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

“Dawn!” I scream, my throat burning. “No, please, we’ll find a way out of this! Don’t kill yourself!”


Blood gushes as she cuts right over her Mark. I cover my mouth as she digs into the wound, roaring like an animal. Sobs hiccup from my throat.


She tears something out of her arm, squeezes it until it beeps, and shoves it into a crack in the wall across from the door.


“Get down, Serenity!” she shouts, her eyes suddenly sane.


I slide down the wall as she grabs the canvas from my cot and throws herself on top of me, the canvas over our heads.


Completely overwhelmed, I clutch her shirt and bury my face in her chest as one of her arms encircles my head.


Then I hear a deafening boom, and rocks and dust explode around us. Dawn stays over me for a few seconds more, both of us coughing and choking. Soon she jumps up, dragging me with her, the dusty canvas still over her shoulders.


Chapter 55