A World in Ruin

Prologue

Prologue

            I remember hearing the first sounds of the new war.  It's so fresh in my mind like it was yesterday.  It was barely day and the sky was completely dark, not a hint of blue in sight, but it has always been like this, ever since I can remember.  I was sleeping in my small, ratty bed when the sounds woke me from my sleep.  Forcing open my dark brown eyes and jolting up in bed I saw my ten-year-old brother, Joshua, trembling in fear in the bed across from mine.  He was staring out the window at the cold dead city. 

I looked around my broken down room that contained two beds.  The one where I lay was in the middle of the room and my brother's was against a wall and above his head was a window.  Next to Joshua's bed are a desk and a mirror.  Our clothes are thrown all over the floor and I have to maneuver around them in order to get to him.  I remember the look of terror in his eyes when I finally reached him.

"Joshua, everything is going to be alright.  I won't let anyone hurt you."

            He cried into my shoulder that day, his grip tightening on my hand.

"Don't leave me Gwen."

"Shhh..." I told him, stroking his head.  "You know I must, I have been trained for this."

"But, you can't leave me you just can't."

            I felt such immense pain in my heart and in the pit of my stomach.  I didn't want to leave him alone.  When I looked at his tear soaked face, my heart broke in half.  I thought I might never see him again and it hurt to think about that.

            The look in his eyes when I tore myself away from him, when I left is forever burned into my skull.  I packed up my bow, arrows, knives, and sword.  As I put on the clothes I would wear during this dark time I realized I might not come back. 

            I remember slowly pulling up my tight black pants, strapping on my combat boots, and pulling my loose shirt and warm jacket on.  I packed a few extra pairs of shirts, underwear, socks, and pants thinking that I might not need them.  I strapped my two small knives to a brace on my thigh and placed my sword in its holder on my waist.  I strapped my arrows on my back and hung my bow over them.  I looked in the mirror at my dirty blonde hair, brown eyes, and sharp jaw.  I saw the fear in my own eyes because I knew that my time had come.  Pulling my hair back into a high ponytail I wiped the fear out of my eyes. 

            I walked through the house, saying goodbye to everything.  I said goodbye to every picture hanging on the wall and every creaky floorboard.  I walked down the small hallway to my father's bedroom.  I rested my hand on the gray wooden door and whispered him a goodbye while holding back my tears. 

I walked into the kitchen with its bare cupboards and dirty floors.  There was a counter in the center and counters all along the walls.  Above the counters were cupboards that contained only some fruit, jugs of water, and some left over meat that I caught earlier.  There were no appliances anymore in this world, everything good was gone. 

I left everything I had known and stepped outside into the brisk cold air taking in the terrible sight around me.  I looked at all the broken down, wooden houses around me.  They were rotting and falling apart.  Trees were scattered all around, but these trees had no leaves, they were all dead just like our city.  The ground contains no grass or sign of life; it is just dirt and ash.

War is after all a hard place to be, it's a sight I have watched before, watched and done nothing.  But this time it will be different.  This time I will fight, just like I have been trained to do since I was born.

The year was twenty-five twelve, a year when the old fighting style of swords and bows was practiced and embraced.  It was a time of great struggle and war.  I remember watching the first war from my window as a child.  Cities burned to the ground and states were destroyed.  Out of the fifty states that went into the war, thirty were destroyed and the twenty that remain are now in the countries second greatest war.  In those thirty now dead states is nothing.  It remains lifeless and uninhabited to this day.  Those thirty states that used to be full of life are now dark and dead.  Their once green land was turned into dust and ash.  They were the reminders of what one state could do to another.   

            My name is Gwen and I live in the remains of what was once New York.  A state that used to be bustling with excitement and fun was now rubble and in ruin.  I remember watching as all the homes in New York were burned to the ground.  We rebuilt our homes as best we could, but New York was never the same.  It was now filled with broken down wooden houses that were falling apart in front of your eyes.  People were dying in the streets of starvation and disease and it hurt to look at them. 

There were only a few houses in my neighborhood and even fewer outside of it.  The only food that could be found was in the woods that sprouted up all over the country where homes used to stand.  And if you couldn't hunt, you would starve.  I was the one who took care of my family, I was their protector, but now it was up to my brother, my little ten-year-old brother whom I loved with all my heart.  My father would have to teach him everything he needs to know sooner or later or else, they will starve.  I feel heaviness in my heart when I think about leaving them unprotected and alone, but I have no choice.  

            It's now my time to shine.  It is my time to fight in this war and I will come back.  For my brother and for my father.  I will fight with every ounce of strength I have so I can come back to them.  I will not leave my family alone.... I just can't.