Once An Eve Novel by Anna Carey

Author:Anna Carey [Carey, Anna]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: english eBooks
ISBN: 9780062048561
Google: kNJd1VO5I1sC
Amazon: 0062048554
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2012-07-02T16:00:00+00:00

twenty-three

IT TOOK NEARLY A HALF HOUR TO REACH THE AIRPLANE hangar. Caleb cut across the Outlands, through old neighborhoods waiting to be restored, the houses sitting with windows broken, sand piled up in their doorways. I trailed thirty feet behind him, keeping my head down, disappearing in the clusters of people rushing home to make curfew.

As I walked I replayed that moment: his eyes looking up at me, the whispered words only I could hear. I carried it inside me now, nestled somewhere inside my heart, a small, silent thing that we alone shared.

Finally the land opened up before us. Rusted, abandoned planes sat on the pavement. Metal carts were strewn everywhere, some empty and bent, others piled with suitcases and crumpled, sun-scorched clothing. A metal sign above the building read McCARRAN AIRPORT.

Caleb hooked a right. I followed him across the sandy parking lot, turning back every now and then to check for soldiers. The airport was empty. A few faded playing cards blew past, somersaulting in the wind. He disappeared into a long stone building and I followed behind, waiting a few minutes before going in.

Inside, the shadowy planes towered above me, AMERICAN AIRLINES printed on their sides in red and blue letters. I’d only seen planes in children’s books before, had heard the Teachers reference the flights that went from one coast to the other. “Pssst,” Caleb’s voice called out from the darkness. He was hiding behind a short metal staircase on wheels. I went to him. Keeping close to the wall, we started toward the back of the hangar, his arm around my shoulder.

“So this is where you come every day …,” I said, looking up at the massive planes, over a hundred and fifty feet long. Their metal wings were lined with rust, the white paint bubbling up in places.

“Some days. The construction is on hold now, but a week ago there were nearly fifty people here each morning.” We walked toward a door on the back wall. “Citizens come from all across the Outlands to take shifts, on top of the work they’re expected to do in the City center. The regime has been running demolition a half mile east of here. During the day it’s so loud you can barely hear yourself think, but it covers up the drilling or hammering sounds.”

Caleb knocked five times on the door. A man with a full beard stuck his head out, a red bandana tied around his head. Sweat soaked the front of his T-shirt. “Aren’t you supposed to have a hot date tonight?” he asked. Then he noticed me standing behind Caleb and a smile curled on his lips. “Ahhhhh … you must be the lovely Eve!” He made a big spectacle of bowing, dropping one hand to the floor.

“What a welcome,” I said, bowing back. He hadn’t called me Genevieve, and I immediately loved him for it.

“This is Harper,” Caleb said. “He’s been overseeing the dig while I’ve been at other sites.”

Harper opened the door just enough for us to squeeze in.

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