So here's a little bit of background history to the story. Hope you guys like it.
Prologue II
Learn from yesterday.
Live for today.
Hope for tomorrow.
-Einstein
It's survival of the fittest now. Since the Outbreak. Communities, families, scattered. No one has hope for the next day. We barely have enough to last us half the day. We live to survive. We fight for our makeshift families we've found on our journeys to find our real ones.
From the stories I've been told by my great-great-grandmother, it wasn't always like this. In fact, there was an era that the Elders call the Golden Age. Everyone had no fear to leave the "city" they lived in. People had education. No one hunted for the village or the Citizens. Hell, there was no such thing as Citizens or Sector Unknown.
But that all changed when the Outbreak happened.
December 21st, 2012. The first day of the Outbreak. The Outbreak meaning the day of the Infected starting coming after human blood. Or any blood they could get their hands on.
A scientist had the best intentions. Saving world from the most fatal disease in it, cancer. The scientist had tried it on a dog that was infected. The dog was healed from cancer and the scientist was given the go-ahead to start treatment on humans. Though, little did everyone know that the dog was turned into a deadly monster that had no cure to saving him. That was the first day of the Outbreak out of eight days of hell.
The dog turned into a zombie-like creature, killing everyone in the household, turning them also into zombie-like creatures. But the information was too late reaching the one who created the cure. The scientist had already placed the cure into half of the population that had cancer and had sent them home, getting infected and infecting their families and friends. They are called the Infected.
Everyone of lower status, meaning middle-class and lower, were to evacuate to the countryside where the Infected wouldn't reach. The higher status people were sent up north where the Infected wouldn't survive the harsh winters. The world's leaders made a decision not to make any sort of contact with America as it was highly populated with Infected. They made another decision to call the infected America Sector Unknown now.
One third of Sector Unknown's population was infected by the fifth day. Two thirds by day eight, December 28th, 2012. The higher-ups in the north were now called Citizens and where they live is called the Ever Refuge. But we in the south call it Cana tauntingly. Short for its old name during the age, Canada.
Now, almost a hundred after the Outbreak, we are called Sectors. The people who do the work for the Citizens. Hunting for their and our meat. Fishing for their and our seafood. Making them and us clothes. And so much more. We Sectors constantly are aggravated by the Citizens. They have the high life, a silver platter always placed before them while we work until we die for them. We even sacrifice our lives to protect their refuge and their homes while we die from the Infected or animals, starvation, or dehydration.
The government up north divided Sectors in villages into major jobs. Gunman, Archer, Swordsman, Healer, and Elders. The Elders are basically the council of the village and have constant communication with other Elders from other villages. Healers, like their title states, heal the wounded and sick. There is a Head Healer and then other Healers under their command. Archers are skilled men and women with a bow/crossbow and arrows as their weapon. Like Healers, there is a Head Archer and regular Archers underneath them. Head Swordsman is second-in-command of the village and Head Gunman is first-in-command. Swordsmen and Gunmen are skilled in all forms of weaponry but prefer to what their title is.
The Citizens do something for us, lease to say. They provide us with weapons and machinery to fight the Infected and to provide our jobs given to us by them. Some Sectors praised them for that. Others think they're just getting by on our good side. Me? I couldn't care less really.
To me, they are nothing. As they took my mother with them when they came into the village once. Just like a soldier that was forced into the army by the government. People around the village told me they took my mother with them on their annual hunts. They call it the Remembrance Hunts. A hunt specifically for the Infected. The Citizens take Sectors from all over Sector Unknown to hunt "with" them. More like hunt for them. The Remembrance Hunts last for eight days, then Sectors who survive are returned to their villages. My mother didn't.
And when she didn't, my father went into the Dead Forest and never came back.
Father had a favourite quote that his great grandmother, my Great-Great-Granny Ruth, told him every time he failed at his turn to hunt or whenever he was slumped with his duration of being Head Gunman, the leader of the village. Learn from yesterday. Live for today. Hope for tomorrow. Learn from your past mistakes and what you did wrong. Make everything count today. And hope for the best for tomorrow and that everything changes.
But how can we hope for tomorrow if we can barely make it through today?
It's short, yeah, but more of it will clear up when I start working on it more. I'll definitely work on it after I'm finished with Finding Their Lost Light, which I'll upload a chapter by tonight or tomorrow morning for sure.
Thanks again for stopping by, Tati