Note to reader:
Thanks so much for reading, but please bear in mind this is my first chapter an first ever fanfic :P thanks a lot xoxo
Chapter 1
I can't sleep. I wonder how late it is… late, that's for sure. Sighing, I roll over. I've been having the dreams again; the ones where I hear voices but never see the faces. The voices are soft and kind and make me want to kiss the lips that speak them. But I've never seen the lips - or the eyes or the nose, and that's what's so infuriating. Knowing it's no use trying to get to sleep; I get up and walk over to the MassageChair. I sit down and whisper some orders to it, not wanting to wake Russell. The soft rhythmic purr of the chair begins and the probes move over my temples, massaging the worry and stress away. I'm Alice Smith and I'm a Dirty.
It all started over 100 years ago. The Specials created an airborne virus to kill of the whole world and start again. Things weren't going to plan you see. However, things were about to get much worse as a miscalculation caused the virus to impregnate thousands off Bubblehead, Ugly and even Special women. The spawn was strangely demented but no one could do anything to stop the onslaught of babies, they seemed indestructible in the womb. The virus caused them to come into the earth with unusual and unheard of abilities, eventually however The Specials created an anti-virus which killed off these humans and everyone else allowing them to continue with the original plans. One baby though, Tally Youngblood's baby, survived. Raised in the wild by generations of Smokies in secret she had no real parents since her mother was programmed to forget her old life – forget catching the virus, forget giving birth to this child…
Eventually she grew and had children of her own. They were infected with the virus just as she had been and each developed a different symptom. Out of the four children she had (the first time the disease impregnated her, the other three children were David's) none inherited the power to control the elements, which was her ailment from the virus. They too grew and had children, but as they the population of virus-infected people increased, they were forced underground and into darkness. The Dirties. Each with their own mark from the virus, some more useful than others.
So I am Alice Smith and as my boyfriend Russell lies in bed in front of me I consider what and who I am. Tally Youngblood, revolutionary rebel's descendant, yet forced to live in an underground prison. I'm not accepted above ground, but I'm not even accepted down here, amongst the Dirties because I have no power, useful or otherwise. How can this be? No one knows, but that's the way it is. I'm fifteen, 16 in ten weeks and that means marriage. I'm truly happy to be marrying Russell, but something feels wrong, something about this whole situation. The dreams, the voices, the fact that I'm powerless. All are connected somehow – I know they are, but I can't figure out how... well for tonight I think the best thing for me is some sleep…