The Far Side of Eden, Part 2: The Extra

So this won't be up forever. I'm looking for some beta reads on this story before I give a final revision and send it in. I'd love to hear your thoughts! I'm more than willing to give critiques of your work in exchange as well. Just drop links in your comment! ~Dylon

We walk along a charred path. Piles of rubble and half-burned buildings smoulder around us. Sheridan seems more than pleased with herself, walking hand in hand with the little girl. Liza jumps about, anxious, or perhaps concerned. I give her a look and she doesn't notice. She doesn’t mention how there is nothing to burn; how she itches to continue razing the town. I try to resist picking up her thoughts. It isn't about privacy. I just like hearing her voice.

"Liza?" I say, and her face turns to lock eyes with mine.

She senses my question, "I can't imagine how a child survived this."

"It talks?" Sheridan asks.

I scoff, then reply with a smile, "Can you not communicate with Djinn?"

"Yes, but that doesn't mean he speaks English," she says, giving a smile of her own. She looks Liza over, her wonder overcoming her better judgment, "What are you?"

Liza glances at me then moves along the path ahead of us. Sheridan moves closer when I speak, "When I was a kid, I liked playing with fire. I’d steal dad’s matches and light piles of brush just to watch it burn,"

Sheridan keeps her eyes ahead, focusing on Liza, "Most people in sanitation suffer from Pyromania."

I nodded, "I stared for hours. Got into some trouble, as well." Sheridan raises an eyebrow, and I hastily defend myself, "I never hurt anyone. That's not what pyromania is. I learned how to control myself. Met Liza just before college."

I pause, reliving the memory with a grin, "Liza liked fire too. We’d sneak out late, start fires in dumpsters, and wherever else. It didn't matter. Fire was a part of our life. To say we were soulmates wouldn't cover it."

Sheridan took occasional glances at Candida, checking up on her before speaking, "Then she died?"

I nod, "After three years. Do you remember The Charlotte Fever?"

Sheridan nods, "That one was rough, I operated the medical wards outside of town. I joined Ignis a few months before."

"I didn't join Crucible till after the fever hit." I say, "Liza died in the first wave."

"I'm sorry."

"Don't be, I wasn't upset for long," I reply, my attention focusing on the woman of flame ahead of me, "I saw her all the time. She spoke to me through the flames. One day she made an offer."

"A demon then?" Sheridan asks, "I guess that depends on the offer. Sorry, I just find it hard to believe."

"You're not going to offend me," I say, turning to her. "She offered to stay with me, bind herself to me in exchange for the same. I don't think she's a demon or a spirit. I don't know what she is." I laughed, "She called it 'renewing our wedding vows,' and I agreed. "

"Have you asked around? There are other organizations in the world. Some may know what she is."

"Never bothered. The world got a lot bigger when I joined Crucible. I don't have the stomach for more."

This was only half true. Something in me didn't want to know. What if she was a demon? What if she was only a spirit? "I don't care if it's her or not," I say. "If she isn't, she still gave me an impossible vengeance against what killed my wife." I look up and force a smile, "That counts for something, right?”

"It's possible she could be the real thing," Sheridan replies. Djinn flies around Candida. The girl chases him in circles, giggling, "Stranger things have happened."

I smile and nod, "True. What about you? What's your story?"

She fidgeted with her hands, her body stiffening. She spoke only when she felt confident about what to say, "My story isn't as tragic. Djinn has been around my family for a while. He's a family heirloom." I turn to and tilt my head. "The pact we take is renewed with each generation," she says.

"I've never heard of that before."

"Ash spirits are rare to begin with," she says. "He lived in our fireplace. He's kinda like a house spirit, or a protector of the hearth."

I start to speak but my smile fades. I stop walking, picking up on Liza’s moment of shock. I look ahead and notice she’s already near the camp. I pick up on her rage, and peer through her eyes.

"Bradley?" Sheridan said.

