Prologue

In the year 2187, the world population had shrunken due to a terrible illness called Putrid Atrophy, in which the disease entered the body through tick bites (which thrived on unclean surfaces such as beds and couches) and within a few hours, the victim would die. Millions of people fell dead and those who survived saw the destruction of the human race as they knew it. World War III (which began in the year 2181) had already decimated the world population and the AIDS virus (which could not be eradicated) killed off nearly a billion more people worldwide before it too burned off.

With the ending of the war in 2188, the survivors successfully eradicated the disease and then they began the long and difficult process of rebuilding their planet, which had been destroyed by war and diseases. Different countries sprang up in place of what had been seven continents, and many different cultures and civilizations began to rise in various territories around the world.

But very soon (in the year 2194 to be precise), children began disappearing from their homes; the victims often being one boy and one girl from different parts of the world. Where they would disappear to, no one knew. Someone had once tried to find the children, but that person had disappeared along with the children.

Time passed and the world was back on its feet. Somehow, every 70 years, a boy and a girl would disappear, never to be seen again. Those children were often orphans, and who would miss an orphan if said orphan disappeared without a trace?

This is the story of a boy and girl who were taken from their homes and brought to a mysterious new world, where their very presence is part of a story that would eventually change the world…

First, we must meet the children.