Eve

Chapter 28

"Eve? Eve?"

The voice reaches me echoed and from a distance, like a long lost dork calling me back to life.

"Eve? Wake up."

I open my eyes. Levon's big, round face is watching me with worried looks.

"Are you ok, Eve?"

"No. My back hurts. My neck hurts. My legs feel like they've been out all night with a Molly dealer."

"You're grunting, Eve."

I blink myself awake, pulling Levon aside as I try to sit up.

"Where are we?"

Around us, the sun is setting behind a large field of different shades of green. The landscape is a lot different than roadside in Coachello – there are bushes here, and large patches covered in trees all along the field extend until the horizon. In front of us, an abandoned highway presents a collection of overturned cars, trucks and motorbikes. It's cold and windy and quiet.

I feel like my head could explode at any second. Here's hoping.

Also, there is a crashed plane with no fuselage on its right side a few feet away from where I'm sitting.

"Where's my pad?" I ask. Levon frowns.

Looking up at him, I mimic pen and paper.

Levon pulls the notepad from his pocket, smiling. "I saved it from the wreckage for you."

He says this, but it takes me something like ten seconds to figure out what it means.

Where...we? I scribble, forcing my mind to think straight.

"I'm not sure," Levon says. "We lost altitude too fast, back there. You passed out. I almost did too – good thing I kept awake." He smiles. "I tried to land us on the highway, like I said I would, but there were too many cars. In the end I had to go for this field. It wasn't smooth at all, but at least we're – what?"

I get up, drumming the pen under the words.

Where's...locket?

"What are you talking – oh, your locket," Levon says, looking from my eyes to my chest. "I -- I don't know."

I look around, stuffing my hand under my shirt collar and fumbling for it.

Nothing.

On the grass around us – nothing.

My pockets -- nothing.

Feeling my heart rate go up (haha, very funny), I head for the plane, penguining fast as I can.

"Eve, wait!"

Pulling wires and mechanical gear aside, I browse frantically through what's left of the aircraft. There's blood on my seat, and on Levon's too.

"Eve, it was a pretty rough landing," Levon says, approaching me from behind. "Maybe the chain snapped. And... and your side of the plane fuselage sort of broke off and flew away back there, so it could be any –"

"FUCK!" I yell, turning back to face him. "FUCK! FUCK! FUCK, LEVON!"

My locket. Damian's locket.

Levon's startled look in front of me is only half-real. I have a vague notion of what I'm doing – trying to find Damian's locket – but the best part of my brain is more and more getting lost in the haze. My stomach feels like it's been beaten to death then reanimated five times, then denied food for ten days, then beaten to death again and cursed at. My eyes feel heavy.