Aug 12, 2021
As few previous commenters have noted, this first chapter is kind of an exposition dump. There's no hard rule against starting a story this way, it's just a bit unfashionable (not the current meta, so to speak). It's not like the events being described here are uninteresting—the virus and the discovery of Kernal could be their own full-length stories.
So, I'm not a master yet, but here's a couple of tricks for getting away with an exposition dump: keep it focused, and tie it to an image.
In its current state, this chapter tries to tell the reader about a geopolitical rivalry, a virus, Kernal, Gages/Soliciters, and the adoption of two boys into the Schwartz family. That's a lot for the reader to absorb and remember in a very short time (exposition is for giving info fast, after all). Readers have an easier time if the exposition is directly relevant to something that just happened, or is about to. Looking ahead to the next chapter, the adopted boys are who we need to know about, but the virus probably won't be relevant for a while.
With tying to images, the Gages sound like something that a character might see or receive, and exposition can answer the reader & characters' questions of 'ooh, what are these funky gloves' (which is a question in readers' minds once they see the gloves in the story, not before).
So, bit of a long response. Hope it's helpful or interesting or something.
