SPLIT

Prologue

Freedom .

Something you don't hear a lot around here anymore.

It's become one of those words everyone has forgotten the meaning of like , quintessential or perfunctory. An empty , meaningless word being added into our daily conversation over coffee without even noticing it. Atleast , it was in the stories my great grandmother told me.

Optimistic words like freedom , hope or future have been replaced with captivity, regret and death. I used to think that you were born, then you live, and you live until you die. That wasn't the case around here. Around here , we called it a Tuesday. We call it that small piece of relief you feel for a split second when you wake up and know Monday is behind you for the next 6 days. Around here , the rules are different. You don't play the game. You are the game.

If you want a real kick out of your current situation try this on for size. Imagine the most beautiful place you've ever seen ; mountains , trees , add a few beaches, some luxurious plant and wild life , feel the wind nipping on your bare shoulders on a hot summer day as the sun barrels down on your soft skin, taking in that sweet smell of honey and fresh doughnuts as your toes tickle the hot summer sand...

...and then add a nuclear explosion, hundreds of innocent lives and did I mention a giant wall between New Mexico and LA?

Yeah . That's what the last 130 years here has been like. They told us the stories being passed down through generations that we were once a part of the great country they called America . So when an experiment in a testing facility went in the opposite direction, it meant the end of the existence to anyone living East of LA. When the explosion ONLY hit on our side , the people on the North decided it would be in their best interest to cut all ties with us, and so the wall was built separating Norview from Faylea.

No one has known how the other half lived for the last 100 years. Those who were luckily enough to have survived the explosion then and multiply, already missed their chance to get to the other side by the time they got to what used to be called New Mexico, the land of enchantment. Now we all fell under one doomed state being called Norview, the place of lost hope. So the newer generation - that's us- haven't asked any questions or even bothered to care since we grew up with this as being 'normal' anyway . They've been trying to restore this place of dirt and rubble to it's former glory but if they haven't managed to do it within the last 90 years , what chance did we have ?

Sometimes I wondered if their stories were infact true or just made up to ease their dying minds. I couldn't imagine this place to be anything but horrendous . The air always had a thick oil underlying tone , reeking of what I can only imagine pollution and destruction would smell like. It lied heavy on our lungs at night and made it hard to breathe during the day. But I guess it's the price you pay when factories were your only source of survival and possible reinvention.

It gets hard being here sometimes... Being alive in this place. So when you find this , please don't blame it on the high.

That's my prologue! I hope you enjoyed it . It's different than my usual work but with being quarantined and all I've decided to try something new. This it. Hope to see you in the first official chapter too. Until next time keep howling my wolves ❤🐺