The Eden Project (Books One & Two) Page 10

  Claudia pointed at the screen. “The lifeboat, it’s too small and I don’t see an engine on it. He paddled in after dark.” Doctor Naseer and Doctor Pappas were perplexed by Claudia’s explanation.

  “That means he came from a bigger boat,” Doctor Quarna added, deeply concerned.

  “Yeah, but not much bigger because its lifeboat was just a small inflatable,” Claudia clarified.

  “I know what boat it came from,” Doctor Becker said, with a sense of wonder emerging in her features. Everyone turned to her confused by her statement.

  “What are you saying?” Doctor Quarna asked impatiently.

  “That lifeboat, I recognize something on the back, those markings.” She walked to and touched the screen just above the boy’s head and below the markings on the back of the boat. “They’re initials. See that? E and P.”

  “The Eden Project,” Doctor Pappas said slowly realizing.

  “Yes,” Doctor Becker said, turning back to meet Doctor Quarna’s eyes. “That lifeboat is one of our own. It had to have come from Doctor Hossler’s boat.”

  Doctor Quarna looked back listlessly at the screen to see the fateful initials and the strange boy at the bottom of the boat.

  * * *

  JUST AFTER DAWN in the dim morning light, Gen climbed the stairs to the lookout post. All the boys were still there. Milo sat alone at his console monitoring the screens. One of the regular dome security cameras was pointed at the rocks near where the boy and the boat were hidden just below.

  Adam was the only other kid still watching. He stood at the glass with his eyes fixed on the same stretch of rocks. The rest of the boys sat on the ground with their backs leaning against the glass. Tuna was hunched over and fast asleep. Lexi was no longer with them.

  Isaac quickly wiped tears from his cheeks and eyes with the back of his hand when Gen approached. She pretended not to notice and instead took the pack off her back and set it next to Milo on the console.

  “Still quiet?” Gen said taking out a plastic bag full of stuffed biscuits. She started to lay out napkins.

  “Yeah,” Milo said. “Whatever that thing is out there, it’s tired.” He accepted a biscuit from Gen.

  She laid out the rest of the biscuits on the napkins and then lined up small cups next to each. Isaac appeared first and she handed him a biscuit wrapped in a napkin, then took out a bottle of water and poured him a cup. She smiled to him reassuringly. He tried to form a smile in return, but it was no good. He had long since been worn out by fear and lack of sleep.

  Zeke grabbed a biscuit and held up a cup to her. She avoided his eyes and poured his water. Zeke stared down at her almost indifferently. Sensing his lack of tenderness she set down the water bottle, snatched a biscuit and hurried between Jax and Riley when they approached.

  Squatting down in front of sleeping Tuna, she held the biscuit under his nose. Adam glanced back from the window to watch her.

  “How about a nice warm biscuit?” she said, moving it about under his nose while he slept. Tuna’s head tilted slightly as his nose began to fill with the scents of hot cheese and spinach.

  Still asleep, he licked his lips.

  Gen smiled. When she looked back to the glass, Adam was again focused on the world outside. She could not see that he too was amused by Tuna’s reaction to the biscuit.

  “There!” Adam announced, loudly.

  Tuna startled awake. Gen shoved the biscuit into his hands and went to Adam’s side. Tuna stared down at the biscuit disorientated. He looked up. Everyone rushed to see outside. He jumped to his feet, took a big bite of the biscuit, tossed it away and ran to the glass.

  “What’s going on?” Tuna demanded. They were all peering to their extreme left.

  “Right over there,” Adam said, “There’s someone, a doctor I think, they’re wearing a bright yellow whatever you call that.”

  Tuna pressed his head to the glass and peered to his extreme left. He saw a flash of bright yellow. Someone walked slowly up a small rise wearing a bulky, air-tight suit. “That’s a chemical suit,” he finally said.

  “It’s Doctor Quarna,” Isaac said. “He’s carrying a gun.”

  They all spotted it. He held some kind of gun-shaped weapon in his left hand. Alarm shot across their faces. They were all suddenly worried about the boy who had only shortly before sent chills down their spines.

