The Fields of Eden, Chapter 1: In the beginning...

Prologue



The world is never as it seems. Good and Evil surround us. Within the world we live in, a war is being waged. A war as old as people and a war that is still raging. When all hell breaks loose, and the guardians of the innocent fail, what can you do? At the end of the world, what is there but to fight?




Chapter One

There is a sense of peace on the highway. Given that there are dozens of other people in other cars, all impatient to get to their destination. Yet, one always senses that we are all connected. That you are all scrambling through life at high speeds, trying to survive the trip to get to wherever it is you want to go.

My name is Lucas. For the past year, all I have done is drive along the highways of the United States with my mother. We’ve traveled everywhere from New York to Chicago, and even Los Angeles. She’s one of those people who absolutely dreads staying in the same town more than a day, and so she decided that we would go on the road until she found a place she could be happy. This means I must to go with her, for her sanity and protection. My mother is one to get lost, or get into trouble, or end up with the wrong kind of boyfriend. As such, it has consistently been my job to make sure she never gets hurt. It is a taxing job…

“Lucas, do you know what day it is?” she said to me, leaning her head on my shoulder as I drove down the highway in the fading sunlight. “No, what day is it?” It had been hard to keep track of the days while on the road. I barely knew it was a Sunday, much less the date or month. Though it was still fairly warm lately, so I knew it was
summer.

“It’s been fifteen years.”

I immediately understood. It had been fifteen years to the day that my father had died. I had stopped keeping track, though Mom would surely be counting the days still. My father had gone to work in his shop in southern Boston when he never returned home. No one knew what had happened to him either. The police found his car abandoned on the highway, with no sign of a struggle or even an accident. It was as if he had pulled over of his own free will and had left on foot. My mother still thinks that he might be alive, somewhere. I know differently. If he was alive, then he has no business being with us if he hasn’t shown himself now. It had been fifteen years. Surely that meant he wasn’t alive. If my mother’s stories had any credit at all, then he had loved us too much to just leave.

“He would have loved to see us now. Wesley was his best friend you know. I still don’t believe that we’re doing this,” she sighed, looking out the window.
For my sake, she decided to finally take us off the endless highway, and to the town of Eden. Ironically, Eden is one of the least beautiful places in the heart of Kansas. It was an incredibly small town with only numerous amount of farmland. Each farm house was complimented with miles and miles of wheat and corn. The only good thing about the town was that it had a large high school, so I wouldn’t have to be the figurative “New Kid” in town. I just wanted to blend in, and hoped to live out my last year of high school away from scrutinizing eyes. In New York, which was where I lived for the longest, a lot of the kids in school there were always curious as to where my mother and I drove off to all the time. Of course, the truth was that we never really went anywhere in particular; my mother just likes to watch the roadside pass by. We would normally drive for hours, as she looked out the window. I always know what she’s thinking.

Of course, that was how it was, until I finally told her that we needed to settle down and let me live my life. She consented, though I knew she hated giving up on Dad. It was time though. It had been seventeen years, and no sign of him. The fact that she had kept up hope this long was a testament to him alone. It was admirable to be sure. I know that I probably will never find love like that, and I hope that if I do that it would never end as tragically.

I stared ahead, into the vast golden fields of wheat alongside the highway. There were rows of pure yellow, swaying away into the fierce wind.

“Mom, you know I love you, and I wish he were here too. And maybe now we can all just move on. I’m sure Wesley might even have some great stories.”
It seems that everyone who knew my father had a hundred stories of him. I practically knew him inside and out, though I had never really known him in person. For such a stand-up guy, he had seemed like such a mystery all these years. I had given up trying to find every single bite of information about him. I knew how old he would be, how old he was when he disappeared, and how old he was when he met my mother. There had always been more stories. Incredible stories about Chad Killian’s great tales of adventure. How he had always known what to do or say if anyone had a problem. How he always had been there for his friends. How much he knew about life, and how much he had loved my mother. It was sickening at this point, to know of one’s father, and not ever have had a conversation with him.

