Alliance

Prologue: The Barricade

Trevor smirked. The image of the two men from a year ago slipped from his mind. Before him, reality set back in.

There was no glory in the King's Army. There was no heroism. No songs with his name.

Shit.

All he had was a sore body and a bored mind.

Trevor stopped his march. Further down the way, another Barricade Guard stopped his march. Another guard stopped a few yards past that one. Each one of them seemed just as tired, hungry, and bored as Trevor was.

That was what the army gave him; the graveyard shifts to protect the Barricade from the rebels. He mindlessly marched beside the large Barricade and tried his best not to fall asleep.

It was hard not to doze with the world around them. The only light source was the large flood lights posted a quarter of a mile from each other. Each guard was to march between the two light poles during their shift to keep an eye on the fence and the Waste beyond.

There was no heroism where he was stationed. The job was uneventful. But there was honor and prestige. When he and his few friends went to a bar in Chicago, they had prestige then. Girls fawned over their Guard fatigues and asked if it was scary being so close to the Barricade. To the delight of Trevor, the girls would eat the stories out of his hand, much like how he did with those two recruiters a year ago.

There hasn't been a night yet where Trevor didn't talk about how impressive and strong the Barricade was. He fabricated stories about a brick wall that was twelve feet thick and twenty feet high. The girls never questioned him when he said the Wasteland was nothing but a deserted desert with no trees, shrubs, or life in sight. Or that he saw a rebel with his own eyes. The rebels were like cavemen with wild beards and matted hair and only grunted as a form of speech.

Those girls would never know that Trevor lied about all of that.

The Barricade that divided the United Region and the Waste was not twelve feet thick and twenty feet high. The structure wasn't even made of brick.

The Barricade was a fence.

Trevor craned his neck to look at the top. Okay, a really tall fence. Trevor squinted at the razors on the wire that was planted on the top of chain links. From what he could see, he bet the razors were dull.

He also lied about the Waste. Of course, miles into the Waste, the land was a dead, fallout desert, but a few yards from Trevor's feet, the Waste was green and lively.

Trevor always found it odd that the entire continent wasn't one huge dust ball. The Last Great War was fought about... Trevor struggled to count the years... The current year was 2257 and the war started in 2050. So, two hundred and seven years ago, if he had done his math correctly.

The Last Great War, which was fought about two hundred years ago, involved most of the larger countries: Britain, Japan, Russia, the United States, Canada, China, and other countries that Trevor couldn't recall. He was never good at history class. All he really could remember was one of the dangerous countries that used nuclear bombs to bomb the shit out of the western portion of the United States. They chose the Midwest because the area produced the most food for the country.

It was smart, really. Trevor gave it to those old bastards credit for destroying the food and livestock first before attacking the people. People can't fight if they are starving.

"Guard Trevor!"

Trevor nearly jumped out of his skin at the voice that yelled across the quiet night. A small sliver of fear curled around his lungs. Before the voice spoke, Trevor stopped his march. If they found him dozing off or daydreaming, which he was, he would be in big trouble.