  * * *

  SWEAT ROLLED DOWN her forehead and dripped into her eyes, stinging beads of salty sweat, obscuring her vision. The suit smelled rubbery and her body heat managed to make the air inside the suit tropical. Each step she took was uncomfortably restricted in the non-practical chemsuit and she had to fight to keep pace with Doctor Quarna who carried an actual handgun and was more than prepared to use it.

  Yet, she was outside. For the first time in over sixteen years, she took steps on rough earth, on rocky terrain. There was even the splash of waves within her reach. She would have loved to just sit there and experience nature even if it had to be from within that horrible suit, but she had to keep up, to convince Doctor Quarna to show mercy.

  Doctor Becker made it to the top of the rise. In her hand she also carried a gun, but hers was far less lethal. She carried a tranq gun. Hers would only tranquilize the intruder which would buy them more time to consider less barbaric options.

  She stopped to regard the dome. Its raw size surprised her. She had been living and working in such a small portion of it for most of her adult life. When she began to walk she squinted through her face shield trying to make out the shadowy figures high up and inside the dome. The kids were watching and Doctor Quarna had already made it to his destination, the rocky patch of coast just above the hidden boat.

  She walked faster. Her breathing became labored. The heat of the suit overwhelmed her. Ahead of her, Doctor Quarna slowly leaned over the edge of the rocks to peek down below. He jumped back, suddenly startled, and raised his gun.

  He walked away from the rocks, hyper alert. He lifted his hand to stop her and waived to her to go back. He pointed to a cluster of rocks. He wanted her to hide behind them. She moved for the rocks and he slowly inched to his left to get past a high mound.

  She crouched down to hide, but peeked out quickly from behind her rocks to watch Doctor Quarna moving slowly to the water’s edge again.

  That’s when he appeared, flying high up and over the mound of coastal rocks. It did not seem human. The creature’s arms and legs were spread wide gliding down like a hawk onto the back of the Doctor.

  * * *

  THE KIDS PUSHED BACK from the glass together, terrified. Isaac’s and Riley’s screams were heard above the rest. Gen was the first to return to the glass, pressing her palms hard against the surface wanting desperately to be out there helping Doctor Quarna somehow. The other kids returned one by one to watch the gruesome scene unfold.

  Riley’s lip trembled. A tear slid down Tuna’s pale cheek.

  * * *

  OUTSIDE, DOCTOR QUARNA FOUGHT with the mad boy who had his arms tightly around the doctor’s neck. The boy’s strength overwhelmed him. If not for the chemsuit’s metal ring embedded in the base of its neck, the rabid creature’s grip would have been too much.

  The only move the Doctor could think of was to fall back hard against the mound of rocks and crush the boy with his weight. It worked. The jagged rocks smacked against the boy’s spine and he loosened his hold.

  Doctor Quarna spun out of his hold and faced the small, damaged creature. The face of the boy was as small as the palm of the doctor’s hand. He grabbed his gun from the ground as the boy tried to squirm to his feet.

  Any doubt of the risk the boy posed had been eliminated and so now the wounded creature must be eliminated too.

  “Stop!” He could hear the muffled scream of Doctor Becker even from within his suit. He could see her out of the corner of his eye. She tried to run, but stumbled and fell. The world slowed down. He turned back to the boy determined to protect the mission. He steadied the gun and to
ok aim.

  The injured boy spun so quickly and removed a golden weapon from his side satchel which struck Doctor Quarna hard in his face shield. The doctor staggered back, struggling to keep his feet. When he lifted his gun, it was no good. The boy spun again in a frenzied blur. He kicked the gun from the doctor’s grip. The golden weapon spun in the boy’s hand until it struck the doctor in the gut and again brutally against his face shield.

  The doctor fell to one knee.

  The boy approached the doctor without hesitation as the golden weapon spun in his hands. Doctor Quarna reached out helplessly to the boy who showed no expression. He had throughout been indifferent to the battle.

  The boy spun the weapon with menacing speed and Doctor Quarna let his hand drop. The Project would survive without him. He tried to will the thought into being. The Project would survive without him, he thought again just as he felt the sudden sharp pain hit his back and so quickly the world faded to black.

