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

As other people on assignments left two by two to go to the Gay Communities around the Midwest, I felt lonely taking my yellow, lumpy envelope by myself. But when Sol turned down yet another plea by Malaki to go with me, I sighed in relief. One thing was for sure, Mal was one of the most enthusiastic members of HEO. If she only had the chance, she could do great things. She just didn’t need to do them with me.


Sol let me out of the tunnel, and I headed off on my motorcycle to Bendon, a normal town fifty miles away. I was surprised when my mission went exactly like the fake one; except this time, I dropped my package to a hand that appeared out of the mail slot of an old warehouse with faded graffiti on the door. I simply handed over the stuff and drove away.


Chapter 31