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

“When do you need me to go?” I asked.


Sol clasped his hands together. “How about tonight?”


I bit my lip. Dawn was expecting me in twenty minutes. I let out a breath. “Okay. Can you let me back inside the wall when I’m finished?”


“Sure. In fact, that would be best so I can make sure everything went according to plan.”


I took out my tablet right there and texted Dawn, saying there was a delay with the imaginary guard she thought I’d made a deal with. Then I joined a cluster of people who were headed out to missions at the front of the room. Sol handed out a lumpy, stapled manila envelope to each two-person group; I was the only one going somewhere alone.


“Don’t open this, Serenity,” he said. “It’s confidential.”


Chapter 27