Growing Something New

Chapter 1

This fanfic contains three LONG chapters so enjoy I guess.
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Even in the dying evening sunset, the heat was enough to make John wipe the sweat from his brow. He turned the tractor around and headed for the barn. It'd been a long day, but he'd got the corn planted all the same. The heat had snuck up on him this year, and he had to bust his hump to get the new crop in the ground, praying he hadn't waited too long. But he was hopeful; he had a hardier hybrid variety for the year, and the peanut crop from the previous year should keep the soil readily supplied with the nitrogen orn would need.

The tractor pulled into the barn, and he jumped off with a tired runt. He looked over at the seed drill and yawned.

I'll just take it off tomorrow, he thought adjusting his cap. Maybe when I let the chickens out to scratch.

The house was a good distance away, so he hopped on his old weathered four-wheeler. The sun dipped below the horizon just as he cranked it up. The light on the old thing wasn't as good as it once was, but he could probably make his way back blind if need be. He made it back before long and stopped at the front steps. The lights were on in the house, because he had left them on earlier. It was a simple white farm house, a modern two-story affair. A nice front porch to relax and watch the sunset from, big fireplace for the winter. Plenty of space, more than he needed. Much more.

He looked away from his empty house and sighed. He loved his farm, from the hard labor to the tight profits to the satisfaction of a bountiful harvest, but as the years rolled by, he found himself wishing more and more that he did anything else. At least in other fields he might meet people more than every odd day as he did now. Farming could be a lonely job.

If nothing else, I got quite a nice view of the night sky, he thought with a smile as he looked up.

The stars shone like diamonds out there with barely any light to obscure them. Even the bright, hazy Milky Way could be seen stretched out above him on a perfect cloudless night like that one. It was definitely a sight one couldn't find even in smallest of cities. As he looked up, he noticed a falling star. He'd seen many before, but this one was brighter and faster than any he had ever watched. It tore across the sky, and just as it fell from his view, he heard a quiet high-pitched whistle. The importance of the sound struck just as he heard the far-off rumble of a crash.

Looking back at the house for a second, he made up his mind and headed out.

From where he was, he wouldn't be able to see very well where it might have landed, but he took off in the general direction. The light on his four-wheeler did it's job well enough to see thirty or so feet ahead of him, which was about all he could expect anyway in the thick woods near the farm. He didn't travel through there often, but it wasn't anything he couldn't handle.

Over briar patches and dense, dry bushes he went, trying to make his way through. It was a bit more overgrown than he had remembered. With the sun fully gone, he had to take the best looking path he could see ahead of him, making it tougher going than it had been just a few minutes prior. The trees, mostly old oaks and a few lone pines, were packed more tightly as he went further in. Twice, he had to turn around and try another route after finding himself blocked off by some tight-knitted gnarled trees. On top of that, it didn't take long for the sharp low lying branches and thorns to dig in through his faded jeans, and a swarm of buzzing mosquitoes begin to hover around his face as well; the early heat seemed to have invigorated them as well. After nearly an hour of driving through the rough interior, the stupidity of his idea hit him.