Part 1
Start of something new
"You must be the change you wish to see in the world"
- Mohandas Gandhi
Chapter 1 - Seth
I wonder what it's like to have parents. My father was a Lieutenant in the United States Air Force, Lieutenant James Lane. He died as a prisoner of war back in World War 3. My mother was brutally beaten and killed right in front of my eyes, just because she slipped on the ice and hit a NASR soldier. What I remember most is her. telling me to run as she was getting her skull kicked in. As a 12 year old, all I could do was scream and cry, but luckily my 18 year old brother, Ben, was strong enough to listen to her, and he dragged me away to safety. That was the last memory of my mom. It's been 5 years since it happened. Of course, none of that matters now. Now all that matters is finding my next meal. Which reminds me, I need to get ready to go hunting.
My brother Ben is the best hunter I know. He can kill a deer with one arrow, with a perfect hit every time. I have never seen him make a dirty kill. He is always precise and efficient. Me on the other hand, let's just say I'm not the best. No, my weapon of choice is the spear and knife. My brother may be accurate, but I am strong. I can throw a javelin a good 80 feet, and that's on a bad day. My knife is also one of my greatest assets. I'm quick, which serves well when handling a knife.
Now that's not to say that I can't kill something with a bow. If fact, I am a pretty decent shot. Once while I was savaging, which you do a lot when there is nothing else to do, I found an interesting weapon. I took it home to Ben, and he explained it was a crossbow. A crossbow is sort of a mix between a gun and a bow. It also had a scope on it, which was awesome because it allowed me to be extremely accurate.
We took it out to hunt once, and we discovered it was very overpowered. It shot through a fawn, and lodged into a tree. The fawn practically exploded, and exploded fawn is no good for trading in case you weren't aware. The crossbow was decided to be used only as a defensive weapon. I still carry it today, but I haven't used it since the first time.
"You got your gear together yet Seth? I swear, you take longer to get ready than a rabbits mating season does to end!" barked Ben. He's full of bad insults. It's kind of embarrassing in public actually.
"Isn't there something else you could do other than harass me? Its 8:00 in the morning, let's wait until 9:00. Unlike some people, I like to get my beauty sleep." I fired back as I glanced at my father's watch, my most prized possession, which I had on my floor in my room of our apartment. That makes it sound nice. Let me clear this up. The official name of apartments were "government issued standardized living compartments". What a mouthful right? So Ben and I always just called it an apartment. The government issued them to everyone not because they were worried about our well being, but they wanted to keeps us in check. I Picked it up to examine it. Along with my hunting knife, it was the only thing that I actually owned. My finger traced the delicate design etched into the silver. The time read 8:03 and the date December 7th. In three months, I would be 18.
"You're going to need to sleep a lot longer than that if you want a visible improvement. Although you can only go up from here I suppose, you are the ugliest man in the Midwestern province." remarked Ben.
"That really hurts you know. I'm crying on the inside." I've always considered myself as somewhat good looking. I have jet black hair, a feature I can thank my mom for, which feathers down around my head, mainly because I'm too ambivalent to cut it. I'm quite tall, over 6 foot, probably among the 10 tallest people in my district, which are just smaller divisions of the Midwestern province. When my mom died, I started conditioning myself to dull the pain of losing her. I had this crazy idea that if I got strong enough, I could kill the people who killed my mom. It was a stupid idea, but out of it came a muscular me. From what my brother has told me, somewhere in our bloodline is American Indian, which gives us respectively tan skin. Yeah ok I have a big head sue me.
