We Were Warned to Fear the Sunrise.. Now I Know Why
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One perfect ray of sunshine came through the tiny hole, and bouncing off the slippery rock walls, it ricocheted in dazzling angles through the cavern tunnel, much to the children's delight, said ten-year-old Adam. Watching dust drift through the beam of light, he had never seen anything like it before, just as he had never been in this part of the tunnel before, an area everyone called the top. I told you it was real, said his cousin Lilith, who was only eight.

"It's called Sun. It's a huge light on the outside, like a bazillion lanterns all lashed together." "That's batshit," whined Lilith's older brother, Enoch. "There is no outside. That's just a fairy tale." "Then where do scouts go?"

to other caves, duh. Besides, if the sun is real and really that bright, then why don't we use it for power, huh? Instead of all the pedaling and cranking and gear craft? Because sunlight is what gives them power, you know.

"The monsters." Enoch rolled his eyes. He was 11, and to prove his younger sister and cousin that they were not only wrong, but also cowards, he shoved past them and began to climb the piled rocks to get closer to the source of light. "Naomi told me her mom saw one of the monsters once on a scouting mission," said Lilith. "She wouldn't tell Naomi what it looked like, but her mom started having these nightmares, and she would wake up and draw these bizarre sketches."

But even as he said these things, all three children began to hear a sound.

Soft at first, then getting louder. It was coming through the cave wall with a hole in it. From the direction of the light, Lilith gasped and grabbed Adam's hand in fear. Enoch froze. Halfway up the piled rocks. "What is that?" whispered Adam. He could tell it wasn't like anything he had heard in the caves before. In fact, it didn't even sound like just one noise, but many.

Long, heavy breaths sounded atop the swish of many wings and a voice like a choir, all mingled together. Horrible, beautiful, mystifying. And then, suddenly, the light in the hole vanished. The source of the noise must have passed in front of it, just on the other side of the wall, so close. The children held their breath and waited, afraid to move, afraid to even breathe in the perfect darkness that filled the tunnel.

After a few long seconds, the beam of light reappeared and the strange noise beyond the wall faded away. Adam exhaled. "Whoa! Well, that could have been worse," said Enoch, chuckling. But his relief was short-lived. "What the darn are you children doing here?" hissed a man's voice from behind them. All three children jumped. Adam recognized it at once as his uncle Hiram, Enoch, and Lilith's father. He sounded livid.

Uncle Hiram cranked his electric torch, then held it up, and by its flickering light, he grabbed his children and pulled them violently away from the wall. "Come on, you two, Adam. How dare you all come up this far? You know the top is forbidden." "We're sorry, father," said Lilith, her eyes welling with tears. Hiram was red-faced and shaking with rage as he led them back down the huge tunnel, onto the long stairs that led to their city, deep, deep within the network of caves.

Their tribe's people lived beside an underground lake, in a colossal cavern that the elders called "The Last Temple." Their homes were carved into the cave wall by the rocky shore of the lake. The lake itself glowed green beneath the lights strung over it, and as Adam was led beside it by his furious uncle, he turned to watch the little boats out on the lake, and the algae farmers paddling them, collecting the green sludge on its surface that was the tribe's chief source of food.

Then Adam turned his gaze upward to where, high over the still green water and suspended between six giant stalactites, hung the airship, Teva 12, the pride of their tribe.

100 meters long, the airship had a steel cage fuselage cocooned in fabric bladders, eight lightweight engines on its eight short wings, and an open gondola level on its underside with benches and the flight controls. Adam recognized his father dangling off the aft of the gargantuan airship, goggles on his head and a blowtorch in his hand.

He was working on one of the engines. "Jamin!" Uncle Hiram called up at him, his voice echoing around the enormous cave. "You'll never guess where I found these three troublemakers. Come down and deal with Adam here. I'll have my hands full beating some sense into my two." Adam looked to Lilith, afraid for her, but she shrugged and whispered, "Father always says stuff like that. He just wants to scare us. What will your father do? Will he hit you?"

