Preface

I was only a little girl when the signs were finally being noticed. But it was already too late; no matter what those special societies did. Our greed for resources proved mankind’s downfall, as we disregarded the environment until it was too late. The ecosystem faltered, as the ozone broke apart, the greenhouse effect dispersed. It happened all within a few years; global warming, uncontrolled pollution, and massive deforestation changed the world we called Earth.

The stability of Earth’s weather pattern shifted the rain and the temperature. Huge masses of land became uninhabitable, causing people to evacuate their homes in many cities forming ghost towns all across the world. The polar caps melted, rising the sea level, swallowing up massive amounts of once habitable land. The disruption of stable weather destroyed traditional farming and fishing ventures, which caused a massive global famine. My mother was killed in a riot, one of hundreds that erupted after the hunger disputations; millions of people rioted due to starvation and thirst.

If you think that’s bad, this is around the time the others came back into existence. The others aren’t us—humans. There’s many different kind of others: Cold ones, Dogs, Demons, the Dead, and many other things that as my father says “go bump in the night.” I’ve never met or for that matter seen any of the others; just heard stories.

Now, I am seventeen-years old. You’re probably wondering what I look like. I’m five foot six inches tall with a light gold-brown hair that goes a little past my shoulders; usually I keep it in a ponytail. I have hazel colored eyes, and very soft tan skin. I bite my finger nails, and that’s a bad habit, I’ve been told. I live in one of the few remaining cities in New Mexico; Albuquerque, New Mexico to be precise.

We moved there right after the others first appeared. The town consisted of about one hundred and fifty men, women, and everyone else younger than adults and was located just above the Gulf of Mexico (I told you the sea level rose). There were no other teens around my age. Most of the older boys joined the militant society when they turned eighteen, but I was fine with that; I wasn’t interested in boys.

At my high school, which was held inside an old community building, we learned what was needed in life now; nothing about the past history of Earth. I knew a little about history from old books that I’d read in my younger years; but now I learned how to properly handle a weapon, dress wounds, salvage buildings, trade goods, repair damage equipment; I got my black belt in karate when I was ten.

But nothing prepared me for what would happen next.