The Final Push

Chapter One: Caring Hands

~Sera~

"I promise to protect you," I smiled while ruffling his hair. "No one is going to hurt you as long as I'm around."

    Caiden grinned up at me, "You don't have to protect me; I'm not a little kid anymore."

    "Of course not," I said as I grabbed him and swung him around.

"Sera, Lemme go!" he laughed. Instead of setting him down, I threw my little brother over my shoulder. "Sera, put me down!" he was giggling uncontrollably now. I ignored him and trudged off towards the settlement, a small smile on my lips. Caiden wasn't heavy, even for an eight year old he was light. Like all of us, he was malnourished.

It had been three thousand years since the Earth had been devastated by the passed humans mistakes. At this time, the human population had drastically declined and it was now only the strongest and smartest survived. Very few, if any humans still lived, but those that did continued to demolish what little plant life was left, leaving us all victims of malnutrition. Due to reckless actions caused by our ancestors, 99% of Earth's plants and animals had gone extinct.

We only know this because of the stories Old Lady James had told us. No one knows exactly how old she is, but we know she has been passing these stories down for generations. She told my parents these stories, and if I remember correctly, she also told my grandparents. That was a long time ago, and the tales she gives us are far older. She tells us of the mistakes humanity has made and how we now have to pay the price for the detrimental behavior our ancestors demonstrated.

I set Caiden down along the edge of the settlement for our clan, The Wings. We are a peaceful people and tend to avoid other clans in the surrounding areas. The only time we would ever go to war is if we caught another clan encroaching upon our territory. Every clan has to fend for itself, this thought pattern was caused by The Great Break, people knew they would be safer in groups and naturally created these little colonies we all call home now.

The Great Break is a well known event to anyone on Earth today. Those three thousand years ago, the massive amounts of greenhouse gases finally built up and began to destroy our atmosphere. This caused the Reverse Pangea effect, where the continents shifted back together, causing massive earthquakes and eruptions to form along the new tectonic plate fault lines.

This all flashes through my mind as I knock on the wooden gates surrounding our settlement, which prevents other clans from entering, and more importantly, anyone in The Wings from leaving. A moment later, a head pops over the ten foot tall gate.

    "Oh, you're back early," he looked at us blankly.

    "Yeah... We couldn't find much," I hefted the bag on my back that was partially filled with food.

    Caiden stood on his toes, "Mr. Quentin, will you please let us in?"

    The older boy smiled, "Only because you said please, little man." Quentin's head disappeared and I heard him shout, "Sera and Caiden are back! Raise the gate!" I put my arm around Caiden and stepped back. Slowly the gate started to raise up. However, before the gate was even halfway up, Caiden dashed underneath and inside.

    "Caiden, wait!" I shouted. Ducking down, I ran inside after him. I straightened up and looked around for Caiden. He was standing there, waiting. Inwardly, I sighed.

    "Don't do that!" I scolded. "What if the gate fell and crushed you?"

    "It won't fall on me," he argued. "The chains that open it are strong."

    Walking over, I flicked him in the forehead, "Don't do it again."

    "Fine," he sighed.