It was the second prisoner’s face that caught him by surprise, a face so familiar and unexpected that Evan had to fight the sudden urge to audibly gasp. It was the King, hands bound behind him and surrounded by Crown Soldiers.
Chapter 21: The Crown and the Laurel
Zoe and Eva walked the distance in silence, each of them taking in the view like thirst to water. The thicket of trees had thinned significantly as they walked - at least two miles in Zoe’s estimation. The rich forest was intensely colored around them, every shade of green imaginable blooming from every trunk, leaf and stem. The trees, once so tightly packed together that their tops formed a thick canopy, had grown thinner and farther apart, allowing light to stream down in sharp rays. A small meadow of grass started beneath their feet, stretching out towards the horizon of light until the ground was a blanket of emerald-colored blades.
Silence lingered between them. Zoe often looked to Eva for any hint of conversation but often found her staring, absorbing the greenery around them. Her hand was still softly coiled with Eva’s, though she imagined it was more for Eva’s benefit than her own. Irrespective of who had been on Terra longer it was obvious that Eva never once stepped foot in any part of Terra that wasn’t a fabrication or a desolate wasteland. For her the forest must have been like exploring another world rather than her own home.
The light they’d followed formed into an oddly-shaped ball, a sun of fire bringing the land to life. She remembered the absence of any sun on the transport ride to Last City, wondering what was so different about the two sides of what seemed to be a small planet. It was the proverbial greener grass on the other side and Zoe wondered why anyone would willingly live in the grey drabness when the other side was so rich with color and life.
“Why do you think you all don’t live here?” Zoe asked, breaking the silence. “I mean, if I had my choice between the two Terras I know which one I’d pick,” she claimed.
“Honestly, I’m asking myself that very question right now,” Eva answered.
“If this is where the souls of dead people go to live then sign me up.”
Eva looked at her strangely. “To what, die?”
Zoe let out a laugh so quiet she was sure only she could hear. “Yes, well it wouldn’t be the first time.”
“What do you mean by that?”
She sighed a little and thought of Evan. “Your brother didn’t tell you?”
“No? He never really told me much about you to begin with. He’s like that.”
“He probably didn’t know how to start a conversation about preventing a stranger’s suicide.” The audible gasp from Eva did not surprise her one bit. “I took a running leap off a cliff towards the Pacific Ocean and Evan caught me.”
“He caught you?” she asked.
“Jumped right after me and brought me to the beach shore three miles away.” She felt Eva’s hand tighten in her own, their interlocking fingers like a vice.
“Why’d you do it?”
“I was empty inside, Eva. My life felt like, well like the other side of Terra: devoid of anything meaningful, drab and ugly. I had a completely different life before Evan caught me and I wanted it to end.”
“I don’t understand,” Eva shrugged. “You must have been in Gaia for hundreds of years. How do you not remember any of that? You must have known somehow that there something different about your life?”
“As far as I know I’m 25 years old and have lived my entire life in Santa Barbara, but obviously there is a lot more to it than that. As far as I’m concerned, I may as well have died the day I met Evan and every day since has been some version of an afterlife.”
Eva clicked her tongue and took a sweeping look around at their surroundings. “If there is such a thing I hope it’s as beautiful as this.”
Zoe was taken aback. “You don’t believe there is an afterlife?”
Eva paused, seemingly to choose her words carefully. “I think that’s an attitude shared by people who don’t know much about the universe.”
“Ah.” As far as everyone back home on Earth was concerned the existence of other universes, let alone an alternate one, was based strictly in theory and suggestion. Compared to everything she witnessed so far in Terra, her own people were eons behind when it came to space exploration.
Oh, right. Those weren’t really her people.
“What is that?” Eva asked, her arm extended out to point at what appeared to be a very wide staircase built into and from the ground, leading like a spindly, moss-covered pathway up and out further than either of them could see. Crops of bushes thick with small green leaves and little white flowers lined the stair pathway on both sides.