"I don't know," said Adam. He hadn't gotten into trouble much before. He had only agreed to go to the top with his cousins today because his curiosity had gotten the better of him. He walked over to the cave wall and climbed up the ladder to their room, throwing himself onto the mattress in the low chamber and squeezing his face into the pillow. He didn't bother working the pedals to charge the rooms one small light. He lay in darkness, thinking hard about the beam of sunlight they had seen.

and the strange sound, and all the mysteries the adults of his tribe refused to explain. His whole life, his whole world, the whole world, they were all synonymous with the caves. The caves were all Adam knew. Cousin Lilith had convinced him that, since they had the airship and it could travel, that meant there must be somewhere else to travel to. But whether that was truly the legendary zone known as the outside or not, Adam didn't know.

He did know there were other caves though, besides the last temple and its network, because once, after the Feast of Eventide, Adam's father had been drunk and accidentally told him that when Adam was only one years old, they had left a cave called South and taken the airship here to North. Soon after this journey, Adam's mother had died when the mineshift she was working in collapsed. It had killed Lilith and Enoch's mom too.

His father had cried when he told that to Adam. That was the only time he had ever seen his father cry. By the time Jabin came up the ladder now, Adam was almost asleep. "So," said Jabin, crawling up and stretching out beside his son on the mattress. An electric lantern dangled from his work belt, filling the tight space with soft yellow light. "Irem tells me you and your cousins went to the top. He said you even saw sunlight."

"Lucky, it only lasts for a few minutes at this time in the season." Adam sat up, swinging his head around to look his father in the eyes. "Is it real then? Is there really a son?" Jabin scratched at the stubble on his chin. "You know I'm not supposed to tell you about all that, kiddo. Not until you're thirteen. Is that when you learned about it?" It was hard to be sure in the dim light, but Adam thought he saw his father blush. "Well, no.

Back then, us kids all heard rumors early on. But that's mostly because... Because there were a lot more kids back then. A lot more people. With so few of us left, I guess it's easier for us parents to keep secrets. But I want to know! I want to know everything! After a moment, Jabin sighed, reached beside the mattress, and pulled out Adam's old battered kickball.

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Adam nodded vigorously, but his father rolled his eyes. "Of course you're gonna tell him." "That's okay. I'll talk to their father about it. It's just… the elders think it's best to let you children remain… unbothered for as long as possible. To remain free from the worry, the fear, the truth." He took a deep breath, weighing the ball in his hands. "Right. Well, you already know that the rock around us is called Earth.

and that there's more to it than just this cave system, right?" Adam nodded. "There are more caves, more lakes, more rock, and maybe the outside?" "And do you know what the outside is?" Adam shook his head. Jabin held up the kickball. "Earth is like this. It's a giant ball of rock, and the cave systems are just deep holes in that ball." He poked a finger into a tear in the ball, then pulled it out and spun the ball on that fingertip.

But the outside is allllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll

on the outside. Adam's eyes bulged. "No way!" "Yeah way, but we can't anymore, because it isn't safe now." "Because of the monsters?" Jabin didn't look happy that his son knew about the monsters, but he nodded. "What are they?" His father glanced toward their ladder. Then, lowering his voice and leaning toward his son, he said, "They are called angels." "Jules, I think, I think we heard one today."

It got in front of the beam of sunlight and it made a really weird sound. Jabin stared at his son for a few seconds, then sat up so fast that his head struck the chiseled ceiling. "Ow, Don! What did you just say? You can't have… What… What did it sound like?" Adam shrugged. "It was pretty scary. Like bats flying and voices singing in a sort of woo-woo-woo-woo. That can't be. It's too early."

If they're venturing out this far north now, it can only mean… Suddenly, Jabin scooted off the mattress and crawled quickly to the ladder. I have to tell the elders. We have to prepare to depart. I have to get the airship ready. Gather your things, boy! What are you talking about? But his father didn't answer. He had already moved out of sight down the ladder. Adam sighed, annoyed at the conversation being cut short just when he was finally getting some answers.

sticking the kickball under one arm. He climbed down to the cave floor. Looking around, Adam spotted his father running west toward the lake shore. He dropped the kickball and dribbled it across the stony ground, setting off after his father. Half a minute later, he saw Uncle Hiram slide down from their ladder and go running after Jabin. Adam watched as his cousins came down next and approached him. "Did you tell your father about the sound?" Adam asked them.

