HUMAN

Chapter 2 - Serendipity

Year 2952.

700 years after humanity became "extinct."

After the demise of humanity, nature reclaimed what was left of the human civilization - slowly bringing the skyscrapers down to the ground, vegetation taking over crumbling ruins, and taking the bones of the dead deep within the Earth.

With humanity now a bygone era, what arose from the ashes of a great war in its place was something both extraordinary and unforeseen; Anthrokind, they titled themselves.

A species originating from the experimentation of humanity's genetic experiments and catastrophic events that reshaped the world.

Intelligent, resourceful, and a successor of the human civilization. These creatures would follow closely to the path that humanity took, but only quicker because of one thing - the X-R07 serum.

The only thing that kept them connected to the legends of humans, albeit, the enhancements were rarely ever present within the DNA of the Anthro populace. Only rumors of those truly inheriting the serum's abilities wandered the Earth. But that too, became legend in Anthro folk tales.

How closely would Anthrokind follow the path of their predecessors? The path. . .of self-destruction.

[ - - - ]

"Dave." I craned my neck, glancing over his shoulder. "Are you sure we're on the right path?"

Dave, holding the map with the confidence of a blindfolded navigator, turned it sideways. "Well, yeah! I mean. . .oh." He blinked, turning the map again. Upside-down. My eyes widen and snatched the map off of him.

"No way. You've got to be kidding me man." I glared at him. "You've been leading us in circles?!"

The rest of the group stopped. Their ears flicking up, and their face was plastered with the same worry that I had. "Huh? Since when was it a good idea to give Dave the map in the first place?" Morgan asked.

"Hey! I just passed geology class to know what I'm looking at-" He fired back. I brought my palm to my face. "Key word; just." Morgan said and quickly reminded Dave of the time he was trying to grab my attention so he could copy the test answers.

"What's the big deal? It's just trees." Dave shrugged. We exchanged worried looks, Morgan is more amused by this than we are.

"It's just trees until we can't find our way back!" I snapped, waving the map like it might prove my point. "Alright, does anyone remember where we came from?"

Blank stares and fidgeting fingers. I already knew the answer. Although, I'm guilty of being at fault as well. One; letting Dave be in charge of guiding us through the forest. He's a good guy, I'll die for him and all that but man he isn't the sharpest tool in the shed.

Two; I didn't pay attention as well. Being the one who organized this hiking event with a few of my colleagues I should've been paying more attention.

"Strange. My compass is going haywire." One of the group members said.

After the others begin to exchange their opinions, it quickly devolved into back-chatting and arguing. "Okay! Okay!" I gathered their attention. "Look, we've ended up in a pretty good clearing at least. I say we take a breather and think this through in a bit. We haven't had lunch yet and this would be a good time to do so."

The others nodded reluctantly. Grumbles turned to silence as everyone found their place and settled down. Dave walked up to me. "Hey, look man. I'm sorry. I really was just trying to figure it out." I look at him for a moment then sighed.