnetic fields in the air reach a certain level. This makes it harder for the Institute to detect any communication but also leaves us utterly alone on Purgatory Island.

Eden will teach you patience, Jerry had told me when I first met him. I have yet to learn it.

I know you’re not sticking around here, Link insists. He runs his fingers through his shaggy brown hair.

Where else would I go?

He pauses before saying, I don’t think it’s ‘where’, but ‘to whom’.

What makes you think I have someone on the outside?

Because every guy in here has hit on you, including me, but you haven’t even noticed. And sometimes you smile when there’s nothing to smile about. Just admit it already.

I rub my thumb over the line of blisters on my palm, remembering when Colt had bandaged a similar wound on my hand. There is someone.

He laughs. Really? Because I was totally guessing.

I elbow him and say, You tricked me!

It worked, didn’t it? So this guy, why isn’t he here in Eden?

I glance away toward the sound of the great creature moving. It rubs against the outer wall like a cat rubs against a tree. I couldn’t tell Link about Colt, at least not the part where Colt is a Prime. He wouldn't understand and might even think differently about me. Primes and Originals keep to their own kind for obvious reasons.

He prefers the outside, I say.

He folds his arms to his chest. I don’t blame him. To have all that freedom to go wherever you want?

It’s extremely risky, I say, remembering how I was constantly on the run once I escaped from the Institute. If Anthony, Jenna and Colt hadn’t helped me, I probably would’ve been captured again.

It’s worth it to have no more walls, to have real adventures that don't involve map courses or fighting with sticks. I'm so bored here. His gaze lifts to the sky. Why’d you leave him to come here?

Max. I don’t have to say anything else. Link knows I’d do anything for my brother.

But now that Max is here, you can go back out, right? When I don’t answer, he adds, He’ll be fine without you, you know. Everyone really likes him. Besides, you can come back whenever you want.

Could you leave your brother? I ask. Link’s brother Chase is a year older than Max. From what I’ve seen, he and Link are really close.

Link leans forward, his eyes downcast. In a heartbeat, if my parents would let me. Seeing my shocked face, he hurries and adds, But that’s only because I know when I finally leave Eden, it’s to find a place for my family to live on the outside. Then I’ll come back for them. We could do it, right? The people out there can’t be all bad.

I smile, thinking of Anthony, Jenna and especially of Colt. Some are quite wonderful, but because they die so young, a lot of them have stopped caring about each other. It's almost like they've trained themselves to be apathetic so they won't feel the pain when they lose someone they love. It’s sad.

But everyone dies, Link says.

Not like out there. Can you imagine meeting someone you like, then realizing they will mostly likely die within a few years at best? Would you open your heart and give love a chance or would you protect it? Now, change that time frame to fifty plus years, like we have. Most people wouldn't hesitate to jump into a relationship.

Link stares up at the sky again. Sunlight disappears taking with it the last of any warmth. The first star of the night appears. It’s always the brightest. My mother once told me it was angel light trying to break through night’s black veil. As long as it shines, she’d say, there will always be hope. A pain stings my heart just thinking about her, and I wonder what she would think of the world today. All she ever spoke about was trying to find ways to bring people together to end the suffering.

Can we fix it? Link asks.

I don’t know. We need more Primes on our side.

He turns to me for the first time. Do you ever wish you were a Prime? You know, give yourself something cool like super strength or speed?

The question I always ask myself. I stand and take a few steps toward the wall. It would make things easier. My weakness was a liability on the outside and always put others’ lives at risk.

Link appears at my side. After a full minute, he says, I know I’ve asked you a million times before, but how about we go peek over the wall? That creature out there sounds wicked.

My heartbeat races the way it used to when something exciting was about to happen. I inhale deeply. It’s too soon to feel this way about the outside, isn't it?

Come on. I’ll show you. Link nudges me on the shoulder and walks by me.

Normally it’s easy to refuse him, but after talking about the outside with him, something we rarely do, the storm inside me has reached an epic pressure. I need to see over that wall.

Link circles behind the compound and disappears into an overgrown patch of trees. The full moon provides just enough light to follow after him. I step through thick mud, but when my shoe almost gets sucked off for the second time, I call out to him. Do you know where you're going?

He crawls up a steep ravine. Up here.

I scramble after, careful to keep my footing on the wet ground. The top is smoother and after walking on it for several steps, I realize it’s a trail. An old one, but a trail nonetheless.

Not many know about this place, Link says over his shoulder. Kyle showed it to me a couple of years ago. He called it make-out point, but I don’t think he calls it that anymore after a girl broke his nose.

You ever take a girl here? I ask.