"Yeah," said Enoch, scratching his head. "And he went crazy for some reason." "My father did too." "What does it mean?" asked Lilith. Adam set a foot in the ball to stop it rolling. "I don't know. But guys, my father told me something else." He waved for them to come closer. "He told me that the outside is real and that humans used to live there. He even told me the monsters are called."

"Angels? That's what he said. They're angels." Lilith considered this information. Her face screwed up in thought, but Enoch went suddenly pale. "Oh, Don!" he cursed. "I remember! What?" asked Adam and Lilith together. "I just remembered something. Yeah. You guys know that old woman, Tamar? The one who had that disgusting tumor growing out of the side of her head?"

She died a couple years ago, and I had to sit vigil shifts with her while she was dying. It was really gross. But in the end, she started telling me this. This crazy story. I mean, I thought it was just a story. Just nonsense, you know? Because she was so ill. Like the gibberish Elder Shem is always saying. Anyway, Tamar's story? It was about angels. Well,

What was the story? A bell began to ring by the lake, calling in the algae farmers on their boats. Jabin and Hiram must be calling a meeting of the elders. Sure enough, people began climbing down from their holes or off the airship, hurrying to the meeting place. Enoch nodded at the kickball in Adam's arms. Hey, let's act like we're playing. The three kids moved away from the gathering line beside the lake, and Adam kicked the ball softly to Enoch.

who deflected it to his sister. As they passed the ball in a triangle, Enoch relayed to them the story Tamar had told him as she lay dying. Okay, so once upon a time, there was a powerful entity called God. God created a race of servants called the angels, but some of the angels rebelled against their creator. Seeking a new path, these became known as the fallen.

"So the monsters outside, they are fallen angels?" asked Lilith. "No! Shut up, Lilith! I'm trying to tell you what happened. Darn!" "Okay, so, since the angels had disappointed him, God began again. He made the first humans, created in God's own likeness, whatever that means. But like the angels before them, many of the humans soon strayed from that path of serving their creator. A long war began, a war called

History. The war concluded in a great battle. That battle should have been the end. The end of everything. But something happened that God did not expect. You see, God himself slayed the leader of the fallen angels. The other fallen were all captured. And they cried out for mercy and forgiveness. But God ordered his angels to destroy them too. To the last. Casting the fallen into eternal darkness for their disobedience. But the angels faltered.

They did not want to kill their brethren, and they pleaded with God to spare the repentant fallen. God refused, and with His own hand, God slaughtered the fallen. The angels watched, shaken and outraged, and in that hour, they rebelled as one, kicking the ball straight up and catching it in His hands. Enoch leaned forward. The angels killed God, and they claimed the earth as their own. They wanted to create new life in their own image.

But first, they had to erase God's other creation. Humans! Broke in Lilith. Enoch nodded. Tamar said the last humans went into the caves to hide from the angels. She said, we have never learned to fear the sunrise. Adam crossed his arms. What does that mean? Enoch shrugged. I don't know. I told you. I thought the whole story was batshit. Until now. That story...

"It explains some things," said Lilith. "But not everything. Why do we have the airship? Why do we travel between north and south? Because I'm sure that's what we do. You can tell by the way these caves are. We use them for a while, then move away, then later come back. I was born here in the north, but… but Adam and I were born in the south, yeah," said Enoch. "And I've overheard father saying that we'll be moving again soon. That's why they're working on the airship.

"But if we leave, if we go to the outside, won't the angels attack us?" mused Adam. "The Teva 12 has weapons," said Lilith, pointing up at the hanging airship. "On the front, missile tubes. I had to clean them last week." While the children stood together, discussing these strange secrets and their new theories, the adults at the meeting place began to shout at one another. Adam looked over and recognized his father's voice rising above the others.

Leaving their ball behind, the children crept toward the commotion, listening in on the heated debate. This is a message from sponsor Intuit TurboTax. Taxes was getting frustrated by your forms. Now, Taxes is uploading your forms with a snap and a TurboTax expert will do your taxes for you. One who's backed by the latest tech, which cross-checks millions of data points for absolute accuracy. All of which makes it easy for you to get the most money back, guaranteed.

