FLOOD

All In The Family

Scrambling sounds from the entrance made me turn around, though there wasn’t much room in this place, and I couldn’t move as fast as I wanted to. The stranger was sliding his way into the hole in the tree, and I got a good view of him this time, since the candlelight was surprisingly bright.

First his shoes and legs came down as he inched his way inside, dirt falling down around him. Heavy, scuffed work boots and ripped blue jeans. Then a torso followed, lean and muscled under a dirty blue t-shirt. When his head and shoulders finally appeared I couldn’t stop the gasp that escaped my lips.

His features were dark, tanned skin, an angled jawline covered in black stubble and thick brows. He looked like Cain.

I scrambled back against the wall, tree roots digging into my shoulders as I pressed myself against the packed dirt. Anger flooded through me. He was one of them, and I’d been dumb enough to follow him right into this place. Glancing around wildly, I knew there was no way out. It was too small, too cramped, there was only one exit and entrance and the Cain look-alike was sitting in front of it.

“Woah, hey…” The stranger held up both hands. “It’s not like that. I didn’t bring you here for any kind of nefarious purposes. I just want to help.”

“You’re…you’re one of them. You look like him.”

“Yeah,” the stranger muttered. “Cain, I know.”

“So…who are you?”

“I’m Elijah, Eli for short. I’m his brother.”

It felt like something had knocked the wind out of me. Cain had a brother. And I’d managed to get Fiske and I trapped ten feet below the earth with him. Brilliant. It was tempting to pull the same trick I had with the nasty guard outside my cage. I could feel the water in Eli, could feel the way it moved through his extremities, how it held him together. It would be the work of a second to pull him apart. But the closer I looked at him, the less afraid I became.

He might share features with his brother, but he was nothing like Cain. Cain was neatly put together. His hair done with jell, his clothing immaculate. And he was completely serious every time I’d seen him.

Eli was different. His hair was longer, and it fell over his eyes and curled slightly around his ears. It was messy, and I was pretty sure there was dirt in it right now, probably from wiggling himself past the entrance in the tree trunk.

His clothing was ripped and torn and wrinkled, and there was something about his face too, besides a few smudges of dirt. He smiled more freely than Cain, and his eyes - though they were dark like his brother’s – had a sparkle in them that spoke of mischief.

They looked so similar at first glance, but then…even I could tell that they were nothing like one another. Not to mention the fact that Cain was living in the lab, doing the old man’s bidding, and Eli was living out here in a tree. There had to be a hell of a story behind that.

While I’d been examining Eli, he’d been doing the same to me. “Did you know you’re covered in blood?”

“Yeah, I know.” I glanced down at the weird hospital gown I was wearing. Of course, I hadn’t realized I was covered in quite so much. It was soaked right through, it was like I’d painted the fabric red. Nasty.

“I have clothing in the back,” Eli said. “It won’t fit you well, but it’s better then walking around looking like Carrie.”

“What?” I frowned at him, puzzled. “Who’s Carrie?”

            “Uh, nothing. Old movie reference. I guess you Jotun don’t watch much TV.”
            The words “you Jotun” made me want to punch him. He sounded too much like Cain. Eli must have guessed he’d said something wrong by the look on my face, because he held up both hands again.