Chapter 1
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Suitable for an audience of 18 years onward due to violence and sexual content.
The pattering of rain hitting the window, the breeze chilling the rooms air, whispering against Julia's skin, causing goose bumps to erupt where ever it touched, snatched Julia from her slumber.
She blinked her eyes opened, scrambling to the window to cease the wind and rain, that pelted in, carrying her warm blanket with her, in attempts to shield her body from the cold.
Julia took a deep breath, reminding herself that this was her 19th birthday. A day in her previous life, before the dystopian war, that lead to the crash of life as everyone knew it, would have meant that she was most likely in college, hanging out with her friends, finding romance, perhaps a party in her honor. But now, in this life, it was a day like any other, about survival and remaining alive.
Julia sighed, trying to push down her feelings of discontent. Her breath caught in her throat, tears threatening to fall as the flashes of her mother's face, her old life, pushed its way into her mind. Shaking her head to dismiss the memories, she glanced towards the clock, the second hand incessantly moving forward. It was 6:15am and Julia had 45 minutes before breakfast would begin in the dining hall. She wondered if her dad, David, would be there.
He was one of the generals of this battalion, constantly busy and scrambling to keep hold on this section of the city. Her brother, Adam, was also a soldier, their mother, Wanda, was killed in an uprising 3 years ago. Julia felt like the dad she knew also died that day. He was nolonger the man who could always find the silver lining, a more serious version of his former self, who lived in the darkness of the rebellion.
The war started 10 years ago in 2052, an uprising of the classes, a collapse of civilization. It was thought that global warming would be the great downfall of man, however, it was the division of classes, the 99% turning on the 1%, recognizing the disparity of wealth and injustice, and then turning on each other.
It became a war of technology. Hackers destroying corporations, whistle blowers stepping forward to disclose injustices and dirty secrets of the ultra wealthy, such as human trafficking rings and sexual violence, catholicism control and political corruption.
Technologies were destroyed, electroc magnetic pulses being utilized to silence the whistle-blowers. Now nobody was safe. The world, in its darkness, had regressed back to a time of no order, people banded together to form groups, each group claiming land, resources and feuding with each other for survival.
Julia was lucky in that she was in one of the larger groups, known as the United Way. A fortress was built, and beyond that wall there were sub groups, of less privileged people, all who Julia was taught to fear, to consider them a feral people of conspiracy theories and immorality. People that would harm her if they had a chance.
Glancing at the clock again, Julia realized it was nearing 7:00am. She scrambled to get dressed, slipping on a pair of comfy gray jogging pants and an oversized sweater. She pulled her hair back into a ponytail, quickly washed her face and began to make her way down and into the dining hall.
