William Wilkinson was born in 2259 in Tulia, Texas, a sleepy village of farmers and ranchers. Tulia was located roughly 50 miles south of Amarillo, just down I-27. For years, the men and women of Tulia lived in fear of the religious zealots of Amarillo. By the middle of the century, slavers employed by the Followers of the Holy Way were regularly harassing the residents of Tulia, taking potshots at men and women just trying to go about their daily business and abducting those that strayed too far from the village. In 2264, the latter occurred to a young William Wilkinson and his brother, James. While picking honey mesquite pods, the two boys strayed too far from the last house on the outskirts of the town, and were abducted by slavers employed by the zealots from the north