“Oh, I’m sure of that honey. Wesley and your father did so much together. They were inseparable when they were boys. They always went off on road trips to the mountains. You’ll see what I mean when we get to Eden. I’m sure you’ll love to hear about those trips. I myself never went on them. I don’t like to hike, or camp, so I just let the boys do what they did best. “

“Mom, you know I’ve probably heard just about every story there is about Dad. I’m more focused on trying to not make an idiot of myself at school. No one here knows me, and I’m sure they don’t get visitors often.” This conversation was starting to bug me. I didn’t like it when she talked about Dad, it always lead to her crying that night or drinking a bit more than she should.

“Lucas, can we pull over at the next exit? I need to stretch my legs.”

I sighed. If my mother says stretch her legs, she means stop and eat. I had been driving the whole way, and I desperately wanted to get to Eden and be done with it. Yet, I couldn’t deny my mother her breaks. While she loved the road, she didn’t like being stuffed into a confined space as much as anyone. I pulled onto the next exit ramp.

There was a convenience store near the on-ramp. Well, convenience wasn’t really an accurate statement. It was an old gas station settled on plot of land that edged from a back-road. The only reason I knew it was there were the old wooden signs with peeling paint that led down the path. There were no trees, of course, but grass grew on both sides of the road high near the windows of the car. I couldn’t go fast, since the road wasn’t much more than topsoil. The road wound upward, towards a light slope.

The store itself did not look in good condition. The walls were slack, and the doorway was missing the door. The gas pumps looked thirty years old and rusty. I was fearful of putting the gasoline into my car. I supposed that I should get use to this sort of thing. Eden was sure to have older buildings rather than newer ones. The only new building I knew of in the town was the school, and that was because the old one had been so old it partially collapsed.

I drove the car into a parking space next to the station. There weren’t any other cars there, not that I was surprised or anything. Surely this place didn’t receive many visitors, and it wasn’t like there were great deals of cars just driving through Kansas at any given time. We were probably the only customers these people had in at least three hours.

The air was still here. Usually it was fairly windy this time of day in Kansas, but somehow this gas station had found respite from the gusts of wind that swept up from the highway. This place just got weirder by the minute. I did not want to stay here long. The place had a sense of forbidding that I couldn’t quite register with a reason.

While my mother stepped out of the car and stretched her legs, I stepped toward the doorway.

The inside of the store was just as disheveled as the outside. I started to think there was no one here, and we had stumbled upon a simply decrepit building out in the middle of nowhere. There seemed that there was not anyone here, in fact. Items that belonged on shelves were sprawled out all over the place on the floor. It was as if someone had been living here but never bothered to clean up after themselves.

“Hello? Is anyone here? We’re just stopping by and we need some gas. Hello?” I was starting get that feeling like I didn’t belong here. Even if someone didn’t operate the store, it was at least owned by someone. That someone might be on their way now to yell us off.

“Lucas…” It was a chilling whisper. Though, I really didn’t hear it audibly. It was so faint I had almost perceived it more than I heard it. It was difficult to comprehend. Like the whisper was clouded by the wind. I was just hearing things. No one was in here, and even more that no one was there that could possibly know my name.

“Hello?” I tried once more in vain. No one was there, no one at all. I decided to check the staff room behind the register. It was better to make sure than to go ahead and steal someone’s gasoline.

If the front of the store was bad, then the back was terrible. As I walked in, I saw a book shelf that was devoid of books. They were instead in tatters all over the floor. As I looked left, there she was. A girl, wearing simple jeans and a dark T-shirt was standing up, leaning against a counter in the back corner of the room. Her eyes were green, which went well with her styled brown hair.

I was taken aback. I hadn’t really expected anyone to be here after the abandoned look of the front. “Oh, hello, I’m Lucas. I was just checking to see if someone was here who could allow me to get the gas from the tanks.” She continued to stare at me.

