Area 15

Prologue

They don't know if he was possessed, or overcome by blinding rage... or just insane. No one knew and no one knows to this day why he did it. Oh, we have our theories, but no one knows for sure. The popular theory is that he was just insane. Either or any other way, on the night of June 6, 2024, he went to that forest and burned it down. Was he alone? Oh, he was alone. How did he do it alone? No one can tell. But what was once a forest was burned by Cody Shane Ware. All that was left were stumps, the occasional leaf that had escaped the raging inferno. At first, people thought Cody had surely burned alive in his own destruction, but someone saw him in the ashen remains just a few days later. When law enforcement came to collect him, he climbed up a charred old tree stump. "You come down from there, Mr Ware," they shouted. "I will not, and so shall I never!" was his infamous response. They returned to him three days later. "Come out of this destruction, Cody Shane Ware," they told him. "I will not, nor shall I ever!" he replied. "Then we shall build a wall. You shall die in the prison of your own destruction." "And so may it be," said Cody. The law was confused that he had no objection to being imprisoned in his own destructed territory, but decided to go ahead and build the wall. Meanwhile, word was getting around about the entire story back in the village. Cody was a 28 year old man. He had no wife, no girlfriend, no children. But there was one person he was frequently seen with and that was Roxie Bishop, a 15 year old orphan girl who had lost her parents in a terrible storm when she was a small child. Pastor Brockley sat her down and told her the whole story. "You're lying," said Roxie. "I lie not. I speak the truth in the name of God. The wall is nearly complete. They are finishing it on the west side this evening." 

And so she...