"Sorry, I'm not ignoring you. Something's up." I reply. Sheridan glances ahead, and calls the girl over on instinct while bringing her rifle up. I watch, holding my hand out in front of Sheridan and the girl.

"What?" Sheridan asked.

"The camp is gone," I say, taking in the sight, "Let me go check it out."

Sheridan nods and begins to sign for the girl. I dash forward, reach the campsite, and inspect the scene. I see the results of a slaughter. The bodies linger, their wounds infected and sprouting fungal flowers. Cuts in their skin bled out onto the grass. Some bodies are incomplete, torn apart and cast aside. Spores struggle to spread through the corpses and fly off to latch onto trees and grass. Liza takes action first, burning everything in sight as I take a closer look at the wounds.

Judging by the broken bones and bruising, the culprit was massive. I feel my heart race as I think of the possibilities. Liza finds a home in the flames, burning the spores away with ease. I realize I'm outside of the blackout zone and reach for my wrist. I use the phone to take photos of the scene and send them in a message. I call, and wait for an answer.

"Crucible," says the woman on the other end.

"This is Agent Bradley. We have a problem."

"Go on," she says.

"We found the survivor, but something attacked our camp. It killed everyone, and it was infected."

She speaks after a moment of silence, "You're dealing with a Five Point incident, right? What you're saying isn't possible,"

"Check the inbox."

After another moment of silence, she sighs, "It's mutating."

"Yes," I reply. "Probably local wildlife. We haven't seen it yet."

"Kill it if you can," she replies. "If not, evacuate. I'll notify camps in the area to keep an eye out."

I know she can't see me, but I shake my head on instinct, "No, tell them to evacuate."

"Why?" She asks.

I kick bullet casings as I pace around the site, "They aren't equipped to handle this. We need Crucible agents, maybe more."

"Nearest agent is two hours out," she says. "Another will be there in three. You're on your own, for now."

"Set up an evacuation zone." I say, turning from the site to make my way back. "We can extract the survivor and stay behind."

I hear the hesitation in her voice, "Bradley, this development concerns those upstairs. The pathogen doesn't normally behave this way. The Board just sent a memo and-"

"They think the girl is dangerous?" I ask.

"Can't be a coincidence," she says. "A single case of immunity, and the virus might have extras? I'd observe the girl closely."

"Understood," I reply.

"I'll set an evacuation zone on the far side of town."

After hanging up, Liza phases back to the candle. I try to suppress my suspicion when I meet up with Sheridan.

"Five Point mutated." I begin. "Apparently it has extras."

"Possession, or creation?" Sheridan asks.

"No idea," I reply.

My mind strains as I ponder the implications of my words. When we say 'extras,' we refer to any additional entity connected to a pathogen. Some contagions can possess or produce entities that are just as dangerous as the contagion itself. These entities spread the contagion, and are often hard to kill on principle.

Sheridan sighed, "Any idea how many?"

I shake my head, "I want to say one. Evac is on the other side of town, We have to cut through Eden."

"Why so far?" Sheridan asked.

I struggled to find an answer, making the mistake of averting my eyes from hers.

"Son of a bitch," she says. "You can't be serious."

The little girl moves her hands and Sheridan quickly responds. I don't know what she's saying, but I know she lied. She can't look the girl in the eye and her hands move slow as she struggles to find the words.

"What is it?" I ask.

"She wants to know why I'm upset. She's afraid of the monster. I guess that's our extra," Sheridan replies.

"She can read lips?" I ask.

"Barely."

I nod, tapping the phone screen to bring up a map of the town. I plot a route, and we begin another long march. My feet are sore, my legs burning. I set fire to everything along the way to occupy my thoughts.

The girl looks on with a frown. It takes me a moment to notice. The realization brings joy, but sadness swiftly counters it. If she's my enemy, she remains forced to watch me burn her existence away as she keeps up the facade. If she's a friend; an innocent victim, she watches as I burn away everything she knows and loves.

I release the trigger. Liza stops as well, filled with the same sadness.

"Something wrong?" Sheridan asked.

