Rough Draft

I pressed my thumb into the scanner as I do every morning at 8 A.M. sharp. A hologram of a middle aged woman appears on the screen above me and says “Good morning Marie, please verify the completion of your assignment” This is routine for me, our actual school institutions had been abolished many years ago and now each student attended class virtually from the security of their homes. It was much more organized this way, and allowed for the Fellowship to track the progress of each person much more effectively.  Tracking and order is the main objective of the Fellowship ever since the Great War collapsed half the world orders.  Order and obedience were two things that were drilled into each of their heads every day from a very young age. Each teacher emphasized how the western portion of the world became the way it is, and why the wall was built to divide both sides. I’m very fortunate to live in Easteros, no one from here is ever allowed to cross what was once known as the Pacific and Atlantic ocean, not that we would ever want to. Once the Fellowship saw there was no winning the war, and how much destruction had come from it, a French scientist that we know only as “Le Maitre” developed out an the greatest electromagnetic wall that divided the world entirely in half. It allowed for us to have the peace and order that we currently have now.

They say the other side of the world, or what we now call Omenos, is still a war zone, with multiple Jihadist groups fighting each other to fill the power vacuum that each predecessor leaves in its wake. You see, you may ask how this happened but it happened so quickly and yet so openly that it is a surprise that no one was able to prevent it. They say our old government officials didn’t take ISIS seriously enough, constantly believing that they would burn themselves out. Even when ISIS began making alliances with other terrorist groups such as Boko Haram in Africa, no finger was moved against them. The Jihadist movement that began in the Middle East soon then spread into the vast majority of Asia and Europe. ISIS member’s local attacks grew in scale, eventually leading into mass terrorist activities that soon infiltrated the European Union and lead to attacks across the continent from within. They were able to recruit so easily from all over the world through provocative videos and social blogs that their numbers had grown larger than anyone had imagined until it was too late. By 2076, ISIS had managed to form more alliances, strengthening ties with Iran Russia, and China that allowed them access to weapons of mass destruction. They used those weapons to spread terror and fear as far across as they could reach. They began with Israel, moving military forces in from each side. Israel’s only safe guard was the Egyptian border but that was soon taken over by Boko Haram. Israel’s allied forces attempted to intervene but the 2083 nuclear bombing of London, England soon stopped all attempts. The United States withdrew its troops as the death toll climbed up to nearly 1,250,000. The decision was then made on December 13^th, 2085, nearly 10 years since the war had started, France, England, Japan alongside with a few other countries decided to move the vast majority of their citizens into the safety that the Eastern side of the world provided. The vastness of nuclear bombings had left their crops dead, their water contaminated and a spread of illnesses amongst them that they felt there was no other choice. That’s when the Fellowship was created,  composed of each individual country in North and South America.

 Those were horrible times but thankfully they were over many years ago, 54 years ago to be exact. I turn my focus back to the holographic screen as each student’s name popped up on the side as they logged in.  The screen turned bright red as The Fellowships flag covered its entirety, it’s flowing orange flames symbolizing the unity and resiliency of each country it was composed of, the strong melody playing in the background slowly faded away as another woman appeared. “Children of Easteros, please rise for your pledge of devotion” she said in a commanding monotone voice. As I stood, the sensors from our computer followed me, ever ensuring that I was obeying as I was told.

“ I pledge my devotion, and loyalty to the Union of the Fellowship, undeniably, unquestionably, and with all completeness. Under one and only God, and one flag, that shelters us from all that is bad. To this I solemnly swear.”

Later that afternoon, I ventured to the local park, a place that I often found peace in. It had a small fresh water spring, one that ran through our small town and provided ample drinking water to all its residents once it had been purified. It was a secluded area, the sun casting shadows through the trees as my feet crunch through the small wooded area until I find my favorite boulder to sit on. It overlooks a small waterfall and the sound of the cascading water soothes me. I hear a faint chirp in one of the tree branches above, it doesn’t take me very long to spot the Surv, a robotic drone bird meant to keep an eye on everyone. My parents say that they the Survs used to actually look like little planes just flying around but it made everyone a little uneasy so the Fellowship chose to make them into birds. I’m still a bit creeped out by them, just knowing that someone at the Fellowship headquarters is able to fly that little bird around and peek into my life whenever they please. My parents constantly remind me that it is necessary, the Fellowship only wants to protect us and make sure that everything is okay.

