Genesis : Knights of Salvation Series

“And your name?” She asks warmly yet with a calm tone. I can feel every pair of eyes on me and I felt like worms are crawling under my skin. I clear my throat quickly standing up straight with a gentle smile as I was taught as a child.

“Aspen,” I say politely reaching out my hand to shake hers. We shake hands but her eyes stay squinting focused on my eyes. I struggle to keep myself from looking away nervously.

“Aspen. As in Aspen Stone.” She fills in and the small hair on the back of my neck stands up.

“You know who I am?” I say furrowing my brow. A large smile hit her as she nods her head finally releasing my hand. Instinctively my thumb run’s on my wrist trying to calm my anxious heart.

“I was quite close with Charles Stone, and I guess you could say your father.” She says wrinkling her nose slightly.

“Was?” I ask curiously. I have never met her or even heard my father or uncle speak of her before.

“Well, before I left to establish this outpost. That was years ago, You were but a child.” She fills in a wide smile as she remembers those moments. She seems to look at them fondly, I can see her being fond of my uncle but my father... I doubt it.

“So you were friends with my uncle?” She nod’s warmly, then gives a short shrug.

“I was an acquaintance of your father’s.” She tries to cast a nice light on her relationship with my father. I’m not stupid, no one was or is friends with my father.

“I would guess you and my father disliked one another,” I say slightly moving my head to the side. She honestly looked a bit taken aback by my statement showing me I was right on the nail.

“Aspen!” Clare gets after me but Greta doesn’t look at all hurt or offended by my words but has a wide knowing smile on her face. She waves Clare off looking towards the group of onlookers.

“She is quite right. No one’s friends with President Stone but assets or rivals.” She laughs out looking over her shoulder back to me. I just nod my head, I know far too well that my father only kept those that can help him strategically. I was one of those that weren’t.

“I would guess you understand far better than I miss stone.” She says getting back to being beside Enyo. I let out a small chuckle at her words.

“Although, When I met you as a child you had lovely blue eyes before those stunning beauties.” She says tilting her head slightly with curiosity. I freeze knowing this was dangerous territory. My eyes look through the room, everyone seems to have hundreds of questions about her new statement. I swallow hard.

“Yes, well I guess a lot has changed,” I say trying to shrug off the scrutinizing eyes on me. For a moment she seems to catch that I wasn’t wanting to speak about my eyes and she moves on. She starts talking to Clare asking her about her family. Apparently, she knows them as well and all the eyes move from me to her... all except one pair of eyes. I can feel Enyo watching me and when I finally look back at him his previously stern face is now relaxed and filled with curiosity. I look away from his eyes which always seem to burn into my soul and try my best to listen to Clare.

“They are wonderful though.” She finishes. Greta nod and her smile fall’s as she gets serious turning the once light mood into one cold and sharp as glass.

“The message said this is a stopover but may I ask where?” She says folding her arms.

“We are heading for ground zero,” Orion says leaning against the wall to the right of Greta. She seems to freeze the moment the world’s ground zero came out of his lips.

“Your mad.” She erupts her hands falling on her hips.

“Why would you be foolish enough to go there?” She argues.

“We gained some information that Aspen here can lead us to a cure,” Enyo says beside her. Her eyes hit me this time hard and stern. For a moment I prepare myself for her to yell at me but I’m surprised she doesn’t. It’s like a bolt of lightning hit’s her as knowing glint flashes in her eyes.

“I see, that explains a lot.” She simply says.

“What do you mean?” Foxglove speak up for the first time since we got here. Greta’s eyes finally leave mine and fall on Foxglove. I could feel that she knew. She knows why I’m here and why my eyes are the way they are.

“Well, the Charles I knew would never allow his niece out of the walls, unless it was as important as a cure.” She lies. I know from that small glint in her eyes she understood and even may know more than I think she knows. Although she is right about my uncle. No way he would have let me out of the walls if the situation wasn’t what it is when I was a child I wanted to be in the military but my uncle told me if I tried he would make sure I’m fired.

“I do wonder, why your father was compliant in this mission?” She asks looking over at me again. This time I’m ready for the lie I need to tell.

“You know my father if it helps his people survive then he is willing to send even his child.” I gently joke and lie. But It didn’t feel like a lie, my father wouldn’t spare another thought of sacrificing me if it meant saving those in the wall.

Greta gives me an understanding nod and I could tell she knows it’s a lie I’ve been told to say. After all, she knows my family and my father.

“Greta, do you have any map’s passed this valley? Or of the outposts farther out?” Orion speaks up. Once again I’m happy the attention is off of me.

“There are three small outposts past the valley but there isn’t much communication from them, we don’t know if they’re alive or dead. About a month ago we received refugees from the farthest outpost Solaris, they claimed they were overrun but we don’t know if it’s the forsaken or not.” She fills in for us.

“The refugees didn’t say?” Harrison speaks up as he rocks back and forth his hand on his chin like he’s pondering the whole conversation.

“No, most of them were exposed to the mutated virus... they had to be put down.” She says mournfully her eyes glancing over at me quickly. A pang of pain hit my stomach. Put down, like animals. They survived the whole way here from the outer outposts and yet they are put down just like that. If they knew what coursed through my veins would they put me down? Without further thought or question?

“Well, what else could it be?” I ask her. The only thing out here is the forsaken, they’re the reason we all hide in the walls.

“There’s a lot of things out here that can cause the downfall of an outpost,” Enyo says quickly.

“Do you have a map of the other two outposts?” Enyo asks looking at Greta neither of them really answering my question.

“Yes, in my office. I’ll show you if you would like Enyo. The rest of you can relax and get some rest.” She shrugs.

“That sounds good. Foxglove shows them to their room for the night. Harrison, can you go and see about medicine at the market?” He asks but it’s more of an order.

“The rest of you relax. After dinner, we will go over our next moves for tomorrow.” He and Greta leave dismissing us to do as were told. Enyo and Greta pass me to leave the house probably heading to a small town hall or something. When Enyo passes me he glances over at me and for a moment something odd passed through his eyes before they fall back in front of him.

All day Enyo has been acting strange to me, at least more strange than usual and I can’t quite place the reason for it. Is it because of my last name? The moment I told them he seemed to act weird towards me.

I follow Foxglove and Clare up the stairs as it breaks into two hallways with multiple doors in both. We follow her down the left hallway and to the end of the hall as she stops in front of the last door.

“You guys will share this room.” She says turning the nob and revealing two small beds that look just like the ones we had before. The room is small with a small table between the headboards with a candle on it and a dress pushed to the wall next to the door. I walk in drop my bag next to the left side bed and fall down on top of it. The door close as Clare places her bag next to her bed and she sits elegantly on the edge of it.

We sit quietly in the room the sound of metal work and people moving about outside our small dusty window sitting between our two beds. I slowly drift off as I listen to the sounds from outside and the scribbling of Clare’s pencil in her little black book.