I glance at my reserves of ammunition and realize we have plenty to spare, "We don't know what attacked the camp. We need to be cautious and conserve ammunition."

"Are you low?" she asks, her voice raised with her hands on her hips.

"I may have been a little reckless when we breached the hive,” I reply.

"I hope it'll be enough."

"Depends on how difficult this is to take down," I reply.

We advance, leaving the fires behind to spread on their own. Liza and Djinn spend time entertaining the child while Sheridan and I keep a close watch on our surroundings. Each building stands in a state of decay, the glossy black growths bulge and stretch along brick and wood. They squirm as they spread the spores. Our companions lead the girl further away from us. Sheridan and I slow our pace.

"Do you think she's more than just a girl?" Sheridan asks.

"Yes, but I don't know what that means." I reply, watching Candida chase Djinn in circles. Liza tries to listen, judging how easy it is to hear us. I shake my head, "If she's acting, she's damn good at it. How would she know sign language if she wasn't?"

"I don't know. How can we be sure?" Sheridan asks.

"We can't just ask and show our hand. Maybe you could take a sample,"

"What?"

"A blood sample. Maybe urine, or hair." I reply. "Anything we can study."

"Study with what?" she began. "We don't have the equipment. No microscope, no-"

I laugh and shake my head, "That's not the goal. If she is something to be worried about, she'd refuse."

Sheridan's eyes lit up, "The contagion won't let us have samples."

"Ask her," I say. "If she says yes, it won't prove much, but we can breathe easier."

Liza's words rattled in my mind, “She's headed your way,”

I turn and see the girl sauntering over. She holds her stomach, and signs with her hands. Sheridan nods before turning to me, "She's hungry."

"Well," I say, pointing to the various shops on the street, "take your pick."

I speak slowly as she focuses on my mouth. She points and walks to a small grocery store. I see the infection lingering in every corner. The girl meanders through the aisles. She grabs food from the shelves without a care, most of her choices being sugar-filled snacks I doubt she should be eating.

I watch as Sheridan's hands dance around, Candida watching intently. Candida nods, and Sheridan collects samples of blood and hair while the girl ate. She reaches behind her back, and pulls out three thin sheets of glass. I never carry Ignis Crates. Collecting a sample never goes well for me. She presses down on the top edge of each sheet. They fold and bend, collapsing into cigar shaped cylinders.

She turns to me, attaches one cylinder to a port on her hip, and then hands me another. I take it, attach it to my hip as well, and Sheridan grabs the third.

She marches off and I follow, leaving Liza and Djinn to entertain the girl.

Sheridan finds a safe in the back room, and only then did I speak, "why?"

"If we don't make it or the girl dies, they can find it." She says, placing a thermite charge on the top of the safe. It slowly burns, leaving a hole. She places the sample inside, "guess we were wrong about the girl then?" she asks.

"She may not know what she is, or the pathogen could be hiding inside her. She could be a carrier. We won't know until we study the samples." We emerge from the back room, and Candida smiles at us. "It does ease some worry though," I say, thinking out loud and smiling back.

We turn our attention to the windows. The sound of humming reaches my ears, and I peek through to discover the cause. The humming spreads into the store, a deafening sound emitting from the growths on the walls and ceilings. It stops. We sit in the most uncomfortable silence. The light fades from the store. The spores gather, clustering together to form a layer of black around the building. I load a cylinder into the rifle and step forward to open the door. The ground shakes. I hear a rumble and a shrieking roar.

The shaking gets more erratic as it grows louder. I jump back as a massive form bursts through the front door. I pull the trigger as Candida screams. In the midst of the flame, I realize I'm looking at its face.

It lets out a scream as the flames kiss its leathery black flesh. The creature looks with black eyes, peering into mine. Liza channels through the flames attacking the body. Sheridan raises her rifle. Pulls the trigger, sending a wave of blue fire into its mouth. The room shifts in temperature, air circulating around me as the heat battles the cold. I see ice forming in its mouth, black ooze thickening and freezing. The creature tried to chew through, but the chill endured, freezing its jaw and tongue.

