1 A Shattered Country

The Kingdom of Titanus, formerly the Americas, sometime in the not so distant future.

"Your Highness, the rebels have breached the castle. We must get you to safety now; please come with us."

The head of the royal guard held his hand out for Princess Katherine and quickly pulled her along through the halls so that they could reach the hidden bomb shelter in the castle.

Her heels clicked along the white marble flooring, but they could barely be heard over the sounds of gunshots.

Whether it was rebel guns or royal security guns, Katherine could not tell.

'Probably both,' she thought to herself as her heart raced as quickly as her feet.

This was the second breach in the last year, but it was the first time that the rebels had made it inside the castle walls.

The last time was nine months ago, and they had gotten as far as the outdoor gardens before all of the rebels had either been killed, or had been smart enough to run off to avoid a similar fate.

This time they came more prepared. Obviously.

Four royal guards surrounded the princess to act as human shields should one or more of the rebels find her.

They had wanted Katherine dead since the day she was born, and even now at the age of twenty-three, she was still hunted by them in hopes that killing her would secure their freedom from the royal family.

You see, once upon a time there had been a country in the western world that had once been considered by many to be the land of the free. The people there lived under the guise of freedom, but corruption poisoned their leaders and force fed its citizens until the damage was too much to repair.

Underground cults and extremists whispered lies to vulnerable and gullible people, and those people spread the conspiracies like wildfire until the country was so divided and suspicious of itself that no one could be trusted.

The world watched as the country burned itself to the ground in yet another bloody war where everyone fought for themselves. The country that had been built on the ideals of working together to achieve liberty, failed its own values and tore itself apart at the seams.

Three powerful families had been patiently waiting as the people overthrew themselves in misplaced fits of passion that led to their own ruin.

These families had the financial and social means to come into power, so when the country self imploded, they took their chance. The three elite families created oligarchies and split the land into three sections that they would each govern under one kingdom to better keep control of their people.

Katherine's family, the Mors', were the rulers of the eastern land, now named Helios.

The Lux family ruled the western land of Eos, and the central land named Selene was ruled by the Clavis family. Together, the three lands formed the Kingdom of Titanus.

Privilege and pride consumed the families, and they became selfish rulers who had no regard for the people in their lands.

They kept themselves infinitely rich while they kept their citizens under their strict hand by offering them mere scraps so that none of them would have the means to overthrow them.

Everyday, their citizens died of hunger, unsafe work conditions, health issues, or lack of safety.

The people who had fought for their individuality now had even less than they did before, and freedom became a fallacy in their new reality.

The citizens were born to serve the monarchs, and this was the way it had been from the start of the new kingdom.

A caste system restricted them from advancing and creating better lives for themselves. If you were determined to be a carpenter at birth, you would work as one until you stole your last breath; and, if you were not able-bodied, or at any point could not complete your assigned duties, you were disposed of.

People rebelled from the start, and those who openly spoke against the crown were executed for all to see in their local public square. They were made examples of in order to scare everyone else into omission.

Any talk of rebellion was stifled, and since cameras and armed guards lined every street, it was easy for the royal families to find who might be targeting them.

It worked for a while, but Katherine was now realizing that the rebels had gone underground to form a plan for an ambush. They were waiting for their moment to attack, much like the three families had done in the past when they gained their power.

Katherine's grandfather was one the three men who founded the new Kingdom of Titanus, which is how her family came to be one of supreme authority-- new age monarchs set to rule on by heredity.

Her grandfather was long dead by now, but his son, Katherine's father, ruled alongside his wife as the current King and Queen of Helios.

Katherine was next in line, which made her a target for the rebels who hoped to abolish the monarchies.

And now they had made it into her home. A place she had always thought to be safe.

The guards tentatively looked around each corner they passed before they would pull Katherine along, slowly inching towards the indestructible and impenetrable shelter in the basement.

She had never been more grateful to have her guards with her. Although she had been trained from a young age to wield weapons and shoot with precision, it did not mean that she ever wanted to use her skills on a person.

It's not that she liked the people of Helios. After all, they had been trying to kill her her whole life. But she had seen the dark change in people who had killed a fellow human, and she was scared of who she would become if she crossed that line.

Katherine and her guards made it down the final hallway and quickly retreated into the room that would lead them to safety.

One of the guards went up to the faux bookshelf and pulled down on the book that released the lock. The whole bookcase moved outward as if it was any typical door, and they pushed Katherine inside while some of the guards worked to close the bookshelf door to conceal their hiding spot.

Behind the secret bookshelf was a long, soundproof hallway. Katherine shivered upon entering it because the white walls and floors blended together in a way that reminded her of a padded cell.

In a way, she was correct in thinking that.

The only time they went down there was to hide, and she never knew how long they would be trapped there for.

The quietness they faced in that pure white hallway was deafening, and Katherine found relief when they reached the large steel door that resembled a bank vault.

The head guard punched in the code, and the door swung open for them to enter.

Katherine quickly made her way inside, and felt an uneasiness hit her stomach when she realized that they were the first ones there.

Since her father was the King, he was always top priority, and if he had not arrived yet, it couldn't have been good news.

Once the last of the four guards entered and the door was sealed behind them, she turned to the closest one and asked, "Any news on the King and Queen? Have they been located?"

"We haven't heard anything yet, Your Highness. And now we won't know until they get here since all technology is blocked in the shelter."

Cutting off any type of wireless communication or signals while in the shelter was a safety precaution as it prevented any of the royal family from being tracked by the rebels, but now, at the cost of not knowing if her parents were safe, Katherine was not sure that it had been a wise decision.

Suddenly feeling faint, Katherine sat down on the closest chair, and ran her fingers over her scalp and through her dark brown hair.

She leaned forward so that she could rest her elbows on her thighs and use her hands to hold up her face, and she sat staring at the steel door, willing it to open with her parents safely on the other side.

As each minute came and went, the uneasiness she felt turned closer to fear, and her forehead stung from how tightly she had wrung her eyebrows together.

"Could we get you food or water?" one of the guards asked with a softness in his voice. He leaned down to look at her, seeing the obvious distress painted on her typically sharp features.

"I couldn't possibly eat or drink anything, but please if any of you need anything, help yourselves," she responded without turning her gaze away from the door.

The guard let out a breath and returned to his position.

A couple more minutes passed them by until suddenly the steel started to creak.

Katherine stood up so quickly that black danced around the sides of her vision, and she stared in anticipation of who was about to enter their safe place.