During the Second Civil War, a new U.S. political party called the Family Protection Movement established The Divide, which separates Normal people from those who are gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgender. Seventeen-year old Serenity Blackwater lives in the normal Midwestern town of Mapleville, but she is not normal. She hacks into an illegal gay chat room and meets Dawn, a lesbian who lives in a gay community less than a mile away. Serenity discovers normal people can bribe their way inside the walls and decides to go, both to meet Dawn and check out what may be her future home. Dawn is even more beautiful than Serenity hoped, and the two soon become a couple. But Serenity only has a few months before she must take the Normal Verification Test, and then she’ll be separated from her family forever. So she joins the Human Equality Organization, an underground group working to end The Divide. Dawn thinks the rebellion is too dangerous, and since Dawn’s ex-girlfriend Malaki is also a member, Serenity doesn’t tell Dawn about her involvement. Serenity reveals to the HEO that her parents are leading a campaign to organize attacks on all Gay Communities. With her help, the HEO creates Project Jericho, in which all Gay Communities walls will implode at once. But after too many delays, and when Dawn discovers Serenity has been spending more time with Malaki than her, Serenity knows she has to start the revolution herself. She heads to D.C. to contact a group of senators secretly against The Divide ... or straight into a trap set by the Family Protection Movement.

Uprising

I felt more and more reckless as the gates grew closer. Maybe I should just banish myself now before anyone else had the chance. I didn’t want to see the pain and horror in my parents’ eyes after I went through The Normal Verification Test. I’d been faking my way through my entire life so far, but no one could fool the government in the end.


If I was going to be banned, I wanted to know what I would be in for.


By the time I reached the massive gates, an afternoon sun blazed overhead. I fought panic with each step. No normal person would dream of doing this. Gay Communities were lawless, immoral, dirty settlements full of freaks who were imprisoned inside for life. I knew I’d see rioting, drunks in the streets, and innocent children being raised as gay converts. But if that was the world I really belonged to, I had to see it.


Chapter 9