THE EXTINCTION ERA (Sci-fi, fantasy, thriller and adventure novel)

1-1

The locals call the valley "Ephedra Valley", which is covered with knee-high, greenish grey shrubs with hard pointy tips. A few men came here to perform a ritual, as it is a custom to come to the valley few times a year for the sake of this ritual. They were arguing about something.

-I don't want to go there.

-No. It doesn't matter if you want it or not. It's already decided that today is your turn to go, so you will be going there.

-I'm begging you, I'm one hundred percent certain "they" are there. Who is going to raise my children if I'm gone? There is no one, except me.

-"The community" will raise them. I'm pretty sure our group is able to feed two little boys. Ganji… we wagered. You lost, therefore you're the one going there.

Ganji was a frail man in his forties. He was tall, thin, and his hair started balding from the top. The hem of his pants was folded 2 or 3 times because it was too long. Instead of a belt, he tied his pants with a rope. Five men stood in front of him, the first of them a young man with a strong body and a fierce look on his face looks at Ganji as if he were a burden. Behind him stood short and bulky two men, who looked exactly the same, one may think they are twins or brothers. It's weird that they're in the same pose, even when they're just standing. The last two were an young boy and an old man. The boy was probably sixteen at most, and the old man was obviously in his fifties. Out of these five men, it is clear that only the young boy felt sorry for Ganji. If his father or brother had been in Ganji's place, he would have hugged him tightly and ugly cry. Young boy was standing there biting his lips, because he could have been in his place. Just about thirty minutes ago, they each pulled out one stick from six sticks, and the short one fell on Ganji's hand.

-Ganji, face your destiny like a real man. I will take care of your two sons as like they were my children. But you should stop only looking at the bad side. There is a possibility that you can come back safe and sound.

-But… but… But no one has ever come back before.

-Maybe you could be the first one to make it happen. Come on man, be positive. Who knows, maybe people who didn't come back ran away because they encountered better living conditions or something good for them.

-How do you know that? Have you been there before? I love life, I don't want go anywhere. He said while staring at the fierce-looking guy named Bochi who was standing at the front of the five men.

- Ganji, while we are all trying to be polite and kind to you, you're barking like a dog toward us. You know what happens to the people who act like this. If you return to the community, Shaman will accuse you of not following the rules. And then punish you. Both you and I know that punishment has become more harsh and severe in recent times. What do you want to do, Ganji?

Those words came to the poor man's ears like thunder strike. Even if he escapes from these five, he would be caught by Bochi in no time. Even if he fights with a knife attached to his back belt, Ganji was no match for Bochi's strength. Considering he is lucky enough to return to the community, the only thing welcomes him will be a terrible death. And his two sons are sure to see him dying. This last thought hit him hard. How would his children live in the future after seeing their father's agonizing death? Can they become a functional member of "The community"? Or will they get swallowed up in the darkness? I can't allow that to happen, but my sons would be proud if their father bravely went to his death and knowing he won't come back. With that thought, Ganji knelt before his fate. Behind the forest and the thickets, he sees an empty valley. Valley is covered with ephedra bushes. I shall cross that valley, he thought to himself. As he took a step forward, -"Hold on, take an oath and drink it" said Bochi, while handing him a bottle of musty smelling liquid. Ganji,

- "There will be no footprints behind me, there will be no community or my descendants I belong to from now on. Comrades, I'm going to courageously follow my destiny," he said then swallowed the musty smelling liquid. Suddenly he stopped and said to Bochi, "-Raise my sons to manhood, can I count on you?

-A promise is a promise. I will keep my words.

Ganji calmed down hearing those words. His face stretched, and his eyes blazed, as if the liquid were beginning to affect his brain. Holding a sharp knife in his hand, Ganji slowly began to comb the Ephedra valley. After crossing the valley, he turned around one last time before his figure vanish from the five men's sight, and then he disappeared into the forest behind him.

1-2

Ganji struggled to move his legs through the woods. The bitter drink with a hallucinating power reached to his head and he was losing his consciousness gradually. It was as if his body was controlled by his legs, not his brain. His legs only allowing to go forward alone, it doesn't seem to give Ganji a chance to sit back or relax for a moment. He started walking in the evening, and now it's already dawn. In this wilderness, only the sounds of wild animals and birds are heard from time to time. The frightening howl of predators can be heard. Those beasts howl and roar to set their territory, also to make himself known to other beasts, and to frighten them. Innocent herbivores scream in fear of death, as if they had been caught by a predator. Luckily for Ganji, he hasn't encountered any predators or mutants yet.

As the bright sun began to illuminate the tops of the mountains, Ganji's mind cleared. He does not know how far he has come or where he is right now. He had never walked so far before. Ever since he came to his senses, he has lived in the forest with the group of people so-called "The community". For many years now, one person goes on a non-return trip every quarter or half a year by the order of a Shaman. No one cared what's the reason behind this or why everyone had to follow the Shaman. A man named Shaman, who is about sixty years old, does not take his veil off his head and face, and two soldiers always stand guard at the entrance of his luxurious hut. Because they are nomadic people who are constantly on the move, the homes of the people in the community are small and easy to load. They must migrate from one place to another. The reason behind this is if only one mutant finds them, it is clear that they all get wiped out. When Ganji first saw the mutant, he lost his parents, and the last time mutant came, he lost his wife. From the back, mutants look like a normal man with a large body, but from the front, he is immediately recognizable by the overdevelopment of the jaw, small red eyes, pale bald head, and large mouth. They are sometimes dressed in clothes and sometimes fully naked. According to what Ganji's grandfather told, in ancient times they were said to be ordinary people. But no one knows why mutants had changed, how they had become so many times stronger, crueler, and more agile than the average person.

