Eden’s Path

Snapping her eyes open, Margaux hastily claws at her rucksack, feeling for the imprint of a heart sewn into the lining. With a sigh of relief, she unties her waist from the tree before standing up on the sturdy branch. As she stretches and wiggles out the kinks from her awkward sleeping posture, Margaux inspects her surroundings with wary apprehension. She could have sworn another presence was nearby while she was sleeping. After another probing search, she glances at her wrist compass before shoving some stringy pocket jerky into her mouth. Taking her rope, she wraps it around her bed-branch before cautiously rappelling down the trunk. Once on the ground, Margaux has a swig from her canteen and sets off with renewed determination. Based on last night’s progress summary, she may be able to make it to her new bunker before nightfall.

As Margaux’s footsteps fade into the distance, a hooded figure silently leans against the tree she was sleeping on, their posture casual as they balance on the branch just above where Margaux was sleeping. After pressing a few buttons on their bracer, a holo-map projects above it, showing current coordinates with an arrow pointing towards the data input last night. With a manic grin baring white teeth in the shadows of the hood, they sprint along the tree branch before lunging for the next one. Their path is set, parallel to Margaux’s trail, before they overtake her with a subtle rustle in the treetops.

Margaux whips her head in the direction of the suspicious noise, pausing her steps as she listens for a hint of danger. She doesn’t hear anything else.

“Squirrels,” She mutters with a scoff at her caution, before tightening her brown hair into a long ponytail.

Margaux’s boot punts a head sized red ant away as she glances at her compass again, she twists a knob on the side so a holographic map appears above it. An arrow is pointing in the direction she faces, and a distance estimate hovers over a blinking green dot. Less than 1 kilometer to go before she’s at her new home. A shy smile curls on her lips as she allows a rare fantasy of the future to play in her mind.

Her eyes glaze over as she imagines refreshing and vivacious herbs instead of the scent of metal and oil she grew up with. How amazing that she won’t be stuck in that Recycling Bunker anymore! How miraculous of Eden to assign her to the new Herbal Greenhouse Community instead of another factory like her old bunker. A small giggle escapes as she indulgently thinks about who her Match will be. A bright smile on a tan face with piercing blue eyes flits through her head. Hopefully Eden assigned her someone strong but kind. How indulgent to imagine, strong AND kind, maybe even handsome. A sarcastic snort knocks out her idle thoughts. With a shake of her head she focuses back on her surroundings, before a piercing pain shoots up her calf.

With a reflexive kick before stumbling away, Margaux quickly turns her head to see what attacked her. A gasp of horror escapes her lungs as she sees a red ant approaching, torn flesh in it’s mandibles, followed by a wriggly sea of glistening crimson. Ignoring the painful swelling starting to surround the new crater in her leg, she starts clumsily sprinting while fumbling at a pocket in her rucksack. Stifling her whimpers, she roots around as her sprint degenerates into desperate, limping hops due to the rapidly expanding leg. She finally finds a liquid filled sack sunken to the bottom of her bag, and takes it out with shaking hands. Cursing at how tightly the lid is twisted, she brings the pouch to her mouth, and savagely bites a corner off before spitting out the thin film. Her mouth burns from the residue, but she ignores it as she pivots on her good leg to scatter the contents before the encroaching hoard. Like the mythical Moses, the red ant sea divides where the oily substance was dribbled, and a pungent aroma assaults her nostrils.

With sobbing laughs, Margaux relishes the smell of genetically enhanced mint essence while emptying the rest onto her clothes. After calming her shaking cries, she rifles through her rucksack before grabbing a small cylinder. With no small wince, she unhesitatingly stabs the end into her wound and sighs with relief as chilling nanites flow through her veins. Eyes glistening with gratifying tears, she watches as her swelling visibly shrinks back to nothing, and her bloody skin knits back together. With a final, heaving sigh, Margaux reverently gazes beyond the treetops. She kisses her palm, touches it to her forehead, before reaching it into the sky. Her compass reflects the sunlight peaking through the canopy. A holographic map and a blinking goal reappears in response to her praise.

Neil is ecstatic, he reached his new bunker! Soon, his Eden issued match will arrive, they will join hearts and unlock their new Greenhouse Bunker. His hand rifles through his brown hair giddily as his other hand fondles a small, heart shaped chrome locket. Settling the locket on his palm, he snaps it open to display a miniature map. His present coordinates are sitting at a blue blinking dot, and amother blue dot is steadily making its way towards him. Neil’s warm brown eyes shine as they dance around that blue dot, trying to picture who it could represent. He mentally runs through the girls he remembers through the monthly Bunker Holo-calls, ears reddening as he thinks of various pretty faces. Neil squats in embarrassment, scrawny shoulders softly shaking as lewd giggles occasionally slip past his lips. His mind wanders further into degeneration as he thinks of a brown haired, green eyed beauty from the Recycling Community in particular. A twig snaps and shocks him out of his increasingly hot thoughts. Somewhat choking on his drool, he shoots upright with his back to the Bunker’s gate, cautiously monitoring the surroundings. Before he determines it was nothing, his eyes lock onto an approaching hooded figure. Neil’s hand moves behind him where he grasps the hilt of his dagger as he nervously shouts a greeting.

