Primordia 3: The Lost World—Re-Evolution

PROLOGUE

The changes were so small at first that most people didn’t even notice.

The brilliant red northern cardinal was quite common and could be found from southern Canada, through the eastern United States from Maine to Texas, and all the way down south through Mexico. With the male’s brilliant red plumage, head crest, and black mask, plus its distinctive song, it was no wonder it once made such a prized pet.

And then one morning there was a blackout, only for the blink of an eye, like something had briefly moved across the sun. Then afterward, the cardinals were gone. All of them.

It wasn’t like the ground was littered with dead birds, or they’d all migrated to somewhere more interesting. It was more like they never existed.

Books made no mention of them. No pictures existed. And they didn’t just fade from memories; they were erased. All that remained was a nagging sense of… wrongness.

That was the first occurrence. And there was more, and worse, to come.