Second Genesis

Chapter One: Reaping

Part One: Dawn

"Upon review, lament and report,

But innocence was our last resort.

Thus magnify, and not distort,

The sounds that bring us all to slumber.

Regret, remorse, dead without number, but peace, at last, will be our plunder;

At last, sweet dreams of restoration,

For the constant follies of human nations

That led us all to desperation

Signal the dawn of a new generation.

Chapter One: Reaping

Silas started suddenly at the sound of distant screaming. He glanced through the hole in the wall of the tree house that had become his afternoon home. Smoke rose above the tree line. His heartbeat rapidly increased as the adrenaline surged through his veins and his blue eyes grew wide with apprehension. He dropped the coral pendant he had been fiddling with only seconds ago and raced down the ladder to the shadowy forest floor below. He streaked through the thick underbrush, headed in the direction of town; his imaginative young mind assuming the worst.

Filo paced nervously in front of his friend Silas' house. Where was he? Farther down the gravel road, Filo's twin brother Kyro stood outside their own home. Today, the government was taking him away for a special project. What, exactly? They wouldn't say. Across the street, stood Ella, patiently waiting to be taken away as well. Filo would miss her. She was one of Filo's few friends and happened to be the only girl in the small village; but, then again, there were only three families: the Knightengale's (three generations including

Silas), the Rivers' (Filo's own family, just two generations), and Filo wasn't sure but he believed Ella Bleizing's grandparents still lived. One child from each family was being taken in the spring of their seventh year. Filo wondered for the first time who he would play with when all the other kids were gone...

Kyro had been immensely relieved that his brother chose to let him go with the government. He had been long-overlooked by his parents, who paid neither of their children any heed until the winter of that year. They had started the day with their usual bickering between glasses of whatever cider-colored thing it was they drank all day. Kyro had gone over and sheepishly requested breakfast (it had been two days since his last meal, which had been provided by Silas' mom). That was all it took to send Mrs. Rivers into an uproar. She ranted on and on about how inconvenient the twins were. As she yelled, "SEVEN YEARS AND YOU USELESS CHILDREN CAN'T MAKE YOURSELVES A SINGLE MEAL!" a light seemed to come on behind their father's dull eyes and he staggered hurriedly into the bedroom and began tossing papers from the dresser beside his bed, mumbling unintelligibly. He had hobbled back into the main room bellowing and waving an opened envelope in his wife's face. She paused, dazed. Then she understood. She half-smiled as her eyes glazed over and she collapsed on the floor at Kyro's feet, having had too much to drink, again. Only this time, she didn't wake up dizzy and angry with the world. In fact, she didn't wake up at all. Sara Knightengale once again tended to the children while her husband buried their mother in the cemetery behind the Rivers' plot of land. After that, their father managed to stay sober enough to entrust the twins with the decision of who would go before retreating indefinitely into his separate house (for 3rd generation occupants). Kyro's older brother, (well, by a few seconds), was the best kind of friend to have; and with a simple pleading look, Kyro won from him the rights to leave with the government.

Soon, the town was in sight and Silas picked up the pace even more; the miniscule pinecone pendant Ella had given him flopping around on his chest. A helicopter of some sorts zoomed overhead, drowning out all other sound but intensifying the pounding in his head. "NO!" Silas gasped. Then, everything went black.