It was the year 2153 on the Christian calendar.

After multiple world-scale wars early in the millennium, involving, of course, the use of nuclear and chemical weapons, humanity went to the edge of extinction. A tremendous amount of people died, either from the conflicts themselves or their aftermath.

The world was in ruin, with a yellowish fog covering most of the habitable land.

However, some survived.

0.1% of the population undergone a drastic change in their gene. They survived the nuclear fog, and allowed humanity not to disappear. They formed communities, and started to rebuild civilization from the ashes of the old world.

Quite literally, as Sam was born near what used to be Paris. In a small town which name would often change, he himself refers to it as Mytown.

After the Big Incident, any type of conflict was avoided, and tough oversights were put in place by the new

people in charge, as everybody was scared that history would repeat itself.

Within less than a century, a brand new society had risen from the old world ashes. Even though long-distance communication was impossible, Paris and the surrounding towns managed to build a close and strong community, where everyone was safe and happy.

________

“Wait a minute. As you are describing this, it feels like it was a dictatorship…”

Still sited near the brazing campfire, Sam was setting the context of his story, before being disturbed by Matthiew.

“Well, it kind of was.”

“Then how were the common folks happy?”

“The Big Incident wiped out 99.9% of the population, and everyone was reminded that day and night. From this point, the only thing people wanted was safety, and they had it. Plus, they were truly nice to the people. No one ever starved to death, and we didn’t have many other things to worry about.”

________

Hum Hum.

However, the mutation, or evolution, or whatever it is that allowed a portion of humanity to survive, didn't just stop there. When the next generation was born, they underwent the same process.

They were faster, stronger, smarter, and some even had sur-human abilities, like a perfect vision from miles away or flexible body temperature at will. Nothing too wild though, it was enough to be noticeable but not too much so that the authorities would be alarmed by it.

Moreover, there was some disparity between each individual in regards to this ‘abilities'. Thus, a name was introduced during the following generation: inner talent, or i-talent for short. Going from 1 to 5, from normal human to be able to bend metal.

Sam and his friends were the 5th generations to be born after the creation of the Government. At this point, most children around the society were already at a level 2, which was measured by a test at age 6. However, Mytown was unique, because the average kid was level 4, meaning that they were stronger than their own parents.

Of course, Sam wasn’t in the average. He was way below that, at level 1.

________

“Hold on…”

“Come on! You can’t interrupt me every two seconds!”

“Sorry, but I’m curious. What is your i-talent? You never talked about it, and I didn’t see anything different from other Quester.”

“I’m just luckier than average.”

“That’s it?”

“Yes.”

“What a bummer… It sounded like i-talent were cool, but…”

"Oh, they are. My girlfriend has a perfect memory and one of my friends could punch through concrete before he was 6."

"Oh… That's so cool! Doesn't sound fair, though..."

"It's not. But fairness doesn't really mean anything. Just… listen to the story, you'll understand, and now that the context is in place, I'll go in more detailed. See, a bit after my 8th birthday, my father got remarried to Alice's mom."

"That explains what you told me about her…"

"However, at that time she was so shy, she couldn't stand me, and was always running away to her friends as soon as she was allowed to. I was quite far from my previous home, and didn't have anyone to talk to, thus, I went around to find friends. And the first person I met... was Nami."

________

“Nami?”

“No, it is Na-O-mi.”

“Hum… are you sure?”

"Gosh, yes, I am. This is my own name! For god sake!"

“You talk funny, Nami.”

She was sitting on a wood bench, reading a heavy book with a title little 10-years old Sam couldn't understand. The two of them were alone, as the children playground was located further away, a bit hidden by the trees surrounding the dirt path, and yet noticeable by the annoying shouts coming from the said location.

The wind was brushing the brown and yellow-ish leaves, as well as her dark-blue hair and book pages.

Still, it wasn't her most disturbing issue at hand right now, as she let out a heavy sigh, closing her reading.

“You are stupid.”

“Come on… books are boring. Let’s play!”

“Didn’t you hear me the first time I refused? And I’ll have you to know that this book was very entertaining.”

“Haha. You are still talking weird.”

