Chapter 1 - Dear Stranger

Chapter 1. Dear Stranger

Dear stranger,

The world has changed much since before I was born. I was born into a world that was a Utopia for women,where we lived peacefully and without fear, but it wasn't always like this.

My mother would always tell me the story of Paige Jones, the woman who saved us all. She and her army led a coup against all the men and eventually won. I wasn't alive back then but she was.

She was one of the leaders of the army.

The story began long ago.

From space, earth was a sight to behold and men lived happily, well .......except for the women. You see, the women were silently suffering in a world of pain that men had created. Through wars, famine and so many things, the women of the world suffered. The number of rapes , unwanted pregnancies and AIDS deaths grew alarmlying whilst the men who wronged the women walked free after bail only to victimize other women.

The final straw, was when war had reached the shores of my mother's home. Fifteen thousand women were raped and executed in front of the young girls of their homeland. One of them included my grandmother. Mother and her friends Irina Grayson, Gwendolyn Ericson, Sira Luke, Melisa Grace and Paige Jones were in high school when they saw it happen on screen. I could only try to imagine the pain my mother felt.

That's when their plan started.

After the school's closed, the women went into hiding for fear of their lives. Paige and her friends eventually made their way into the Rebel forces and helped them to fight. After five years of fighting, they won but Paige didn't stop there. She went on to organise a coup against man kind. Amassing forces, urging any woman who had suffered to fight with them so they could build a new world where we would be free.

She and her own army eventually went on to take over the world leader's council and by then , she had the world in the palm of her hand.

She ordered the men to build a wall of concrete, steel and electricity around a certain city for the women. It took time but the wall came up. My mother and Gwendolyn were put in charge of the city's defence and laws for the women when they would live there. Under Paige's orders, all books containing information about men was destroyed. Wiped from the very minds of us so we wouldn't know exactly what monsters we shared our world with.

Irina and Melisa had a few selected men donate their cells ( I have no idea what that is) and put them in a container deep within the city for a cloning project so as to enable the women to have children and Sira made plans for the future generations and how we would live. Finally, after everything was done, Paige ordered the wall to be sealed.

I would have to say that some women chose to remain outside with the men, Paige warned them that they would suffer but they were firm about their decision.

They stayed whilst everyone else went to live inside the wall.

It has been seven years since then and from birth I have never seen a man. Yes, I was born inside the wall but my mother didn't know she was pregnant until a day after the wall was sealed.

I don't know who my father is, mother doesn't talk about him or much about her life before the war. I have never known what it is like to have a father or a brother and will never know what is a boyfriend or husband.

I think I remind her of him because she sometimes cry's when I smile at her. I've heard her argue with aunt Irina about me. I hear her say that she sometimes wishes that everything would be normal so I could grow up with the love of both a mother and a father.

I feel bad for bringing her pain but she always tells me to always remember that despite everything, she loves me and to never forget to that I am loved.

This is my last night to rememeber everything my mother has told me, tomorrow my mother says I will forget everything. I know too much, same as my cousin sisters. After tomorrow we'll all forget.

So stranger, this is what I want you to know before I go to sleep. My name is Ava Preston, daughter of Braven Preston, the third General of Paige Jones, somehow one day I will find my father. This I believe I can do.

Love,

Ava.

********

“Ava, baby, where are you?”

Ava gasped before she quickly folded the paper before slipping it into her shorts pocket. She smoothed her night gown as if to brush off some form of dirt even though she had bathed before brushing her hair away from her face. She need to look as innocent as possible so her mother wouldn't suspect anything was up.

Braven walked into the study to see her daughter sitting near the coffee table with numerous papers scattered on top of the table. There were drawings of vehicles, tanks and buildings that her daughter had drawn all afternoon. It never failed to surprise her how she was so much like him.

“Where were you after dinner, baby?” Braven asked as she moved to kneel down beside her six year old.”You disappeared after the dishes were done.”

Ava glanced up at her mother's face before she put her hands on the papers,” Drawing. Quiet.”

Braven hummed, ”Yeah, your cousins do make a lot of noise with your aunts huh?”

“Guess so.”

“What's wrong baby?”Braven asked as she took in the solemn face of her daughter. They were both in her study inside the Citadel and they were safe at the moment.

“Nothing mother, I'm just sleepy,” Ava replied. She then turned and hugged her mother tightly,” Tuck me in?”

Braven rubbed her back and stood up with her daughter wrapped around her, “Of course baby.”

Braven walked out and down the hall. She walked slowly because she felt that the last moments between them had to be spent wisely.

“Watch over me mother?”Ava whispered brokenly in her mother's neck, “Always and forever.”

Braven stopped as tears started to roll down her face. She bit her lip and hugged her daughter tightly, her heart slowly breaking into a million pieces for her baby. Her little Ava and her nieces who would soon forget her and their own mothers because some women felt that it was unfair of them to have some memory of the men they had loved.

Braven took a shuddering breathe, “I will, baby. No matter what.”