The Eden Projects (Book I)

Chapter 36. Blood Money.

- Zak -

Zak, was angry. He took the steps in large strides. Putting distance between them as quickly as possible. Of course he'd go down. It's always down with him. Never up. The railing slid against his sweaty palm as they ascended the cracked and broken stairwell. Odd rustlings of oversized wings and the tinkling of straps against metal buckles filled the gasping silence. He didn't want to be there, he didn't want to be with them. So the noise was a welcome break. Floors A1 through 5 were easy enough, But by C3, Zak's legs were shaking and Rook had to look back repeatedly just to make sure he was still there. Trailing behind them like an asthmatic weasel. Their gate more than doubled his own. 

"You gonna make it?" Topher stopped, not skipping a beat. "Or should I carry you?" 

With a huff, Zak sat down. His boots squeaking against the tile. Caleb was silent. Stuck awkwardly between Rook and the wall. Zak huffed. "I guess I shoulda stopped smoking when I was his age huh." He gestured to the boy who seemed unfazed, albeit a little bored. "Why bring kids anyway. Jeez. Isn't it a little risky?" He cracked his flask and took a swig. "Makes me feel old." 

"There are no kids anymore." Caleb said softly. 

Zak looked at the Avians clawed, birdlike feet. Bandages crisscrossed around their scaled ankles up to where they gradually gave way to a more human-esque skin. "And you with the weird ass feet, somehow makes this worse." Pouting, he looked down to where they had been. 

"Zak, how old are you?" Rook tried his best to sit, his wings pulling in an awkward angle. There was little in the way of grace when you had such massive things attached to your back. "If you don't mind me asking." 

"I dunno, are you trying to be funny?" 

"No. Just curious." 

Zak sat back, letting his shoulder rest on the wall. "I don't know, how long has it been since this all started." He cleared his throat.

"Six years and counting." Topher took a bite of a snack he had packed discreetly. 

"It's been that long?" Zak's tone pitched. "SO that makes me, what, Twenty five ish? Wow, do you know what month it is right now?" 

"No." 

"Oh. Well-" Zak took another sip. 

Rooks eyebrows raised as he adjusted, making room for Caleb to sit. "You and Kasper have been together all this time?"

"Since day one." Zak played with the lock on his gun.

"You never thought for a second that he might you know, kill you?" Topher asked. Obviously impressed. 

"There used to be more of us back then. Now it's just us. I knew he wouldn't let anything hurt me and I was right." His hand drifted to his arm, things were different now, and a small part of him was afraid of Kasper. A flicker of a thought crossed his mind. He could hurt me and I wouldn't stand a chance... but would he. Even if he didn't believe he was. He was afraid. "We had close calls but he could always snap himself outta it. Even if it meant hurting himself." He slid his hand along the wall, taking up a swath of dust from its surface. The whole of the world was made to annihilate his lungs. "Heeugh-" Zak pulled himself up. "Let's keep moving." 

Their steady climb gave Zak ample time to think. What had led them to this point, what kept them going... He would kill to just spend one long day toiling away in his shop again. Music blaring, bent over a car with his biggest fixable concern being a leaking gasket or blown motor. God I miss that. He wanted to fix things. His mind wandered through Archers death, in a way, how a part of him died too. Then to himself, how he never wondered what became of his own family. How that hurt him now. How he had found Kasper, how they were so different, yet so similar. What did it mean to love, where did that end? Was caring and loving the same? All his thinking only left Kasper and himself as a question mark with no hope of an answer. Zak wanted to understand him and try as he might, he never seemed to hit the target. Kasper was unknowable and it left Zak as a workless mechanic toiling away at a mystery machine. Unable to fix something so obviously broken.