ARRIVAL (ERA 1)

1 | at Dawn

There is a small, cliff-side village nestled between the borough of Wenonah Valley and Cedar Ridge. To the outside eye, it is as seemingly ordinary as any seaside town can be with a picturesque courtyard and crowded center. As the first strands of sunlight dance on the horizon, Kemper Square springs to life.

The groomed cobblestone streets are littered with people harboring goods for the day. The clinking sounds of metal on metal echo from the blacksmith's shop and a sugary scented smoke swirls from the Confectionary's chimney.

The air is clean, crisp and sweet. Down at the wharf, the first supply shipment arrives and the municipal civils, dressed in gray-blue jumpsuits, load the tin carts and send them up to town. The giant wheel structure in the town square wakes with the morning, churning a small pond of water in its basin.

In front of the basin stands a cluster of strapping men, weighed down by tattered leather bombers. Kemper's Garners always greet the dawn at the Wheel, waiting. A young man not a day older than 25 wipes his brow under the rising sun.

"This happens every morning. Every single morning he's late!" An older man says, eyes narrowing on a figure racing down the dirt lane.

"Why don't you just make him come with you?"

"Tried. It's no use. Come on, William! We can't keep waiting for you," calls the twenty-something man to the approaching boy.

"Sorry, Nic." The boy named William grins. "Won't happen again."

"I've heard that before."

William is noticeably the youngest of the group, but dressed in the same charming fashion.

He digs his hand into his rucksack and it emerges holding tiny bits of parchment. The paper is small and rectangular with a hand-drawn grid, marked and notated.

"An' what kept you?" The oldest Garner's voice is stern, authoritative.

"Sorry, Brynne. I completed mapping the new grid last night," William begins. "Judging from most recent patterns, I predict Sectors B and D will be the most proactive. We should concentrate our efforts there and expand outward on the second round as we double back."

"That's what you were doing all this time?" Nic lifts his eyebrow, skeptical.

"Very well. We will start in Quadrant I." Garner Brynne points to a scribbled line on the edge of the map. "We will work our way to Quadrant II. Nic, Pace an' Fynn will take this path in sector A. It wraps aroun' the Pit, so it's more direct. The rest of us will move east through the forest, and we'll rendezvous in Sector B."

"Just B and D then, are you positive?" Another man addresses William.

"Positive, Reese."

"Then it will be an easy one. We should be back by mid-day." Nic claps William on the back. Brynne folds the tiny piece of paper and stuffs it into his bomber.

The oldest man checks the watch dangling from his waistband and looks up at the sky. "It's time," he says. "Let's move out."

At the edge of town, diagonal from the Wheel, a grand stable house rests in a clearing. One by one the Garners mount and ride, branching off into two smaller groups like there's an invisible fork in the road.

One group heads east, following the path that winds around the gleaming Cheshire Cliffs. The other takes a narrow path that leads straight into the heart of the forest.