The World is on Fire

Chapter 1

Josephine slammed the broken refrigerator shut with a bang that shattered the silence of the dilapidated home she was scrounging through.

Nothing.

There was absolutely nothing here. No food. No water. Nothing but dust and cobwebs coated nearly every surface and corner of the place.

She had checked everywhere that looked like a hiding spot for something edible but much to her aching stomach's chagrin, she had been completely unsuccessful.

Sighing in defeat, Josephine grabbed her small pack and left. Food would have to be found somewhere else, and while she'd learned decent survival skills over the last several months, her hunting skills were shoddy at best and the likelihood of her actually catching something that would fill her was next to none.

Overgrown prairie grass along with a darkening and cloudy sky helped shield her from any prying eyes that might have heard her reckless movement. She winced. Not one of her wiser moments.

When one's own government was hunting you down, doing things that might draw someone's attention were never smart. But the growing hunger that left her nauseous coupled with the frustration of yet another one of her usual stops not having any food had gotten the better of her. It was as if someone had come through and cleared out the food ahead of her. As if they were purposefully trying to draw her out.

Josephine held in a snort at the thought. If her own government wanted her and others like her so bad, they shouldn't have threatened and killed their loved ones to earn their cooperation.

Not the United States' greatest move among plenty of others. Especially the one that had gotten them into this mess in the first place.

If she could only turn back time... her heart clenched at the thought, and she swallowed the lump that had begun to build in her throat. Flashes of her parents' final moments still haunted her, it felt as though their ghosts followed her, never finding peace or rest but instead choosing to remind Josephine that the hunger and thirst and exhaustion were better than other outcomes.

As she neared the edge of the field surrounding the house, a wall of trees loomed in front of her, leaves rustling in the abnormally cool summer night.

The woods had become her safe haven. No one bothered to go beyond the path anymore. There were enough old hunting traps and goodness knew how many different animals that roamed the woods. But Josephine—she'd adapted. Learned how to spot the signs of any traps lying in wait for a foot to step on it, and how to steer clear of predators that claimed the woods as their own territory.

Dusk quickly turned to night as she moved towards the looming trees. Slowly, she picked her way through, finding her previous trail and following it.

A sweet cacophony of insects came to life around her, cicadas and crickets helping her trek to remain unnoticed. It didn't make her any less cautious of where she stepped though. Sweat began to coat her face as she struggled to avoid fallen branches and bushes that sought to snag her clothing.

Josephine slowly but surely worked her way towards the fallen tree where she'd found a semblance of shelter. It at least covered her from any rain and kept her hidden, and really that was all she could truly ask for.

To live in a home meant the government knowing of your existence and you cooperating with whatever idiotic idea they came up with next.

And what was the United States' grand idea to get out of the debt that they'd incurred? Selling off their own people to the highest bidders which were typically aliens from other planets. It kept the economy going in the wake of a war that had nearly destroyed the continent and it kept aliens appeased. At least that's what the government told everyone when they'd first released the idea.