“Hey there, is this your assigned community too, or are you passing through? I hope you understand I got here first, so I got first dibs on residences.”

The figure pauses, before Neil hears a husky chuckle.

“Yeah, I’m gonna live here,” the figure replies in a low voice, their body becoming clearer as they approach. Neil’s eyes brighten in response, his hand releases the dagger’s handle in relief before he reaches down for the dropped locket.

As he laughs in embarrassment he says, “Man, you startled me! I’m Neil, from Drone Repair. Did you run into any trouble on your way here? I heard, before setting out, there were Unmatched in the area. What’s your name? Where are you from?”

Without waiting for a response, Neil has a rush of comments regarding his journey, how brave he was when he escaped from a backpack sized spider the other day, who he hopes his Match could be, shyly gushing over the brown haired vixen from Recycling. . . He finally falls silent when the other person is close enough for him to make out their appearance.

Neil studies the other man in jealousy and an undercurrent of growing suspicion. This isn’t a teenager like a new Match should be. Eden only issues the Match Lockets for those who turned 18 before the new year. This is a tall, broad shouldered man with ice blue eyes and a wide smile lighting up his face.

Why is he smiling so big? Neil thinks to himself, before hesitantly inquiring, “Hey, c-can I see your locket’s data? Just to be sh-sure these are your coordinates.”

He inwardly cringes at his stuttering before straightening his back and puffing his chest in a show of confidence. As the smiling man closes in, a faint metallic scent reaches Neil’s nose and he audibly sniffs before instinctively moving his hand behind his back again. Firmly clenching his dagger’s handle, he slowly unsheathes it, Neil’s other hand shakily held out in a defensive posture.

“Why do you smell like blood?”

The blue eyed stranger burst into laughter at Neil’s caution, before opening his cloak to a limp, bloody rabbit tied to his belt. Ignoring all of Neil’s previous questions, he detaches the dead beast and throws it at the boy’s feet.

“Hungry?”

Margaux sees smoke as she walks out of the tree line, and cautiously circles the perimeter before approaching. As she closes in, she begins to smell roasted meat, and hears a boy’s inane chatter and nervous laughter, while husky murmurs interject at regular intervals. Her heart jumps when she hears the second voice, but it’s still too far to make out what they’re saying, let alone who they are.

An immature, excited voice then loudly shouts, “She’s close!”

Before Margaux is seen, she quietly shimmies up a broad tree. Once steady on a branch, she twists her rucksack around to the front and quietly unsheathes her belt knife. Cutting into the outer pocket’s lining, she reveals a metallic, heart shaped pendant. With cautious excitement, she clicks the pendant open, showing a small map. Shown on the map, several meters away, her destination is presented as a large green dot, with a smaller blinking blue dot interposed on it. Sighing in relief, she excitedly stands on the branch to get a better look at her goal. As she cranes her neck, she realizes the previous talking is gone and frowns when she sees a person lying on the ground by the fire, a pool of dark red spreading from their torso. There is a silent figure standing in front of the body, staring in her direction with a subtle yellow glow in their dripping palm.

Glancing at the blinking light on her own yellow map, then back at the figure, Margaux gives a resigned sigh as she makes her way back down the tree. At least he’s not a weakling, she thinks as she approaches them. Maybe I’ll hit the jackpot and he’ll be handsome too, she further ponders until she’s standing in front of a familiar face with piercing blue eyes and a blinding smile.

Breaking into her own surprised yet blissful grin, Margaux throws herself onto him with a passionate cry before clumsily smashing her mouth against his. His firm arms catch her, before one hand tightly grips her waist and the other makes its way behind her head, threading his wet fingers through her ponytail in a possessive hold.

When they finally come apart, Margaux’s emerald eyes are dazed and watering as her legs stay wrapped around his hips. She opens her fist and gives him her heart shaped locket. He easily steadies her body with one hand gripping her lush behind, as his other hand holds out his own plundered heart locket. Their open lockets meet together, and the chrome pendants audibly click and whir while they fuse, making two solid hearts. Still holding Margaux, the man turns and steps over the white faced boy in the dirt, and Margaux takes the twin hearts and press them into a recess in the gate. There is another, louder click, before the heart’s nanites dissolve into the gate and it opens with a creak.

“Sebastian,” Margaux lovingly whispers, “Thank Eden, you found me. Thank Eden, we’re home.” Gazing at his Margaux, Sebastian obsessively strokes her cheek with his bloody hand.

“I never lost you,” Sebastian huskily asserts.

In unison, they kiss a palm, touch their forehead, and reverently reach for the sunset, praising the beloved satellite that shepherds the World.