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"Something is different!" Jabin was shouting. "At this time in the solar season, the sun should only rise for three to five minutes here before setting again, and they have never ventured into a landscape with such low light before." "Which means what exactly?" asked an old woman. "Which means that either they are evolving, getting stronger, getting bolder, or else… or else they're shifting the planet's rotation once again, changing the pattern." A grumble went through the assembled elders.

Either way, Jabin went on loudly. If we wait any longer, it will be too late. They will descend upon us as soon as we fly out of the cave. We must go, now! Enoch stopped behind a pile of crates, and Lilith and Adam crouched beside him. On the other side of the crates, the gruff voice of Elder Seth said, We cannot leave now.

The great gear below us is not fully in place. The gravity pull on the gear will not be enough to charge the lights over the lake for the full ten years.

"The algae here will die, and when we return, we will have no food. We can't return here at all if we're dead," insisted Jabin. "But we should at least wait until we hear from Teva-6. If the radio relay is... We haven't heard from them in years! They are dead, Seth. They're all gone. Everyone but us."

Which means humanity's only chance is for us to get Tifa 12 into the air now. Not the only chance!" called out another voice, this one raspy and wild.

The children all recognized the voice. It belonged to Old Elder Shem, who, as everyone knew, was quite mad. "The angels split in their devotion once before, yes, yes, and shall again. He of the golden eye seeks a mortal pair. He will take the reins of all, praise be. Golden fire in the east? Hark, it comes!" Behind the crates, the children looked at one another and smiled with silent laughter.

Elder Shem was always saying crazy things like that. After a long moment of silence, Jabin cleared his throat. Ours is the last airship. We cannot stay on the north, not for a minute longer. So, are we all in agreement? They heard more grumbling, then general assent. Then the adults began to move out, running from the meeting place. Some hurried to their homes. Others, like their fathers, headed to the stairs that led up to the airship.

"Father!" Adam called, standing up. Jabin slid to a stop and turned. Confused, he jogged over to the three kids. "Were you all listening just now? How much did you hear? Do we really have to leave, Uncle Jabin?" asked Enoch. Jabin nodded. "Yeah, I'm afraid so. Your sneaky little trip to the top today just might have saved us all, kiddos. Now go, grab your things and be quick. We are going outside."

An hour later, Adam stood on the lake shore, his few possessions in a sack over one shoulder. His tear-filled eyes looking around the cavern that had been his home for as long as he could remember. He felt a cool hand slip itself across his palm, then tiny fingers intertwined with his own. He looked beside him. Lilith stood there, smiling softly. "It will be alright, cousin. Come, let us enter the Teva together."

Hand in hand, they joined the line at the stairs that wound up as stalagmite, then to a platform, then across the rickety bridge that extended to the hanging airship. As they entered the crowded gondola level under the fuselage, Adam began to feel lightheaded. The engineers were filling up the bladders above them with gases from sealed chambers in the cave network. Some of that gas must be leaking out, making everyone dizzy, but there was no time to fix it.

Everyone was panicking, either rushing to man their stations on the vehicle or else trying to stay out of the way of those that were. Lilith pulled Adam to an empty bench on the starboard side. They sat, hugging their belongings against their chests. Adam had brought along his kickball. Lilith had her fuzzy stuffed rhino under one arm. Enoch still hadn't joined them. He was helping the men pull barrels of algae starter up into the airship by the cavern pulley system.

That was important because, according to what Uncle Hiram had told them, if anything had happened to the algae lake in their cave in the south during the last ten years, they would need this algae to survive. Around them, the airship began to sway. The gases were filling up the bladders, lifting the Teva 12 and the heavy ropes that it hung by. A middle-aged woman approached their bench, leading hunchbacked Elder Shem by the hand.

"Hello, children. Might he sit with you?" she asked Adam and Lilith. And before they could answer, she helped the crazy old man slump down onto the bench next to Adam. Adam grimaced. Elder Shem smelled like feet and rotten teeth.

