The Genesis Saga

The startled yelps should have been the first sign that something was amiss. Yet Adrian was so engrossed in talking about Evelynn that he didn’t pay them any mind. His head was turned and so he didn’t see the man approaching, jumping with fright when he heard a smooth, deep voice say “Mind if I join in? I couldn’t help but overhear.” The man was well spoken and enunciated each word carefully. He remained standing several meters away from Adrian, not making any move to join them, and patiently waited for an answer with a polite smile on his face.

Lily’s eyes narrowed as she thought, the whites of his teeth the only expression she could make out on the man’s face. Her assessing gaze took measure of the new man before them, untrusting towards the outsider to their little group. Her face remained impassive as she did so. Though difficult to tell in the light, she could make out dark hair that appeared to be black. The man looked to be just shy of six feet tall, with a rather lanky build. But then again, it was hard to tell.

Warily, she met John and Adrian’s gazes, looking for any hint on how they felt. In the dim lighting, she saw that they both appeared somewhat hesitant, although John considerably less so. Adrian was tense, still reigning in his nerves from the small fright he had just gotten.

Lily bit her lip. She had no reason to turn the man down and didn’t want to upset anybody. Making enemies before they even arrived and knew what was happening didn’t strike her as a good idea. Reluctantly, she said “By all means, please have a seat,” gesturing to the spot next to John. She might tolerate the new presence, but she wanted him where she could see him at all times.

“Thank you,” the stranger said, nodding his head slightly. The man walked past Adrian and sat down on the dusty floor five feet away from John. He used his hands to support the action, dusting them off as he got settled.

“I’m Stanley,” he said as he turned to face Lily. It was almost as if he was addressing her, rather than the group as a whole as he said so. He flashed another smile, trying to put them at ease with his presence. He failed. The cold reception was about what he expected, and he knew that it would be a long while before they opened up with him like they had with each other, if at all.

Lily returned the greeting and introduced the rest of the group.

“I know, I heard from the back there. It wasn’t my intention to eavesdrop,” he lied smoothly, “but you were kind of the only ones making any noise. It was hard not to.” The best lies were those that had just enough truth sprinkled in to be believable. A fine line he was walking.

Lily was unsettled that he had been listening without her knowing. If he heard, then that means others heard as well. She didn’t like that. It was a good thing the topics they had discussed had been light hearted.

“Well then, it’s nice of you to finally join us,” Lily said diplomatically. “Why don’t you tell us a bit about yourself?” Lily eyed the man warily. He looked perfectly healthy in the low light. He filled out his shirt nicely and didn’t come off as starved. His clothes weren’t ripped, and they hardly looked dirty. The man also smelled faintly of soap rather than the rank body odour the others had. It was almost as if he had walked onto the truck straight from his house. Lily shook her head at the thought.

“Well, before all of this, I used to work in accounting. Not the most exciting job, but it pays the bills. Let me see, more about myself,” Stanley hummed. “I’m not really the type to exercise. I do the bare minimum but it’s not like I’m sporting a six pack. Of beer, maybe. Abs, not a chance.” John chuckled at the thought. “In my spare time I enjoy reading and going out on long walks. Hmm, and I also love visiting new cafés. I make it a point to try a new one each week.”

John grimaced. “Never could understand why people drink that stuff.” He said in disgust. “Tastes nasty. I’ll stick to my shakes, at least those are good for you.”

“Such a shame, I find drinking a hot cup of coffee very relaxing. It’s all about adding the right amount of sugar,” Stanley said with a gleam in his eyes.

“I like coffee,” Adrian added.

“Not you, too,” John groaned.

“I see another person here has proper taste,” Stanley said.

“How did you get caught?” John blurted out, abruptly changing the subject. “We’ve all already told each other, and now we’re just missing you.” If the comment caught Stanley by surprise, he didn’t show it.

“Oh you know, same old. They grabbed me, brought me to some holding cell and now here we are,” he replied vaguely.

“Where were you when it happened?”

“I was out,” he replied, not giving any meaningful answer.

“Hey, are you single?” John asked with all the tact of a bull in a porcelain shop. Adrian buried his face in his hand. Broaching those topics could’ve been handled better, but as he was coming to learn, the man was straight-forward – almost to a fault. Carefully spun sentences and hidden meanings were lost on him. He was easy to tease since he took everything literally.

“I’m afraid I am. Why, are you offering? If you’re going to romance me, you could have picked a better time, place and occasion. But I won’t say no. You’re quite handsome,” Stanley said, winking.

“That’s not what I meant,” he said quickly. He shifted uncomfortably in his spot, leaning slightly away from Stanley.

“You sure? Maybe you should give it a try, just once.” John leaned further back.

“I don’t swing that way,” he said firmly.

“Such a shame. Maybe I could convince you,” Stanley said wryly. Adrian watched their antics with an amused expression. He sensed no malicious intent in Stanley’s voice. It was nice to see something lighthearted amidst the situation he’d found himself in.

“He wants to know if you live alone, without immediate contact with a friend or loved one,” Lily sighed. John really couldn’t be trusted with this kind of thing, she reasoned. So far they had learned nothing about the mysterious man. The devil was in the details and John was having none of that. Lily and Adrian, however, had noticed Stanley deflecting their questions.

“In that case then yes, I was alone,” said Stanley, more seriously than before. “Why do you ask?” he inquired. Of course, having heard their conversation from earlier, he already knew the answer. He wanted them to trust him more, and feigning ignorance suited Stanley just fine if that helped. People loved to talk about themselves.

