Okay so I have decided to rewrite this story. I was not happy with the prologue so I decided to combine the Prologue and first chapter with some changes.

Sorry for taking so long to update.

I blame being a Pre-Med major and having a full-time job xD

-J

Chapter 1

Fourteen Years. It's been Fourteen Years since the world went dark. Fourteen years since we were thrust back in time and forced to live our lives just like our ancestors had done way before our time. Fourteen years since we learned just how dependent we are on electricity and the power that went along with it. Because on January 17, 2005 all of it banished into thin air like someone in the universe just snapped their fingers.

Planes fell from the skies and cars came to a halt; submarines sunk to the bottom of oceans, caskets to all those inside. Satellites fell from space and the sewers all backed up into lakes and ravines causing contamination. Electronic pumps that cooled down the control rods just shut off causing many nuclear plants around the globe to spill radioactive material into its surrounding areas. And it all happened in about ten seconds.

The smart ones made it out of the larger cities before the riots and killing sprees broke out. Those who decided to stay behind were subject to looters and either starved to death or were murdered. At first they would bury the bodies or burn them but after a few weeks the bodies just laid in the streets for everyone to see. Kindness and charity went out the window. It was everyone for themselves; survival of the fittest.

In the beginning rumors spread that troops were going to come with food and supplies; everyone would be okay. Yet, after days and weeks, months everyone knew the truth. The government was not going to protect them. Our nation fell, as did most around the globe; they abandoned all the survivors to fend for themselves.

Within a year Militias rose up and what had one been the eastern half of Canada all the way down to twenty miles before Georgia was now the Sanders Republic. The Republic was lead by a monster by the name of Nicholas Sanders. A heartless bastard who killed countless innocent people and never thought twice about it. Rumors say that when the Republic first started that he was a kind man; a merciful man, but after the death of his daughter at the hands of the Rebels he was never the same.

The rebels were made up of individuals spread throughout the Republic that despised Sanders and wanted America back. They hid flags in order to identify with each other and speraticly caused trouble for the militias. They blew up their campsites and stole weapons whenever they could. They even took out some important lieutenants but the truth was that even though the Rebels had the willpower they were heavily outnumbered.

General Sanders had control of most of the weapons and ammo in the republic. The rebels had Civil War muskets and the Militia had access to machine guns and AK47's. It was like fighting a giant with a slingshot, nearly impossible; nearly.

Anyone caught by Militia who possessed an American flag were killed on the spot, no questions asked. It had even gotten to the point that even if you were suspected to having ties to the Patriots you were killed. Countless innocent men, woman, and children were killed each and every day. The republic was a corrupt and dangerous place but so was the rest of the world.

With no electricity in the entire world everyone was thrust back into eighteenth century living. People made up small communities with school houses for children, livestock for staying alive, herbal doctors, and their own mini armies. Every year they paid taxes to the Republic just the thirteen colonies did back in the 1770's. The only difference was that the technology to make life easier and fairer was sitting around them, they just didn't have the power to use them.

Emily Fields is one of many who were just children when everything went Dark; merely six years old at the time.

Emily remembered that day like it was just yesterday.

But that was a long time ago. Emily had now grown into an overly mature twenty year old with an agenda.

She had one goal and one goal alone and that was to kill General Sanders of the Sanders Republic.

If she succeeded she would go down in history and be remembered as a hero because there was no way she would survive; and if she failed, she would suffer a fate much worse than death itself.

But Emily wouldn't accept that fate. After all, this was the man responsible for the murder of her parents.

Present Day...

(Emily)

Today was the day. Looking around the small settlement it still amazed me how far we had come. Just eight months ago we had been on the run from Militia; our numbers cut almost in half. Some how we had managed to come across a giant mountain and after a three day grueling hike we found a dried up ravine.

An old rotted sign was the only indication of where we were: North Dakota. This was one of the only territories still unclaimed from either The Republic or California due to the deadly conditions of the mountain. Nevertheless I had never felt so happy. We set up our rickety tents and sleeping bags on the ground of our new home.

In the months following we scavenged abandoned homes and were able to build the small colony that it was today. We had food, a never ending supply of clean water from an underwater spring, and most importantly for the first time in a while we were safe.

"You know you don't have to go." a familiar voice stated from behind me.

Ella.

She had become like a mother to me after my parents were killed. She had took me in and cared for me; even set me straight during the times when I never thought I could go another day. She was one of the kindest people I had ever met. I was thankful for her everyday.

"We both know that isn't true." I replied simply still loading up my backpack with supplies.

Food. Water. Wire. Extra throwing knives. A map. A stick of C4. And an extra shirt, pants, and socks.

It wasn't much but I would survive with it. I would kill Sanders with it.