Ganji thought of the mutants and suddenly felt scared. Maybe if he can go as far as possible, he might survive. Thoughts of mutants remind him of nothing but death, suffering, horror, and evil. He believed mutants sent by the God to punish mankind, or if there was a hell, they would have come from there. Shaman always order one thing to the victims of ritual. "When you meet other people or communities, you are obliged to come back, but if you come across any mutants, don't even think about coming back here". Shaman threatened other people that if such a thing happened and endangered the community, they would burn in hell forever after death. People believed what Shaman says to be absolutely true.

As he walked through the woods, his clumsy boots which are made of animal leathers, lingered on the creeping plants causing him to walk slow. He must not make any kind of sounds. Ganji learned this from the time he learned to walk, so he moved forward like a shadow or ghost. If you get caught in the sharp eyes and keen ears of the mutants, that's the end for you. That's why people in the community ruled by Shaman talk to each other as quietly and whispering as they travel.

There were two dark figures in the forest gap. Ganji quickly hide behind the tree and held his breath. He felt his heartbeat through the wood to the soles of his feet. He looked in closer, it was two bears fighting. It wasn't a simple fighting; it was a fighting for life. Before Ganji's eyes, the one bear has exhausted and the other one got an upper hand. The victorious bear, who was waiting for this moment, hurriedly slapped the poor bear's head with his long, sharp claws. The victorious bear continued to use its sharp claws to scrape the scalp from the back to the front. Now the defeated bear's stamina run out completely, and it made a pitiful sound while raising its four legs up, as if to express his defeat. But the victorious bear did not want to stop, opened its mouth wide and began to rip apart loser's guts with its sharp fangs. The bear's thick, furry skin didn't seem to help, and the blood clots in his stomach filled the small space in the forest into a sea of blood. The most important thing was that before the bear was killed, the winning bear dipped its mouth into its stomach, bit it back and forth like mad, and swallowed it whole.

Ganji of course is afraid of beasts such as bears and wolves. They are another danger for sure. When they went hunting, Ganji could find no weapon to defend himself other than a sharp knife. Warriors have long spears. But commoners have nothing but a knife. The poor bear howled for a moment, and then the its sound faded away just like its soul flied away. The bear endured quite a while, Ganji thought. The winning bear has relatively large body.

Ganji had never seen such a big bear before. If the bear stood up, it could have reached three meters. Four limbs with strong muscles, and a snub-nosed head was visible from behind. Now he is walking around searching for the meaty part here and there. At that moment, Ganji looked straight ahead of the bear and was startled to see it. It had a pair of tiny red eyes, an unusually long muzzle, and too many cluttered teeth that could not fit in its mouth. Its head is almost completely covered in blood, even though it is enjoying the hunting meat but seems to notice the surroundings. "The mutated bear ..." Ganji whispered to himself. Why the battle ended so quickly, why he had such a big body, is now clear like a summer sky. He sees a mutated animal for the first time. Even Shaman had never told them about mutated animal.

The wind blows softly and the tops of the trees sway slowly. It seems to be only fifty meters between a bear and a man. Ganji remained motionless and decided to wait for the mutated bear to leave after he had finished eating. Unfortunately, Ganji's peace did not last long. The bear raised its head up towards wind, and sniffed a few times, then looked suspiciously in Ganji's direction. The bear smelled the man. The wind seems to have set Ganji as bait for the bear. Ganji's knees were shaking, but he dared to open his one eye slowly and look at the bear. But the crimson eyes of the mutated dark brown bear found him. It stopped eating and took the first step, then started rushing to Ganji. The only advantage of Ganji was the steep slopes of the mountain. He took a few steps and looked back, and saw that the bear had come twenty meters away. Ganji immediately climbed the first tree that was close to him as soon as he realized it was impossible to run away from mutated bear. As he began to climb, he saw out of the corner of his eye that the bear began to climb right behind him much faster. Ganji sat down on the end of a thick branch that could support him, held his sharp knife in front of him, and began to shout.

-Go away, get off from this tree. You devil spawn.

The mutated bear gritted its teeth and it was clear as day that it wanted to cut off Ganji's knife-wielding hand. The bear roared, howled and screeched through the forest. The battle between the man and the bear could have ended in an instant. However, a whistling arrow from nowhere hit into the bear's huge body. After a while, arrows were hitting at the bear's body from one side to the other, very precisely. The mutated bear snarls terribly, looks around and tries to figure out where it is attacking. But the whistling arrows did not give him a chance, rain of arrows were pouring down on its head and face. Suddenly, the mutated bear started to resembles a huge porcupine. Countless arrows were fired, but the mutated bear did not fall to his death, but his strength seemed to wane, and he fell straight down from the branch. The bear roared furiously in a fit of rage and run away to somewhere. For the last time, Ganji saw the bear's dark brown blood running down his shoulders. When the shadow of the mutated bear disappeared, owl howling like sound came from below. When Ganji looked down, he saw a man standing there with a bow and arrow in his hand and grinning. Ganji's heart seemed to open as he saw the white teeth gleaming in the sun and the sparks in that man's eyes. Dozens of men and women slowly came out from around him and stood around that man.