The Eden Projects (Book I)

Chapter 50. Maliver's Game.

- One Month Later -

Rain.

It was always raining.

Whether it was another odd Michigan norm or rain simply followed them in clouded droves made hardly any difference.

It was raining,

It had been a month,

and people were disappearing.

It wasn't lost on them just how strange the disappearances had been. They were always on watches, the number of men they sent didn't matter, and the time never repeated itself. The bodies were never found, and unless Kasper hunted in his sleep, it hadn't been because of him. Nor was it because of Zero who had spent well over fourteen days locked in a back room. He hadn't eaten in his time there, and never asked for a thing. 

It was raining, and things were odd. 

When he finally was allowed out. He had changed. He wanted to stay.

Life, was strange.

They were all worried.

Kasper and Zak jogged down the residential street at a slow speed. They had widened their search radius, if some new creature had adopted the space as its hunting ground then they would find it. But they both knew it wasn't a creature. It had to be Ark, and the energy in the air echoed the darkness of their future. The sky was crowded with one too many clouds and the rain showed absolutely no sign of stopping so they pressed on silently...

- Zero -

Zero wandered the warehouse. He couldn't leave its confines, not alone. So he wandered about the dimly lit space until every crag and crack in the cement walling that made up the structure was known. He thought, he slept, and he thought again. It was all he could do. He watched the light play over the window sills and he imagined mercy for the flies and small beetles wrapped up in the spiderwebs that rounded the glass. He thought over his mission. No matter how hard he tried, he knew that Kasper would never go willingly, and he was too weak to drag the man in himself. But the less of a threat he appeared, the more likely the people were to trust him. So he refused food and slowly, he felt his body begin to waste. Maybe that was why he slept so well.

The world outside had all but melted. The snow was gone and in its place was a days long rain. It bathed the land and flushed from the trees tiny green buds. Life was returning to the woodland. Zero couldn't explain the feeling that accompanied his concerns whenever Kasper came to visit. Though at first it was only a few minutes at a time. Now he came more often, for longer periods of silence. He would stand and stare at Zero with a sadness unlike any other. And then he would leave, just as he came. Quiet and alone.

They were brothers.

They had to be.

He was running out of time...

- Kasper -

"There's nothing out here." Kasper shifted, watching the rain dampened road lay lifelessly ahead of them.

Zak let out a huff. "Nnnnnope." Flicking his wings out so dramatically that they nearly threw him off balance. "I'm drenched and my back hurts. Let's call it."

"I told you not to come."

"-and I told you that you weren't going alone." Zak smiled his Zak-like smile and itched the scruff that had grown along his jawline. He was abnormally proud of the filled in beginnings of a beard and somehow it made him look less new, he was weathered. "We made it another year." He said sarcastically and shouldered the strap of his rifle before stretching again. This time, he was prepared and flapped once to free the newly added droplets. "Do you wanna call it a day?"