Author's note: I lacked inspiration for continuing the first story I posted on this site, so it has been deleted. This contains some of the same characters with a couple of additions and has a new title is just a working title until I can come up with a brilliant one.

Introduction

This story is set in the future, probably only about 100 years away. The vast expanse of North America has largely returned to nature because of a catastrophic war which barely avoided being nuclear, but the use of conventional weapons was just as devastating. The only difference was that the land was not destroyed and the technology was preserved and improved. Many of the cities have disappeared into the annals of time. Spaceports have replaced Seaports and two organizations vie for control of the world and its destiny. A young boy finds himself caught in the middle of the struggle.

JOSIAH

Chapter 1 Josiah and Katie

Josiah sat on the porch swing outside his house as he attempted to close his mind to the angry thoughts that pounded at its doors. He was partially successful in that attempt; shutting out people’s thoughts was much simpler than shutting out people’s hateful words like those his parents were currently hurling at each other. If only he could be deaf…

Katie climbed atop the fence and perched on the highest rail. She watched the young boy as he huddled with his hands over his ears and his head buried in his lap. Compassion darkened her eyes. She vaulted over the final rail and landed lightly in her neighbor’s yard. As she approached his shuddering frame she could clearly hear the strident voices of his parents from within the house. She gently placed her hands on the boy’s shoulders so he would know she was there.

“Josie! Hey Josie! Come on, let’s get out of here.”

Deep blue eyes set in a suntanned face and framed by a mahogany mop of curls peered up at her. He swiped at his eyes with the sleeved of his shirt. “Hey Katie, What’s happening?”

Katie could only look in his damp twilight colored eyes and spoke firmly. “That’s my line Josiah.”

Josiah felt as if his mind had suddenly been wrapped in a warm balm that soothed as it flowed into all the cracks created by his anguish. “Does she know she can do this?” he wondered.

“Come on Josie, let’s go walk by the creek.” He allowed the young girl to take his hand and pull him to his feet. He followed her out the gate onto the path that led to Tranquility Creek.

Josiah found himself laughing as Katie’s blonde hair swirled around her shoulders when she tried to capture a trout with her bare hands for the umpteenth time. Her green eyes glinted with laughter when the trout escaped her clutches once again.

The boy chuckled and gently pushed her aside. “Let me show you how this is done Katie!” He immediately followed his words with action and quickly captured the trout and flicked it out onto the shore, though not too far from the water. Merry laughter pealed as the trout flipped and flopped back into the creek and swam away.

Katie clapped her hands delightedly. “That was wonderful Josie!”

Josie shrugged his shoulders. “It wasn’t anything. Dad taught me to do that when I was little.”

Just like that, the laughter faded and he sank to his knees. “It wasn’t always like this you know. They used to love each other and we used to have fun, but not anymore…not anymore.”

Katie sighed at his defeated tone. Her ploy had almost worked. “Oh Josie…” and she knelt down beside him. “I’m so sorry. Is there anything I can do to help? If not, perhaps I can at least listen.”

“No, there’s nothing to talk about. Dad went away to war and came back a different person. I know it was hard on him to be a prisoner of war and all but…he doesn’t have to take it out on her!” He clenched his fists as he fought to control his anger. “Sometimes I almost hate him Katie. I’m afraid one day I’ll…”

“You’ll what Josie?”

“Never mind, you don’t want to know.” In an effort to distract the girl from his words he forced back the tears that threatened to fall. “Come on Katie, I’ll race you to that cottonwood down there!”

He got up, pulled her to her feet. As soon as he released her hands he began to run.

“Josie, that’s not fair! When you challenge a person to a race, you are supposed to start out even.”

“But that’s no…” He turned his head to look back at her over his shoulder and tripped over an exposed root that sent him sprawling headlong into the sand.

Katie burst with laughter. “Serves you right Josie, you cheater!”

She took off toward the finishing point once again and Josiah lunged after her. “Aren’t you the cheater now, Katie?”

Katie reached the cottonwood a split second ahead of her friend and sank down with her back to the trunk. Josie collapsed beside her and both were gasping for breath.

Breathing returned to normal and Josie spoke softly “Thank you Katie.”

“If you ever need to talk, I’m only next door.”

“I know you are Katie. Thanks.”

He was smiling as they returned home. Katie held his hand loosely as they approached the gate to his house. Josiah listened carefully with his mind and his ears. There was only silence from the house. It was a dead silence and a sense of foreboding crept up his spine. His grip tightened on Katie’s hand and she looked at him curiously.

