Free Regenesis (Book 1): Impact by Harrison Pierce

seriously Ian, what are you doing here? I would have thought you’d be
packing or something better than watching some high school football team
practice.”
    “I
just felt like taking one last look around here before I left,” Ian told him.
    Wally
looked around and mumbled, “I’m not sure what’s so memorable about this
place…Hell, I wish I was the one getting out of this town.”
    “Then
why don’t you?”
    Wally
shook his head, “I don’t know…Probably because I don’t really know where I’d
want to go or what I’d want to do. The world’s a damn big place and pinpointing
where you want to live isn’t a simple thing.”
    Ian
looked at Coop and asked, “What about you?”
    Coop
only grinned. “Why would I want to leave? It’s so easy here.”
    Wally
rolled his eyes, “You’ll be in for a real shock once everyone starts moving on
with their lives.”
    Coop
laughed, “We’ll see.”
    Ian
smiled and told his friends he would see them later and left for the school. He
walked into the main building and half expected to see a steady flow of
students bustling from class to class. It was deserted though, which gave an
alien feeling to the long and hollow corridors. He walked along silently while
he peered in the windows at the dark and empty rooms until he reached the
classroom where he had taken his final English course.
    His
old teacher sat behind a desk and didn’t even notice Ian’s entrance. Victor
pored over notes in a copy of Ordinary People and notes in a separate
notebook. Ian finally cleared his throat to signal his presence.
    Victor
looked up and grinned, “I didn’t take you for the sentimental type Ian.”
    “You’d
be right normally, but I guess when your window of opportunity is closing you
generally want one last look.” Ian glanced at the floor and then back at his
old teacher. “I’m moving to London in a few weeks.”
    He
looked at Ian and asked what made him want to relocate.
    Ian
took a breath and shook his head, “I don’t know what I’m going to do if I stay
here,” he told him. “I just feel like I need to get out of here and move on
with my life before I’m stuck here forever.”
    Victor
nodded, “I know how you feel. Does the idea of remaining here indefinitely
bother you?”
    “Yes.”
Ian scowled, “It’s not like I hate it here, I just don’t want to end up here
forever. I’d rather be off in London and work at a dead end job knowing I made
it somewhere beyond Bothell Washington.”
    Victor
chuckled and told him he felt the same way once. “That’s why I left for a year
when I was younger.”
    “I
know, I read your book. But you never said why you came back.”
    Victor
set his work aside and told him that the world he longed for was exactly the
same beyond Bothell. “I realized that no matter where I went, my life would
ultimately be the same mundane journey, just in another land. But the one
thing, the only thing that gave me reason to return was my family. Paul had
lost his job and hadn’t managed to find work for a while. Nick was too young to
step in and provide for the family, and I would have been ashamed to leave my
mother to work a full time job when I was fully capable of working in her
stead.  I knew that they needed me more than the world did, so I abandoned my
adventure and settled down, more or less.”
    Ian
frowned, “I guess I never really considered any good reasons for staying…”
    Victor
smiled, “Maybe you’ll find reasons to come back after you’ve left. Either way,
you’re not going to be able to appreciate here until you’re elsewhere.”
    Ian
agreed. Victor told him he needed to leave for a meeting in Seattle and
gathered his things. They walked toward the main entrance to continue their
conversation, though they stopped when someone who walked through those double
doors neared them. The young man wore a black tee-shirt with Led Zeppelin printed
on it and a pair of blue jeans. He wore his brown hair short, had a tattoo of