Rediscover

Part 7

          Eve split away from Jane at the corner, her sister moving to a group of men Eve recognized from the diner. She watched the older girl speaking urgently with them, gesticulating wildly in the direction of the ever-approaching monster, and their trucks that were parked around the corner. They rubbed their chins thoughtfully before nodding. Soon swarms of people were filling the trucks and children were hefted into their mother's arms inside trunk beds. Soon more people who took note of the panic began to pull up with their vehicles, offering rides out of town. Even with Jane shouting out warnings, multiple people laughed off her concerns, rolling their eyes as hordes of townsfolk began to flee the town. Eve turned away from the street and spotted a nearby cafe. It was a familiar location, one where Eve and Jane spent multiple early mornings and late nights sipping coffee and tea while studying a recent discovery. The windowed store front was now shadowed with faces as many regulars peered between the wooden blinds to spot the chaos outside. Eve glanced back down Main Street and spotted the glimmer of gold in the distance. It had grown in the few minutes that she had last seen it, now more humanoid in its appearance, moving like a metal-laced giant through the clouds of dust it kicked up. The sight made Eve's inside clench, her mouth going try as she felt memories push on the edge of her consciences, bringing with them icy beads of sweat that made her neck burn under the New Mexico sun. The nurse took a deep breath and began to pivot on her heels to enter the cafe when she felt it. The haunting tremors echoing through the ground. It drummed at a constant rate, vibrating like a bass drum through her feet and stabbing her gut in a well-timed panic. The Destroyer's footsteps. Eve ran, her feet flying over the well -treaded cobblestone, the fear taking over her conscience brain like instinct as she darted past the coffee shop and into the alleyway beside it. A small part of her knew that there were wiser ways to escape town, but her dread locked her logic into a deep corner of her mind. She gasped on breath as she darted between trash bins and littered waste that seemed to appear from the shadows and snag at her feet. The footsteps continued to echo in a horror-film-like fashion, steadily growing faster and stronger as the monster approached to consume everything in its path. To take away everything Eve had ever loved in her life. A stray piece of plywood formed from the sandy stone below and snagged the nurse's foot, sending her tumbling over the ground. She covered her face with her arms, either to protect herself from the fall or the tremors that now racked her body she didn't know. Through the way she came she could still spot masses bolting down the street and to Eve's friends who were brave enough to stay and help. Another wave of shame crashed down upon Eve, and she pinched her eyes tightly as her conscience fought with the terror trapped inside. She wanted to get up and be the hero. She wanted to be the one who could stand among gods of legends and not seem out of place. 

          You are much braver than many of the men I have fought with.

          Thor's voice echoed in Eve's mind and she nearly laughed, pondering if he would still say the same if he saw her now, covered in dust and cowering behind trashcans. Voices reverberated through the surrounding brick walls, wails of dismay and horror that once again found Eve in flashbacks of her past. The way she had been looked at, the things they had made her do.

          "Eve?" A shadow had halted in the entrance to the alley, a familiar short stature that lacked the usual pop of the hip and drawling voice it usual was paired with. "Eve... is that you?" 

          Darcy's voice trembled just as Eve did, and as the intern stepped carefully through the darkened street Eve noticed her usual smirk was replaced with tightly pinched lips and a drawn face. Despite all this her hand remained steady as she kneeled across from the nurse, barely giving her designer jeans a glance as they rested atop the dirt ridden ground.

           "Hey, you good?" Eve kept her eyes cast to the ground, feeling her whole body jolt at every step that drummed through the ground.