Regenesis (Book 1): Impact by Harrison Pierce Read Free Book Online

“Michael, where have you been?”
    The
boy smiled and said he needed to see the way things were. He examined her face
and quietly asked why she was so sad.
    She
frowned and told him she wasn’t sad. “You worried me Michael; you can’t wander
off on your own, okay?” Michael failed to make a promise and instead left his
sister and ran back over to where his father and grandmother resided near the
swing set toward the entrance. The young woman apologized for her brother and
thanked Rachel and Jordan for their help.
    “It
was nothing,” Rachel told her.
    The
girl in the wheelchair took one look at the couple and figured out their
earlier activities. She thanked them again and left them to return to her
family.
    “That
must have been pretty freaky,” Rachel said as soon as the girl was out of
earshot.
    Jordan
didn’t add anything to her comment. He only let out a breath and remarked at
how he loathed that young woman. “She ratted me out once after I cheated off
some kid’s paper in a chemistry course I took last year. The bitch basically
gave me a failing grade and two detentions.” Rachel offered apathetic
condolences and urged him on toward his car.
    They
passed the family at a distance a moment later. The young boy, Michael, waved
to them, but neither one returned his sign with anything more than a slight
smile.
    ---*---
    7:25 PM
    Bothell, Washington
     
    Ian
sat in his room as he flipped through a photo album. The book contained
pictures taken of his, though only one of which had him in it. That photograph
was of a trip he’d taken with Drake, Jordan, Nick, and Nick’s brother Victor on
a camping trip the five of them took two summers ago. Only the four boys were
in the picture, as Victor took it with Mount Baker in the background.
    The
rest of the photos Ian took of people and places he had seen, many of the
photographs were in black and white, only a few were in color. He flipped
through the images of angry commuters, majestic mountains, trash-filled alleys,
and one of Jordan when he was in a fight in Tacoma.
    His
album was only half-full, and once he reached that point he set it back on his
desk, adjacent to his bed. The walls of his room were bare, the shag carpet was
free of clutter, and everything was in its place. He fell back to his bed,
closed his eyes, and tried to think about his day, rather than an excuse to get
out of the part Drake planned. He thought of how someone could be hurt, that an
argument would arise, and how it wasn’t worth the effort…though Ian knew Drake
would reject any and all reason or justifications Ian might dream up.
    There
was a quiet knock on his door before Ian heard his mother ask if he was hungry,
“Dinner’s ready honey. I made a tuna casserole and rice.”
    He
told her he was and that he’d be out to eat with her in a minute. Ian stared at
his ceiling for a moment before he brought himself to his feet and out to their
small dining room. The casserole and rice sat out in front of two place
settings. Ian neglected to mention that Drake bought a late lunch for him,
Jordan, and Rachel, but Ian knew he couldn’t abandon what his mother prepared
for him. He looked at the two place settings again and felt another frequent
dagger of guilt when he imagined his mother alone each night for dinner.
    Ian’s
planned exodus to London weighed on him. The notion came to him from one of his
high school teachers who took a year to travel and live abroad. Ian heard tales
of the adventures and of what his instructor learned from that time away and
Ian wanted that for himself. Ian worked a part time job and saved everything he
could for the rest of his high school career, and with a little additional help
from his mom Ian managed to have enough money for the move. However, Ian failed
to consider his mother in all of his planning. He tried to call off the whole
endeavor, but his mother wouldn’t allow it. His mother was a relatively small
woman, with fading brown hair, and had what