They call their compound, Rebirth. When discovered they numbered less than two hundred humans. All first-generation colonizers. The newfound warren of reinforced caves was loaded with clothes and supplies for ten thousand people, and more importantly there were stable food rations to last that number of people for ten years. To say good years were to come was an understatement, this colony of humans flourished and thrived for decades.

The first generation had been wandering for seven years before arriving at Rebirth, they quickly settled down and started making babies to return their population to the original 1,000 humans. After two generations of stress-free living, they started having slower to mature children that were more docile and with interests in building and planning. This is a difficult transition for any human population as the still surviving first generations are ultra-violent and tribal, not trusting anyone who looks different. The younger humans eventually convince themselves that rounding up the last couple dozen first generation humans and putting them down was for the good of the colony. In reality it is revenge for years of murders and rape at the hands of a people that outlived their purpose. It was a kinder world now, a kinder world built on a genocide.

After a hundred years they nearly fill the caverns. The original food stores, long exhausted, are now replaced by herds of cave rats and opportunistic farming of the surrounding land. The ever-changing hostile landscape reduces yields to less than fifty percent, still producing enough extra food to supplement their diet of mostly rodent meat. The humans of Rebirth thrive for another 70 years.

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Times were good in Rebirth until previously safe water supplies turned poisonous and killed off most of the cave rats. The humans immediately put their inborn knowledge to use and formed hunting parties. The first few months were promising, until the same poisoned water started killing game in the region. Cooking the meat worked to neutralize the poison, enabling them to cure meat for later consumption. As long as they could find recently dead meat, they had food. They doubled their attempt at farming, much of the food grown carried the same toxin found in the water. Some could be cooked and eaten, filling in slightly for the reduction in meat.

Then there were no more animals, alive or dead, small or large. The denizens of Rebirth rationed food, but starvation took out a quarter of the population before the demand and supply for scavenged food equalized.

After two years of starvation and uncertainty of their future survival it began, there was no meeting or call for action. Pregnancy terms began to shorten, newborns with yellow hair stopped appearing, each generation born in the following three years were rapid growth first generation colonizers. Once the pattern was unavoidably established the humans of Rebirth had no choice but to train and prepare their offspring to leave the compound and find a new home. Keeping them would be suicide for the existing colony. Procreation was halted after the thousandth conception. By the end of the fifth year of shortages, the food problem stabilized. The colony was down to 3,000 mouths. With a third being aged four to six years, and ready to mobilize for their march into the wild.