Prologue
They came in the night. There were no gunshots fired. No one’s last breath was given for their kingdom or country. It was just over. And they were in charge. They told us that our governments had no choice...that they did what was best for us by giving in. As I watched the President and the First Lady be frog marched out the front gates of the White House by a group of their armed guards, the President and his wife with just one bag in each of their hands, it was clear to see that life as we knew it would never be the same again.
Years later, I would think back on that moment and wonder if that was the first time I had seen them. If they somehow sensed even then that I was out there and that I was something that they would want...something they would obsess over. I wondered if there was anything I could have done, any way that I could have run to ensure a different outcome.
It didn’t do any good for me to think about what-ifs. The simple fact of the matter was that I was never given a choice. I belonged to them. I always would.
1
Liar!
“I didn’t steal the money,” I whispered to Greg to avoid the customers in the diner from hearing our conversation. Biting back the fury that danced through me, I curled my hands and stuffed them into the pockets of my skirt, concealing them. How dare he accuse me of theft after I’d worked here for the past year and covered every necessary shift, stayed until midnight to close up most nights, and even cooked the damn food when we were short on staff. I stared at my boss in disbelief. He may only be five foot three and sporting a shaved haircut to cover his receding hairline, but he reminded me of a bulldog with his squished nose, chubby cheeks, and downturned mouth. His brown eyes squinted in an accusatory manner.
“You were responsible for the register,” he barked, not caring that he was raising his voice.
My cheeks burned, and I opened my mouth to respond, but no words formed. I was the only waitress on hand today because Sandy called in sick, again, and was most likely having a full day of orgasms with her new boyfriend. Lucky her. The cooks couldn’t have touched the cash since they never came up front. So that left me...
I exhaled loudly. “I know it looks that way, but it wasn’t me. You know me, Greg. You know I wouldn’t do that to you.” I wished he’d installed cameras as I suggested months ago. Then we wouldn’t be having this problem.
Greg huffed, his shoulders rising and falling. “The lost money will come out of your next check.”
“No!” I reached out for him, but he batted me away, scrunching his nose as if I were no better than a fly.
“That’s a douche move, man,” Cherry’s voice came behind me, my best friend who often came here for lunch and to bug me. She meant well, but this would only get worse if she tried to interfere.
I turned towards her and shook my head, mouthing the word, don’t.
She ignored me and climbed out of the nearby booth located right behind the register and strolled toward us in her stilettos. “She’s innocent until proven guilty. So, you can’t dock Ella’s pay without evidence.”
Greg stood as tall as he was able, his hands gripping his wide hips, his name badge sitting at an angle across his heart. The corners of his lips twitched in distaste as he looked at my best friend. “My diner. My rules. You don’t like it, both of you can leave.” His voice rose and I realized that the rest of the diner had fallen silent, listening to our argument.
“Well,” Cherry began, but I stepped in front of her.
“It’s fine.” My heart raced at the thought of losing my job when I was already living paycheck to paycheck. “I’ll cover the missing money.”
Cherry exhaled loudly behind me, while Greg just grinned.
“That was never a question,” he replied snottily before he turned and marched into the back office.
“Fucking ass,” Cherry murmured as she snatched my elbow to drag me to sit in the cushioned booth with her. “He can kiss my ass, that dick is lucky to have you working for him.” She pushed over her half-eaten vegetable fries and I helped myself, deciding I might as well drown my sorrows in food. But the food didn’t sit well in my stomach with all the worry that was churning through me. It also didn’t help that I still remembered how real French fries tasted, and this “healthier” version couldn’t compare.
I tucked the loose strands of hair behind my ear, but it was a losing battle as it fell right back into my face. “I’m going to lose half my pay, and after paying rent, I’ll have nothing left to live off this month,” I told her as I gloomily stuck another disgusting vegetable fry into my mouth.
I looked outside the diner window to the blue sky that was growing heavier with clouds. There was supposed to be a storm rolling in tonight and the sky was certainly starting to look foreboding. Just as I had that thought the sound of thunder boomed from outside sending a shiver down my spine. My grandma had always warned me that thunder was an omen, but I’d never given much weight to such supernatural tales. Not when my life was work, earn enough to pay my rent, and save enough for a car.
I sighed again. I was never going to be ahead. I had dreams once upon a time for how my life was going to be. They certainly didn’t involve working at the Cinnamon Diner forever. I took the job twelve months ago as a quick fix until I found something that paid better. But this city rarely had opportunities and if they did, they filled up before anyone could think twice. A quick glance over my shoulder, and Greg was back at the till, shaking his head, counting the money again. Asshole. As if I’d steal the money. He probably took it and forgot.
I popped two more fries into my mouth and regretted it at once as my stomach riled up.
“Are we still up for tonight?” Cherry said, examining her long red nails nonchalantly that she obsessively wore as a tribute to her name.
My birthday. Right. It was easy to forget about things like that with how my life had been going lately. Or maybe it was how the world seemed to be going lately. Ever since they had taken over. Staring out at the sky again, I saw a jet fly by, a long electronic sign shooting out from behind it, reminding us all about registration, as if we could forget.
February 3, 2017 was when the world fell apart. It was done quietly. Everyone went to sleep the night before and woke up to an entirely different world. The churches had declared that they were messengers sent from God to warn us to change before the last days, but I was pretty sure the invaders were the gods themselves.
They told us they had come from a planet called Vepar and that they wished for everything to continue as before...but everything was different. The first thing to change was the required Registration. For some reason, only the women of the world were forced to register every six months. The Vepar wanted to know our names, ages, relationship status, and pregnancy history. Every woman was put on a mandatory special form of birth control that we were told was much healthier than the options we had available to us before. I would never admit it, but there were no terrible side effects with their birth control, and it was no longer a burden to take it. It was the only thing that I could say they had made better for us.
The next change was a mandatory “clean living” mandate. All food that was processed, fried, or had any chemical in it besides healthy oils was removed as an option. No longer could I pick up a hamburger or a pizza anywhere. Instead, I could have lentils or cauliflower pasta, or something equally disgusting. Everyone was required to enter a gym for an hour a day and we were scanned as we arrived to keep track. The bastards of course didn’t make anything that was mandatory free so my already thinly stretched budget was now non-existent. I had been pulling double shifts at the diner for a year now, which in my opinion should have covered my hour of exercise, but I was barely surviving.