“We have a working theory that the people in this truck weren’t taken at random. So far, each of us was alone when we got kidnapped. Alone as in, no friends or family to notice our disappearance right away,” Adrian supplemented.

“Alas, it looks like your theory is holding up. Shame we can’t just ask everybody their story. Well, we could, but I don’t think they’d answer.”

Adrian nodded. “That’s what we thought as well. Really, it’s more of a guess than anything else, but it’s all we’ve got for now.”

“I find your dedication to uncovering the truth admirable in this situation, Adrian. Have you come up with anything else?”

Adrian hesitated. He looked over towards Lily, who nodded in assent. “We’ve been trying to figure out where we’re going. This is clearly a large-scale human trafficking operation, so there must be some purpose other than killing us for our organs.” Stanley motioned for Adrian to continue. “We haven’t come to any real conclusion yet. They could be selling us off for sex, but that seemed unlikely. They’ve certainly got a wide range of age going on.”

“Maybe they’re doing experiments on people,” Stanley added flippantly.

“How’d you come up with that idea?” Lily asked.

“Well, there can’t be too many things they’re going to do with this many people. Or, you know, they could be selling us into slavery. That sort of thing.”

“That’s what I thought!” exclaimed John.

“But in the end, we have no idea why we’re here or what comes next,” Lily finished.

The conversation continued and the group learned more about each other. Adrian and Stanley bonded over their love of spicy food while John spoke for ten whole minutes about which salt and vinegar chip brand was the best. Lily mostly sat back and watched the youngsters talk, interjecting occasionally with a comment of her own. Anecdotal stories from when they were children were brought up, including the, as he called it, epic adventure that led to John breaking his leg skiing when he was fifteen.

“Adrian, I’m sorry for your loss,” Stanley said suddenly. “It can’t be easy, knowing that they’re gone. Your family sounds like they were good people.”

The out of place condolence took Adrian by surprise. “Thank you,” he said automatically.

“How have you been holding up?”

Adrian shrugged. “I’ve been better,” he said. “Certainly better than all this,” he gestured grandly at everyone.

“I heard you talking about your niece, who loves singing. She sounds like a delightful girl.”

“She was,” Adrian said, emphasizing the past tense. “We used to sing songs together every time we saw each other. She had such a lovely voice for such a little munchkin.”

“Sounds like she was talented.”

“Very much so,” Adrian agreed. “Apart from that, we used to play games. She had a particular fondness for red light, green light. As well as a made-up game which consisted of me chasing her around the house, much to Annie’s annoyance.”

“So you were the fun uncle,” Stanley teased.

Adrian scratched his head. “I was the only uncle, but I guess you could say that.”

“There weren’t any other relatives in the picture?” Stanley asked, sounding surprised at the revelation.

“No, not really. Matt was an only child,” he replied, as a realization dawned on him. He had never told Matt’s parents about the accident! He’d been so caught up in the aftermath that he had completely forgotten to contact them. They were going to be devastated. He didn’t get to see them very often, as they lived out of state and rarely visited. It was mostly Annie and Matt traveling to see them instead. He had completely forgotten about them.

“Shit,” he let out. “I completely forgot to tell Matt’s parents about his death.” Adrian berated himself for his thoughtlessness.

“I’m sure the authorities have that covered Adrian,” Lily said reassuringly. “The hospital might have gotten in contact with them to let them know.”

Adrian calmed down at the thought. There was nothing he could do about it now, he reasoned. Somebody must have told them, he thought.

The conversation died down and nobody made any move to speak up and continue it. Feeling tired, Adrian put his head against the wall to rest. He didn’t know how much time he had until they arrived, and he wanted to be as rested as possible for when they did. The constant vibrations from the wall made it difficult to sleep, however. The incessant rattling he heard when his head made contact with the metal made Adrian rethink his idea of sleep.

Undeterred, Adrian tried to find a more comfortable position, determined to get some shut eye. He tried leaning his head forward slightly so that it no longer touched the wall but found the strain on his neck to be too much. No amount of twisting and squirming was enough to get comfortable.

Turning towards Lily, he grabbed her attention by tapping her on the shoulder.

“Wake me up if anything happens,” he asked.

“Sure thing,” Lily grunted back in reply. Her nerves were starting to get to her, and that was all she could manage without lashing out.

Adrian eyed the floor. It was filthy, and he had no desire to get closer to it. Desperate times call for desperate measures, he thought before laying carefully onto his side. He wrinkled his nose at the dust and let out a small sneeze. Sniffing, he propped his head onto his arms, with one of them covering his mouth.

Knowing that this was a comfortable as he was going to get, Adrian shut his eyes. Sleep came easily to him this time, the conversation from earlier tiring. It had been an exercise of will against the mental effort required to follow the last of the conversation, given how poorly he had slept in recent nights.

After some time, the truck lurched and slowed down by a large margin. Lily quickly woke from her light nap and shook Adrian awake. “Adrian,” she said in a hushed voice. “Adrian, wake up, I think something’s happening.” Whatever grogginess Adrian had immediately cleared up at her words. He quickly sat up, rubbing his eyes in an attempt to clear them. He dusted himself off, trying in vain to get rid of some of the dirt that stubbornly clung to him.

“What’s going on?” he asked. He kept his tone quiet, matching Lily’s. He wasn’t sure what was happening, but he didn’t want to be the one to stand out when something finally did. Loud voices were the perfect way to get noticed.

The air inside the container changed. A nervous energy filled the room, every occupant sharing in the same apprehension. The truck’s occupants went utterly silent. No one moved as they all watched the doors and held their breaths. The truck continued at its slow pace for a short while before finally pulling to a stop.

They had arrived.