The Race

The Race is book 1 in the Christian Survival Adventure series, The Offworld Chronicles and begins the story of its five founding members, Simon, Trevor, Aria, Birash, Yurg and Alex and their travels, adventures and experiences in the early parts of the race course that each of them are forced to travel along in their journey towards the end, freedom, and the opportunity to return home.

Synopsis

The story begins with a prologue where two CIA employees, Jack Lundy and an unnamed junior colleague, discuss the Terran 2 Project (aka the planet of Offworld), and the various groups involved in it, including Section 17 and the Alien Brotherhood, two parts of the main controlling organization known as the Syndicate that controls Offworld and the race that's at the center of it. After this brief introduction the story then moves over to begin the story of Simon who is the main character of the story. The scene opens with Simon sitting at his desk working late at his job as a Software Developer in a small Michigan software startup. After a quick bit of office banter, Simon closes down and leaves for the day, walking out of the office and into the parking lot only to unexpectedly find himself sitting in a small metallic cell in the reception center of the Syndicate on the planet of Offworld at the very start of the race.

After being snatched out of his cell and roughly treated by the strange, alien employees at the reception center, he's provided with some basic starting instructions, an initial selection of supplies, and then hurried out into the staging area that sits between the starting checkpoint of the race and the reception center itself. Simon quickly realizes that he's not on Earth anymore, and immediately goes into survival mode,learning everything he can about the race from the handy and informational race manual given to him as part of his initial list of supplies. During this period of time he meets a brash, arrogant, street smart kid from the South Side of Chicago named Trevor. After a brief and disrespectful conversation with Simon, the young man goes off on his own while Simon settles into his reading again. By late afternoon he stops reading, gathers his things, and begins the course. However, as he's entering the course, two of the demons from the Brotherhood take an unhealthy interest in him from atop the reception center, and seek to exterminate him before he can get anywhere. However, they are stopped by one of the senior Section 17 agents, advising that they should allow him to continue just like any other racer.

Simon continues hiking the rest of the day and eventually reaches the first checkpoint where he orders a poncho, then sits down for the evening, as it's growing close to sunset, and builds a fire. About an hour after dark, Trevor appears and takes up a place in the camp. The two talk briefly, and Simon even witnesses a little to Trevor, but the young man wants nothing to do with it. The two then fall asleep for the night. Simon wakes up the next morning to find that he's alone again as Trevor has gone on ahead of him already. The day's hiking is generally unadventurous, even though Simon finds himself thinking a LOT about things back home, as well as the trail ahead. That night, the same as before, Trevor joined Simon in his camp to share the fire and human company. This time though, Trevor chose to stay with Simon and become his traveling partner. However, due to Trevor's immaturity, caustic attitude and combative attitude, the two soon part ways. Simon then prays briefly for Trevor before focusing himself intently on the course and what he'll need to do to survive the entirety of the race.

The story then switches to Trevor for a time and explores the consequences of his poor attitude and the poor decisions he makes along the way. After a difficult night of sleeping, due to a heaven rain storm and cold evening air, Trevor awakes to find Simon camped out next to him with a pair of trovets roasting over a roaring campfire. Simon offers the young man one of them (he knew they'd meet again, so he'd gotten one for each of them) and the two then discuss several things, including Trevor's past, Jesus, Simon's faith, and more. At first Trevor reject's Simon's witnessing and the chance to be saved. But eventually, after thinking it over for part of the night, Trevor eventually accepts and becomes saved.