Eden (Eden Saga) Read online

  “How long did I sleep before?”

  “I was only gone fifteen minutes. You should rest.”

  Alexandra wanted to ask more, but she already felt her thoughts defocusing and giving way to unsettling dreams. She glided across a blasted landscape. Debris and torn earth stretched to each horizon. The sky burned and the wind slashed through her as she stood atop a crumbled building. Below, in the rubble of a city square, a child sat upon a throne of gold. Angels with white wings attended him and armies of men marched in circles.

  As if she was watching herself from outside her body, Alexandra raised her right arm. In her hand was a sword. Just then, an army of soldiers, demons, and angels rushed past her and attacked the square. Blood ran through the streets as she made her way to the throne. What was she doing? Moments later she reached the throne with the child upon it. She raised her sword and screamed in pain.

  Then, she felt herself torn from that place and transported to the inside of a volcano. An old woman sat amongst the lava and smiled at her.

  “You know what to do,” the old woman said.

  Alexandra found she could speak. “Where am I?” she asked.

  “In the past,” the old woman said as her manner grew grave.

  “I don't understand.”

  “Understand?” the crone bellowed as she rose. Her white hair swirled around her head. “You are my instrument to use. Do not act as if we are equals! Do not think your soul pure!”

  Searing air blasted Alexandra to the ground. She felt her flesh burn and she screamed.

  Then, the heat was replaced by a cool breeze and she found herself on a grassy hill. On a stump sat the crone. She, somehow, looked even older.

  “You have done well,” the crone said with a smile. “The Earth is pleased.”

  Alexandra approached and shook her head. She knew this was a dream and asked, “Who are you?”

  Like before, the old woman’s stare narrowed and sternness filled her voice, “Perhaps it is time for me to remove your taint as well-”

  Alexandra awoke with a jolt and wiped some drool from the corner of her mouth. The interior of the small church came into focus as her eyes readjusted to the darkness. Through a hole in the roof, she could see the sky. Like in her dream, the sky was red and black. She rose to her feet and put weight on her injured ankle. Not bad, she thought.

  “You slept a while.”

  She whirled to see Koneh sitting in the shadows near the broken altar. His black-in-black eyes stared through her.

  “Shall we look outside upon what is left of our world?” he asked as he pulled himself upright.

  All Alexandra could manage was a nod, as she was still clearing sleep's fog from her head. She stepped to the duffel bag and sifted through it again, this time looking for food. She found a few granola bars and thanked the owner of the bag as she unwrapped the portable food.

  “Want one?” she asked Koneh as he removed the barricade from the church door.

  He shook his head and resumed his work.

  “More for me.” She devoured another granola bar.

  Finished with the barricade, Koneh paused before opening the door. He turned his head so she could only see one of his eyes peering at her from beneath his hood.

  “Know this,” he said. “The world beyond this door is not the same we both knew. We saw a glimpse of that last night but I suspect much worse awaits us in the days and weeks to come. Whatever you see, whatever happens to you, whatever you are forced to do - know that survival is now your ultimate goal.”

  “Survival...?”

  “The Earth and its denizens are our enemies. Remember that.” Koneh said as he turned and opened the door.

  The small hilltop looked much as it did several hours ago, with several notable changes. For starters, the town below was no longer burning. The area, however, retained its red glow thanks to the sky's unnatural coloring. Amongst the rocks and bushes rested new features on the ground - bodies.

  Alexandra gasped, “Oh my God.”

  Koneh stepped outside and said, “I'm not certain we have the luxury of His protection anymore.”

  Alexandra followed her guide for a few steps and then stopped to look upon the church. The toothless man’s corpse rested at the base of the window. A crimson halo of light surrounded what was left of the building. Beyond the church lay the scorched township. That was as far as she could see, as the sky shed little light upon the nearby countryside.

  “What happened out here?” she asked. “These men-”

  “Were destined for a fate such as this,” Koneh said. “Do not fear sights like this one, as you will see much worse before our journey is done.”

