'The others, they never truly understood my reservations about the escape plan. They felt I was exaggerating, that nothing we could ever face could be as bad as going back to the Safe House. It was only because we had a matter of days left before they found us that I eventually gave in.

I guess desperate people do desperate things.

The Safe House was originally set up to house the refugees who survived the nuclear war with the Middle East. A couple acres of underground protection from the radiation above. But it expanded- grew with the generations that lived within it- until it formed the multi-storey cattle yard it is today. The nukes killed off everything on the earth surface and about 30cm under. Those fortunate to be underground when the attacks started, survived.

And so did the imperialism.

Within about 50 years, the safe house had elected a new leader. A leader of the 'New World'. A world where we can start a fresh and build upon with the knowledge of its solid foundations. Except the foundations where ash-ridden, radioactive and infertile.

So they started the 'Traits Scheme' aka: Enforcement of discrimination. From the age of 14, everyone is branded with a particular trait. Farming, Cooking, Cleaning, Entertaining, Fishing. Except that each trait was forbidden to see the others. They said it was to contain the violence levels- which could honestly be a legitimate reason. You see, if there was ever a shortage of anything, everyone would point the finger at the trait responsible. One time the medicine production trait couldn't send out enough cures for the polonium virus, wiped out half of the sewage trait. Disease spread like wild fire after that. Hell, our parents were lucky to survive it.

Me and Luke where branded 'Elites' in the same year. Chuck, Ben, Peter and Millie where a few years before us and Kate a year after. Being a part of the Elite trait was presented to be some kind of a privilege. The royals had been feeding us the whole 'we all play an important part within society' crap for years, but we all learned pretty quick that 'some animals are more equal than others' rang pretty true too.

We are trained guards of the traits. Physically athletic and cunningly bright- how they figured we were to become this capable and the age of 14 is beyond me. I guess that we all grew up pretty quick. We are the only trait that is allowed to see other traits, although direct contact is forbidden. If something went amiss, we were to silently reprehend them. It was cruelly unjust work.

My friends and I spoke at length in the confines of our dormitories about how heartless the system was. It was then that the United States of America was first mentioned. The US had been allied with Britain a couple of centuries ago- before war had broken out. Could it be possible that it still existed? None of us truly believed it could be until the next day. All six of us where separated and 'silently reprehended'.

We had been bugged.

From then on, we became cautious about how we communicated. Over the months that followed, it became clear how much the system where keeping from us. How people would simply disappear in the night. It was if they were trying to forget that there was any possibility that there could be any other life out there. Which we eventually found out to be true.

After that, a plan started to form together. Breaking into offices- production traits. Taking a map or a protective suit. We were going to escape to the US, to find life and support for our crumbling country.

And we did. Ben and Kate managed to set fire to the stair case that connected the different trait levels together. We escaped through a latch wearing as much protective gear as we could, and ran. Millie was shot in the leg and Luke in the shoulder. But we were the trained elites; we were the ones who were meant to be shooting at us. And we are fast. So fast that by the time they had gathered enough people to form a search party, we had already reached the Welsh border.

We all knew how important it was to not stay on ground level, but the threat of the safe house forced us on. We managed to scavenge an old auto-mobile from the basement of what appeared to be the ruins of a manor, and managed to make it to the West shore by the second day. But we were hungry, wounded and incredibly exposed to radiation. Food was scarce, and we had all but given up hope when Luke found an underground freezer. That's when we started to call him Lucky Luke, because honestly, the chances of finding one are like getting hit by lightning twice in the same day.

The underground freezers where kind of a craze. People who wanted to hoard their food for a long time (or lived in fear of some disaster stopping them from reaching a supermarket) built huge freezers underneath their back gardens. They used hydrogen energy which came from a tank within the freezer so it would never lose power. In the beginning, the safe house issued many men to go searching for these freezers to add to the dwindling amount of food. They had pretty much raided every last one.

We managed to cut the water tank and set up a couple of bunks in the shelves. We rationed the food and gave ourselves two weeks. Within the first couple of days, Chuck found a basement- which then became his workshop, which the others decided to share with him whilst I and Luke stayed with the food.

Chuck was building a boat. We all where, but he was the instigator. I was the brain. Back in the Safe House, I had worked with both the fishing and mechanic traits, so I was supposed to know what I was doing. Except I didn't.

The fishermen, their boats where designed to carry them over synthetically still water, not a roaring, uncontrollable ocean. From our maps, we figured that to cross what they called the Atlantic Ocean we would be sailing a couple hundred miles over 3,000. Everyone quickly accepted that this was a long way, but believed we could cross it with the right previsions.

I didn't. I knew there was no way in hell we could make it.

I even told them this many times, but why listen to me? They knew I had had doubts all along. It was a straight path from the West coast of the UK to the East of the US. There used to be an Island next to Wales they used to call Ireland, but it has been long gone. In their eyes, we had a good shot at making it.

The last day of those two weeks was the day we set sail. We packed as much of the food from the freezer as we could into our makeshift boat. There was ample room for us all to fit with all the food already when Chuck managed to attach the propellers to the motor of the automobile and stick it on the back.

The journey started fine, until the storms began. In pairs, we took it in turns to navigate and look out for oncoming danger. The first storm we encountered took Peter. He fell straight in the monstrous water and didn't resurface. Millie tried to jump in after him but we would have lost her too. From then on we wrapped rope around our middles and tied ourselves to the boat.

A little over a month we stayed there, slowly running out of food, water, time. Finally we saw it: land.

When we finally reached it, we were so relieved to be on land and not so cramped together that we didn't notice what lay there.

Ruins. Hundreds of them. Tall buildings, crumbled down, destroyed. A single island nearby with broken green rock, wore a crown. There was no food, no underground storage, nothing.

Ben thought that we should head north where the climate wasn't so extreme, but it was hard work. Once we left the ruined city, we entered thick forests filled with all manner of different creatures who would suddenly attack without notice.

It did, however provide us with a food source.

7 days of trekking with no evidence of life had us desperate. Just as we had settled into camp that night, we heard a copter. But it wasn't a copter, more like a flying disk, which flew straight over our heads. The next day we agreed to head in its general direction, as our last hope of finding civilization.

It led us straight to another ruined area- but this time, there was something different about it. A sort of buzz. One lone ruin stood out in the middle with carvings all along it, so whilst Millie and Katie tried to make sense of it, we set up our camp.

This is, of course where your men found us… Ms Coin.'

"Your story is rather elaborate" the cold eyed woman spoke with sharp, clear tones. "Even by the Capitol's standards"

"Again, I have no idea what you mean by 'the Capitol'" I hiss back.

"Miss Hallow-"

"Harrow"

"Do you take me for a fool, Miss Harrow?"

And then everything went black.