Genesis: Prologue

I remember it. The air at the top of that mountain was cold, and wind whipped past me like it was intentionally trying to drown out the sounds of my parents talking. I remember my mother. Her face was contorted with fear, and tears pricked at the edges of her sapphire eyes as she pleaded with the man I assumed to be my father for something. His face was foggy, like someone had drawn scribbles over it, but his voice.. Gods, his voice sounded like the beating of a war drum, heavy, deep, and instilling a sense of dread in me.

“I won’t let you disappoint me again,” He said, approaching my mother with heavy footsteps, boots leaving imprints on the snow beneath his feet. “Your job was simple. Bare a child worthy of being my heir, of succeeding me. It was the simplest of commands, and what do you do? You bring me a useless brat, with no abilities to speak of. She’s absolutely worthless to me!”

“Please,” My mother begged the man as she dropped to her knees, shaking as the tears in her eyes threatened to spill over. “I just need another chance. I can do it right this time, I promise!” She attempted to speak again, but her words were cut short by that man’s hand around her neck. With ease, he lifted her up with one hand, and tears spilled forth from my mother’s eyes as she whimpered, unable to even plead for her life.

“It doesn’t matter now. I have plenty of test subjects that are more than promising. Much more promising than this thing you have brought into this world.” The disdain was clear in his voice. The people without those abilities were worthless, less than scum. Even at five years old, I could tell that much.

“Lily,” My mother’s voice called out, before once again being cut short, the sickening noise of her neck breaking by my father’s hand echoing out across the mountaintop.

“Mama!” I yelled out, running over to her corpse. My voice was hoarse, my heart was racing from the pure terror that wracked my body. “Why?” Was my simple question to the man who claimed to be my father. I didn’t even get an answer out of him as my body started to seize up, and I collapsed to the ground, unable to move or speak, yet perfectly aware of everything that was going on around me, paralyzed.

The next few moments were a blur. I could only see the overcast skies as my father lifted me and carried me away from my mother’s body. His hands held me steadily as he walked, almost as if he were trying to stop me from falling. It would have been a sweet gesture, if he hadn’t done what he’d just done. He stopped walking, and I wasn’t able to see what was going on around me, until I felt it. The sound of rushing wind filled my ears as he let me slip from his grasp, freefalling toward the ground below, my body hitting every single ledge on the way down to the valley below.

Pain. That was the only thing that I could feel. So deep, and excruciating that it consumed every inch of me, so complete that it choked my cries before they could even leave me. I laid there for what felt like an eternity, even after the paralysis began to wane, gripped so tightly by that pain that my body couldn’t move. It felt like hours had passed before I heard another voice.

“This is Genesis,” The woman spoke into a radio on her shoulder. “We found the kid. He just.. He tossed her off the side of the damn cliff.” She sounded disturbed, her voice shaky as she recounted what just happened to me. She knelt down right in front of me. “Don’t worry sweetie, you’re safe with us now.” She tried to sound comforting, but my ears were ringing, and I could barely hear her. “She’s alive,” She turned back to one of her associates. “But she looks like hell. I’m administering the serum now.” She pushed a needle into my arm. I started to feel numb, which felt like heaven compared to what I’d been feeling prior. I could feel my body moving. Bones snapped back into place, my flesh mending itself back, it took a while, but soon my body felt somewhat normal, instead of feeling like a shattered vase.

“You know he’s too far gone Rachel,” A man’s voice sputtered through the radio on Genesis’s shoulder. “The best we can do is extract the kid and hope she isn’t too messed up. We’re not going to let anyone else die because of him.”

“I know, Adrian. I just, look at her and I can’t help but think of Daniel, or-”

“I know. I know. But they’re safe, alright? I made sure of it,” A moment of silence passed before his voice came back. “Look, this mission is almost over. We can wrap up, then we can get back to the boys, okay? I love you, Rachel.”

“I love you too,” She sighed, trying to compose herself as she scooped up my body. “We’re extracting her now. Be at the LZ in twenty minutes.”

That’s where my memory always starts to get fuzzy.

“Hey kid,” I heard a man’s voice behind me, waking me from my stupor and bringing me back to the present. “You get lost in that head of yours? Come on, we gotta get goin. Boss is calling us.” He motioned for me to follow him as he left.

“Right,” I nodded and began to follow. Of course, now wasn't the time to focus on my childhood memories. I had to do as I was told.

If I didn’t, I knew it wouldn’t be long before I saw mom again.