The Eden Projects (EDITING)

Chapter 14. Between the pines.

Nature blurred past their car in whirling wisps. The branches of long overgrown trees teased at shedding their cloaks and tugged at the vehicle's sides. What foliage had fallen from them blanketed the ground in mottled coverings that slopped along the roadsides. The leaves that lay pressed by the elements against the old brick and mortar stuck in slimy bands like tendinous fibers of some felled thing. The trees saw everything. They hid the secrets and dirty lies that humanity had pushed into the streets. Some things, however, only darkness could cover. Like the bones, the refuse and rot which stained the graying surfaces like char. That very darkness hid the tortured and starving creatures that slunk within it. Gnawing and gnashing the remaining matter to dust with their sopping jaws. Yet, in the gloom, it was all the same. The structures tilting and cracking, seemingly held up by nothing. How they wanted to fall, how their stilts wouldn't let them die. 

They ALL wanted to die. 

The car breezed down the road with ease, much smaller than the truck, it was less of a boat to maneuver. It shuffled through passing towns in a quiet crawl and skittered over littered pavement. Archer's trio never left lasting impressions on places they passed through. Though many people had. Street signs left less than legible by poorly worded graffiti. The rudely eclectic decor was spattered on cars, walls, and anything flat and porous. Kasper could never sort out how anyone had enough time for art projects when life sucked as much as it did. It was all part of the whole that made up their apocalypse.

But it was there, so Kasper admired it still. 

This group of theirs, and all its ramshackle felt just like that graffiti. Rude, eclectic, and terribly illegible. 

Zak, a nihilist and hedonist by nature saw little value in anything and wanted for everything still. His was always a yes when it came to experiences, it didn't matter what it was, they would die in the end so he had a need to taste everything at least once. 

Archer, was the resident rationalist. He prioritized reason and found peace in the structure of what was. He dwelled in the obvious and most "logical" way of doing things. He reined in Zak who in turn reined in Kasper. 

But Kasper... oh Kasper...

Kasper was cynical, and however much he wanted to be able to trust someone, anyone.... in the end, only he knew best. Only he could make sure he was cared for. However much he wanted to "do good" he knew his goodness was driven by a want to belong. His own desire, his own unmet need. So he was a cynic. So he was selfish.

Kasper could hear the generator whirring over his head. 

The wind knocking against the vehicle as they went made him think of the truck. His safe place amongst the bags. Everything about the whispers the breeze wove into him. He missed the noise. The wires to this cars radio were damaged and left them without a peep to bide their time. It was making for a long drive on the maddeningly circuitous route. So he sat, tucked against the door and their piled belongings. His face pressed against the window, watching their surroundings bounce about. 

...Nothing...

Kasper sighed with relief. The quiet was broken. 

Hearing "Adam" again eased the drive. The words and warnings it whispered helped with the rush of emotions that plagued him. Adam suited what he was. He welcomed it back and realized how reliant he had become on its presence. He needed it, and it needed him. Today, he questioned whose voice he heard—his own or a distorted echo of his father's.