"The cycle shall start anew," cackled Elder Shem. "We must pray. Yes, yes. He of the rainbow wings and the golden eyes shall set things right. He shall rewrite the story with himself as maker. We must pray to him." Adam looked over at Lilith. They both had to bite their tongues to stop from giggling. Everyone knew that Elder Shem thought he could magically communicate with the monsters outside.

and even believed that they gave him visions about the future. "Yes, yes," Shem croaked, rocking back and forth on the bench. "And the hour shall be four and twenty then, and the fruit shall be a trap, and the first wife shall couple with an angel and be banished. But a second shall be found in the south, and shall be true and bare children. The earth shall belong to their offspring, to the twelve new tribes,

Adam was starting to get creeped out by the old man's rambling, and he was relieved to see his father walk into view, wiping sweat from his brow with a grease-stained hand, so that a dark smudge appeared on his forehead. There ain't nothing left to pray to, old man, Jabin muttered to Shem, squeezing onto the bench beside Lilith. Are you kiddos doing okay? Lilith shrugged.

Adam sat forward and turned to his father. "Shouldn't you be working on the engines? They're all ready to go. We're just waiting for the last people to get on board. Then Elder Vashti will fly us up the tunnel and outside." "So, we're really just going to leave? Just like that?" "That's what these caverns were designed for long, long ago. This will be the third time I've made the journey between the poles. The last time was when you were an infant, Adam. And before that, well, I was about your age."

"See, I told you," Lilith said to Adam. "The tribes move from north to south and back every ten years." Jabin grinned. "Smart girl." "Is the south far, Uncle Jabin?" "Yes, very far. To fly straight there at full speed would take us six days, but we have to fly at an angle, southeast, so the journey will take closer to nine days."

but we have enough fuel and food to make it there. Just barely." "Nine days? Is the Earth as big as all that?" asked Lilith in amazement. Jabin nodded. "Indeed, and the sun is always shining upon half of it. We have to stay on the dark side, traveling with the night, keeping the sunrise always behind us." "Traveling with the night? What does that mean?" asked Adam. Jabin sighed.

Adam didn't think he had ever seen his father look so worried or so exhausted. This episode is brought to you by Progressive Insurance. Do you ever find yourself playing the budgeting game? Well, with the Name Your Price tool from Progressive, you can find options that fit your budget and potentially lower your bills. Try it at Progressive.com. Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and Affiliates. Price and coverage match limited by state law. Not available in all states.

"We already know about a lot of it," Lilith told him. "We know about God, the Fallen, and the angels. Can you tell us the rest, Uncle Jabin? Please? There's no reason not to tell us now." She screwed up her face into an expression of doughy-eyed cuteness. Lilith was devilishly good at getting her way, and Adam thought his father was about to comply with her request. But just then, Enoch came aboard with Uncle Hyrum.

"That's everyone," Irem said to Jabin, and leaving the children on the bench with crazy old Shem. Both fathers went off to the controls at the far end to tell Elder Vashti that it was time to depart. A hush fell over the crowded gondola as the engines powered up. Adam swallowed anxiously and felt himself sliding across the bench into his cousin's as the airship moved forward. Turning, Adam looked over his shoulder, past the gondola railings to the green lake below.

There was a bang and scraping sound as the top of the airship's hull bounced off the roof of the cave. Several people screamed, and Lilith snatched a hand of both Adam and Enoch, squeezing them tightly. Adam peered into the darkness around them as the airship floated, swift and straight, out of the last temple cave. Headlights on the bow aimed ahead of them. Then they tilted back and began to ascend up the long, angled tunnel.

The groan of the engines grew louder, and hot wind spun around them as they sped up, soaring through the darkness. Suddenly, Enoch gasped. "But the wall at the top! That one with the little hole! We'll crash into it! Don't they know that?" Beside them, Elder Seth cackled cheerily. "I don't think we will," said Lilith. "I think that's what the weapons are for."

Sure enough, a moment later, they heard a roaring blast as the missile tubes over their heads fired. Then there was a deafening boom up ahead. The children screamed, throwing their hands over their heads at the deafening sound. The only thing they'd ever heard like it were cave-ins. But they soon saw that the adults around them were not scared. They were tense, yes, and many had risen to their feet. But all their faces were eager and turned to look ahead. Adam turned to look with them.

