The Faction Games

by M. E. Lukiam

What if WWIII really happened? What if the world as we know it changed forever. In 2016 some survivors from the war emerge from underground to find that they must choose a faction. Each year 2 people from each faction must enter The Faction Games. The winner earns enough food, supplies and water to last an entire year until the next games. Choose your faction wisely.

The Faction Games

Chapter 1

World War III started years ago. Unfortunately, nobody really knew it. Life kept progressing. I was 15 when the planes took down the World Trade Center. My parents picked me up from school early because they didn't know what was going to happen next. Talk about being completely embarrassed when your mom shows up in Geometry with the fuzzy, pink slippers we bought her for Mother's Day 3 years earlier. I didn't speak to her all the way home. When we got home, we spent the rest of the day watching t.v. I didn't think I would ever get those images of planes, smoking buildings and panicked faces out of my mind.

Well, twelve years later I did. They were replaced by the falling bombs outside my classroom window. I taught near Ginna Nuclear Power Plant. It was an obvious target. We practiced relocation drills before but never thought we would actually have to go through one for real. I spent the next 24 hours trying to reassure my 6 and 7 year olds that their moms and dads would be their soon. I dispersed the iodine pills and juice on the bus on our way to a nearby high school. Because I was young enough, I took one of the pills too. It was supposed to keep the radiation out of my thyroid. I think it did more than that.

Everything happened 3 years ago. That's how long we've been underground. Our food was only supposed to last that long. I am more than ready to leave. No one knew the government had been preparing for this kind of disaster since 9/11. That's why I think WWIII started then. The government didn't want to worry us. But it obviously knew more than us. Only certain people were allowed to go into the underground bunkers they created. Because I was a teacher, I was one of them. Neither of my brothers made it in because their occupations were seen as insignificant.

I hope I can find them when we get out tomorrow. No one knows what it is like on top since the bombings. I don't know if anyone will even be alive. I saw many people die who didn't get the iodine pills. I spent my time underground teaching the kids to read and write the best I could. They did plan for this and there were many materials to teach with. It just wasn't the same being underground. Twelve more hours until I see the sun again.