"You could just stay here. We are safe here." Ella was pleading now. "Your parents asked me to keep you safe. What happens if they get you before you get to Phili?" Like I haven't already contemplated that theory.

I knew that I was on a one woman suicide mission. The odds of me coming back at all were slim to none, more in favor of none, but this was something I needed to do.

"We both know that that isn't true. I have to do this for Mom and Dad. They would understand. I am going to get them the Revenge that they deserved." I stated simply.

We had talked about this. Multiple times but deep down I knew that she meant well. She just wanted to keep me safe like my parents had done the day that they died but I couldn't just sit and wait.

Sure we had found a location was seemingly impenetrable but there was always a chance that one day we would wake up to the Militia raiding our small town. I had to take action to make sure that these people were safe. My parents had always taught me to protect those close to me and fight for what is right.

"Em look at me. " Ella pleaded as I tied up my back tight.

Slinging the light bag over my shoulders I turned around and faced the woman in front of me.
Ella looked very young for her age. She was in her mid forties but her features were soft and vibrant. She easily looked ten years younger than she actually was.

She had lost her husband to the Militia. They had been estranged but his death was still a somber event for her. She had been left to raise her two children by herself: Aria my best friend who was 18 at the time and her younger brother Mike who was 15. Mike had taken his father's death the hardest. He had lost the man that he had looked up to his entire life in a matter of twenty minutes; along-side my parents. Aria on the other hand had never been close with her father. She had been sad but she had come to accept the fact that her father wasn't coming back.

"Can you promise me one thing?" Ella asked snapping me out of my day dream. I nodded for her to continue. "Promise me...", she took my hands in hers and continued, " that if this all gets to be too much and you know that killing him will be impossible that you turn around and come home."
"I promise." I said with a small smile. I didn't want her to worry so much about me because it would be that much harder if my mission went wrong. The least I could do was give her a little bit of hope.

"But Emily." her expression had shifted from that of concern to pure sternness. "If you get close and you have that opportunity; I want you to kill that low life son of a bitch. For every family he has ever destroyed."

I shook my head determined. A lot of people probably would think I was insane, not for going the most dangerous man on the northern continent, for killing another human being in general. But I didn't consider General Sanders a human being. He was a monster. A heartless being who got off on seeing other people suffer. How could anyone not want to kill him?

When I finally reached the heart of the forest just beyond the North Dakota mountains it was already Dusk. The sky was splashed with intense orange and pink hues. Looking back towards where my used to be home was you couldn't tell that there were about 100 people living just beyond the peak.

"Well time to find a campsite" I muttered out loud to myself.

The trip to Phili was going to take me about a month and a half, possibly two, but it would be worth it. At first I had thought about bringing Aria along with me but I couldn't do that to Ella. Something happening to me was one thing but the possibility of her only daughter being killed because she was trying to help me tore me apart. While there was no doubt in my mind that Aria would be able to protect herself and be great backup I just couldn't risk it.

Walking away from the mountain I started to hear the rushing of water and knew that I was getting closer to the River and figured that was as good a place as any to settle down for the night.

I set up camp a hundred feet from the river and began the process of starting a fire. The night was unusually cold and I didn't want to start of my journey by catching a stupid cold.

The crackling of the fire made my thoughts wander and of course they settled on the one thing that I usually thought about during the night. My parents.

The day that my parents died was the first day that I ever killed someone. It was the day that a little peace of me died. When I held that knife in his chest and watch the life fade from his eyes; I changed. A piece of me turned dark, angry. That was the day that I gave up and just stopped fighting. For weeks I wanted to just die. I stopped caring about anything. I I rarely ate didn't even bother to hide. The thought of the militia men catching me did not bring me fear. If I was caught;killed, then I could be with my mother and father again. I would be happy.

But one day hit me. My parents died to save me. How was sitting and waiting to die going to avenge their death. Letting myself get caught would be a slap in the face to them and I loved them more than anything in the world. So that was the day that I decided the best way to avenge my parents was to kill the man responsible for their deaths I was going to kill President McCullers if it was the last thing I ever did.

That was over a year ago. Now, I take it day to day I've been studying the General / President for months there's probably no one who knows him better than I do. With the help of the Rebels we've managed to take out some of my their best men; however, its come with a huge price. Hundreds of Rebels have perished mostly because we just aren't so experienced.

When I was young my father taught me how to defend myself quite well. He was an army man; Special Ops. He could kill people and no one would ever know. He was one of "America's" top secret weapons. My father took down some really dangerous men. Yet, he went by the code: "no woman and children". He refused to kill families, it just wasn't right and I admired him for that.

A year before he was murdered he began teaching me everything that he knew. He taught me how to hunt and survive. It amazed me just how much he knew about killing and yet somehow managed to not let it all mess with his mind.

I was a quick study. Within 10 months I could take almost anyone in a fight, except for my father that is. I always looked forward to the day that I would be as good as him. I guess I never will.

