The Rift

Chapter One

Sweat beaded up on the back of Dominic's neck even though the air was not very hot and there was a slight breeze. It was a cold sweat. The sweat that comes from being nervous. Dominic was fourteen years old, and about five foot five. He was built like an athlete but he had never taken an interest in sports. He had brown hair and hard but friendly dark brown eyes. Dominic felt the warm Oregon summer breeze blow over him as he trudged up a hill toward the building that held his worst memory. He walked up the sidewalk on a neatly paved street surrounded by the chrome and glass of the ultra modern downtown Portland. Recently Western buildings had been replaced by these new styles. Dominic did not understand the new craze for chrome and glass. It had been a thing a long time ago and now it was back.

People zipped down the street in their cars. He marveled at the incredible design of the new more popular models with sleek bodies, shiny paint, and most importantly no gas. The cars were electric with the electricity coming from a zero emission source. Whenever the cars needed power, they would stop at a power station. The power stations were equipped with highly efficient solar panels. The cars would stop at the station and in thirty seconds the cars were charged by a wireless charging system. One charge would last a car about a week. No one here in the West would ever use a gas powered car. They were illegal and for a good reason. If the East kept on using gas and coal, the world would become over polluted. Maybe gas and coal were more effective than solar, hydro or wind power, but it was not worth killing the earth to use them.

That is why there was a war. A war between the hi-tech East(the League) and the West(the Legion). The war was often called The Rift due to how it had torn apart the country.

While the East used coal for electricity and gas, the West used only solar, hydro and wind power. Both groups wanted the same style of government, a representative democracy, and they agreed on most of the laws they would have. Both groups wanted a government like the one the United States of America had before The Rift except for one major difference. The East wanted to get rid of animals, and the West wanted to keep animals, work with them and stop using energy sources that could hurt the environment. The cars driving past Dominic were the only technological vehicles in the West. Anything that needed more power would have to be powered by gas. The animals were used only by the Legion. Now that there was a war, there were only enough animals for war purposes. Before the war, you could see people riding around town on great wolves, or soaring above the city on griffins. Sometimes you could even see a wyvern soar by with some one on its back. Now, the only time you would ever see an animal was if a Legion member was in the city. The war had taken all the animals except the falcons. The falcons still work with the Legion, but they could be seen all over. They were the spies of the Legion, so they were normally set to fly free until seeing something significant to the war. If they did, they flew to the nearest member of the Falcon Unit and reported their information using a language of simple sounds and gestures .

The Rift had taken a lot from the west. Many kids complained about the lack of animals, or talked about a parent who was off fighting. But The Rift had taken a lot more from Dominic. His mom had been in the war just like many other kids parents, but unlike them, his mom was not coming back.

A few months ago Dominic and his father had been called to their city's army base. It was nowhere near the fighting, so it was used for meetings and councils of war. Dominic and his father had driven to the same building as he was on his way to now. Inside, stood a grim faced soldier from the Wyvern Unit. As soon as Dominic looked at the man, he was able to tell something was wrong. Five minutes later he left, too devastated even to cry. He kept repeating the words of the soldier in his head. "Angeline died a hero. She will be remembered forever." Dominic had taken the news in silence. His mother had meant everything to him. Whenever she was able to come home from the war for a while, she would spend lots of time with him. She had been in the army since Dominic was two years old. That was nine years after the war started. He was now fourteen. The memorable experiences he shared with his mom passed through his head while he slowly walked back to the car. He expected himself to breakdown and cry any minute, but all of his emotions stayed welled up inside him. Dominic's dad did not take the news so well. As soon as he left the war building, he had broken down crying. When they arrived back at home, Dominic rushed straight to his room and sat on his bed, silently mourning his mom's death with tears running freely down his face. He could hear his dad sobbing downstairs. Dominic's dad Jason had been a soldier once too. One time he had been in a battle that had turned out to be a trap. All of his friends and allies were slaughtered, by an unexpected amount of enemies. They had all been shot down, except for Jason. He had been hit in the head by a chunk of flying debris from a crashing jet. He had been knocked out and mistaken for dead as the bodies of his friends piled up around him. Hours later he had woken up to the awful view. The enemy was gone but the bodies were not. He had walked five miles to the nearest town where he was picked up and brought home. He had left the Legion. That had been a year ago, and from then on Jason had been changed. He had suffered depression problems and had to take medications. His wife's death had been too much.