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 I lie on my cot, bruised, smelly, and wondering why my daily torture hasn’t begun yet, the door to my cell opens. A dim light filters in and I squint.


“This way.” His voice is as bland as ever.


I stand and walk in front of him unbound. Any attempt to struggle or run just gives him an excuse to execute me, but I’ve done well at controlling myself. I drag my scruffy bare feet, passing rows of closed doors. I wonder how many other people are locked inside; maybe Dawn’s uncle, or Malaki’s mom.


We enter the same weapons-laden room as usual.


“Please tell me about the information you delivered for Human Equality Organization,” he says, as if we haven’t already been through this a million times.


I clear my throat. “I don’t know anything about it. They just used me to deliver information. I never looked inside the envelopes.”


“Tell me where the HEO headquarters is for Gay Community 17.”


Chapter 53