  She glared at her companion. “A journey? Where do you think you’re taking me?”

  Koneh strode to the edge of the hilltop and scanned the horizon. His tattered clothing whipped and snapped as a draft swirled dust about his body. The wind subsided but never completely retreated from the area. While Alexandra waited for a response, she couldn’t help but look at the bodies again. How could all this be real?

  “There is another town to the east,” Koneh said, as if he was reading the daily special off a menu.

  Alexandra approached to better hear his raspy words. As she adjusted the duffel straps over her shoulders, she sighed. “You didn’t answer my question. Again.”

  “How is your Spanish?”

  “What?” She threw her arms into the air.

  “Our first destination should be a priest. I want to know what they know.” Koneh turned his head to stare into her eyes as he spoke. Alexandra found herself paralyzed as she gazed back. What was behind those black-in-black eyes? Before going too much farther, she decided she was going to find out.

  “Does that answer your question?”

  Alexandra scrutinized her companion and said, “Not entirely.”

  “What are you looking for?” Koneh asked as he crossed his arms. The dark stain from the night before simply joined the other marks and tears upon Koneh’s arm wrappings. If his arms looked anything like his face, Alexandra understood why he bandaged them.

  She broke his gaze and looked to the dark horizon. “Answers,” she breathed.

  For several minutes the pair seemed content to stand on the hillock and bury themselves in thought. Alexandra sorted through everything she saw and everything Koneh told her. Her lawyer’s mind corraled the facts into one part of her brain and her assumptions into another section. While that simple logic trick processed, she closed her eyes.

  The wind gained some intensity and she allowed her hair to become unraveled and whip around her body. Facts and assumptions - Alexandra sorted the lot of them until she opened her eyes. Like the ding of the microwave, she came to one resounding conclusion.

  “It finally happened,” she said, more to herself than her companion.

  Koneh eased closer and asked, “What happened?”

  “Nuclear war.”

  With a sigh, he shook his head.

  Alexandra stepped in front of him and asserted her litigation voice. “Now hear me out,” she said.

  “Go ahead.”

  “Okay,” she said, “look to the sky - you can’t tell me that’s natural. My mentor wrote a brief to Congress about the effects of a nuclear war. I read that brief.”

  “The sky is dark because of nuclear bombs?”

  She nodded, “When a major volcano erupts, sunsets around the world are reddened for a time. In the late eighteen hundreds a massive eruption caused red sunsets all over the world. The same thing happened at Hiroshima - darkened skies, red sunsets. Nuclear bombs release even more stuff into the atmosphere. The effects would be long-lasting and dramatic.”

  “Go on.”

  “Well, that’s basically it.” Alexandra curled her mouth into a frown. “Makes sense though. Much more than what you propose.”

  With a huff that passed for a laugh, Koneh looked away.

  “You don’t agree?”

  He shrugged and said,
“I don’t profess to know the truth of all that has happened.”

  Alexandra reined her hair into a more secure braid this time. While she weaved the strands into alignment, she wrestled with the notion of asking her companion about his scars. She reasoned he must have been burned by exposure to nuclear fallout. After failing to find the proper phrasing for the sensitive question, she tucked the idea away for future contemplation.

  “So,” she said, “what’s the plan? You mentioned a priest.”

  “Yes, a priest should know more of what has happened.”

  “I don’t see how that’s possible,” Alexandra said as she adjusted the duffel bag on her shoulders again, “but I’m all for leaving this place.”

  Without responding, Koneh walked down the hill and into the scrubland. Alexandra took a few steps to test her ankle. She thought it felt improved. Still wary of her guide, she kept a good ten feet behind him. If he insisted on keeping secrets, then she refused to trust him.

  She guessed they walked for about ten total hours, with breaks scattered through the ‘day,’ before Koneh stopped to gather some sticks. Throughout their journey the sky remained red and dark. The scrubland Alexandra remembered from her childhood teemed with life. Now, silence reigned as only the bushes and rocks watched over the barren expanse.

