9.2
Jelani leapt forward, catching Echo's limp body in his arms.
He carried her gently to the far corner of the basement and set her down so that her depleted figure remained upright with her back against the broken concrete.
Twilight was over, and Echo had given them each another chance at life.
Jelani stared at the vulnerable thing she'd become. The sight moved him more deeply than any physical wound could have done, and when he turned away, his face was one of pure resolve.
He wasn't going to let such an effort go to waste.
Beneath the hole in the ceiling, he stationed himself, intercepting any rogue that would occasionally leap down.
But even as he thrust the steel blades on his hands into the animals' bodies, always at the forefront of his mind was the image of Echo's face, eyes closed and posture tall as she stood in the midst of madness.
Beautiful.
The word entered his mind involuntarily, and it was the only one worthy of describing her display of pure focus.
One twilight remained, and Jelani knew that he might have to face it alone.
But he wouldn't have to rely on a plan. In fact, he wouldn't even have to rely on strength, because every fiber in his body already knew what the outcome was going to be.
Echo didn't deserve to die that night. The image of her solitary figure, fighting alone, was enough to convince him of that reality.
Only one outcome existed, and there was no possibility of his failure.
He heard the sound of rubble shifting behind him, and the slow, heavy footsteps of a tired warrior.
He didn't turn around, but he felt her arm drape over his shoulders and her weight lean against his body.
"Yo."
Jelani turned his head, and his eyes met hers.
"I'm surprised you're standing," he remarked.
"Barely," she muttered. Her voice was empty, and it rasped as if her vocal cord had been the very conductors for the electricity.
"Jelani," she continued softly, the loudest volume she could manage, "I'll need your help."
"You mean for the next twilight?" He squinted at her. "Yeah, of course you will. It doesn't look like you'll be able to do anything."
"Our bodies…" she murmured, "are always capable of more than we think."
Her foot slipped on a piece of loose concrete, and she stumbled into him, gripping tightly against his shirt in an effort to catch herself. But there was no need, as Jelani already had his arm firmly wrapped around her waist.
That tiny effort was enough to make her heart hammer, and she gasped for air, body telling her that it was incapable of doing anything more than lying flat.
"Sit down," Jelani said, concerned at the speed of her rising and falling chest.
He helped her to the ground, where she sat with her arms resting on her knees and her head tilted to the floor.
"Why are you trying so hard?"
Jelani had never understood it. What reason could she, someone so strong and capable, possibly have for devoting everything into a frivolous chase?
He'd always told himself that it must have been for money and didn't consider the matter any further. He didn't have any reason to know, after all, or even a reason to wonder, so what business did he have in asking?
But what he'd just witnessed couldn't be ignored. Echo's stand had evoked a feeling in him that he hadn't even imagined was possible–what motivating force could have been capable of fueling that beauty?
Jelani's curiosity wouldn't be satisfied until he'd heard an answer, so he kept his eyes on Echo's shadowed figure, only visible thanks to the light of the full moon.
She remained completely still, but her mouth opened.
"...I guess it's fair for you to know, now that I'm relying on you to see this out."
She thought for a moment, and then she spoke slowly.
"My mom and I survived the apocalypse together. She raised me, and we shared a deep bond with each other."
"I was a rebellious kid," she continued, "and I got into trouble all the time. But my mom never scolded me. I think she was proud of the person I was."
Her downturned head sagged a little lower.
"And then I fell in love. I was only eighteen. He was in his twenties, living alone, and I decided to move in with him."
She seemed to get stuck, and she paused.
"I wasn't the same as I am now. I was happy and energetic… and trusting. We had a kid. I didn't mean to get pregnant, but when I realized, I mostly felt happy. I guess I wanted to become a mother."
"It was a girl. I loved her."
Echo's steady voice wavered.
"I stopped taking risks. I devoted my life to her."
"But my relationship with her dad got worse, and we separated. I helped out in a little clothing store, barely earning enough to afford an apartment for my daughter and myself."
"...but those were the happiest days of my life. Every minute we weren't together, I looked forward to when I would see her again."
"She was only five or six, but we were best friends. I taught her everything I knew how to do, we would chase each other down sketchy alleyways, go out to eat when we had the money, and we'd lie on our backs in the grass, staring up at the sky and laughing."
She took a long, tired breath.
"I got back together with him. I only did it because I thought that as she grew up, she would get tired of the life I could give her with my pathetic income. He'd gotten a new job. He was working for the government, researching elements."
"Where'd you live?" Jelani interrupted. He'd developed an impossible suspicion, one that he prayed would turn out false.
"Blackpool."
Oh, god.
"Don't tell me this guy you're talking about is Blake."
"No," she replied. "I'd never even heard about Blake."
Phew.
After a few beats of silence, Echo resumed her story.
"I guess I still felt something towards him, because I trusted him enough to ask him about the one thing that worried me more than anything else. …when I was a teen, back when I still lived with my mom, I snuck out of the city a few times, searching for elements."
"The power fascinated me, and, being the curious kid that I was, I didn't think twice about the dangers of going out alone. One day when I was exploring the forest, not far from the city's wall, I found this vivid, green patch of life. It was impossibly beautiful, so I dug into the ground, certain that I would find an element somewhere among the roots."
"And I did. It was an element of healing, and I consumed it right there, on the spot. I kept exploring the forests whenever I thought I'd be able to sneak out unnoticed, but it took over a year for me to get lucky again."
"I found a soldier's massacred body, lying next to his gun. It was covered in his blood, and I was scared to touch it, but I knew that having a weapon would let me explore farther from the city's walls. That same day was when I got attacked."
"It was a hawk. It looked completely normal, but it darted around in the air so quickly that I could barely see it. It cut into my back and shoulders with its talons, and I would have died if it weren't for the element of healing I'd consumed the year before."
"I used every last bullet that I had, and in the end, I finished it with my bare hands. The element inside it looked like a massive red diamond–I'm sure you know what it was, Jelani. It was an element of explosiveness, and, just like the element of healing, I didn't hesitate to swallow it."
"After I gave birth to my daughter, it really started to worry me. I didn't know if there were any long-term side effects from consuming elements, and I hated myself for having done it so recklessly. I told no one, and the thought that something might happen to me while she was still so young and dependent was terrifying."
"But when I got back together with her dad, I knew how knowledgeable he must have been, researching the elements, so I asked him. It was late one night, and I was feeling brave, so I asked him. He wouldn't answer without hearing a reason, so, being the idiot that I was, I told him the truth."
"He showed no more than a hint of surprise, and he told me to not worry about it. He said that, as long as I'd tolerated the elements to begin with, nothing bad would happen to me."
"I can't even describe how relieved I was–not for my sake, but for my daughter's. I could finally feel confident that she would be safe, because I would always be there to protect her."
"The next morning, I woke up to someone knocking on our door. My boyfriend, if you could call him that, had already left for work, so I was the one who went to answer it."
"It was unusual, hearing a heavy knock like that, so I crept up to the peephole and looked through it."
"There was a woman–an old woman–standing there, with a few men in black suits behind her. She was holding something. I thought I saw a glint of metal on its handle. One of the men yelled 'Now!'"
"I screamed. I screamed from the depths of my heart. Nothing had ever hurt so badly."
"The woman had stabbed a massive, serrated blade through the door and through my stomach."
"It hurt so badly that I couldn't do anything before they knocked the door down. I never saw my daughter again."
Echo fell silent, eyes still facing the floor.
Slowly, she turned her head, pink eyes reflecting the moonlight as she met Jelani's gaze.
"I named her Eve."