There wasn't much to see, with the fuselage's keel overhead and the crowd in the gondola. He thought he saw a cloud of dust and smoke in front of the airship, with fragments of rock falling from the cave ceiling. The rocks bounced loudly off the fuselage, raining down to either side of them, and then they were flying quickly through the cloud of dust. The Teva-12 emerged from the burst open mouth of the cave, slicing into the icy air of a clear night and ascending into the outside world.

The many faces that had turned to stare ahead of them now swiveled. Everyone rushed to the railings, staring out and down at the nocturnal landscape below them. The children spun on their bench, shifting to their knees and clinging onto the railing to see. "The outside! It's so big!" said Lilith. Adam squinted through the dim blueness of the night, trying to make sense of what he was seeing. "Those are mountains," said his father's voice.

Jabin and Hiram had joined them again, now looking far more relaxed than before. "What are mountains?" asked Adam. "And why are they white? And what is that squiggly line down there? And what are those little lights in the ceiling over there?" Jabin smiled. "So many questions. Well, that white on the mountains is called snow. The line there is a river. And those lights are called stars. But they're not in a ceiling, Adam. That is called the sky." "The sky."

"It's beautiful." "It was once," answered his father, "before it became their domain. But tonight," he ruffled Adam's hair, "tonight the sky belongs to us. Gather 'round, children. You all wanted answers? Well, now's as good a time as any. Adam, hand me your kickball, please." With the outer edges now crowded, Jabin guided them into the mostly empty center of the gondola.

Hopping up to sit on a food crate, he held up the ball in one hand and his glowing work lamp in the other. "Imagine this lamp is the sun. See how it shines on half the ball? On that side of Earth, it is day, and on this shadowy side, it is night. The angels live in the daylight," asked Lilith. "Good question. It's their one weakness, and it's what has allowed us humans to survive all this time. Do you children know what the angels did after the great battle?"

"They killed the creature god," said Enoch. "Correct, but when they did that, it left them vulnerable. You see, they were not designed to exist on their own, and without God to lend them power, they began to wither in the darkness. But the angels soon learned to take in power from the sun instead. They began to migrate always with the daylight, flying against the earth's rotation and laying waste to every human settlement.

To avoid destruction, the humans that had survived the war, seeked refuge underground and only ventured out at night. Lilith cleared her throat and quoted: "We have learned to fear the sunrise, right again," said Jabin with a wink. "But, alas, the angels would not give up so easily. They had grown stronger by then, and they learned how to use their combined power to alter the Earth's rotation."

In his hand, he began to wobble and spin the ball dramatically beside the glaring lamp. This meant certain areas of Earth could receive near constant sunlight. There, the angels congregated to gather their strength. It also meant that humans no longer knew when the sun would rise. They were driven farther underground, into deep tunnels they drilled into the Earth. But even so, the angels toured the landscape by day, searching for their hideaways.

Jabin lowered the ball, pausing to catch his breath with a look of sorrow and worry on his face. Adam stood in place, transfixed by the story. All this time, his father had known these things and kept them a secret. Why? It was a little scary, sure, but it would have a happy ending. Adam was sure of it. After all, they were here, weren't they? Alive and soaring through the night with no angels in sight. Humans had survived.

"What happened?" shouted Lilith. "Finish this story, Uncle Jabin!" Jabin sighed. "Well, one by one, the tribes of humankind were hunted down, and any sign of their once grand civilizations was erased from the earth but for a few sketches upon the cavern walls. Soon, only twelve great families remained, our ancestors. But they had learned to read the shifting skies.

and so they knew that the best places left to hide were at the top and bottom of the Earth. Here and here. The poles. Years would pass where the North Pole was in near perpetual darkness. Then the solar season would switch, and the South Pole would be in darkness. So the last 12 tribes dug 12 great caves at both poles and built the 12 Teva airships, and they began to migrate back and forth with the solar season.

