Prologue: The Silence - Sons of Man

January 2125 - Hwange, Zimbabwe

Everything began to change from what it was before into what it is now when Elias was a young boy many decades ago here in Africa.

Countless histories have been written about what happened.  How the world of humankind changed in a way that had not happened for 60,000 years. 

I can tell you this story because I knew Elias very well, and he was there at the center of it. His father honestly explained to him what was happening as it unfolded even though he was only 4 years old when it started. 

His father listened to Elias and he taught him so he could understand. Elias remembered every word they said to each other in those talks. 

Elias was afraid that he would forget, and he often asked his father to help him remember what he taught him. And his father did. Elias used to tell me, “I can still hear his kind voice in this very moment. Word for gentle word.”

When he was older, he learned so many details, of the science, of the brave volunteers, of the many forces in conflict, from his mother, and from other doctors who became his teachers and friends, who were there too. 

They were some of the best of humankind. With all that has happened since then, you may not know that you are here because of what they did in the face incredible challenges.

Using what they gave to Elias, he was able to build this story around those quiet talks with his father, like pillars of memory. He told it to me that way. And so will I tell it to you.

This story is not just about him, but about those people he loved and who saved him.

May Elias’s story will help you to remember him when I am no longer here to carry his story for him. And you can tell people that you know the story of what happened to us from someone who saw it from the start.