Saving Eden

Chapter One - The Monster in the Garden(Part 1)

The midnight air made goosebumps rise on Angela's arm as she climbed out of the cabin window and onto the branches of the nearby tree. Careful not to make a sound, she made her way down its trunk until her bare feet sank into the cool, damp ground.

Angela had never been outside at night before. She welcomed the adrenalin that coursed through her, unable to remember the last time she had done anything deliberately disobedient. She took a deep breath but did not stand idle. If there was any hope of completing her mission, she would have to move quickly. The half moon was her only source of light as she struggled to make her way through the massive garden that had been reduced to shadows.

Daring herself to breach the fence that marked her boundary line, she moved through the dark until something hard hit her shin. She gasped, stumbling, her hands and face meeting the cold, wet dirt. Spitting grass and dirt out of her mouth, she swiped at the mud that now stained her gown.

It was a backpack that had caused her fall. She dragged it over, reaching inside. She could tell what was in the pack by shape and texture alone: smooth apples, rough potatoes, and berries crushed by the weight of the larger fruits and vegetables.

She briefly wondered why her father would put food in this pack before she realized that the backpack's shape and color was unfamiliar. Her heart began to race — she knew the sounds that she had been hearing at night could not have come from a woodland animal. Angela had long been doubtful that she and her father were truly the last two people alive on earth. There was someone out here, sneaking about at night and stealing their food. With this new discovery alone, Angela felt her investigation was fruitful.

Angela scanned the garden with her eyes. If this pack was still here, she thought, it was likely her visitor was nearby as well. She saw a sudden movement in the distance: a shadowy figure raced through the garden and disappeared into the night. The dark silhouette stood on two legs and looked about six feet tall. The bag fell out of Angela hand as she shrieked in shock.

Angela wondered if it was one of the mutant monsters her father had warned her about — once-human creatures born of the earth's decay. From the corner of her eye, she noticed the glow of candlelight shining through the upstairs cabin window where her father, Nathan, slept. Before Angela had time to collect her thoughts and worry about his punishment for catching her outside at night, her father had rushed downstairs and grabbed her shoulders from behind.

"Angela," he whispered, "are you okay? What are you doing out here?"

Angela spun around to face her father. When she saw concern in his eyes rather than anger, she felt guilty for sneaking out. She buried her head into his shirt and waited for her heart rate to return to normal.

"It's okay," he soothed, stroking her hair. "Let's go back inside."

She allowed him to guide her back into their home, her prison. Placing a candle on the kitchen table, he took a look at Angela, her curly black hair wild and her lean legs bruised from the fall.

"Why were you outside? What did you see?" he asked.

Angela was unable to look him in the eye. She knew the monster in the garden could mean danger, but all of her life was out in the open. The secret that there was something out there, some unknown creature that could be human, was the only knowledge she had to herself.

"I heard something. It must have been an animal. So I went outside to investigate," Angela said vaguely, knowing how rare finding any live animal, except for the occasional bird or squirrel, would be. Still, it was not nearly as uncommon as a six-foot-tall figure that could pass as human.

"I taught you better than to go wandering off at night, Angela. You worry me sometimes," his sincere tone deepened Angela's guilt.

"I was just curious. Anyway, I'm safe now, but I'm really tired. I'm going back to bed," Angela said, averting her eyes before walking back upstairs to her room to sleep. When her head hit her pillow, she found she could not drift off; her mind insisted on replaying the events that lead to her discovery.