Tales from the Garden of Eden (COMPLETED)

Chapter 12

Without the comfort of numbers, there seems to be nothing so large as the wilderness that stretched out in front of us. No longer is the beautiful white plains, now replaced with a foreboding color of bleakness. I laughed at myself and my old, adolescent obsession with white. After this-if there was an after-I doubted that I would ever be able to think of white as calming again.

"What are you thinking about?" Jack seems uncomfortable with my silence and stare.

"White." I don't offer an explanation, I can't seem to find the energy to explain. He realizes this, or chooses to ignore it, and hooked his backpack up higher on his back.

Five steps later he asks me where I think we should head. I don't answer, grasping the need to be in solitary with vigor, not even looking at him.

He was too hard, too out of touch with his humanity that his voice made me feel colder on the inside. "I think we should go towards the sides-maybe there's a cave or something. I really don't want to be out in the open." Jack asks four steps after his question.

One step. Two steps. Three steps. Finally, on the fourth one, I look up at him, unwillingly seeing that he was right. The eyes which I stared into were not cold, or inhumane as my mind kept telling me. They were a medley of warm, worried and scared, although the latter was trying it's hardest to be scarce.

"Yeah, I guess you're right." I give him a smile, and immediately regret ignoring him.

He puts his arm around my shoulders and I snuggle closer to him. Angling towards the side of the valley, he speaks to me. "You know we need to make sure we're strong. Not me, not you, but us. I think the best way to think of this is not as individuals and act like we're one...if that doesn't sound too weird."

I smile up at him, and even if it was weird, I understood.

We reach the base of a mountain right as darkness began to fall. I quench the blaring urge to keep walking, to get as far away from that terrible place as we can, but the knowledge of the temperature my aching muscles are the main reasons for my admittance to stop for the night.

Shaking off the feeling we are sitting ducks, I let my backpack-now filled with every possible thing I thought we might need-fall to the ground. The crunch that emanated from it caused me to jump, and I scowled at Jack for the laugh he let out at my expense. "Come on, I'll set up a fire and you can start cooking while I set up camp."

Feeling a spark of feminism, I scoff at him. "And what if I wanted to set up camp? Are you saying it's because I'm weak?"

Jack rolls his eyes at me, sensing that I am looking for an argument. He takes a hold of my hands, completely enveloping mine. "Let me be the manly one here, Eden. I just want to protect you. Don't make this into anything more than it is." He smiles at me and points to my head. "And I think you're so strong, just maybe not physically." He kisses my forehead casually, and I smile despite the circumstances.

Pulling away, I roll my eyes at him. "You're insane." I let out a giggle at his face.

"How?"

"You're out here playing house, Jack. It's a little immature." I hope my words don't come out too harsh, so I pull him in for a hug.

I can feel Jack's smile against my hair, and he untangles himself from me to answer. "On the contrary, if I'm playing house, I get to do this." He pulls me in for a kiss. His lips on mine are slow and confident, not rushed for anything.

For those brief, fiery moments all I can think of are his hands tangling in my hair and the needy want of his lips on mine. Jacks name slips from my lips as a moan as he tugs on my bottom lip with his teeth, wrenching me closer in response.