Prologue

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When I was growing up, no one ever questioned how the nation had become what is was: divided. We would be spoon fed whatever propaganda was necessary to keep the illusion running. But in every utopian society, there was a band of renegades who remembered the way things used to be.
They remembered the freedom before the Divide, and the carelessness, and they also remembered the war. The Second Civil War was hard on everyone, even those that did not participate. Everyone's livelihood was destroyed.
In order to recreate order, the government declared a new law be put into place: the Zodiac Divide. The law stated that in order to prevent another war, the people of the nation needed to be relocated to a new state that would group them with their Astrology sign.
Many people believed this would be the answer to the constant animosity between people, but others knew this would rip families apart and ruin lives. In the end, the government won out. The fifty states became twelve, one for each Zodiac sign.
The government employed thousands of Astrology experts to determine which signs were most compatible and which were the least compatible. It took almost two years for the experts to figure out a system which would work. They divided the twelve Zodiacs into four elements, each consisting of three signs.
The Fire Signs were the Aries, Leo, and Sagittarius and they were relocated to the southern part of the nation stretching from what was previously known as Florida to the southern half of California.
The Water Signs, and most compatible with the Fire Signs, were composed of Cancer, Scorpio, and Pisces. They were moved to the eastern seaboard, which would've been north of Florida all the way up the coast to Maine. The Water Signs were least compatible with the Air Signs, so the Earth Signs were put in between them.
Spanning across the plains of the nation were the Taurus, Virgo, and Capricorn signs. They generally were compatible with all the signs when they wanted to. They could also be least compatible with the rest of the signs when their moods changed, making it really hard to determine a location for them.
Lastly, the Air Signs were placed on the western coast. This would have been considered the northern half of California, Oregon, and parts of Nevada.
Each sign had their own state within their elemental territory, making it even more difficult to associate outside of their Zodiac.
After the Relocation, parents were worried about what the government would make them do with their newborn children. Many parents tried their hardest to time their pregnancies, but most of the time that didn't work out in their favor. Except for me, I was born into the same sign as my mother, father, and grandmother.
My younger sister wasn't so lucky. She had been born one day outside of our Astrology cycle, meaning she had to be relocated. Government officials, the original Astrology experts, came to our house one day late in the evening and told our parents the news. When they took away my sister, they replaced her absence with another relocated baby from another state. Thus creating the Zodiac utopian.

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