Prologue
My name is Sherleen Meyers, and I was born an Outsider. There is no denying the fact that we are the scum to the High-borns. They’re looking at us from up above, from the inside of their protective Bubbles. Every day under the Pipes is like a walk of shame. Teenagers are mean, pal, even more, when they think they’re something better.
I came from a long bloodline of Survivors. Only my uncle Alex ran wild and fled to the wood like an animal he was.
The virus first appeared 152 years ago and ravaged the countries. The Earth as it used to be is gone, the only comfort can be that we have no wars. Yeah, the armed conflicts vanished, but we have enough trouble to survive - at least the Outsiders.
The scientists named the virus the Ferocity - along with some scientific crap no one except for them understands. Remember Alex? When it doesn’t kill you, it makes you go nuts. If that’s your case, you run for the forest and never come back. There’s a sacred rule: Never go into the Woods unless you want to end up dead. All the teams sent there never came back.
No one knows why forests, scientists say the virus aims for the brain and makes one savage and primal. Some say it’s only a defence mechanism to stay alive and not be killed by the government and the others they’re just acting like fools to get out and away from work. I have no opinion on that. I have to see for myself to decide. Anyway, we call them the Prowlers. But again, nobody has seen them since they fled - therefore, they’re considered missing, even after those one hundred and fifty years.
So, the Ferocity causes three different stages - Survivors, Prowlers and dead ones. That makes three sectors on the Earth - Bubbles, Land, Woods.
