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

“All right, get on behind me,” I said. The events of the past week flooded my mind and overwhelmed me. I tried to block everything out.


I cruised with my headlight on, engine low. As I wheeled the bike up the stairs at the other side, Malaki jumped ahead to enter the code in the door.


We walked into dark forest with tree limbs waving in a breeze, and a sliver of moon overhead.


Malaki’s eyes were wide, and it looked like she was shaking.


I couldn’t help but grin as I grabbed the helmets. “We’re on the outside, now. Let’s go.”


I drove through the forest the same way I had the tunnel, slowly and carefully, the engine barely making a sound. Malaki gripped my shoulders as we jounced over bumps and sticks. In a few minutes we reached the road. I felt an ache in my heart. Everything was going just as I had always imagined, except Dawn was supposed to be with me, not her.


Chapter 42