Before it all

Chapter 2.

The knock came early in the morning. Rebecca slowly climbed out of bed and grumpy charged to the door. Throwing it open annoyed she saw a man standing there in a neat uniform. He had brown hair and was neatly shaven his blue eyes locked on the green ones as she asked: "Can I help you, sir?"

"Yes, as a matter of fact, you can" he replied with a smile "there's no need for introductions, I already know your name, Rebecca."

His charm was gone and a sick feeling overcame her as she waited for him to continue. "So to cause a minimal fuss I will give you 20 minutes to pack a suitcase and come with me, I suggest telling someone to sell your house for you, you won't need it for a while"

"But, but where are we going?!" Rebecca asked confused "I'm not just gonna pack up and sell my house like that!"

"Well you don't have much of a choice" replied the strange man

"Oh yes I do," Rebecca said getting angry. With that, she went to slam the door in his face. He caught it just before shut.

Pushing the door open he said, "you've left me no choice but to take you by force". From his back pocket, he pulled out an ID card. It said his name and also stated that he was from the secret police. "I am special agent Bruce Bridges and I'm putting you under arrest for failing to cooperate with orders. You do not have the right to a trial or to a lawyer and you are to come with me".

After putting the angry Rebecca in the back of his car, He set off on his journey. It was a rather lovely drive. Being later in the afternoon some of the introduced animals were beginning to show themselves. Originally they had tried to match the introduced animals to habitats that were similar to the conditions they would've lived in on earth. However this was soon deemed impossible, and the animals were placed willy-nilly around the planet.

So now you can find whatever you want, nearly wherever you are. Being dusk, at this time kangaroos were edging out of the woods around the world. This meant that they were also going to be crossing roads. Bruce, being tired and annoyed, forgot about this. Well, he had forgotten about that. Until the kangaroo jumped out in front of his car. Bruce cursed as he swerved to avoid it.

"Damn kangaroos, anything from those Aussies has some sort of gene in it that has the possibility to kill you".

"Agreed," said Rebecca

"Did I ask for your opinion?" Bruce asked before answering his own question "no, no I did not"

"Well if I'm not allowed to talk why don't you". Rebecca replied

"And what would you like to know?"

"I'd like to know why I'm in your car, against my will."

"Oh well that's a long story but I'm more than happy to tell you. Recently there have been some babies born with strange markings, such as fire, ice, and so on. Scientists are taking a few of these babies to experiment on and have discovered some strange things. They have powers, unlike anything anyone has ever seen before. So all babies found with the symbols, have been taken. To be hidden in the forest. They have to be experimented on so that we can learn to control these new wonders. However, we also noticed these babies couldn't take care of themselves. So a few people, such as yourself, have been randomly chosen.

It will be given to every so often, and you are to have no outside contact with the world. These elementals are not to know anything about the world outside of the village. Do you understand?" Asked Bruce

"Yes, yes I do," Rebecca said with a glum look on her face

"Oh and after around 10 years you and the other carers will be removed" added Bruce

"Wonderful," She said sarcastically

Turning down a dirt road Bruce near the village. Pulling up outside he stopped the car and got Rebecca out of the car. He unclipped the handcuffs and let her into the village.

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Rebecca's POV

Bruce lead me into the village and left. It may have been simple but I loved it. Each house looked like an individual cabin. Would and simple materials they were adorable. There were 10 cabins, 9 for each discovered element and one for the people who were brought in to look after the babies. I decided to follow the path around and found two more buildings. One more built of wood for storage of food and another that was built the bricks. Walking over to the brick building I realised that it was used for cooking.

'hmmm' I thought 'I wonder where everyone is'

As if on cue I heard someone behind me say "oh hello, you must be the newest one". I turned around to see a woman probably in her early 30s with black mid-length hair pulled into braids. She wore a flowery dress that came to about her knees with short sleeves and black flat shoes.

"Yes, yes I am," I said to her "my name is Rebecca, what's yours?"

"Nice to meet you, Rebecca, my name is Anne, welcome to Moonshine Elemental Research Centre or MERC"

"Thanks" I replied

"The first lot of babies arrived early this morning, do you want to come see?" Anna asked

"Sure"

"Ok follow me," She said starting one path towards one of the elemental housing blocks.

From the outside, I noticed it seemed like a very modest simple cabin style building. The one that had been decided on to house the few current elemental babies was the water cabin. Anne, without needing to be asked began explaining what would happen in the next few years.

"So for a while, all the babies will be kept in this cabin" She gestured around her at the water-themed surroundings. In the room seem to be a shade of blue or Aqua. The bed pillows were even shaped like a water droplet. There was a wall at the back that had a bookshelf. I noticed, a blue cover had been made and added, to keep them in the room. I looked down at the floor, noticing that it was about the only thing in the room that did not have any blue in it. Rather it was made up of wooden planks in a criss-cross pattern. In seeing that I had noticed it Anna said:

"Oh that eyesore, we're getting a blue carpet put on that soon. It's horrible isn't it?"

"No", I replied "no it's not, keep it, it's original"

"Really," she said rolling her eyes" I don't think so, any way that's beside the point" pausing for a moment she looked at me as if trying to remember what she had been saying. After a few seconds though she did remember and continued speaking:

"So, the few children we have now will be kept in here. There are only a couple at the moment but, believe me, there will certainly be more. Once we have more children and they are a bit older, they will be moved and spread around to the other cabin is based upon what element they have as a birthmark.

The elements we have discovered so far: Earth, fire, water, air, ice, metal, nature, wildlife and electric. We do not know whether there will be any more" And pause for a second person her lips before continuing "We, us and the scientists, fear that there may be more and even an elemental is the control multiple or all elements"

"Why is that such a bad thing?" I asked

"Because" She answered "we do not know if these elementalists will be normal humans in their actions. They could be mentally unstable. They could be terribly dangerous. They could even kill us. Doesn't that scare you?"

To this, I looked directly into her eyes and said "I have learned not to be scared of the unknown. Face it with an open mind and an open heart. The new discoveries to be made, you cannot study the same thing, you must look into the unknown."

"Wow," Anne said to me "You really know nothing, do you? Oh well, you'll soon learn, we aren't all born as smart as me!"