A/N: After reading a book, The Giver, in school, it inspired me to write this.
Disclaimer: I don't own The Giver or Higurashi no Naku Koro ni series. They belong to their respective owners.
Chapter 1: Is this Elsewhere?
Pedaling with all the strength he can exert, Jonas kept on riding his bike away from the Community, going farther and farther away from the place that kept so much secret from him and what he saw different from there and in the memories that the Giver had transmitted into him. He heard crying that was coming from the newchild, Gabe, he took with him. Jonas couldn't bear to have Gabe to be released, not what after he saw what happened to that infant a few weeks ago.
Jonas saw what he had seen in his received memories that are now being seen in person, hills. All he could do is keep on going, so he and Gabe wouldn't be caught. The farther they went, a strange feeling came upon both of them. Gabe whimpered in the bike's basket, and Jonas didn't feel comfortable having to notice this strange feeling as well.
It felt...unique, different from what he had seen in the Community and from the received memories he acquires. For a moment, it felt like time slowed itself down around him, and the slowness didn't leave Jonas as he continued onward. He wasn't sure if he was imagining this, but as he was in slow-motion, everything else in the background of the fields were moving like fast-forward had been turned on.
Then time began moving normally again, things came back to their usual time flow. Jonas still wasn't sure if this was a hallucination or the lack of warmth and food was causing this to affect him. Without any other thought, he collapsed from biking away for so long. The newchild fell out of the bike also but Jonas caught Gabe as his arms stretched out weakly. It was getting to him, the hunger, the coldness, the weakness, that he couldn't even hear the crying coming from Gabe. Was this...the end? The end of both of them. He couldn't take it anymore and his eyes closed, thinking if he was going to die.
Meanwhile, Rena had been alone, walking home to Hinamizawa since it was getting dark. It was quite normal running errands, but she was really tired, carrying the grocery bags as she walked down the path to the village. Just to make her day a bit more tiring, it began to rain.
"I knew I should had brought an umbrella," Rena sighed. Something caught her eye though, making her stop in her tracks completely. It was pretty rare for this happen, but she saw someone collapsed on the ground, looking it was going to hold onto the crying infant that was there. There was also a bike that seemed like it lost balance and fell for this to happen.
"Oh my god! Are you alright?" Rena asked, shaking the boy that was on the ground. She also got the infant and wrapped it in the sheets that was there with the bike. Rena kept on shaking the boy until she could hear him breathing again.
"Who...who are you? Is this...Elsewhere?" the boy asked, he looked like he hasn't ate a single thing for a long period of time.
"This isn't a time to get know each other, I'm going to take you over to my place right now," Rena told the boy, cradling the infant in one arm and helping the boy up with her other. Luckily, she was carrying her grocery bag with her mouth, seeming like it wasn't a bother for her. There was something bothering Rena, and it wasn't a good thing either.
'Will it...will it be fine for someone to be brought into the village?' Rena doubted herself, but she had to help this person out or he would die, regardless to what other consequences if this person were to enter this village also.
