Through The Wire Fence

Zero - Prologue

Nobody really knows how we descended into madness; some say it was the way adults turned on us: the way they forbade each other from having kids because of some stupid prophecy, but I'll get to that later. Others say it was the gas.

Seven years ago from today, my dad, the president of the United States issued an Anti-Children Act. The Spark Notes version is that after the existing kids grew up, nobody could have kids. Basically, the human race would die out in a generation's time and there was nothing anyone could do. That's where the rebels came in, getting knocked up by the millions. Anyone under age seven was born by a rebel. They're known as the Outcasts because my dad ordered them dead, too. The only reason they survived was because of me. I begged him to reconsider so he agreed to letting them grow up too, but after that, no exceptions.

Meanwhile, the adults who either agreed with the president or were just too scared by him murdered all of the rebels, orphaning the kids. Eventually, teenagers and children alike turned against the adults. There were fires and bombs as we got hold of weapons: crow bars, guns, anything we could.

Desperate and under my dad's orders, scientists released a poisonous gas that was lethal to anyone under the age of twenty-five (anyone whose brains weren't fully developed), which even killed some of the adults on their side. Most of us were wiped out, but some of us, the strongest and the ones who found cloths or gas masks survived.

The adults fled the United States, but not before raising a wire fence that ran straight through the middle of North America. Nobody knows why it was erected: we just accepted it as if it were the Great Wall of China. Now, it defines us. Everything we do revolves around the Wire Fence and which side we're on.

Being the daughter of the most powerful man in the world and one of the oldest teenage survivors, I was naturally elected leader. My side, the north side of the fence (or the side known as Alcatrone) became the "better" side: the side of higher status and superior figures. The southern side, known as Dyslan, became the distasteful side. That was the side of the Fighters. If the grown ups ever returned, it was the Fighters who would take care of them. Fighters and Dyslanians reported to me and only me. Nobody complained and nobody rebelled for fear of splitting us up even further. If the kids turned against each other, the adults would come back and slaughter us all. So everyone accepted our fate without complaint. That is, until the first patrol since the Great War.