Caught On Fire

PROLOGUE

I hadn't been born yet when the war started. I've only seen pictures of it. They show them to us at school. This, they say as we see the photos of dismantled bodies, of starving children, of broken countries. This can never happen again. History can never repeat itself.

We only call it The War, as if all the other wars before this one were erased. A clean slate used to murder innocent people.

Riots against the government. Civil wars. Worldwide.

Every single country fighting against each other. Religions torturing their followers for information.

New weapons were invented from laboratories. It soon became a chemical war­. A nuclear war.

After nine years of fighting, a new reign rised up from the ashes. What we now call The Government made promises of a better future. One without wars. One without famine, or sickness. One where everyone could be happy.

Now, this is what they don't teach you in school: The Government erased everything that made us unique. Religion, gone. Music, obliverated. Clothes, burned.

Mouths, shut.

Anyone who didn't agree with The Government and their rules were properly (murdered) disposed of.

The years passed, and everybody was the same. Same gray clothes, same quiet mindset, same controlled humans.

Or, at least, that's what The Government thought.

When the guards weren't looking, people would be normal in secret. They'd do bonfires and play music and laugh loudly and say their opinions.

Until a new era of chaos began.

The new weapons that were created during The War released a type of chemical that with time could have various side effects. The side effects were terrifying.

The chemicals were heavy enough to drop into the earth, seeping into it, killing our crops, poisoning our animals.

Reprocussions.

Heavily processed food was now consumed. It underwent a series of dechemicalizing steps that took away all the nutrients, so they had to be artificially added. The food made people sick.

Even worse, the children that had been born less than 20 years ago were beginning to experience the side effects of the The War.

What was later called The Big Awakening began. At first, it was a couple of people, but then the number grew. People with abilities were beginning to surface.

They were called Differents.

Differents were divided into two groups: Yellows and Reds.

Yellows were the weaker ones, the less threatening ones. Growing small fangs. A small level of shapeshifting ability, enough to change the color of your eyes. Stuff like that.

Then there were the Reds. Dangerous. Intimidating. Deadly. Growing wings the size of large surfboards on your back. Being able to freeze 100 men to death. Moving 750 pound things with only your mind.

Or, like me, being able to shoot fire out of your skin, then have that skin heal in a matter of milliseconds, and doing this while floating like a balloon.

Individual Awakening for a Different usually happens when a person is about 15-17 years old. My Awakening happened when I was eight.

I still remember the excruciating pain of feeling the skin melting off my bones. I remember the panic I felt when I realized I was already halfway to the ceiling. I remember screaming for my mother.

She told me to keep quiet. To never tell anyone. They could hurt me.

What The Government never tells you when you Awaken Red: They reserve the right to kill you.