The Eden Projects (FINAL EDITING)

Chapter 33. Lord of Maggots.

- Kasper -

Kasper and Zak shuffled quickly through the camp, each step only drew out more onlookers.  Why had they come here, who were the two guys on the roof there, and where had Ace gone with all his knowledge. 

What did Ace mean by move. What's the next move? 

"That one." Zak pointed to a building just ahead.

Kasper nodded, hiking Zak up higher on his arm, nearly dragging him to the garage door. In one swift motion, he grabbed the metal handle and pulled it up. The door slid closed behind him, leaving only a few inches open at the bottom to allow a sliver of the outside air to filter in. The unit settled into the stillness as Zak crumpled onto his mattress, the springs wheezing under his weight. Kasper lowered himself onto an old wooden chair, its form was rough against his aching body. He watched as Zak began the slow, laborious process of unlacing his combat boots, his fingers moving with a mix of fatigue and determination, accompanied by short groans of desperate relief.

"Riley is gonna lose her mind-" He slid off his last boot, falling backwards on the makeshift bed. "-remember her?"

Kasper watched feet appear below the door and disappear again. "No..." He rubbed his hands together. The stain of rust and blood had worked its way under his fingernails. Is she important? He closed his eyes and the two let the air crowd with silence. Everything hurt.

"I hate Fog so much. That's the fourth time he's put me down like this. Next time imma bite him hard. Chunk Kas. Imma get a chunk outta him."

"Ace..." Kasper watched the sliver of free light waver. Someone was pacing outside the door. 

"Ace." Zak rubbed at his side. "No one ever tells us anything. It's all one big freakin' circus."

There was an awkward sense of knowing in Zak. Like he knew, or understood more about himself than he did. Keep him close. He recalled. "Something's wrong with me."

Zak rolled to his side. For a moment, he was all chocolate curls and whimsy. Then he settled in a slump. "Yeah. Something is."

His mind trailed again.

"What do you remember?"

"I remember my house. The yard, and then bodies... The Flickers... I was hungry-" one hand drifted to his stomach. "Driving, then here, and fire. Fire everywhere and then a voice." His skin crept. "All I have are pieces."

"A voice." Concern cloaked Zak. "Well, I'll tell you wo you are..."

Through the next hour Zak told him everything he knew.

When the memories Kasper recalled didn't quite fit, he quietly filled the empty spaces with small pieces of himself.

"I was there."

"You said this."

"We found that place together."

Sometimes he smiled.

Sometimes he apologized.

"I wasn't there for that."

"I'm sorry."

Kasper let the words wash over him.

His thoughts drifted in and out of focus.

There had been a family.

There had been something that felt like home.

Then he was older. Life lurched forward in fractured pieces, stitched together by half-remembered moments and faces without names.