The girl seemed to be slightly awestruck. It was as if I had been the first person she had seen in a long time. Her eyes never moved away from my face, and in the light it seemed they were a slight shade darker than one would expect. It was dark in the room after all, so I didn’t think much about it. She moved toward me slowly, and it made me nervous. The girl hadn’t said anything since I had been standing there, and she had certainly been eyeing me far too much for someone who had just met me.

“Umm, do you live around here? My mother and I are moving to Eden, just a few miles from here” This wasn’t the right thing to say, judging from the startled look that spread from the corners of her mouth to the wide beautiful eyes on her face. She finally spoke after a second of holding that face.

“Hmm, so you’re the new boy that Wesley has been speaking about. Interesting.”

She didn’t say anything more than that. I wanted to ask her why she thought that was interesting, but suddenly my mother had appeared at my side. “Lucas, there isn’t anyone- Oh, hi! I’m Karen, Lucas’ mother.” My mother had apparently seen the strange girl too. So I wasn’t crazy at least.

“Hi Karen, Lucas was just telling me that you were moving with Wesley over in Eden? I live around that area. We might even be going to the same school,” she said simply.
She hadn’t taken her eyes off of me, so when she spoke it wasn’t very clear who she was speaking to. My mother, being the friendly person she was, just nodded with a smile. “Well, do you know where we can find the person who owns this place? We need to fill up our car”

“No one owns it. It’s been closed for about seven years. There just weren’t enough cars that stopped by to keep the station open. There is still gasoline in the pumps, so help yourself to any that may be left. I stop by here sometimes to meet the occasional person that stops by. One finds some… interesting people here.” She looked right into my eyes as she said that last part. The way her eyes looked into mine, it was like she was piercing through my soul. It made me uneasy.

My mother chimed in. “Oh, thanks dear. I suppose we’ll be off. We have a little way to go, and I’m sure we shouldn’t keep Wesley waiting. Let’s go Luke. Nice to meet you,
um, what was your name?”

“Rachel.” She still spoke in that monotone that she had the entire time.

“Oh, thank you. It was nice to have met you Rachel. I’m sure we’ll see you around Eden. Good bye!” My mother started to the door. I looked after her as she left the doorway. Instead of following after her, I turned to Rachel one last time. Her eyes had yet to wander away. “I’ll see you at school then.” She simply nodded, and I turned toward the door. “Be careful Lucas, Eden isn’t as small as it seems.” I turned back towards her, but she was gone.

I blinked. She couldn’t have just disappeared, but perhaps there was just another door in the back after all. I simply moved to the front door, deciding that looking for the door she went through would not be worth the effort. This encounter wouldn’t be the last time I would see her after all. She would be going to my school. That was a thought that both excited me, and made me nervous. Excited, because she was someone new, and I was curious about her. Nervous because of the way she had stared at me.

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Let me know what you guys think. If I get enough good feedback on this, I'll request a Desk area and start posting these on here as well.

redleader, why are you stories so damn good? get a desk man

double post.

i liked ruins of reach better, this one doesn't hold my attention as much. But that's just me, i prefer reading action orientated writings. talking about, your story ROR story has inspired me to write my own. will start soon.

Ts just the 1st chapter. Stories get better later in the bookI

You definitely drew me in with the first chapter, but the title itself is more intriguing then that entire chapter. I'm writing fantasy myself.

There most certainly is combat in this story, but it does take a while to get there. This is not a military story, so there's more mystery and character conversation.



And yes, the title is alluding to some aspect of the story.

I shall repeat myself, get a desk man. In loving your stories so far

Well, I now have a desk.


I'll be releasing an installment of this story once a week, every Saturday. This is a novel I've already written, so I won't ever be late on posting. The same goes for Compass on Fridays.

Good story so far, although Rachel seems like one of those crazy stalker girls so far