World War 3: The Beginning [A trilogy]

1. The Test: Stage One

I awoke to the sun shining brightly and a perfectly blue sky. Everything felt normal.

But it's not.

I'm being trained for war against men, a brutal war we women have to face to stay alive.

"Haley! You're going to be late for training!" My mother-figure, Fiona, shouts from downstairs.

"Almost ready, Fiona!" I shout back.

I walk over to my plain white vanity and pick up my plain white brush. The only color in my room is my flaming-red hair. I run the brush through my hair, pull on our occasional white t-shirt, jeans, and Vans, grab my white bag with my training gun and other essential training equipment, throw my bow and quiver over my shoulder, and walk out my room.

Fiona could have a great life, in another lifetime. She was pretty, with her straight, layered blonde hair and beautiful face. She never wore makeup, she never needed to. Anything she wore, she looked good in. When she turned around and saw me, her face scrunched up.

"You're supposed to do something with your hair. Everybody else has white-blonde hair but you," Fiona says.

She's right. I'm the only girl that has hair that isn't a blondish color. Something must have gone wrong in the labs when they made me.

Everyone here is made in labs, since the men and women are in war against each other. Female scientists have figured out how do develop a baby in a serum, then send it off to a woman that is thirty or older to care for once it's a year old.

We also have dress codes. Everyone has the same exact pair of clothes, a white t-shirt, white jeans, and white Vans, all sizes seven and a half, once we're sixteen. Our hair must be braided and tied off with a white hair-tie, too.

"Here's your breakfast sandwich," Fiona says, handing me a delicious sausage-and-egg sandwich.

"Thanks, Fiona," I say, taking a large bite out of the sandwich.

"Now, get going or you are going to be late!" She shrieks. I point to my hair.

"Oh yes," She says, grabbing a white hair-tie and braiding my hair until it's smooth, so that I won't be late because I have to do it.

"Now go! Do great!" Fiona tells me as I wave back at her and jog to training.

• • •

"Giovani, Haley!" My instructor shouts, and I walk forward.

"You will be turning eighteen tomorrow, correct?" She asks sharply, not a hint of kindness in her eyes.

"Yes, ma'am," I say, standing stiff as a board and looking her in the eye.

"Your mother-figure, Fiona, will send you off to war tomorrow afternoon at eighteen o' clock, correct?"

"Yes, ma'am."

"Let's see what you've got," She says, walking away. I follow her to the target room.

"I assume you brought your bow," She says.

"Yes," Nervous energy fills me. If I don't pass this test, I'll be sent to the lab to be re-created. I'll have to start from scratch, and I won't remember a thing.

"Get it out. There are eighteen targets. You need to hit more than nine in the center to pass. If you hit one less, you fail this section. Go," she says, and goes to the other end of the room, so that I won't feel as pressured and be able to do my best.

I pull an arrow out of my quiver and get ready to shoot. I pull back the string, preparing myself. I tilt my head slightly to the side, aiming. Then I release. The arrow hits the perfect center.

Somebody behind me grunts. I turn around and notice a buff-looking woman holding a clipboard.

Oh that helps. I'm being watched. Wonderful.

I walk to the second target. Again I nock an arrow. Again I pull back the string. Again I aim. Again I release. Although this time the arrow hits the ring around the center. The woman behind me snorts. I take a deep breath.

The third target went much better. The arrow found the middle, as did the rest of them, except for the seventeenth.

"Very well," My instructor says. "To round two,"

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So, anybody that's reading this, what do you think of the first chapter?

BOOKS IN THIS TRILOGY:

World War 3: The Beginning
Started: March 19, 2016
Ended: TBD
World War 3: The Aftermath
Started: TBD
Ended: TBD
World War 3: How it Started/Recovery
Started: TBD
Ended: TBD

~Sami