            There’s a rustle in the bushes behind me, I turn around slowly to peer in the direction the noise came from. It’s probably just a squirrel I think, and nestle back onto my rock. The same rustle comes again but closer this time, I stand up and hop off the boulder, slowly stepping so that the boulder is between the bushes and myself. I wait to see if I hear anything but it is quiet now; must be a squirrel I remind myself. I peer up at the sky, the sun is beginning to set and my parents will be home soon and wonder where I am, they highly disapprove of me going out alone but I’m 17 years old and an adult according to the Fellowship. I begin to walk back when I hear movement behind me, turning just in time to see what appears to be a woman but isn’t a woman walking rapidly towards me. I run quickly backwards, stumbling over my own feet, becoming tangled in the brush. Her face oddly disfigured, skin scaly and grey,  she lets out what I think is a shriek as she runs towards me but I can’t tell because my own shriek and something else is filling my ears and clouding my head. “Run you idiot!”  my mind is yelling out me but I am frozen,  this is how my story will end, in the woods alone by the hands of a mutant. She reaches me and begins clawing at my arms as I try frantically to fight her off, suddenly we are both covered in a luminescent blue light, I feel my self control instantly taken from me, muscles easing as the creature and I both float momently frozen in time. Then ZAP, she is gone and I fall with a soft thump onto the brush beneath me. Above me, I can barely make out the silhouette of a Fellowship hovercraft moving away from us. The shrieking noise that once filled my head stops abruptly as the Surd flies away. “Protection” I murmur to myself sarcastically. The sun is almost set down and I break out into a run, my parents will already have noticed my absence and I could already hear the telling-off I’d get soon.  I’m panting by the time I make it back to my house, stealthily climbing up a tree whose branch reaches near my bedroom window. I quietly step through my window and into my bed with precision that can only be attained through constant practice. “Coast is clear, no sign of my parents” I think as I quickly take off my sweaty clothes and change into clean clothes. I examine my arms, the fresh scratch marks still swollen and red from my recent encounter with what ever that was. I’ve never seen anything like that. “Who or what was that? “ I pondered. And what would have happened had that Surv not been there to set off the alarm? 

            My closet door squeaks as it moves a bit, instantly putting me on alert. What in the world was going on here? Thinking quickly, I grab the nearest thing to me, my trophy I won for a cyber security competition I had in 4^th grade. Gripping the base firmly,  I inched closer and closer to the door, reaching for the handle, arm raised and ready to strike. I swing the door open only to find my very startled little 14-year old brother Josh crammed into the corner of my closet. “What are you doing in my room?!” I start off on him.

“Nothing! Don’t worry about it.” He responds back to me, scrambling to climb out of my closet. I notice a large rectangular object in his hand and he quickly hides it behind his back when he notices me looking. “Hey, what is that?” I ask, attempting to reach around him.

“Stop, it’s nothing!” He yells while squirming away from my reach and backing himself out of the room. I grab him and pinch his arm as hard as I can, he gives out a “yelp” and I manage to use his momentary pain to grab the object from his hands. I jump onto my bed, the object still in hand and peer hard at it. “Hey give it back!” Josh yells at me attempted to reach it out of my hands but I kick him off my bed. “What is this?” I ask again looking at it more closely. The gold inscription on the top reads “The Qur’an” and then it clicks. “How did you get this?!” I ask him frantically. Books to begin with had been destroyed when the Fellowship was formed, they were said to cause dangerous thoughts and now here in my hands was not only a book but also one of the most dangerous and forbidden books ever. We were united citizens under one religion, any other religion was strictly prohibited. The differences in beliefs had been one of the main reasons for the eruption of the Great war and now this horrible thing had found its way into my own home. “I found it!” Josh yells back, attempting to snatch it out of my hands. “Do you know HOW much trouble and danger you’ve put our family in? If they find us with this, who knows what they’ll do to us!” I don’t even want to open the book, it feels too hot in my hands, burning me with guilt. I jump off the bed and head towards the door. “Hey! Wait, where are you going?” Josh persists, following closely behind me. “I have to give this to mom and dad, this is too dangerous. They’ll know what to do with it” I state.

“You can’t do that!” He says, defiantly standing between the door and I. “If you tell them, they’ll be just as guilty as us. You can’t do that to them” He continues. My mind floods with conflicting thoughts instantly, he was right. If the Fellowship knew that we had this, what would they do to our family? What would happen to my parents and their jobs? I had heard horror stories of families who had been caught practicing other religions, no one knows exactly what happenened to them but just that they are never seen again. I couldn’t let that happen to us.

I turn back into my room and cover the book with my pillow, willing it away. “What did you do to us?” I stare blankly at him. “You don’t understand Marie, I was just walking back from Corey’s house when I noticed it just sitting there in the bush! It’s not like I went looking for it. I just grabbed it and ran back here as soon as I could.” He sounded exasperated as he plopped down onto my bedroom rug. Here was my little brother, broken and confused. “Hey, it’s okay. We’ll get rid of it and no one will ever know about this.” I  said soothingly, kneeling down so that I could wrap my arm protectively around him.

“Hey, what happened to your arms?” He asked, peering onto the red marks that still covered my arms. “You wouldn’t believe me if I told you.” I responded,