Just a story update. That is all. The music actually matches the story this time. Sort of. The music really goes with the latter half of this section.
The Promised Land: (Part 11) O
Fortuna
The tune in Eden’s head was the
same song she sang to Shiloh earlier. She hummed for the majority of the
journey.
She stopped humming when they
approached rundown houses on the outskirts of a larger city.
The closer they got, the more
houses showed up on each side of the road. Narrow streets appeared on either
side.
“Take a left at the next
intersection,” Caden said calmly.
With further instruction, they
weaved through side roads until they drove up to a once-red brick school
building. Eden parked the truck by the main entrance and ran to get help. She came up to the doors only to realize there
were metal bars covering all the entrances.
“Ask for Ezra!” Caden shouted from
the truck.
Eden reached through the bars and
pounded on the rotting wood door. “HELLO?!” she shouted. “Is anyone there? We
need some help out here! PLEASE! Somebody!”
A slot in the door slid open and a
pair of narrow brown eyes appeared on the other side.
“Who are you? What do you want?”
“Please, you’ve got to help us!”
Eden pleaded. “I have a friend who’s been shot and he needs attention. I need
to see Ezra!”
The door opened and a young girl,
about fourteen years old, wearing a pink bandana and yellow dress peered
through the rusty bars. “Ezra’s not here. She’s back in town.”
“Great,” Eden muttered as she
headed back to the truck. “She’s not here!” she shouted.
“Wait!” the girl cried out,
causing Eden to stop and turn around. “You’re not going to Jericho, are you?
It’s not safe there!”
“We have to. Shiloh’s going to
bleed to death if we don’t get him some help!”
“Shiloh?” The girl gasped and
disappeared in the shadows behind the door. With a jingle of keys, she returned
and unlocked the bars. She ran by Eden and straight to the truck. To Eden’s
surprise, five other kids soon followed.
By the time Eden got to the truck,
the girl had the back door open and was helping Caden ease Shiloh out.
“What are you doing?! I thought
you said Ezra wasn’t here!” Eden was probably more upset by the fact that the
children were acting and she was left out of the loop again than she was about the
prospect of being lied to.
“She isn’t, but you can go find
her while we take care of Shiloh.” The girl carefully took over Caden’s role as
the other young ones helped carry him out. “Don’t worry, Cay. Mom and I will do
our best.”
Eden wasn’t so sure about leaving
Shiloh with a bunch of children and she really didn’t see how wasting time in
the extra trip helped him at all. “Why don’t we just take him with us?”
“Because we can’t keep moving him
around like this,” Caden responded, already in the driver’s seat. “Get in.”
Eden obeyed and they were off
toward Jericho again. Folding her arms, Eden said, “I don’t think we should
leave Shiloh with a bunch of kids.”
Caden didn’t look away from the
road. “Most of them are just a few years younger than me. Grace and Hope have done
more than their fair share of nursing. He’ll be fine.”
“Then why do we need Ezra?”
He didn’t answer. Eden was
beginning to expect silence whenever she asked questions Caden didn’t want her
to know the answers to.
Looking ahead, Eden realized they
were getting closer to the city. A rusted wire fence, which probably once
surrounded Jericho, stood in some places and sagged in others. At least one
section of it was torn down completely. The sky was greener here, like it was
back in Freedom.
Smoke billowed from black houses
beyond the fence. A yellow, triangular biohazard symbol hung on an old wooden
sign that read, “Welcome to Jericho.”
Caden, unfazed, continued driving.
As they passed the wooden sign, a bright yellow sign read, “Warning. Infected
Area.”
“Caden?” Eden could feel the panic
building up again. “What happened here?”
“Don’t worry. Those are just left
over from the war.” His composed voice did nothing to quell Eden’s nerves. In
fact, her worry grew.
Before long, they came to a great
big fountain in the center of the city. The fountain was dry and cracked, as if
the very heart of the city had taken a devastating blow. Caden slowed down and
parked next to the ashen spring. A number of people were moving around very
quickly, as if they were in a hurry to get someplace. The people were working,
moving objects to and from the other side of the fountain.
“Follow me!” Caden jumped out of
the truck and pushed his way through the crowd. Eden tried to follow, but she
lost him in the sea of moving faces. “Where did he go?” she thought.
She continued through the crowd
until she came to the source of activity. Before her, in a small clearing of
people, a number of figures covered in blood lined the street. Some were alive
and groaning in pain, but most weren’t moving at all. People were moving in and
out of the outdoor infirmary. Some people were covering bodies and carrying
them away. Others were attempting to dress the wounds of the perishing. What
really caught Eden’s attention were the children, the ones kneeling alongside
dying fathers, mothers, and older siblings.
Frozen by the horror, Eden could
only think of the words spoken by the one who did this, “It was in their best
interest to relieve their misery.”
“Eden? Eden.” She blinked,
realizing Caden was standing in front of her. “You need to focus. I need your
help.”
Eden barely nodded before being
pulled toward a group of sobbing children.
“Can you take care of them while I
go help Ezra?”
Before she could answer, Caden
disappeared into the crowd again.
She was next to a group of eleven
or twelve children, the oldest of which was probably younger than ten. Some
were just toddlers. All were crying, their worlds of love and care shattered.
Eden found herself gently hushing
the weeping children as she wrapped her arms around the youngest two and began
rocking. “It’s ok. It’s going to be alright.”