This plan worked, and eventually, the angel's pattern became simplified. Ten years' seasons of light and dark at the poles. That is how it's been for our living memory. Until... It may be changing again now, which means we can't rely on the old pattern. Thanks to you kiddos, we got out in time. And now... He hopped down from the crate and stepped toward the kids, holding out the ball. This is where we are right now, and we're flying down to here.

But to stay out of the sun for the whole journey, we have to fly at an angle, south-eastward, like this. Make sense?" Adam and Enoch nodded, though neither boy actually understood entirely. Lilith wasn't nodding. She was still staring at the ball, rubbing her chin thoughtfully in her hand. "Uncle Jabin," she said, "you said our ancestors' plan worked. But it's never actually been safe, has it? Because where are the other eleven tribes? They're dead, aren't they?"

We're the last one. You said that in the meeting. I think that's enough questions for tonight, sweetheart, Irem said to his daughter, coming up behind her and placing his hands on her shoulders. Adam accepted the ball as his father handed it back to him, then stretched up on his tiptoes to ask him, will the angels get us too, father? Jabin kissed Adam's cheek. No, my son, I will keep you safe, I promise. Now then, find a place here to rest if you can. We have a long journey ahead of us.

Adam fell asleep, curled up under a blanket with his cousins, with the wind blowing coldly around them, and old elder Shem shouting nonsense to the night and praying to a god that wasn't here. When the children awoke, it was to the sound of screaming, and the stomach-clenching sensation of the airship turning sharply. "They are coming! Look! They are coming for us!"

Adam sat up, disoriented, trying to make sense of the chaos around him. Something was different, something about the outside. "The light," said Lilith's voice from beside him, echoing his own realization. The cousins stood, clinging to each other and staring over the railing. The sky was no longer black with twinkling stars. It was a deep blue, and at the horizon to one side, there was a band of glowing silver tinged with fiery orange.

and against the blazing colors of the dawn, Adam saw them. Fuzzy spots in the distance, floating toward their airship, rushing up to meet them. "How did they catch us so soon?" asked Enoch. Uncle Hiram appeared by their side and slumped onto his knees to hug his children, shaking wildly. "East! The sun! It's… for the first time ever! It's rising in the east!"

"They reversed the direction of Earth's rotation," said Lilith. "That's what's different. They tricked us!" Into Adam's shock, he saw his cousin smile. "Wow, that's really clever. Where is my father?" asked Adam. He was shaking now too, tears in his eyes, and he thought he might have peed himself in his fright. Uncle Hiram met his nephew's eyes.

He's on the engines, Adam. He's trying to coax some more speed out of them. But it won't make any difference. Even if we could outpace the dawn and the monsters, we would now run out of fuel long before we reach our destination. There is no hope for this. This is the end." Enoch began to sob, clinging to his father. Lilith still wasn't crying though. She was looking over at where Elder Shem sat on a bench.

The old fool was laughing merrily, waving to the angels rushing toward them as if they were old friends. The airship had now turned fully, speeding away across the brightening landscape beneath them, trying to catch up to the darkness of night, which was fading quickly to the west. Adam turned and watched as the angels reached them. There were hundreds of them, a great flock of black bodies lit from behind by the blazing sun that now peeked over the horizon like a sphere of golden fire.

He saw their hideous shapes come into focus, spherical, ringed with banded wings that revolved about their centers. Where dozens of silver eyes glinted in the morning light, he heard their voices, like clashing choirs. He felt their presence, like ice in his veins.

The angels closed in around the airship, bumping against its hull, rocking it side to side. Their lidless eyes staring into the open gondola, the edges of their spinning wings slashing at the bladders overhead. Adam looked around desperately for his father, but he couldn't find him. He wasn't here. He had promised Adam that he would keep him safe. He had promised. And now, he wasn't here.

Over their heads, the Teva's fuselage burst into flames. The gondola collapsed, its floorboards shattering, and the crates and the barrels and the last remnants of the human race plunged through the morning sky. Adam felt himself falling, bodies and burning wreckage all around him. The sky was red and glowing, and the angels were everywhere. He saw one snag the ankle of someone near him with one of its wings and pull the body in front of its central eye.

