The Garden of Eden

Chapter Five

Elisabeth lays on the ground and forces herself to take deep breaths, perfectly content with laying there forever. Dying there wouldn't be such a bad idea, either. The ground is relatively comfortable, the air is cool, and for the first time in her life, it's absolutely silent. Until Josh starts his complaining.

"Damn. OUCH. They tied these ropes tight. Ow. I can't untie it." He pauses. "Elisabeth? Where are you?"

The fleeting thought of staying quiet so that he leaves her to die crosses her mind, but the rational part of her brain decides against it. "I'm on the ground," she says, her voice muffled by the overgrown grass.

"Oh. Why?"

She sighs and rolls over so she's facing upward. "I tripped, Einstein." This is where being athletic could have helped her. She takes a deep breath and sits up, wishing she would've done more sit-ups before she was Exiled.

A shudder runs down her spine. No matter how many times she thinks it, she'll never get used to that horrible word. Concentrating on not falling again, she tucks her legs under herself and stands slowly. "Okay, now I'm up. Where are you?"

"Over here," he replies. She follows the sound of his voice until she runs into something solid. "Watch it," he mumbles. She must have run into his chest.

"I can't watch it. I have a blindfold on," she says, matter-of-fact. She bites her lip as she tries to untangle her hands from the rope. He's right. They tied them way too tight to make this easy. Once she gets the ropes a bit looser, she grits her teeth and yanks one of her hands up as hard as she can, crying out in success when her hand gets free and the rope falls to the ground. She tests her fingers quickly before untying the blindfold.

"Why did you yell?" he asks, and Elisabeth can tell he's annoyed with her already. A part of her almost wants to run off and leave him here, disabled and blind, but two things keep her here. One, she doesn't know where to go and he probably does, and two, she actually still cares about the asshole, even though he hates her.

"I got the ropes and blindfold off."

He grumbles something like, "Whatever, your hands are smaller," and Elisabeth smirks. "Well, do you want my help or not?"

"I can do it myself," he snaps, and Elisabeth bites back a laugh as he struggles with the ropes. He sighs in frustration. "Fine. Can you untie my ropes?"

"What do you say?" she teases, smiling.

"For God's sake, Elisabeth. Can you please untie my ropes?"

Elisabeth grins and begins to unknot them. They're tighter than hers were, so it's harder to untie the tight knots, but after a few minutes of yanking and Josh cursing, she gets the ropes off. He rubs his wrists and flexes his fingers, and then unties his blindfold. He blinks a few times before bending down and picking up the rope. "Keep your rope. We might need them." She nods and picks hers up, not wanting to know what they'd need it for.

It's actually not as dark as she thought it was. Her senses are going crazy; the air is cooler than inside the Gates, there's so much more to see out here, and the smells... The smells are so much more rich than the artificial smells of peaches and lavender in the Garden. Josh grins like an idiot and looks around. "Man, I missed this place."

Elisabeth nods without thinking, but quickly catches herself. Even though it's gorgeous, she's not ready to admit it yet. "So... Where do we go?" she asks. The Gates are still in their sight, and that's the last thing she wants to see. It will only make things harder.

He seems hesitant to tell her, but eventually he begins to walk. "Stay close behind me. I don't want them seeing you too quickly." Elisabeth nods, grateful for the excuse to stand close to him. Honestly, she's pretty terrified right now.