I get a full view of the face, an amalgam of a moose and a bear but bigger than both. Fungal growths hang from its jaw like tendrils. As its head gets closer, I see the tendrils move, snapping at me with a sharp barb at the end of each. The creature thrashes around, pulling its head from the doorway.

I rush to Candida, pick her up, and Sheridan follows close behind as I find and move through the back door. I sprint down the street, the girl clinging to me so hard it hurts. We hear a low rumble as the creature rushes around the corner at the end of the street. Sheridan turns to it and fires her rifle. I hear her scream, turn my head, and watch as the creature lashes out with its massive paw.

The force sends Sheridan flying past me and into a car parked on the side of the road. She tries to stand, and I usher Candida to the ground. Candida hurries over and I turn to take a shot. Liza writhes in the candle as I send a white-hot stream of embers into the creature's body and face. The fire scalds its eyes, the foam covering its face. Liza flies through the heat to meet her target, clawing at the eyes in fury.

It makes a sound that begins as a shriek of pain then spirals into an angry roar. I turn away to check on Sheridan. She stands up and I see cracks in the glass of her suit.

The creature lunges in feral swipes. Its violent attacks hit cars, buildings, and anything else it can reach. "We have to seal your suit," I say, and Sheridan nods. Djinn enters the candle, a burst of flame sparking forth and embedding itself in Sheridan's suit. The glass glows with a faint, red hue. The cracks fill, sealing it off from potential contamination. I turn to the creature, meet its gaze, and realize it's staring at me. It can see again.

It charges forward. I lift Candida from the ground and scream, "Move." We run down an alley, and the creature collides with a car, reaching out for a quick kill. It missed by an inch.

I realize the danger, the importance of our goal. We needed to get Candida out. I point to the girl, "Take her and go." Sheridan opens her mouth to speak, but then closes it, nodding as a response. I turn to the creature, Liza emerging from the surrounding flames to stand at my side. Our thoughts join as we struggle to find a solution. I pull the trigger and the fire screams from the barrel.

I hear Liza speaking, her thoughts echoing in my mind, We can burn out its eyes, again. Her flames graze its face, but when the smoke clears, the eye remains. Liza darts back to my side, her rage building and causing her body to heat up even more.

I turn away, and Liza rushes back into the candle. I sprint down the alley and out the other side, leaving the creature behind. It tries to push its body through the buildings. I move out of the alley and into the street. I scan the street for Sheridan, and see her waving as she enters another building. The roar came again, distant but angry. I rush to meet them inside.

"Shit." I say through labored breaths. My body hurts. I wasn't ready for this. Sheridan nods in agreement and I check the map of the town as we debate how to proceed. I wonder how it found us so easily. Even more frustrating is the fact that it can heal and adapt. The fire didn't burn as well as before. How does that even happen?

With haste, after botching several ideas, we make a decision. The creature struggles when it comes to buildings, and we wish to use this to our advantage. Candida takes my hand, and we run through the back door while Sheridan moves out the front.

I hear the creature roar, feel the rumble underfoot as I follow the path. I hear Sheridan's rifle, close enough for me to feel the chill as the wind blows through the alleyways. Sheridan appears, rushing through an alley not far from us. We rush into a building as the creature turns the corner of the street.

"We need to move further down. This thing is too fast," Sheridan says as the creature nears the shop entrance. She takes the girl's hand, and moves to the back. I hear the back door slam closed.

I back away from the glass window until I feel the wall behind me. I aim the rifle, and wait. The creature slams its head through. Liza travels through the flame, burning hotter than I've ever seen. The creature pulls its head back, then tries to claw me out of the building with its huge paw. Rubble falls from the ceiling as I move towards the exit. I reload another capsule and let the fire fly, never letting up as the building around me burns.

I want to watch. I want to see it all come down. I want to watch it die. I can't move. I stare, watching the flames dance. They eat away the plaster, and through the wooden beams.