  “You should sleep,” Koneh said as he built a campfire.

  With a shiver, Alexandra dropped her duffel, and then herself, to the ground. She drew her hood over her head as she watched Koneh. He went about his business like he’d done this many times before. In less than a minute a small fire was crackling and Koneh sat on the far side of it.

  “I don’t remember it ever getting this cold when I lived here,” she said to break the silence.

  Koneh prodded the fire but didn’t respond.

  “You don’t talk much.”

  He stopped playing with the fire and locked eyes with her. “I do not waste words,” he said.

  She trembled as a shiver skipped down her spine. Turning away from Koneh’s disturbing gaze, she said, “It’s not a waste.”

  “As a lawyer, were you not taught the value of words?”

  Alexandra stopped breathing and scanned her memory. “I never told you I was a lawyer,” she said.

  “You didn’t have to. The way you carry yourself, the way you talk, your lack of a wedding band, the suit you were wearing - I knew it from the start.”

  Her voice rose. “Lack of a wedding band? You don’t know anything about me!”

  Koneh’s shrug only fanned her anger.

  “Well,” she said as she forced composure into her voice, “I’ve made a few assumptions about you as well.”

  He lifted the skin around where his right eyebrow used to be, but didn’t respond.

  Alexandra said, “You seem intelligent enough and your English doesn’t have a trace of Spanish in it. So, I’m guessing you came here from the United States. Perhaps as part of the failed oil rush a few years ago?”

  Smiling, he waved his right hand and said, “Go on.”

  “Okay. You lost everything - like most did - and you turned to the Church to save you.” She decided it was time to discover some of her companion’s secrets. “When the bombs dropped you were burned by the blast.”

  Koneh touched his face with one of his bandaged hands. For several moments only the crackling fire spoke. Maybe it was too soon to talk about that?

  “Yes, I have been burned,” he whispered.

  “I didn’t mean to-” she said, biting her lip and unsure how to proceed.

  After several moments of silence, Koneh cleared his throat. He walked to her and knelt at her feet. “Allow me to examine your ankle,” he said.

  Still feeling guilty, she didn’t protest as he unwrapped the torn cloth that served as her bandage. She watched as he manipulated the cloth and held her wounded foot with a surgeon’s care. He pivoted her foot to test the range of motion. It didn’t hurt as much as she expected.

  “I’m sorry,” she said as she reached out and touched his arm. “I shouldn’t have mentioned the burns-”

  When Koneh looked again into Alexandra’s eyes, his edge was gone. Softness reigned in those two dark orbs and his mouth trembled. Eyes that were unreadable a day ago now bursted with emotion. He seemed on the verge of tears when he pulled himself together.

  He closed his eyes and whispered, “You take my pain away with the slightest touch.”

  Alexandra snapped her hand from his arm like she had touched a hot skillet. “What?”

  As if waking from a dream, Koneh straightened himself and said, “I apologize.” He hesitated before re-wrapping her ankle. “It has been a long road for me, one filled with pain and loss. Forgive me.”

  “Forgive you for what? Being creepy?” Alexandra prided herself on her ability to read people. Why couldn’t she get an accurate picture of this man? Where was he from?

  Koneh made a sound that she guessed to be a laugh. He said, “You’re wittier than I expected.”

  “More assumptions-”

  “Have you always been a fast healer?” he asked.

  Shaking her head, Alexandra realized before she responded that he was right. “Yeah, I guess so,” she said. “Though I never really thought about it before.”

  “Well, your ankle isn’t broken and you let me twist it father than I thought you would. I think you will be fine.”

  Koneh returned to the other side of the fire and leaned against a rock. Alexandra could no longer see his eyes but she sensed he was watching her. To her surprise she found her eyes lingering on him as well. A restrained tenderness hid beneath his scars. She couldn’t deny her interest in discovering more about him.

