The Dying Generation

Chapter Eighteen

"My records? You mean what Cedric promised to show me?" I took a step forward, having hope in my eyes. It's horrible not knowing who you are or where you came from. Now my questions may be all answered.

"Yeah." Alton confirmed, eyes locked on the screen.
"Found it." He sighed.
He skimmed over the screen, not even reading it allowed to me.

"Alton, what does it say?"

Alton glanced down at me then back to the screen, reading what he saw.
"Clayton Lynn Geltz, born May 11, 2022. Only daughter to Collin and Olivia Geltz. Status, unknown. Death, unknown." Alton turned his head to look back to me.

I blinked, slowly putting my eyes to look down at the ground. Collin and Olivia.... sounds kinda familiar.. But my mind couldn't pull up an image of them or memory, all I could feel was the familiarity of their names.
I slowly turned my head to look back up to Alton, in the records, it doesn't know that I am still alive, but what about my parents?

"Anything on my parents? C-can you tell if they are alive still?" I fiddled with my fingers nervously while I awaited the answer.

Alton took the mouse, clicked a button, scrolled through some words and turned back to me.
"Both are dead, said to have died together when all hell broke loose."

I looked away, feeling my eyes water.
"T-then, how am I still... alive?"

Alton shrugged.
"I don't know, maybe if their house collapsed when the cannibals invaded the human world, or they could have been eaten-"

"Please stop." I interrupted him, feeling my heart go weak at the thoughts of them being killed in such horrible ways. I hardly remember them, but they are my parents. I wanted to see them one more time.

Alton started playing around more on the computer, reading other records while I started to pace a little back and forth on the dark colored desk. Alton's eyes began to squint in confusion at the screen.

I looked up at him curiously.
"What?" I asked, taking a few steps closer to him, towards his hand that rested on the mouse. He did not take his eyes away from the screen.

"There are someone else's records attached to yours. Well, there are a few other people but those are like family, but this one.. their name is in bold."

"What does that mean?"

"That they are important, there's something about them that is different from everyone else." Alton answered, his eyes still scanning over the screen.

"And that is..?" I tried to see the screen but the spot I was in, it was hard to really read it. I looked back to Alton for the answer.

"They, umm.." He stared at the screen, getting his thoughts together.
"They were also involved with us, in our world."

I tilted my head in confusion at him.
"You mean, with giants?"

Alton's eyes this time did flash my way with a hint of annoyance hiding in them but he just ignored it and answered my question with a "yeah."

"Is it considered rare to be around giants?"

"Sort of. Now, no. Before, kind of." He turned in his chair.
"This person was around them before this cannibal apocalypse even started."

"What was their name? Does it say?"

"Um, Mavis Geltz."

"Mavis," I repeated, trying the name out. "Where is she in my family?"

"Cousin, I think.."

"Is she the only person in my family that was around giants?"

Alton didn't answer me right away, he skimmed through any and all records that was related to me that he could get a hold of.
"Yup."

"Is she... Is she still alive?" I asked hopefully.

With one simple mouse click, he gave me the answer.
"Her status is unknown."

"Oh.." I looked down towards my feet.
"Is any of my family members alive?"

"Okay! Yeah, I'm not going through all of that. At this point, all I can see so far is either deceased or unknown, and I'm seeing a lot of deceased." He sat back in his chair, turning away from the computer.

I sighed, looking away.

Alton huffed and leaned forward to me.
"I'll be straight with you, you probably shouldn't even think about finding anyone at this point. I can tell you that the cannibals wiped out about everyone, anyone that is alive are in hiding. Near impossible to find them, and you going into the human world would be so much more dangerous. Going there, you're basically asking to be eaten. They practically took over that world already."

My eyes looked up to him then back down, not so sure what to even say at this point. Then what is the point of me even being here? To be alive? I wouldn't be able to live an amazing life or anything. I can't go back in the human world or I'll be killed. It would be probably near impossible to survive something like that alone, and I've never seen another human before. I wouldn't even know where to look for help there. It's like finding a needle in a haystack.

But in this world, I am wanted for study. Who knows how far they will go or how long will it take for them to get to that point. Cedric said he would help make it as easy as possible for me. But how much would he be able to do? He could try to talk them out of it as much as he wants, what if it doesn't work? What if he gets fired from trying to go against them, trying to prevent them from doing their job. He really won't be able to help me then.

I was yanked out of my thoughts when Alton suddenly grabbed me, I inhaled sharply when I was picked up. I squirmed to put myself in a more comfortable position, even though there really wasn't one from being in his fist.

I looked back to see the computer shut off and he was heading to the door.
"What's going on?" I looked up high to try to see Alton's face.

"We're getting out of here." He said blankly, opening the door. Being blinded by the hall lights that remained on, I covered my eyes to block some of it out. I felt Alton lower me, I tried to force my eyes to open to see what he was doing. He stuffed me into his jacket's pocket, keeping his hand in there with me like he was being sure I would stay put. To always reassure himself that I was still there.

"We're leaving? You're helping me get out?" I asked with slight excitement leaking into my voice as I looked up to the roof of the pocket again like I could see through the fabric to him.

"Duh, I wouldn't have just came here to show you the records. My Dad would have done that eventually." He mumbled.

I squirmed, his grip loosened on me a little to give me more room to comfortably move. I remained in my spot, resting my hand on the nail of his thumb.
"What do you think the other giants would do-"

"Again!" Alton cut me off, sounding a little frustrated.
"Don't call us that like we're freaks."

"Then what am I suppose to call you?" I squinted my eyes in confusion, tilting my head.

"Novians."

"Novians?" I tried out, questioning the name.

"There's two kinds of us, there's the cannibals and then there's the Novians."

"Where does that name come from?"

"Our world, the world that you call 'the giant realm.'"
He paused.
"This is Novis."