I marvel at the endless hues of orange and red. The way the shadows move in all directions leaves me breathless, appearing and disappearing in the endless light. It's hard to breathe but my vision remains fixed. I forget the creature is even there.

I feel a hand on my visor. Liza looks as beautiful as ever. I lose myself in her widened eyes. I notice her raised brow. What was she afraid of?

Liza speaks in my mind, but I can't hear it. She grabs me, kisses the visor, and starts walking me backward. I can't look away from her, but I realize I've been standing here for far too long.

A beam falls to the floor where I once stood. I try to move, my attention always returning to the inferno around me.

Liza remains patient, constantly bringing me back to her eyes. I remember the creature, see it tearing through the weakened structure of the building.

Liza pushes me out the back door and I finally hear her words, "Run." I sprint to the middle of the street, check my map, then turn my head to study the burning building. It collapses, but I don't stop running until I reach the next destination. I rush through the front door and see the girl and Sheridan, both signing in relief.

I try to reach Liza, checking if the creature survived. Our connection strains due to the distance. I see through Liza's eyes, watch as the hulking mass of its body rises from the flames and charges forward. The creature tumbles through the wreckage, its body in flames. Liza zips down the street and into the candle with a flash as I emerge from the exit with Candida in my arms.

We continue the process, street by street, making sure to target buildings with a back door if possible. We rotate, giving our companions time to recover and ourselves time to reload and prepare for another cycle. My body screams for me to stop, the pain getting worse with every rotation.

We skip several streets, hoping the creature will be forced to search as we push ahead. It appears on our street quicker than expected. I take this to mean it can track us, but I fail to see how. Maybe it can sense the girl?

We can't take much more. I can only imagine how Sheridan and the girl felt. It's Sheridan's turn to face the creature. With only a short distance to go, I carry Candida out of the last building, noting the trees ahead of us.

I almost lose balance as the ground trembles and my muscles resist any further torment. I notice two agents hurrying forward, sanitation workers like myself. I turn back, and see the creature move past Sheridan, ignoring the icy flame that assailed its body. It rushes forward, focusing on the girl. The agents rush past me, assisting Sheridan in freezing the creature in place. I feel my legs wobble, close to giving out.

The creature roars when I hit the trees. I stop, put the girl down, and heave as I try to catch my breath. I keel over, the sound of fire raging in the distance.

Sheridan races to my side, the other agents close behind. "We gotta move." I turn to see the beast, pushing against the tension in its frozen body. I hear something over the commotion, the sound of blades beating through the air. I look up and see black helicopters rushing by, one landing close to our position.

Sheridan and I help Candida inside, and step in with her. As the door closes, I peek out and watch as the two helicopters launch missiles at the creature. A limb is blown off, but it still fights back. Liza sends a wave of high heat through the glass of my suit, burning off any potential contamination. Djinn does the same for Sheridan.

I lay on the floor, my legs refusing to hold me up for a second longer. I try to lift myself up and sit, but need help to do so. They spray disinfectant over Candida before she's allowed to move.

A man and a woman stand in front of us, checking our vital signs and mental state. I try to ask questions but I'm never given the answer. Why are we not out there fighting that thing? Why am I leaving when the job isn't done? What happens now?

"Well done," The man says. "You can lose the suits."

I have a strange feeling. The helicopter doesn't belong to Crucible. It's too big, spacious enough to house a medical bay. I note the insignia on the wall and I point the rifle at the two before us. They back away with their hands held up, "Why are you here?" I ask.

"Agent Bradley, please. We're working with Crucible," The man replies.

Sheridan gives me a look, "Bradley, what the hell?"

"Siegfried." I reply. She looks at the insignia, and she raises her rifle as well, guiding Candida behind her.

"Touch down now," I say, "or tell me why I should trust you.

"Calm down," the woman says. "We have no interest in getting in your way."

"Woah," a voice screams from the entrance of the room. I recognize the voice. "easy, guys."