“Come on Katie, it sounds like the fighting has stopped. I’ll walk you to your door and then go home.”

“Okay Josie.” They walked the few extra yards to her door. “Bye, I’ll see you at school tomorrow.”

“Good-bye Katie.” Josiah gracefully vaulted the fence separating the two yards and landed on his feet in the thick verdant grass of his yard. He turned to wave and then walked toward his front door.

As he approached his house a strange calm pervaded his senses. He began planning his next moves.

The sun had set as he walked Katie to her door. Now it was dark as he stepped into his eerily silent house. The T.V. flickered in the living room, it’s sound only muffled jargon. The grandfather clock ticked incessantly in the hallway accentuating the silence of the house. There were no other sounds, just the TV and the clock.

Tick-tock, tick-tock…his heart matched its rhythm…tick tock, tick tock.

The young boy stepped into the living room.

The next morning Katie looked for Josie at the school bus stop but he wasn’t there. “Poor guy, he must have overslept this morning. His mother will probably bring him to school, I’ll see him then…” but he never came. She was very worried by the time she left school and decided she would definitely go see him after she dropped off her schoolbooks and changed out of her school clothes. She came back down the stairs after changing and heard a special news bulletin.

“…After an anonymous tip today police discovered a murder-suicide in the Tranquility Creek subdivision. An alert has been posted for citizens to keep an eye out for their son, a missing 12-year old boy. He was last seen wearing…”

“NO…not Josie…Where is he Mom, what’s happened to Josie?”

“Katie, as far as we know, he’s a runaway only. There was no sign that anyone else was in that house nor was there a sign of any other violence.”

Katie fled into her mother’s open arms and cried until she could cry no more. “There, there Katie love, I’m sure Josiah is okay.” She stroked the thick blonde hair out of her daughter’s face and offered her a handkerchief for drying her tears.

“Thanks mom, I’m okay now. I just want to go for a walk.” She grabbed her sweater and headed out the door into the deepening dusk. Slowly she retraced the steps they had taken together and sank down against the cottonwood that had marked her victory only yesterday.

She buried her head in her hands and breathed a silent prayer. “Josie, wherever you are, be safe. I will find you.”

The object of her thoughts stood on the side of the road. His mind sought out the next person with whom he could safely hitch a ride. A backpack was slung across his shoulders and a duffel bag rested in his left hand. After discovering his parents dead in the living room last night, he had methodically put his plan into action. His dad had taken his own life; at least Josiah would never have that blood on his hands. He collected all of the bankcards and withdrew the maximum amount allowable from each bank account. It wasn’t a huge fortune, but it was enough to get him where he wished to go. He was about 300 miles from home and still had a long way to go. Once he was safely away from the town in which he had grown up, he called the Tranquility police from a public com-sphere and left an anonymous tip on the criminal hotline. At least his parents would be found and he would be long gone when the police finally realized who had left the message. Josiah had decided from the moment he sensed the dead silence within his house that he would not become a child welfare case. He had no desire to be placed in an orphanage or a foster home. He had known for many years what he wanted to do and now he was free to do it.

He flagged down an approaching speedster and began the next step of his journey toward the spaceport town of Kagemachi. He had been told that in Kagemachi there was an organization that took in homeless youth such as him and trained them to be warriors and pilots. Rumor had it that the organization had a means of locating people with talent such as his. This meant that he only had to make his way to Kagemachi and keep himself free until he was found.

Six hops later he was in Kagemachi. No one even thought to question his story after looking into the guileless blue eyes of a redheaded boy. The story was a simple one. His parents had died unexpectedly and he was searching for his uncle with whom his parents had lost contact. The last they knew, his uncle was in Kagemachi. He was sure he would find him if only he could get there…

Josiah looked around Kagemachi. It was about as far from Tranquility Creek as a person could get. Kagemachi was a city teeming with life and activity. Hover cars followed the traffic patterns and space transports of all sizes flitted overhead. It was a place with crowds and lights and people going about their business. It was a place in which he could get lost until he was found by the right people.

His father had often taken him and his mother to Kagemachi in the years prior to his going to war. In those days his dad had been a proud, young space pilot full of hopes and dreams. Somewhere out there in space, something had happened to change him. Josiah desired to go to space and discover what turned his father into a man embittered and cruel enough that he would hurt and even kill the woman he once loved. It was almost as if one man left and another returned in his place. The other person was a darker stranger that looked like his dad, but the similarity stopped there. It only went skin deep. He knew it was just a silly boy’s fantasy, but it would be so much easier to accept the tragedy that brought him here if it was true. Josiah melted into the crowd.