Silent Evolution: BIOGENESIS

PROLOGUE

I was running through the snow as fast as my little legs could carry me. Daddy was ahead, pulling me through the freezing drifts that reached past my knees.

“Where are we going, Daddy? Why are we running?” I cried as my boots sank deep into the white snow.

Everything was a blur. Just a little while ago, I had woken up in some kind of bright white hallway, with Daddy carrying me against his chest, running like our lives depended on it. And now we were out here in the freezing wilderness, running away from something terrifying.

“Daddy, wait!” I screamed, stumbling.

He didn’t stop, but he looked back over his shoulder, and a knot twisted in my stomach. His face was smeared with dark, wet blood.

He yanked me up by my arm, pulling me out of the deep snow. “There you go. Now run!” he shouted over the howling wind.

“You’re hurt, Daddy!” I pleaded, tears freezing on my cheeks. “What happened? Who did this to you?”

“I’m fine, baby. I’m fine. Now be a good girl for Daddy—no questions right now, okay? Just run.”

“Okay,” I whispered.

Suddenly, a loud, sharp crack echoed behind us. Then another.

Daddy immediately shoved me down into the snow and threw his whole body over mine. “STAY DOWN!” he yelled.

More cracking sounds snapped through the freezing air—gunshots.

Without waiting another second, Daddy scooped me up onto his shoulders and kept running. That was when I realized I couldn’t stop crying. The icy wind bit into my wet face. He had told me not to ask questions, so I clamped my mouth shut and tried to be brave. But inside, my head was spinning. Where were we? Why were people shooting at us? Where was Mommy? Why was Daddy bleeding? But if Daddy was this terrified, I knew something was horribly wrong.

After a few endless minutes, we reached a small wooden cottage tucked in the trees. Daddy kicked the door open, pulled us inside, and slammed it shut behind us.

He set me down gently in a corner against the wall and rushed over to a set of wooden drawers on the other side of the room. He frantically yanked at the handles, his hands shaking. That was when I saw it—his left hand from the wrist down was mangled and torn, barely held together by shredded skin, dripping dark red blood onto the floorboards.

He managed to pull a small black radio from the drawer. Shaking with rage, he shouted into it: “ALPHA, WHERE THE HELL ARE YOU?!” He took a ragged breath and yelled again, “If something happens to my daughter, I won’t spare a single one of you! Not you, not that damn unit!”

He dropped the radio and hurried back over to me.

Up close, it was even worse. His shirt was soaked in dark red patches in so many places. I knew what bullet holes were. Just never seen them on daddy.

“Here, take my jacket,” he whispered, his voice trembling as he wrapped the warm, heavy coat around my shivering shoulders.

I was too scared to make a sound. He knelt down and pulled me into a tight hug.

“It’s okay, baby. It’s okay,” he said, letting out a long, shuddering breath. “They’re coming. They’re going to save us.”

For a brief moment in his arms, I felt safe. But my stomach churned, and I felt like I was going to throw up. I buried my face in his chest, wanting nothing more than for the nightmare to end.

Then, the wooden front door violently splintered off its hinges and crashed to the floor.

Daddy moved in an instant, throwing himself in front of me to block me from view.

“DO NOT MOVE!” a man roared from the doorway.

Two men in dark military gear stepped into the room, their rifles raised.

“Base, we have Echo 1 and 3 in sight. Awaiting orders,” one of them said into a radio on his shoulder.

A cold, deep voice crackled back through the speaker, chilling me to my core. “Alexei.”, said the voice from the radio, “You could have been such a help to humanity. You were unique. You chose this for your family instead.”

“That was my choice to make, you bastard!” Daddy spat back, keeping his arms locked protectively around me.

The voice on the radio paused for a terrible second. “Well then, Alexei. Here is one thing for me to decide: finish them, and report to base.”

The moment the command came through, Daddy lunged forward with everything he had left. The room erupted into deafening noise. Bright flashes and the smell of smoke filled the small cabin as the soldiers opened fire blindly at him.

Daddy’s body jerked in mid-air, and he collapsed heavily onto the floor right in front of them.

DADDY! I screamed in my head, but my throat was completely frozen.

One of the soldiers lowered his rifle and pointed the dark barrel straight at my face. I squeezed my eyes shut, bracing for the loud crack.

CRACK.

CRACK.

I flinched, waiting for the pain, but nothing happened.

I opened my eyes.

The two soldiers were sprawled motionless across the floorboards. Another group of men wearing completely different uniforms stormed through the shattered doorway, their weapons raised.

“CLEAR!” one of them yelled.

I looked down. Daddy was lying face down in a widening pool of red, completely still. My chest hurt so much I couldn’t even cry anymore.

A tall, broad-shouldered man walked into the cabin. He looked down at Daddy and immediately ordered, “Check him!”

Then his eyes turned to me. I pressed myself as flat as I could against the wall, pulling Daddy’s oversized coat tightly around my chin, wishing I could just disappear. Were they going to hurt me? Were we running from them too?

“Are you hurt, Ava?” the man asked in a soft, calm voice as he walked slowly toward my corner.

I couldn’t speak. I stared at him, terrified, wanting Daddy to wake up and hold me.

“What have they done to this world?” the man muttered under his breath, shaking his head. “Absolute maniacs.”

He knelt down on one knee in front of me so he wasn’t so tall. “Hey sweetheart, I’m Rico.” He held out an open, gloved hand. “Come with me.”

I pulled back, trembling. “D-D-Daddy... Daddy told me not to go with strangers,” I stammered.

“It’s okay, sweetheart. I’m not a stranger—I’m your daddy’s friend,” Rico said gently, keeping his hand outstretched. “Let’s get you somewhere safe, okay?”

Seeing no other choice, I reached out my small hand and touched his glove. Rico lifted me gently into his arms and stood up. He keyed a device on his chest and spoke: “I have Ava.”

“He’s not responding, sir!” one of the other men called out from beside Daddy.

“Get him on a stretcher and extract to HQ,” Rico commanded, turning and carrying me out into the blinding white snow.

I looked back over Rico’s shoulder as the freezing wind blew in my face. Two soldiers were lifting Daddy onto a stretcher, rushing him toward a waiting helicopter while Rico carried me away into the cold.

Full Book to be released soon!