A silent tear slid down my cheek. Thinking about my parents always brought me a solemn feeling. I tried not to think about that much, as cold-hearted as that sounds, I needed to stay level headed. I couldn't let grief consume me or I would never be able to accomplish what I needed to.

All of a sudden a rustling in the trees caught my attention. Quickly I grabbed a handful of extinguisher pellets out of my pocket and threw them onto the fire turning everything dark and sunk into the shadows, pocket knife in hand.

My heart pounded hard in my chest as I began to hear the footsteps. They were barely audible but I knew they were getting closer. And closer. And then they stopped. Inching forward I peeked out around the tree but there was nothing nothing but darkness.

Before I could register what was going on I was slammed against a tree,the wind knocked right out of me. I could feel a cold blade against my throat. I prepared myself to have my throat slit by a Militia soldier at any second. But when I opened my eyes to catch a glimpse of my killer I saw a familiar tiny brunette with a triumphant smile on her face.

"Aria!", I called out angrily pushing her off to me.

She was out of her mind

"What are you doing here?", I asked furious,"Your mother is going to kill me! You have to go back to the settlement."

I was going to go crazy. Ella was probably worried sick. She was crazy to run away from the safety of our makeshift home.

Aria raised her hands in the air defensively.

"Calm down" she said simply adding to my aggravation.

"Calm down?!" I asked about to explode.

This girl was going to be the death of me.

"Before you have an aneurism just hear me out." I let out a breath I didn't know I had been holding and put my hands on my hips. Aria continued. "Good. Now before you can go on an endless rant about how mom is gonna kill us both I would like you to know that this was her idea."

Ella planned this?

"What are you talking about." I asked curiously.

Aria rolled her eyes. She could be very condescending sometimes.

"Mom didn't want you going after Sanders alone and honestly she knew that I would go after you either way. So she told me that I should go after you and watch your back." She informed me, "And it's a good thing I showed up. Less than a day out in the wilderness by yourself and you have lost your touch. What if I had been Militia?"

I rolled my eyes but knew that she was right. Aria was a great fighter, amazing even but she wasn't as good as I was. How didn't I get the upper hand? Maybe I was nervous after all. I don't know. These day I tended to jump ahead of myself and go straight into thinking about killing Sanders instead of taking into account the dozens of obstacles I would have to go through to get to him.

"You aren't going with me." I stated matter-of-factly.

Nope.

"You don't really have a say Em."

Over my dead body!

"Like hell I don't. I have all the say in the world!"

This just wasn't happening.

"I'm being and that is final. I will be accompanying you halfway and then I will get out of your hair. I'm meeting up with some of the Rebels in Chicago. They've got a lot of new recruits that are in need of some Montgomery-Fields training."

I let out a sigh knowing that Aria was never going to listen to me.

"Fine." I said through my gritted teeth, "And for your information I am not losing it. I could kick your ass any day."

Aria laughed until I glared at her. She tried to act serious for a few seconds but only ended up cracking up again.

This was going to be a long trip.

(Paige)

(Okay guys so I have been thinking a lot and I am going to be switching my P.O.V from first person to third) (Much easier for me)

Paige's heart pounded in her chest as she listened to the horse led carriage passing by the ditch that she was hiding in. Normally she had been much more careful and observant so that she would never have to experience a close encounter like the one she was currently in. Yet, she had lost a lot of time the day before after deciding to spend a good portion of her day in Omaha.

It had been over three years since she had left the Republic. If she was caught now it would have all been for nothing. Nicholas Sanders would make an example out of her to the whole Republic.

She could hear the sound of footsteps and knew just what type of cargo the carriage was carrying. Prisoners were being transported. The thought of young children being shackled up alongside their parents made Paige cringe.

Curiosity getting the best of her she decided to try and peak her head out above the ditch after she was sure that the carriage had already passed her by but was not out of view. Once she pulled herself up her hand slipped on a patch of mud and slid back down snapping a few branches.

"Shit" she cursed to herself in a low voice.

Just the a voice filled the air. "HALT" a Militia soldier yelled.

"Crap. Crap. Crap." she whispered as she pulled the handgun she had purchased from Omaha out of her belt and readied herself.

There was no way that she was going to be taken in. Not after she had traveled so far and planned for so long.

She listened as a pair of footsteps began to approach the ditch where Paige was hiding. She held the handle of the gun tighter as they began to get closer and closer. Just as they were right about her a strange whistling sound filled the tree tops. The soldiers stopped in their tracks. Paige looked around for the source of the noise.

Just then a shot rang out. One of the soldier staggered back and tripped over a large tree root and fell in front of Paige. She pointed her gun at the soldier but he was already dead. He had been shot straight through the heart.

"Rebels!" a Militia soldier yelled.

