Page 3 of Genesis
Goodbye, my brother.
His body splashed into the deep water of Synner’s Lake. We watched from above, with smoke and fire and war all around us, until Zan’s body bobbed and sunk out of sight.
“I love you,” we both whispered to the lake at the same time.
Another bomb dropped, and it spurred me into motion. I aimed the gun at Cadoc again, and he stopped, not even afraid of me.
“You’re coming with me to get my sister.”
All he did was nod.
I marked the tree nearest to where we had dropped Zan’s body, and then the two of us were running to the safe house to make sure my last living sibling was still alive.
CHAPTER 2
INNOCENCE GONE
ZADE
My sister was alive,but this bunker was no longer safe. There was no time to grieve my brother when the war was on our doorstep and the others in this bunker were turning hostile.
We’d been staying here for three weeks. When our hometown got overtaken by the rebel forces, we tried to flee, but my fucking dad forced us to come here. The only reason we came was to stay with Amelia, my sister. These were his doomsday prepper friends, and now they were asking questions about where he was.
“We have to get her out of here,” Cadoc said, strapping a multitude of guns to his body and glancing around.
Thinking on the fly, I announced, “We need supplies if we’re going to defend this area. We’re going on a supply run and taking Amelia, just in case. What do you need?” I asked the group, knowing full well we wouldn’t be coming back.
Cadoc caught onto my plan and started rambling off shit we’d need, which made the others chime in. His voice shook, but only I noticed. While he did that, I packed a single backpack full ofAmelia’s shit. She was thirteen and pretty independent, but she was scared and she knew something was up.
“Where’s Zan?” she asked me, stuffing feminine products into the front pocket of her bag. “Where’s Zan? Don’t lie to me, Zade.”
I couldn’t lie to her, but I wasn’t ready to verbally admit the truth. I fucking choked on it.
This wasn’t a good place. It’d kept us safe for a while, but when the men grew hostile and wanted to stand their ground against other rebel groups, it became a war zone of its own. While the governments fought each other, we fought ourselves in the only area we knew of that wasn’t under total control.
And it all started with a human rights debate that spanned the globe. Like wildfire, debate spread across the world, and when those fires got too hot, chaos broke out. To be honest, I barely knew what was going on in other parts of the world because there was no way to find out anymore. No signals. No cell service. No internet. I wasn’t school smart, and that made me too stupid to understand all this.
All I knew was that I needed to keep my sister alive and find somewhere safe.
Cadoc was discreet about it, but he shoved a first aid kit and some dried food into a pack, strapping it over his shoulder with all his guns within easy reach. He grew up with gangsters, so guns weren’t new to him.
“Okay, if we aren’t back by sunrise tomorrow morning…” I started and let that trail off, hoping they’d think it meant we were dead or captured. “We’ll do whatever we can to find this shit.” I took the list from one of my dad’s buds.
“Where’s your dad?” he asked again.
“Went scouting with Zan. I’m hoping they just got held up on their way back. We’ll look for them.” The lie choked me even more.
Cadoc trembled at my brother’s name, but he buried it and grabbed Amelia’s arm. “Come on, kiddo.” He lit a cigarette and took Amelia outside.
“Zade.” My dad’s friend stopped me. “You know something I don’t?” He gave me a look that warned me against lying.
“Yeah, I know we need supplies. The war is being pushed back by the rebel groups, but if we don’t defend ourselves, we’re fucked. That’s all I know.” I held eye contact the whole time. “And I’m freaking out about where Zan is. I just want to look for him.”
He hesitated, but he bought it. “Signal on your way back.” He handed me a radio. “We’ll make sure our area is clear.” The radios barely worked and were put together with shady tech equipment and old satellite receivers, but I took it with a nod.
This area wasn’t clear. The bombs were less than a mile away, and there wasn’t a chance in hell I was losing another sibling to this fucked up world we now lived in.
I left the bunker, which was in someone’s backyard, and found Cadoc protecting Amelia around the side of the house. He was still smoking, and I had a feeling that would be his life now. His fingers, tipped with chipped black nails, would never be without a cigarette again.
