Section One

I was there when they dragged my best friend away. I was there on the front step, tears silently streaming down my face, as I watched Mark struggle against the Guards. I was there when they announced his deportation over the loudspeakers. I was there when they banished him to the City of the Sick, but I wasn't there for the last person that was important to me. They had taken away everyone: my mother, my father, my friends, but they crossed the line when they took away Mark. He was all I had left, and he's gone. And now my city is in a state of turmoil. We were all in over our heads.