"Rebels?" Paige questioned to herself.

Paige had heard of the infamous Rebels but had never witnessed them for herself. Why would they be here? Then it dawned on her. The prisoners.

More shots began to ring out. Paige made the quick decision to grab the dead soldiers gun after placing hers back into her belt. She ran from her position to the top of a nearby cliff where she crawled to the top.

She could see the Militia soldiers surrounding the prisoners their guns aimed towards the trees. If the Rebels were there then Paige could not see them. From the corner of her eye she saw a teen with a bandanna tied around the bottom half of his face making his way to the front of the carriage.

The soldier that had been controlling the horses was facing away from them scanning the tree tops for Rebel soldiers.

Paige held her breath as the teen pulled out a bow and arrow and took down the soldier with ease before proceeding to cut the horses free.

The soldiers nearby were so focused on the rebels that they did not hear the horses running down the trail. The horses quickly disappeared down the trail and the teen back into the woods.

It amazed her how trained the Rebels were. When she was young her parents had always disliked the Rebels. They said that they were a nuisance and only caused more problems for those who were "well behaved" citizens. To them the thought of possibly being able to bring back the United States was a lost cause, certainly not one for these foolish people to die over.

For a second everything was silent. The soldiers were on high alert. Paige readied her gun.

As if on cue a dozen Rebel soldiers emerged from the thick forest shooting.

The Rebels, with the element of surprise on their side, quickly took out most of of the Militia Soldiers.

However, the remaining soldier grabbed one of the prisoners, a blonde around the same age as me, and held his pistol to her head.

"Gun's down or I blow her brains out!" yelled the soldier.

Paige gripped her gun tighter and looked through the scope.

"Come on just move a little to the right" she tried to will the girl. If she took the shot she would risk shooting through through the blondes shoulder. That wouldn't end well especially with the lack of medicine that the Republic was currently going through.

The Rebels slowly lowered their weapons to the ground. A shaggy haired Rebel clenched his teeth in anger as he kicked his musket away from him.

In the blink of an eye the blonde shifted her weight and pulled out a hidden throwing knife from her side and stabbed the soldier in the leg, falling to the grown as he released her. The soldier screamed out in pain and dropped his weapon. Paige took this opportunity to re-establish her shot her shot and took out the soldier.

She jumped down from the ledge and cautiously approached the Rebels. All but three were reuniting with the prisoners. The shaggy haired boy helped up the blonde who had been held captive and hugged her close. The other three soldier were eyeing Paige very carefully with their retrieved weapons in hand.

"Stop right their" one of the called out to her.

Paige stopped in her tracks.

"Hey I just saved her life." Paige stated defensively with her hold on the rifle tightening.

The blonde turned away from her boyfriend, Paige guessed, and approached her.

"Who are you?" she asked simply.

Paige kept her gaze over the blondes shoulders and trained onto the Rebel soldiers not saying a word. The blonde rolled her eyes and turned to the men ordering them to put their guns down before returning her attention to Paige.

Paige watched as the soldier turned their attention elsewhere.

"Who are you?" the blonde repeated her question, annoyance clearly present in her tone.

"The names Paige. Paige McCullers." she stated.

"Well Paige McCullers it is nice to meet you. Thank you for 'saving my life'" she said making air quotes with her fingers.

"And who are you?" asked Paige.

The blonde smiled.

"The names Hanna. Hanna Marin. And that boy over there.." she pointed to the guy with the shaggy hair," that's my boyfriend Caleb. Strange right..how even when we are living through the apocalypse we all can seem to make a bit of time for romance."

Paige laughed.

"Romance?" she shook her head. "I congratulate you on that. But some of us have a little more to think of then love."

Hanna just shrugged her shoulders not feeling the need to explain herself.

"So then what is it that you are fighting for? These day's it's basically a war everywhere, a pointless war, but a war nonetheless. Me. I am fighting for my family. This Rebel camp is the last one standing for miles. Everyday our numbers are getting smaller and smaller but we continue to fight. Why? Because I would like to live in a nation that I didn't have to wake up every morning and wonder how many of my people were going to be slaughtered by a heartless piece of crap. Love is as good as a reason as any to keep that fight alive." Hanna said passionately with anger in her eyes, "So I ask you again Paige McCullers...what is it that you are fighting for?"

Paige was silent for a second. Did she even know what she was fighting for? Unlike Hanna she didn't have a "family". It was just her. She fought to stay alive but who or what was she fighting for? She still wasn't sure.

"Revenge." answered Paige matter-of-factly, "I am fighting to be free. Not Patriot free but freedom from myself. I'm fighting because what the hell else am I supposed to do?"

"Fighting out of anger is not fighting. Fighting without a cause you will not win" said Hanna.

Paige shrugged.

"It's all I've got"