It was Enoch! Oh, dawn! It was Enoch! The angel had him! Adam watched, his windswept hair slashing before his vision, as the angel's silver eye changed, dividing down the middle, splitting open like a gaping mouth, and snapped forward, biting down upon the flesh of his cousin. Adam turned away, his body flailing, his limbs thrashing. He was so dizzy. He was going to be sick!

His eyes rolled back in his head, and the chaos around him began to fade. He slipped out of consciousness just as the earth rose up to meet him. Adam opened his eyes, then quickly shut them again. Light, light more bright than any he had ever seen burned his eyes. Even closed, he could still see it, pink and dancing in his vision. Bright as fire. But where was he? What had happened? He was lying on his back, yes, and the world was spinning. No.

He was spinning. He was floating. In water. Was he in the lake? They weren't supposed to swim in the lake. It was bad for the algae. And why were the lights above him so bright? Shielding his face with a hand, he slowly opened one eye. As his mind took in the sight above him, an expanse of pale blue with strange white shapes like frozen smoke, the memories came back to him. They had left the cave. They had flown out in the airship. And then, and then the angels had come.

The airship had exploded. Everyone had fallen. He had fallen. He spasmed in fear, splashing in the cold water around him. And for a moment, he was sure that he would drown. But his heels hit something hard. A floor of smooth stones. This water wasn't very deep. He scrambled to his feet. The water was up to his ankles, and it was moving. Standing and blinking in the strange light, Adam looked around. He was… on the outside.

He must have survived the fall somehow. And now he stood at the edge of a moving line of water. What had his father called it? A river. That's it. And on either side of the river, the sunlight glinted on stones and on tall green things. They were the color of algae, but hung from atop strange brown stalagmites. What were they? What was this place? Adam? said a familiar voice from somewhere behind him.

Adam! Adam! Adam gasped and spun around. Lilith? She was standing on the rocks beside the river. Her clothes were tattered, her face bruised, her hair a tangled, bloodied mess. But she was alive! Adam looked down at his own body. His clothes were torn too, and there was blood all over him. But he didn't feel any pain. He just felt numb, and wet, and very confused. He smiled at Lilith and took a step toward her. But then he stopped.

His breath catching in his throat. He had just looked at the space beside his cousin, and what he saw there filled him with terror. An angel hovered in the air beside Lilith. It was not black like the others, and it was smaller, sleeker, less monstrous-looking. The banded wings that revolved about its center were fringed with many colors. Fiery red, dazzling yellow, algae green, deep violet…

Its many eyes were golden, and it seemed to radiate light from its whole body, like a living lantern. The angel made no noise but floated there, watching Adam. Adam was mesmerized. Slowly, he crept forward. "Don't worry. This one is not like the others," Lilith explained. "He is… special. He has learned to make his own light. And he… he doesn't hate humans. He says we're important, you and I.

He knew we would survive. I think he caught us when we fell. Adam stepped out of the river, dripping onto the rocky shore, his eyes still locked on the radiant creature before them. He is good, Adam, and some of the other angels are starting to listen to him, to follow him. He will be their new leader soon and set things right. He will restore the earth to the paradise it once was, and he wants our help. How do you know these things? Adam whispered to Lilith.

Ask him yourself, Adam swallowed, and gripping his hands into fists so they wouldn't shake, he turned to the angel and said, Um, are you what she says you are? I am, said an illustrious voice, seeming to come not from the angel itself, but from inside Adam's own head. Adam's eyes bulged. No way! Yeah way, said Lilith, grinning.

"So, he'll help the tribe then?" asked Adam excitedly, and he looked around, as if he might see the rest of their people climbing out of the river. But Lilith's smile faded. "I don't think anyone else survived the crash, Adam. It's just you and me." "Oh." Adam was thinking about his father, wishing he had had a chance to say goodbye. Beside them, the angel began to turn, his wings glinting in the sunlight like ribbons of shining jewels.

Do not let your hearts be troubled, young ones, for I am with you. I shall be as your new father. The angel began to float away from the river into the shadows of the green things toward the distant shapes of looming mountains. Adam and Lilith exchanged a look, then took each other by the hand and followed him. Come and see the garden that I have prepared for you. I have plans, such glorious plans for this world. For this, this is only...

The beginning.