Finding Eden Read Free

slower this time, trying my best to enjoy it. It found it hard to take pleasure in anything anymore, especially something like this, something that I had done over and over again.
    I let out a deep, restless breath, put the cards back into their tattered box, and pushed the box aside. As I played with a piece of string that had come loose from my bed sheet, my cuticles caught my eye. They were thick and jagged, so I started to pick and bite at them until I started to bleed. It was a dull sting. I watched blood well up into a bead just before it spilled over and lined the bottom of my nail. I picked at my thumb’s cuticle and the same thing happened. Thinking that I’d probably have to stop the bleeding, I found my first aid kit and brought it back to the bed. It was unusually exciting to have something new to do with my time. It had been almost a year since I'd needed any first aid treatment. I took an alcohol wipe, wiped the blood from both fingers, and stuck a small bandage over the offending cuticles.
    I realized that I needed to get out before I started doing crazy things, like purposely making myself bleed just to have something different to do. I remembered the gas station/convenience store that was only a few miles back and vaguely remembered seeing a Texaco sign standing tall above the building. I wondered if it was still there or if it had been completely demolished by the asteroids that had rained down without mercy years ago. At least that was what I assumed when I had come out of hiding to see all the plant life turned to ash and hundreds of craters scarring the now deadened earth. I was sure that if there were any snacks left over that they’d all be expired. But don’t Twinkies last forever? Maybe there would be some there. I would have settled for some stale barbecue chips. With my luck, some survivors had come through this area and completely cleaned it out. But as I glanced at the bare shelves, I reminded myself that I didn't have anything else to do or much of a choice either.
    I had been too frightened to ever attempt it before, but I had never been quite this desperate.
    “Might as well,” I breathed.
    It had been night for nearly two hours, so the time was probably around midnight, meaning I only had about four or five hours of darkness left. I’d have plenty of time to make it there and back before the threat of frying would rear its ugly head. The impending promise of starvation had finally pushed me to this point.
    I grabbed my bag. It was empty; I'd never had much use for it. I wondered if it was lonely like I was only to decide that I had never had such an odd thought. Along with the rest of the batteries, I filled two water bottles up and stuck them in my bag. I needed room for any loot that I would hopefully come upon. I stuck my Bowie knife into the sheath connected to my belt. It lay flat against my right hip; the flashlight was attached to my left.
    I tightened the laces on my knee-high leather boots, pulled my socks up to my thighs, and slid on my white tank top that fell just above my belt and corduroy shorts. Tightening the straps of my backpack, I realized I had lost a lot of weight since I'd last used it. Ignoring this fact, I made my way up the ladder and opened the circular hatch, all the while wishing I felt a breeze, but I only felt a rush of dry heat that enveloped me in its deadly embrace.

Chapter 2
    [ Elle ]
    I closed the hatch and locked it. A large pumice stone was attached to the hatch and it played its part perfectly, camouflaging the entrance. Someone could pass right by the bunker and never even know it was there.
    Everything was still. I remembered coming to this place before it all went down. It had been windy then. At night I could hear the coyotes yelping and the brush rustle as the breeze danced around it. Now it was deader than a ghost town and hotter than hell itself. The moon was bright in the sky and dampened every star light. A big, glowing moon used to