Genesis | Book One, The Genesis Series

FOURTEEN

Dylo felt like he was slowly falling out of the sky as the aircraft descended. Unlike the others, he hadn't slept the entire flight. He couldn't, not this high up in the air. He wished they could've just taken the van.

He felt drops, but they were smaller than he thought they'd be. Nowhere as long as on roller-coasters. A few seconds later, it became a bit bumpy as the plane softly hit the ground, and the boy began hearing mechanical noises. He figured those were the flaps-to reduce speed and control the landing.

While the kid wasn't really educated in conventional areas like Math, History, English, and Science, there was one thing he knew-planes. Since the murder of his parents, he'd always been fascinated by them. While they didn't necessarily comfort him, studying them had always been sort of a hobby.

Waking up Troy was probably one of the hardest things Dylo had ever done. Shaking him would probably result in a black eye or a broken jaw, so that sure as hell wasn't going to happen. Eventually, he ran out of ideas and decided to let the jolt of the aircraft take care of it for him.

Leo blinked rapidly as his vision struggled to adjust.

Feeling the heavy, warm breaths curling up against his neck and chin, he looked beside to him to find that Amber had fallen asleep on his shoulder. Her head was buried into his chest as the sweet smell of her long brown hair entered his nostrils.

His heart fluttered as an cheesy grin overtook his face.

Peering out from under the uncomfortable, rough tarp of the empty cargo area, he found that no one was present.

"Yo, you awake, man?" Dylo whispered, waking Kai and Bianca up. "I think we're here."

"It's about time." Troy grumbled, flinging the thick tarp off of himself as he got up and stretched. He'd had a horrible nightmare about a previous experience while taking that 2-hour nap.

He could easily recall the last time he saw his father like it had happened yesterday, although Troy hadn't seen him in over 9 years.

Every minor detail could be remembered, ranging from how many times his old man struck him in the face, to the amount of bruises Troy had around his body, and he could even remember what his blood tasted like as his skull struck the pavement.

His mind had flashed back to where it happened. He wanted to take away the power of the painful memory for hurt, prove to himself that he could choose to move on.

But those days were long gone now, and his past wouldn't come back to torment him.

Never again.

Amber noticed Troy's facial expression. Being the kind, compassionate person that she was, she decided to check up on the guy. "Troy, you okay? You look like something's bothering you."

"I'm.... I'm fine." Troy lied, breathing heavily as he tried to think of something to change the subject. Adam knew the guy was lying, but he definitely wasn't going to be the one to call him out on it.

Leo peeked through the bullet-resistant windows, his eyes widening as he realized that they were in some sort of forest. Looking over the trees, he made out a large, metallic fortress. It looked sort of like a modern, technologically advanced castle-one that he wasn't keen on entering.

"We'd better get a move on before they find us." Kai suggested, hanging the tarp back up on the rusty rack. "Let's head out."

Kai and the others backed up against the metallic exterior, testing to see if they could hear anybody coming. No one was there. Motioning for the others to follow him, he swiftly dipped out the door and into the dense forest, the others trailing behind him.