“I… I am certainly not! At least, I am using proper grammar! You… stupid!”

"Haha! You already said that! And your cheeks are red, Nami!"

“Humpf! I told you my name is Naomi!!!”

After this 'sharp' reply, she promptly ended their first meeting by leaving the scene, her heavy easily carried by her right hand.

What a way to start a friendship, right?

With a smile on his innocent face, Sam looked at her back while she was angrily heading back to her home. He was only 10, as well as a lowly level 1 in a see of geniuses level 4 and more, but had already a strong instinct, and a genuine talent to make friends.

To be more accurate, he wanted to be friend with everyone, and the more resistance there was, the more motivation he had. As the fine observer he his, he suspected that Naomi would pull out a lot of resistance.

After she left, he befriended the rest of the park kids, without a hunch this time, and went back home.

________

"That’s it? You won’t say more about the other kids?"

"No."

________

The park itself was situated in the middle of the neighbourhood, less than 3 minutes away from Sam's new place. Needless to say, he went back every day, as the adults were busy all day and school were only scheduled on mornings.

Most of the time, she was there, reading a book, never twice the same.

Persistently, he greeted her each time, trying to get closer to her, without any success. She would either leave or flatly ignore him.

Nonetheless, Sam never gave up, and a few weeks later, he started to see a small hidden smile in the corner of her face. It wasn’t much, but enough to keep his motivation soaring.

Slowly but surely, Sam was starting to break into Naomi’s bubble.

At one point he tried to ask the other kid why was she so distant in the first place, but nobody knew. There were rumours about a bad family situation, but nothing sure.

He thought about following her to her house to see it with his own eyes, but couldn’t resort to such low method. Plus, he had another project needing his attention: being a good big brother.

Truth to be told, she was a bit older than him, but he didn’t realize at that time, for one simple reason. Alice was too shy to talk to him.

Not only him, she was too embarrassed to start a conversation with anyone but Adele, her childhood and closest friend, although they were polar opposite.

In a sense, Adele and Sam were alike. Both cheerful and always smiling happy-go-lucky brat that wants to be friend with the whole world. They instantly became best friends, as if they knew each other from kindergarten. She had a cute face with magnificent green-blue eyes that were partially covered by her wild short black hair.

Alice had also short hair, but they were completely white, coincidently the same colour as Sam, giving an instant credibility to their new brother and sister relationship.

She eventually became jealous of Sam and Adele’s friendship, but not enough for it to matter in this story. At this age, she didn’t speak much, and it was resolved a bit later, as she also grown to like Sam.

That was Sam's first group of close friends: Alice, Adele, Naomi and himself. Even though, 'group' was a bit of a stretch, as Naomi never actually met the other two girls.

Then, 2 years later…

________

"Woooow, not so fast. 2 years? Isn’t that…"

"Yes! 2 years! Now shut up and let me tell the story!"

"Okay! Geez..."

________

2 years later, Sam’s dad disappeared.

He was employed by the authority security team, and it wasn’t rare for him to leave the house for a few days, even on short notice, but never without telling us.

In the end, he was very secretive about his job, so Sam didn’t worry much.

At first.

After a few weeks of silence, and several calls to the main city, Alice's mom decided to leave to the city. It was only a two-day trip, so she left them with their neighbour, an old kind man we will name M. Dol.

However…

"Okay, I have to stop you there. Something is missing. Don't tell me that nothing happens during those two years you just skipped."

“Sigh… of course, things happened. I hanged out with Adele and Alice, made a bunch of other friends, managed to take Naomi away from her books a bit.”

“Dude, the whole point of you telling the story is to spot a missing link. You can’t skip two years like that.”

“I made very little progress with Naomi, we never stopped being somewhat friend, but she was often away because the main city wanted to use her i-talent for research purposes, or something like that. Other than that, I’m not missing anything, trust me. I’m very sure. I remember every part of what happened since I first met with Adele.”

“How can you be so certain?”

“I had to, so that Alice wouldn’t be the only one to remember her. So that she wouldn't have to carry this burden on her own.”

“Burden?”

“The day after Alice’s mom left the city, was the day Adele died. The day everyone died.”