  * * *

  THE SALTY SWEAT and swelling tears had made it nearly impossible to see what had happened. She watched Doctor Quarna fall into a lifeless lump on the cold, hard ground. Doctor Becker had missed. Even though she could barely see, she knew that much. She had missed.

  The boy’s head twisted in her direction. He hunted her now. He burst suddenly toward her and leaped up to block out the sky. She fought against a sudden, icy desire to surrender. She raised the gun just in time to squeeze the trigger. A dart launched deep into the creature’s chest just before he landed on her head, knocking her back onto the rocky terrain of the dying planet.

  -19-

  Doctor Naseer stopped for a rest as he pulled Doctor Quarna’s body across the uneven ground. Catching his breath, he spotted a tranquilizer dart stuck in the lower back of Doctor Quarna’s chemsuit. He pulled out the dart and dropped it. He readied himself, fixed his grip and continued dragging his lifeless colleague into the air lock.

  Once inside, the thick steel doors clanged shut behind him, leaving them in total darkness. A twitch of light flashed before a dim emergency light clicked on.

  In the middle of the air lock, Doctor Becker stepped back from a black, coffin-shaped metal container while it closed slowly and made a sucking sound becoming air tight.

  She panted heavily. Her sweat drenched her face. She turned to acknowledge Doctor Naseer’s presence. She walked over to help him hold up Doctor Quarna. They stood together in their chemsuits waiting for something.

  Doctor Naseer raised his hand and waved it above his head. The emergency light went from yellow to red and then the walls erupted, spraying them hard from all sides with a milky, green substance. The sound of the torrential assault of fluid smacking against their chemsuits hissed loudly for the better part of a minute.

  When the spraying finally stopped, everything in the airlock was coated with green slime. The light flickered again and turned blue. The walls erupted with water so hot, steam filled up the air lock.

  The green slime slid off of every surface and onto the grooved ground where more water sprayed clean the grooves into a center drain which sucked down the last trace of the green slime.

  The water died down to nothing and was quickly replaced by a hard blast of air from all sides. The doctors fought to keep their balance against the thrusting air and still keep their hold on Doctor Quarna.

  Yet another flicker and the light switched back to its original yellow. The process was complete. The inside steel doors slid open allowing them entrance to the dome.

  They were all there. All 117. They were standing in small packs. Their manic chattering echoed loudly throughout the commissary. Everyone had seen or heard about the boy outside, the infected boy, the boy with the golden weapon. They had heard too of Doctor Quarna’s fall in battle.

  The original eight were the only kids sitting down and they were not talking. They had already had their discussion and none of them knew anymore what to say. They waited. It’s all they could do.

  Isaac weaved his way through the crowd carrying a step stool. When he reached the buffet area, he set the stool down and stood next to it.

  Milo walked out of the crowd and stepped onto the stool. He faced the kids who were spread haphazardly about the commissary. No one noticed him. He cleared his throat, but they could not hear him over the din of prepubescent voices.

  Ozzie noticed Milo’s struggle to get attention and so he stood up, put his thumb and index finger in his mouth and let out a screeching whistle. The room quieted immediately. Next to Ozzie, Tuna held his still-ringing right ear while everyone turned toward Milo.

  Milo cleared his throat again, this time feeling the weight of all those uncertain eyes fixed on him. He pulled his scrollpad from its holster and turned it sideways to read something he had prepared.

  “Thank you for your attention,” Milo said stiffly reading from his scrollpad. “I have a message from the doctors. The intruder has been subdued and contained. There is no cause for alarm.”

  “What about Doctor Quarna?” a boy in back yelled out.

  Milo pretended not to hear the question, but it threw him off. He glanced at the audience and then scanned his scrollpad trying to find his bearings. “At this point there is nothing evidential leading us to believe there will be any other intruders.”

  Adam noticed the young ones were more alarmed by Milo’s last statement than they were calmed. “He means that the boy was alone,” Adam announced at the top of his voice. “No one else is coming.”

