Prologue

Prologue

There are nine of us now. We are still wandering through the desert. I’ve lost track of the days and I can’t remember the last time I’ve spotted life other than the comrades I travel with now. It has been five years since the disaster that wiped out the human race.

A few hundred years ago the world was a beautiful place. The land was green and beautiful, rivers carved paths across the land, and animals roamed freely. Then, the first gun was made. Technology advanced, creating explosives, guns, and other weapons that society became infatuated over.
Then the war began.
Because of a misunderstanding, a country fell into chaos. Then slowly, the disputes spread like a virus across the beautiful land slowly destroying it. The green land turned to desert, the rivers turned to canyons, the animals turned to skeletons. Hate spread and took over people’s hearts.
When the war finally ended the land was barren. There was little life. Gigantic cities began appearing on the landscape. Drugs were invented and the cities began polluting. Soon the skies turned grey with the pollution, water ran out, and everyone became addicted to the drugs. Many families were in poverty, everything costed more money than the citizens could make.
For a time, everything was peaceful, despite the status of the ruined world.
Then the disaster began.
A laboratory that tested viruses was making a deadly disease in case a war would ever rear it’s ugly head. A man working at the lab caught the disease and died slowly over the coarse of the next month. The virus was very contagious, and his family caught it, then the city caught it. The city was quarantined, but it was no use. The virus spread to every city. Many lives were claimed.
Then they realized there’s hope for civilization yet. Children were able to live longer when the virus and, very rarely, live without side-effects for a very long time while infected. They targeted the specific antibody within the child’s system. Simultaneously, they found in the animal fossils they were studying the same antibody was found within the bone marrow.
Then the experimentation began.
They began gathering children at an institute and testing their resistance to the virus. The children already in critical condition were given drugs made from the antibody within the bone marrow of the animal fossils.
Most of the children did not accept the new DNA within them and died. There were a chosen few who survived, who accepted the new DNA within them.  With the help of the antibody they became immune to the virus. As a side-effect they began changing and taking on the animal’s attributes. They became stronger, faster, smarter depending on the animal’s DNA.
These children were called the Reborn… and on this planet called Neo… they are the only ones left.

I woke up to the sun setting over the horizon. Some of us were already awake. By the time the big ball of flames was almost gone from the sky, everyone was awake and waiting. The sweltering heat made us tired, fatigued. The last sliver of light disappeared beyond the horizon. The stars and two moons took control of the sky and the air became cooler, almost freezing cold. He motioned to us that it was time to move on. We left our small cave dug into the side of the canyon.
I readied myself, made sure I could keep my balance on the rocky terrain. I dug my feet into the ground.
And then, we ran.