The Eden Projects (Publishing edit)

Chapter 30. Blood.

- Zak -

"God- I swear to God-"

Zak left the truck. He had driven in but opted to go by foot when he heard the clicking in the dark. He was drawing too much attention in the growling thing.

"-not him too."

The sound of his boots slapping against the wet pavement in rubbered thuds tapped life into the silence. Ace had left him to search this part of town alone after the church turned up nothing, and though he was grateful for Ace's absence, it didn't make the trek any more peaceful.

"I know you're listening up there. Don't do this to me."

He remembered Kasper's face just before he'd disappeared as he stood on the corner of a four-way intersection, looking up and down the roads. Zak thought in that moment that maybe he didn't know his friend like he thought he did, or perhaps there were layers to Kasper that he had yet to uncover.

It was unsettling.

His mind worked itself into a fit.

There were so many possibilities of what had become of Kasper, and all of them could be traced back to Ace.

Ace's tests.

Ace's plans.

Ace's group.

And Ace's unruly leading.

First, he checked the buildings, shot down a Flicker that drew too close.

Then he made for the Tower.

The streets were a quiet sort of empty.

The city was as loud as a birthing room.

It was a sacred space.

Things writhed and pressed at him, and for some reason, the creatures stayed hidden. They were tethered to him by an umbilical darkness. Waiting for input, to be told what to do and when to move. The Alpha had been culled. Were they a hive mind? Maybe they knew something he didn't about what became of Kasper.

"Come on, Kas. Just hold on, I'm coming. Stay alive, wherever you are."

When he reached the Tower, he stopped short of entering. Blood soaked the floor and streamed out in rivulets into the relentless downpour outside, so the Tower, too, was tilting.

"You were here."

One look and he knew, deep in his gut.

"He's alive."

A sureness he couldn't explain filled him, wrapping around his thoughts like a vise, pushing away the doubts that threatened to creep in.

A shudder ripped at his resolve.

He turned back, feeling an urgent pull in his chest.

It was all that mattered now- he could sense it.

He's alive and he's out here somewhere, hidden in the shadows, waiting for me to find him.

Moments stretched into minutes, minutes to the hour, and even then, he didn't stop.

He searched cars, under outcroppings, in the rubble, upper floors, and basement levels until his light had reached every recess there was in the small town, each flung beam illuminating fragments of what once was—rusted metal, shattered glass, and evidence of lives interrupted. When he had finally circled back to the truck, he did so slowly.

Beat, heart. Don't stop.

"As long as it takes," he muttered to himself. "-as long as it takes."