Word count: 1622
Hi, my name is Sra’jeana Mistophian. I know, it’s a mouthful. My friends all call me SJ. The year is 2197 and I live in what is now call New Atlanta. The capitol city of what is known as the New Confederacy. Almost 100 years ago, the continent of North America launched what has been come to be called the Civil War of Wars. The then countries of The United States, Canada and Mexico battled each other brutally to gain control over the entire continent. Millions of people died. And after almost 25 years of terror, the continent was desolate and the people that remained broken and poor. No one cared any longer about race, religion or economical status. We all wanted simply to survive.
The decades of war had depleted the monetary caches of each country, one by one the leaders died off, by acts of war or by their own hands. As things became more and more bleak, the new generations of North Americans that were born and raised during the worst times, began to plan a way to end the madness started before they were born. Thus began, the New Confederacy.
Bearing little resemblance to the Confederacy and Old South of times long past, the New Confederacy is centered in the middle of the ruins of North America, around where the state Indiana used to be. The capitol is called New Atlanta and is run by a group of One Race individuals headed up by Marc’us Andrade. As I mentioned before, races no longer exist, as time passed and war raged on Black, White, Hispanic, Asian, Canadian, Mexican - the surviving humans began to see that there truly was little difference, and began to coexist peacefully. Marrying and having children, eventually becoming what we now call, the One Race. There is little difference between skin tone anymore, as we are all tan with dark eyes and hair.
What little money was left after the war has become communal, we all share what we have and barter with what is most valuable. You may think that this sounds strange, but it is what we know.
Back to me. I am 17 years old, born after the end of the war. My mother and father are both One Race. I am average height (as is everyone) around 5’7”. I have thick curly brown hair and golden eyes. On my Mom’s side, my grandmother was of the former African American race and my Grandfather from the area of what used to be called Mexico City. On my Father’s side, my Grandmother what Caucasian or White, of European decent and I believe that my Grandfather was from Vietnam, or as they called them, Asian.
I attend Tara Oaks Preparatory Academy. It seems the founders of our new government seem to have been obsessed with the “Old South” as they read about it ancient books such as “Gone with the Wind” and “The North and the South”.
Out classes include, Ancient North American History, Cooking for Survival after Monstato, How to Barter, Effective Reproduction (Don’t ask) and my favorite, Active Defense Against The Outcasts.
The Outcasts. That is another story all in itself. But I will try to do my best. After the war, when our Government was founded, there were some people who did not agree with the plans and decided to make it on their own. They created compound in the wilderness, far from the cities and fences of the New Confederacy. They live with no money, little clothing, no government and yet, our Government seems threatened by them somehow and is determined to destroy their little compounds. I do not agree. Why do you ask? Well, in comes Salil. A boy. Of course you say, it is always about a boy. Well, in this case as in so many others. It is.
Salil is an Outcast. Not so much by choice, but by birth. As I was born into the New Race and the New Confederacy, Salil was born into the Outcasts. His parents were killed in a raid when he was 2. He does not remember them. I met him working on the fringes of the city when I was volunteering with the group of young women known as the Scarletts.