A snort is the only response I get. I chuckle. Link isn’t like most Originals. He isn’t anxious to find a girl and start a family living in Zone 4 where each family is given small, private rooms. He wants an adventure first. The bigger the better.

Up here, he says.

At first I don’t see anything in the darkness, but then he moves to the side of a huge tree that butts up against the concrete wall. Just behind it is a ladder made out of rope.

You want to go first?

I peer up, excitement swelling in my chest. I wrap my hands around the coarse rope and squeeze my way between the tree and the wall. The rope gives a little when I put all of my weight on it, but I think it will hold.

I’ll wait for you to get to the top before I follow, Link says as I climb. Be careful. It can be tricky.

I go slow, using my back against the wall, and my feet against the tree to help me up. The rope is dangerously frayed in certain spots, but in just a minute I’m at the top of the wall. I pull myself to the ledge and slide over on my bum. There’s barely enough room for me to sit.

I’m up! I call down.

Coming, Link answers back.

I turn around and swing my legs over to the outer side. It takes me a few seconds to digest the view. Moonlight bathes the grossly overgrown forest in a silvery glow. Large and small shadows move within the tangled mess. One of them, the one most likely causing the noise earlier, is huge. I occasionally catch glimpses of its spiked back as it saunters near the wall. It’s a Tortiz.

Since coming to the island, I’ve learned about the mutated creatures that live here, the ones the Originals know about anyway. I’ve memorized their faces, their characteristics, weaknesses, strengths, any information I can get my hands on, most of which my father meticulously wrote about when he first set up Eden. He taught me to be prepared for anything. Life has taught me why.

I inhale cold air and smile as it stings my lungs.

It’s time for me to go.

Chapter 2

Iwake early before our morning call. The sky is gray outside our small window, but as soon as it glows yellow this place will become an anthill. Everyone has his or her assigned duties that rotate weekly, and we all scurry along, working hard, to make sure our little community runs smoothly.

All of us clean, build, cook, and work outside, but those of us who have requested it also learn to fight. Two hours a day is set aside for training, learning everything from shooting, fencing, martial arts, to whatever skills we have a trainer for. Because I know several fighting techniques, thanks to my father, I was quickly made a martial arts instructor. When I'm not teaching, however, I learn what I can about other weapons, like guns. I don’t have a lot of experience with them. Something about wielding a weapon that could cause instant death makes me extremely nervous. I’m hoping to overcome that, as someday I may need it.

I’m working outside again today clearing a space for the new barracks, a job I’ve been doing for the last six weeks. It’s always easy to get someone to trade with me as no one likes working outside in the cold, but I prefer it to cleaning inside, making our artificial food or teaching at our small school.

I’m careful to slide off my top bunk to keep from waking the others in my room. Willow, a girl of eight, is below me, breathing in and out wisps of her long hair as she sleeps. The other six women are asleep in their beds too. All but one.

Morning, Stella, I whisper as I pass.

She looks up briefly from the lit up book in her hands and smiles, wrinkling her dark skin, but doesn’t respond. Stella is almost seventy, one of the oldest Originals at Eden. She came here about five years ago. I was told that people had tried to get her to talk about her time on the outside, but she never would. Now all anyone ever did was treat her like a piece of furniture that occasionally needed to be scooted around.

I liked her though, her quiet serenity. Even though she seemed content to remain alone, she took a keen interest in me the day I arrived, becoming sort of a mentor and teacher. She gave me book after book to read that explained everything about the island, from our history to the creatures that inhabited it. She even quizzed me afterwards, making it sort of a game until I absorbed it all.

The hallway is much colder than my room, and I wrap my sweater tighter around me. With many metal walls and a metal roof, the compound is extremely drafty. That was my first question when I arrived. Why all the metal? Jerry had explained that it was a special alloy that acted as a camouflage should the Institute ever scan the island for anything unusual. No humans beneath it would be detected. As for any humans outside the buildings, the Institute would expect to see some humans mingled with the mutant population. It wasn't just Prime's who got banished here.

That’s why my father and a few others chose Purgatory Island to be an Original safe haven almost thirty years ago—the Institute would never suspect it. With the help of a few Prime sympathizers, they created H.O.P.E: Helping Originals Protect Eden. Over the years, this program had helped to save hundreds of Originals who were being hunted by the Institute for their untainted DNA.

I turn the corner and head down another long hallway. It’s challenging to keep my footsteps quiet against the floor, but I try. Inside the rooms I pass, I hear a few people stirring. I need to hurry.