  Shaking her head, she rested against the duffel bag and closed her eyes. The day’s journey caught up with her like her morning usually did before she had her nine o’clock coffee. She’d sell her diamond tennis bracelet for a cup of decent coffee. Alexandra opened one eye to admire the bracelet’s sparkle in the firelight.

  “Sorry mother,” she whispered as memories of the day she bought the bracelet knocked on the door to her consciousness. Closing her eyes, she allowed the memories in and winced at the pain they now caused.

  Five days after graduating from Cornell Law School, Alexandra packed her apartment. She had a job waiting in San Antonio and was departing Ithaca the next day. Chafed that her mother chose to remain in Mexico during the graduation ceremony, Alexandra purchased a diamond bracelet to reward herself and ease her pain. However, the jewels accomplished neither of those tasks.

  Now, lying on the dirt of Mexico’s back country, her guilt overtook her exhaustion. The tears didn’t come as hard as they did the day before, but she again cried herself to sleep. She dreamed of her childhood and of the happiness she forgot she enjoyed.

  Chapter 4

  Alexandra groaned in her sleep when she felt her mother shaking her awake. Sunday mornings were always the same. Who wakes up this early anyway? Her mind was made up - no church today. After all, she was fifteen years old, more than capable of making her own decisions about such things.

  “No Madre… ten more minutes.”

  A man’s whisper returned. “Alexandra, wake up!”

  Ripped from her reverie, her eyes shot open. She wasn’t a child safe in her bed. Instead, her joints and muscles scolded her for making the dirt her home last night. She rubbed the crust from her eyes and pushed her hair aside. As she propped herself up on her elbow, the world came into focus. Koneh knelt beside her.

  “What time is it?” she asked as she rose to a sitting position.

  “We must leave.”

  After yawning she said, “Why?”

  “I think we were followed,” he said as he rose and took a few steps away from her.

  When she stood, her stomach and throat complained. She avoided the half-empty water bottle she found in the duffel bag the day before, but now she took it without reservation. The water was warm but welcome as it eased the pain in her throat.


  “Followed by who?” Alexandra asked as she unwrapped a granola bar. Then, the reality of her terrifying flight from the mob resurfaced and her heart quickened. “You think-”

  Koneh adjusted something under his tattered clothing. “We talk as we move,” he said.

  Alexandra grumbled as she lifted the duffel over her shoulders. “Do I have time to-”

  “No,” he said as he jogged into the brush.

  “Great.”

  She kept pace, but her ankle protested every foot-fall. The terrain offered no refuge, as the bushes hid divots and rocks. The red sky was selfish in the light it held from them. Several times, gusts of wind almost knocked her to the ground. In fact, the whole experience reminded Alexandra of the time she ran the Boston Marathon - take away the dirt, add rain, and one couldn’t tell the difference.

  After an hour, Koneh slowed to a walk and then stopped near a flat rock. Alexandra’s heart felt as if it was going to burst.

  “Rest,” he said.

  Recalling her marathon training, she circled the rock several times to calm her breathing. Her heart eased to a slow thump. Satisfied, she took a few swigs from the water bottle and then dropped to the ground.

  “Don’t get too comfortable.”

  She peered at him from beneath her bangs. “Why did we just do that again?” she asked.

  “I already answered that.”

  With a sigh, she closed her eyes and asked, “Okay, who was following us? And why the rush?”

  “If your enemies know where you are, be some place else.”

  “Enemies?” Alexandra opened her eyes and watched Koneh as he strode to the far side of the rock and scanned the horizon. He didn’t look tired or even stressed.

  “Remember when I told you the Earth and its denizens are our enemies?”

  She nodded and waited for more. After a few moments, it was clear he assumed he was finished.

  “I hate when you do that,” she said. “You didn’t really answer me.”

  He shrugged. “I am not here to answer your incessant questions.”