I lower the rifle, "Kenneth?"

"We hired some help, Dan. Calm down. This monster isn't easy to kill and we needed the firepower. They're still down there fighting it."

I nod and sit as Sheridan begins her research. I turn to the man and woman, "Sorry. you guys don't have a good track record." This is an understatement. The last time Siegfried handled an operation with kids, they nearly killed them. "Why am I not down there helping?” I say, turning to Kenneth. I begin removing the suit, giving my body a chance to breathe.

“You've done more than enough,” Kenneth replies. “You deserve a rest.”

Hours pass as Sheridan works in the lab. She focuses on deciphering Candida's mystery. The samples are tested in ways far beyond my understanding. I sit on the sidelines waiting for the bad news to come, watching Candida play with Djinn. Sheridan reads through the results and finally reaches a conclusion. She approaches me, and tries to muster the words. She doesn't know it, but my rifle is still loaded.

"What's the verdict?" I ask

"I-I don't know." she replies. "She isn't human."

My heart sinks, "I'm sorry."

I reach for the rifle and Sheridan stops me, pushing my hand away, "I'm not done," she says and I tilt my head, "She's not human, but she's not Five Point either. She's different."

"I don't understand."

Sheridan nods, "Me either. Her body works like a human body, but the blood, the tissue, everything is different on a chemical level. Moreover, the cells aren't as active. She doesn't age. She doesn't grow." I feel relieved, but Sheridan seems more frustrated by this outcome. I can see her muscles tense up, only to loosen when the pain hits.

Sheridan sighs, "I see no evidence of cellular division, either."

"What does that mean?" I ask.

"I think she might be an experiment. Five Point may wish to adopt a stealthier approach. It can spread quickly if it can grow human puppets."

I look at her, "Why didn't it work? She doesn't act like a puppet."

"I'm just speculating. I honestly don't know. Maybe it accidentally gave her sentience? Maybe it's not Five Point at all. If Five Point is a living contagion, what if she is a living antibody? Maybe she came from wherever Five Point came from.

We travel from secret base to secret base. Sheridan continues to study but every time only comes up with new theories. Days pass by. I can't help but feel like this is part of the plan, some scheme the contagion put in motion.

Liza and I get more anxious with each passing day. We may have won this round, but a thought lingers in the back of our minds: The contagion is changing. It's evolving into something new. There is no way to stop it.

After a week, I say my goodbyes. Candida gives me a tight hug and she signs to Sheridan. Sheridan giggles but looks at me with concern.

"She wants to give Liza a hug too," She says. Liza leaps from the candle and kneels down, controlling her heat to grant the girl's wish. I won't hear from Candida again. Sheridan promises to write, and I admit I'm hopeful.

I return home and the walls close in, imprisoning me like a tomb. Liza comforts me, but even she wonders what fate awaits us.

The first thing I do is take a shower. After that I feel the tension. I feel cheated out of the operation. This isn't a break; a chance to relax. This is torture. I think of all the fires that I never got to see. For the first time in years, I fall off the wagon.

I drive into town with a gallon of gasoline. I find a nice, secluded dumpster and pour it in. I strike a match, Liza writhing in the candle as I wait. Liza doesn't try to talk me out of it. She begs for me to wait. This was our foreplay.

We both marvel at the simple flame on the top of the match. I don't toss it in until I feel the heat on my finger. Liza leaps from the candle and into the flame, setting the dumpster ablaze. I watch her and she watches me. We both force a smile. The thoughts creeping in as we try to enjoy the moment.

She rises from the heat. I step forward and she gives me a kiss. The flame refuses to burn my skin. We don't want to admit it: our realization. What do you do when your greatest enemy surpasses you?

The Five Point Pathogen returns every five years, and next time, it might win. Next time, and there will be a next time, we might not be ready for it. We desperately try to force it down, but the thought rings in our head all the same. Maybe it's pointless. Maybe fighting back does little more than prolong a losing war.