It started about 150 years ago, in 2117 The government collapsed under the pressure of the citizens of our country. Everything went insane. Wars started between states, people starved, stores were abandoned and cleaned out by hungry citizens. Every adult man who could walk was enlisted as a warrior. Each state went against it's neighboring states. Alaska and Hawaii came to help, but ninety percent of their citizens weren't prepared enough, and were killed. Women and children hid as best as they could, but someone would always find them. It was almost inevitable that if you weren't a trained warrior, your death was on the way. The last living person who had been through that, Victor Townsend, died two weeks ago, along with most of the knowledge that we had of the life that the citizens lived.
For the most part, the wars ended about 100 years ago. They lasted almost 50 years. Almost everyone died; at least we think so. Ten years ago, we gathered as many survivors as possible. The people who still hated the other states were willing to stay with their two or three friends and wait for starvation to take their lives. Others still hate the other states, but they're too weak and want some of the little food that we have. Our guards keep them under close watch, in case they decide they're strong enough to make a move.
I'm blessed, compared to most. I live in the less destroyed part of our town. It's still garbage, and debris-filled, but it's nicer than most have. I live alone. I have a family, somewhere. I'm pretty sure that the Federation has them. They have most of us. We aren't allowed to have kids either, because we don't enough food to feed the survivors as it is. The youngest kids you will ever see here are ten. That's when they made the law. Some people hide their young kids, because if the Federation finds them they will kill them.
I don't live alone because the Federation has my family, though. Teenagers are forced to move out. We train three days a week, go to school three days, and have recreation time on Sundays, but there's not much to do. Most of us just sit around, because we're not really supposed to be outside of our homes for more than, like, five minutes, aside from training and school.
When you're 17, the Federation comes for you. It's impossible to know when, but they come, tell you that it's time, you obediently hold your arm out, and they stick a tracker, it looks kind of like gold mesh and wires, on the inside of your wrist with a tracking device inside it. Then, you have up to two weeks to get ready to leave; they come, and take you to The Compound, and, from then on, you are in slavery. They decide what to do with you. Maybe they make you clean, or cook, or fight, or search for things, it all depends on your strengths and weaknesses. I'll probably be a warrior. Piper will probably be a doctor or a nurse. She seems like the type.
Piper is my only "family". She lost hers to the Federation, too, and we kinda just stuck together. She lives down the road from me. The houses are all attached, like the town homes that they used to have around the turn of the millennium. Small houses that are all neat, and in a row, lining the streets.
Tomorrow, she and I turn 17. I know the Federation will be here soon. I hate to leave my house, afraid that they'll show up at my door, and kill me because I'm not home, but it gets so boring, sitting alone in my house. I sneak down the street to Piper's; I don't stay too long, just long enough to cure my loneliness.
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