  Gen saw the fear leaving little Ada’s face after Adam’s words. She smiled across the room to Ada to reassure her. When Gen turned back to her table, there was still something of her smile remaining. She found Adam’s eyes then. Her smile faded, but something warm and joyful persisted within her as his eyes lingered a moment with hers. Eyes, Gen learned, had the ability to touch as tenderly as fingertips.

  “Doctor Quarna is in stable condition. It may take some time, but his wounds are all treatable.” Milo smiled while he read these words. He looked out on the crowd full of his friends and the young ones. “He will be fine.”

  Milo nodded. He was sure his words had helped to soothe the fears of all. He stepped down. Isaac picked up the stool and they walked together out of the room.

  Unlike the rest of the kids, the original eight had already been briefed on these matters. Their fears were left unchanged and as words began to flow freely all over the commissary, conversation had yet to begin at their table.

  Zeke sat back with his arms folded on his chest. He avoided making any eye contact with Gen and instead focused hatefully on Adam. He shook his head at him, making sure Adam saw him doing it. For his part, Adam fought the urge to respond to Zeke’s non-verbal challenge.

  “It won’t do any good to place blame at this point,” Tuna said, trying to deflect Zeke’s obvious condemnation of Adam.

  “Oh, wouldn’t it?” Zeke said, spitefully. “That works great for you, Tuna. Tell me, what tech geek first figured out how to reach outside the dome and hack into other frequencies?”

  Tuna sat back, feeling worse than he had already.

  “That’s enough. This is not the time or the place,” Cassie scolded. “The young ones can hear us.”

  “My apologies, Cassie,” Zeke said in a quieter voice, but a voice still laced with contempt. “We all know your Tuna is a special guy who would never betray the protocol.”

  Gen shook her head, very upset with this new side of Zeke.

  “No, Tuna is nothing but faithful,” Zeke conceded. “Unless someone took advantage of him and used Tuna’s sense of loyalty to manipulate him by means of friendship.” Zeke let everyone make their own conclusion before he said it. “We’re all thinking the same name. Admit it. Only one word was in any of our heads. Adam.”

  Zeke returned his hateful stare to Adam. “None of us have been fooled by this new pretend version of you, dude. You do nothing but manipulate and destroy. That’s your nature. That’s the true you.”

  “Give
it a rest, Zeke,” Gen commanded. “You are not innocent in this.”

  Zeke began to laugh and he sat back in his chair and slapped his knee. “There it is,” he said. “There it is. Another girl comes to the defense of her man.”

  The implication of Zeke’s words hung over the table. Gen and Adam. Not possible. They were not intended. What was Zeke talking about? Before the shock and outrage could be directed back in universal reproach at Zeke, the other kids noticed something. Neither Gen nor Adam was shocked or outraged. They in fact, looked like they wanted to hide. Zeke’s implication was true. Of course, it was true.

  Zeke could see the table’s contempt shifting slowly away from him and onto Gen and Adam. Zeke went in for one more hard shot. “And you, Genevieve Fifthborn, you of all people speak to me of innocence. Huh!”

  And then the strangest thing happened. Adam leapt to his feet to defend her, ordering Zeke to stop, but Zeke rose slowly. He rose slowly with tears welling in his eyes. He had no fear of Adam. He had no desire to fight Adam. In fact, he stared into Adam’s eyes a long time. Adam softened when he noticed the hurt welling in Zeke’s eyes.

  “Leave me alone,” Zeke said. “I’m tired. Find a way to get us all killed on your own.” He brushed past Adam and left the commissary.

  * * *

  THE BOY LAY CLEANED and naked on the examining table, covered partially by a white sheet. He was very slight, but his arms were hard and muscled for such a small boy. His skin was extremely pale, except for his face which was mostly tanned. You could see small circles of pale where his goggles had covered his eyes and narrow stripes of pale running back to either of his ears.

  Doctor Becker and Doctor Pappas stood over the boy wearing somewhat less bulky chemsuits. They examined the boy’s many pink scars on his chest and abdomen.

  “This one here,” Doctor Becker said running her gloved finger along a crescent-shaped scar on the boy’s shoulder. “It’s a bite mark.”

  Doctor Pappas leaned in and used his finger to quickly estimate the bite width. “That’s interesting. It’s human.”