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 shoved the envelope beside my backpack in the storage compartment, and clipped my tablet to my belt. As a burst of orange sunlight rose over the nearby housetops, I jumped onto my bike and raced away, music blaring in my ears.


After two days of laborious travel, I reached DC. At the beginning the trip was exhilarating, but soon loneliness set in. I spent the first day riding until I thought I would drop, and slept a few short hours in a hotel, paying cash so I couldn’t be tracked. The next night I rode again until I was on the verge of collapse and got another room, but slept longer, wanting to be well-rested for whatever came my way.


At nine-thirty P.M. I cruised down a busy DC street, watching my GPS. Rain drizzled and thunder boomed. There was much more traffic here than in Mapleville or Community 17.


Chapter 52