Regenesis

The soft sun shone through the vast canopies. Scores of birds graced the air with soothing songs. I awoke smelling the sweet scents of fruit.

But I didn't feel at ease.



Usually, the search for meat is simple. We use stones and spears to incapicitate the prey, then go for the kill by slicing its neck.  Then, we carry the body back to our cave to cook over fire and share it with the tribe. Nothing is withheld from the group. The women gather ground-food, stored in case of emergency.

This time, the search wasn't so simple. Feeling a sense of invincibility - I was still a young man - I had leapt at our prey, saving my Brother from a lethal pounce. Quickly but brutally, I killed the beast. I only realized I was bleeding when I got back home.

After every successful hunt, we sleep the night away. We're always worn out by the extraordinary energy needed to take down even the smallest of prey. My Life-Brother tends to stay up later, though, etching drawings of the hunt upon his paper.

When I first met him, I thought he was the most arrogant man that walked upon the flats of the Earth. That was until he saved me from a shrouded leopard. I have learned to trust him.

After a few hours of lying down on the hard stone of our cave, I began to feel strange, unexplainable sensations. I seemed to lose control of myself, and my sight went black. Suddenly, a white light began to drift into the darkness, filling it like it would a rising sun in a dark sky. I saw men gathering at two sides of a field; both groups adorned in white clothing, almost to blend into the environment itself. Yelling and cries of war filled the air, and the group fired at each other, using the shiny objects in their hands as bows to kill the enemy. Smoke filled the air, and the sides were blinded. What felt like hours had passed, and the battle had stopped. Then I caught a glimpse of a group of soldiers discussing the battle as their allies writhed in anguish, and they spoke in my own language, reciting something that I heard as, "Spetznaz". I assumed this was the group's homeland, as they appeared to be less afflicted by the cold than the opposing side.

My sight went black again, almost as quickly as it came back, and I woke up.

Woken by my friends to prepare for the day, I gathered my weapons for more prey.

Though this time this was no ordinary hunt. The animal had thick skin and camouflage, and struck the unaware with bestial fury.

Even to this day, tribesmen, wishing to gain boasting rights by killing it singlehandedly, die to the savage creature. Tribesmen tell tales of slaying the beast with their bare hands, though most of the tribe still fears travelling far off due to the legendary monster.

My hunting group is the most revered of all. That is why, in pure arrogance, we sought to find the creature, kill it, and bring back its carcass to show off to our leader.

After hours of searching for the beast, we had no luck. The tales of how it lurks in the cover of shade in the Far Lands seems to be a lie, as we were never mauled by the great beast we had been warned of a thousand times. One of the hunters suggested we turn back, for we had already wasted enough time. All but two of the group left the hunt - myself and my trusted friend, the son of the tribe leader.

We walked across the seemingly unchanging terrain for what felt like days, until we reached a barrier at nightfall.

Through the barrier I saw colorless tufts and mountains of pure white; something I had never seen before. I asked my companion if he had seen anything like it, and nor he had seen it. He turned back to go to our cave, and had  the strange tool in his hand, stroking onto the sort of white, thin object.

I felt around the clear wall, and it was almost invisible. My companion began to move his hand onto the sheet furiously, generating more energy with his strokes as I had come closer to reaching the odd thing. He watched me with the eyes of a bird watching its prey, and I dared not question him.

I was driven by curiousity, and smashed through the wall with my brute force harnessed through my years of hunting.

My friend called out to me in great anger, though I had no intention to make him this way.

Then I realized there was a connection to me smashing through the wall and past experiences of him writing onto the white slip. One time I had decided to venture out into "dangerous territory", as my mother had warned me, and discovered this wall. I was surprised to find my friend lurking in the trees, almost to cover himself, while writing onto the strange paper.

Once more, I ventured out into dangerous territory. Though this time, I was unrestricted. No one could stop me. Not even the barrier set to do so.

A chill flooded my senses, and my topless body began to freeze.Cold, watery substances began to manifest on my skin, yet these substances were vaguely familiar to me.

I saw a gathering of lights, and fled there in hopes of a fire, as I began to lose my sense of touch.

Instead, I came to see a building of materials not of the wood and stone familiar to me. The material was harder then a rock, as even my best attempts to break through it were easily negated by its inner strength.

Hurrying to escape the cold, I circled the building, hoping to find an entrance.

I found a rectangular shape, with no apparent blockade, and walked into it cautiously.

The room was surprisingly warm, which was impossible for its surroundings. I assumed this was a sacred ground, for it must be supernatural. Then I found a grey object, of the same color as the weapons used during my dream, which appeared to spew heat, almost magically.

Then I saw humans, though their color of skin was not the same as mine.

These men had very light, white skin, almost comparable to the argent grounds around them.

One of them noticed me, and waved at me, almost in surrender.

He walked towards me, and greeted me in an unfamiliar language.

Then I realized it was my own.

I was immensely surprised by this, as no one but my tribe had spoken this ancient language, said to be thousands of years old.

He informed me of how "the operation" is going, though I had no idea what he was speaking of.

The man told me that the invisible barrier I had broken through was a construct of "glass", a material unfamiliar.

He told of how the glass surrounded the areas around my tribe, extending only the points of the Far Lands.

I realized that the beast spoken of during my years living with my tribe was of fiction, for the pale men could only make this "biodome", as the man called it, if it had not existed.

He took an object made of strange stretching material and covered his face with it.

It was the face of my closest companion.

Pulling out some sort of metal weapon out of his waist-area, he told me I could not exist.

"The project would be compromised."