It takes almost five minutes to cross the huge compound to the executive branch where Jerry’s office is located. The leadership on the island is patterned after the first government of the United States of America before it was fundamentally transformed over two centuries ago. Jerry was elected president a few years back, but no one calls him that. With such a small population, people never adapted to the formal title. To them, he is just Jerry Brighton.

Just as I expect, Jerry is in his office sitting behind a desk. He takes his position seriously, and the burdens of caring for so many people often show on his ruddy face. Behind him, a fire in a small fireplace burns brightly. It’s about as constant as Jerry’s worry.

When he sees me, he sighs and sets his pen down. Like I said last week, you’ll be the first to know if anyone makes contact from the outside. It’s simply too early. The magnetic fields—

Aren’t ready, I know, I finish for him. That’s not why I’m here.

This sparks his interest, and he leans back into his chair. I rarely talk to him about anything else, especially this early in the morning.

I sit in a chair across from him, my hands fidgeting. I know what I’m about to ask won’t go over well, but I have to make him understand.

What is it, Sage? he asks.

I curl my fingers into my palms. I need to get off this island. I can’t stay here anymore.

He blinks. Then blinks again. No one asks to get off the island.

I am.

He reaches up and smoothes back his red hair from his receding hairline. And how do you think you’re going to do that?

The same way we came. I’ll go through the tunnels and, if you’ll let me, have someone use the submarine to get me back to the mainland. If you won’t, then I’ll use one of the canoes. Saying this out loud makes my chest tighten. The last time I was in those tunnels, I breathed so hard from being in that small space that I nearly passed out. Ever since then, I have been practicing my breathing to help me overcome my fear, even putting myself in crowded, tight places deliberately. As long as I stay focused, I do pretty well.

His eyebrows scrunch together. Either way, what you’re asking is extremely dangerous. I don’t know what kind of condition the tunnel is in after such a bad winter so I’d be risking the lives of any men I send with you, but if you do it alone someone could see you rowing the boat and that puts everyone at risk.

I tighten my lips. He’s right. Either way would be dangerous. There has to be another way.

What about Max? he asks.

"I’m doing this for Max," I say, knowing this is a half-truth. I laid awake most of the night thinking about what Link had said. I don’t want Max to live his life here, not when there was a whole world to explore. His potential would be wasted on the island. He’d never know what it was like to live in a normal home, go to college, or have a real career. This led to the real truth: for any of that to happen, I need to fulfill my vow by getting off this island and helping HOPE topple the Institute once and for all. I know I'm not as strong or fast as Primes, but Anthony had told me once that there was power in words. I don't know what I could possibly say to make a difference, but I want to try.

Jerry rests his elbows on the desk next to a framed drawing of his teenage daughter. She’s a couple of years younger than me. Maybe late spring when the weather is warmer and the ground is more stable. Then we can send people out to inspect and repair the tunnel.

I can’t wait that long, I blurt but instantly regret it.

He leans forward, his nostrils flaring. Are you really that selfish? You’d risk the lives of Originals just so you can return to a world that would imprison you? And that’s if you’re—

I didn’t mean it. I’m sorry, I say, wanting him to stop. I just feel useless here. I need to be out there trying to make things right.

He sits straighter in his seat, his shoulders dropping a little. No one is useless here. Everyone’s contribution is extremely important. As for out there, what do you think you can do? You’re still a child.

It’s my turn to lean forward. I’m eighteen now, which is older than a lot of Primes. The people out there just need to learn to care again, to have hope for their future. The Institute has taken this away from them.

He laughs, but it’s a tired sound. And you think you are the one to get them to care and hope again?

I think of Colt and our kiss. Not that I am going to go around kissing everyone, but when I first met Colt he couldn’t even stand to be touched. I want to try. I think it would be good for Primes to see an Original fighting alongside them. It might give them hope if they think Originals believe the Institute can be defeated.

There’s a knock at the open door behind me.

Mike and the others are waiting, Arlo, Jerry’s right hand man and Eden's Vice President, says. The small doorway makes him appear taller than he actually is.

Jerry nods his head. I’ll be there in a minute.

After Arlo exits the room, Jerry says, I’m not opposed to you wanting to leave and try to make the world better. In fact, I admire it, but I won’t put any of our lives at risk so you can chase your dream. He stands, the wooden legs of the chair screeching against the metal floor. Come see me at the end of April. I’ll be sending a few people off the island for supplies. If you still want to leave, you can go then.

But that’s in six weeks!

He rounds his desk and goes to the door. Patience, Sage. Your time will come.

He leaves before I can say anything else. I sink into the chair. Six weeks? My heart races and the walls grow closer together until my chest constricts. I should stop and focus. Slow breaths, just like I taught myself, but