Edmund June 8, 2046
Any day like the other I was woken by the morning wake up broadcast “Good Morning sector 10! The weather for today shows clear skies and warm temperatures going up to 93. In the latest news the amount of Skin Stretchers in the attacks of sector 4 have decreased. Some suspect that the Grim Walkers are back and fighting hard against the skin stretchers again. Have no fear Sector 10 as of right now our loyal patrols are riding out to fight the Grim Walkers. Have another joyful day sector 10!” the broadcaster from my sector said enthusiastically.
Sounds like Skins are still attacking sector 4. They’re nasty creatures caused by a disease that broke out almost thirty years ago rightly named mortal death. They’re what nerds back in 2015 called zombies, except Skins are even worse looking and smelling than anything they could possibly imagine. There’s a good reason they’re called Skins. Not only do they kill humans and infect them, but when the infected turn into Skins they’re engulfed by their own skin everywhere but their mouth making them look like a bloody and swollen mass that somehow used to be a human.
I’m thirteen so I’ve only heard stories from my parents when they were a little older than me when about the time when the epidemic first broke out in 2027 and chaos and death ruled with an iron fist. It took five years before a proper civilization was ever set up again in 2032. By then nearly half of the world’s population had died or been infected, but the somewhat stable civilization proved to work and word spread. The more people heard and came the more the small civilization grew. Now we all live in a walled city with fifteen different sections. Each section deals with the gathering and building of different resources, mine deals with growing crops and preparing them to eat. Without a section the system would nearly collapse. We all rely on each other, well most of us anyway. The Grim Walkers are an outside group that roam freely and take whatever they can get regarding the codes we all live by. Besides us and the Grim Walkers I’ve been told all my life everyone else is dead or infected.
On my way to the fields I pass sector 4. Many gun shots and moaning from skins can be heard, I’ve only seen a few skins in my life and from what I’ve seen I feel bad for the people living in sector 4. They’re always getting attacked because their labor is harvesting lumber from outside the walls and their gates are never guarded properly. I stand and look through the fence at the people in sector 4. Their faces are bored and dirty. A girl maybe a year older than me with short dark brown hair lifts her head and stares back at me coldly with her emerald green eyes, I realize that it’s rude to stare and keep walking.
Heather June 8, 2046
Any day like the other I woke up to the sound of gunshots. The shots aren’t nearly as consistent as the last two days so hopefully in another day the horde will be small enough so we can go out to work. I’m thankful to have some days off, but we need the lumber to trade for clay boxes with holes that we use as currency, we call ‘em knuts. Until then the authorities give us rations of bread.  All of us normally go out and collect lumber, but since we can’t go out we just sit around and do nothing. I’m lucky enough to have a shelter away from the wall. In the first attack the skins breached the wall; people had either been infected or gotten out wishing that they had after what they saw. I’ve seen people turn into skins before, but you never do quite get used to seeing someone you know or love engulfed by their own skin.
Out of the corner of my eye I can see a boy from sector 10 is staring at me through the fence in his dirt stained work cloths. I look up and stare coldly back into his compassion filled hazel eyes. The boy notices that I’m staring back so he stiffly turns his neck away from me and keeps walking. I don’t need any compassion, that boy and the rest of sector 10 have it easy, all they have to do is plant seeds and then return safely home to their nice little wooden shelters away from the reality of skins and death. I would bet my food rations that most of ‘em haven’t even seen a skin before.
Our whole system is corrupt people believe that the whole thing is fair. It’s not true the higher ups that run this whole thing feed off of all of us and give us just enough scraps to survive. The scraps are given to the sector with the most value to the system which is usually sector 13 who manufactures, sector 10 who grows crops, and sector 15 who makes new technology. The best part is you can’t switch sectors unless you have enough knuts. Not only are knuts hard to get, but we use ’em for food so there practically impossible to save.
Most of my life has been working for those who I most despise, I once travelled with the Grim Walkers with my mother and father, but we were attacked by this system and they died. The troop brought me here where I was assigned one of the poorest sections where I learned to fend off on my own. Now that the Grim Walkers are back in the area I aim to rejoin so I can help them override this corrupt system, I have inside information about where everything is located so they should accept me. Fingers crossed.
Edmund June 9, 2046
I return home from another day of pulling weeds out in the fields. My parents were oddly called in by the system and as normal they were skeptic, but none the less they reluctantly went. Normally the system only calls people in for interrogation about a recent code that has been broken in their area, but no codes have been broken. We’re one of the hardest working people out on the fields and in the bakeries so all I can hope for is a reward or promotion for them.
It’s one in the morning and their still not back. My thoughts are racing with worst case scenarios I can’t sleep. My grandparents were scientists who were hired by the old government to get rid of the over populated country. They used Skins their own “natural selection”, but after five years of countless deaths they finally made a system with an antidote for the remaining chosen few who could “improve” humanity. That’s what my parents tell me, but I don’t believe them. If this system had an antidote for the last selected people then why don’t they use it on those attacked in 4? The story makes no sense to me, but now that my parents still aren’t home from the system my mind wonders if their story is true.
Heather June 11, 2046
The attacks stopped yesterday so I saw my chance and slipped out during work to go see if I could find the Grim Walkers. Luckily enough I found them and I told them my name and they immediately knew who I was and gave me food, water, and a set of cloths that actually fits me. I updated them on how things are inside the system and in return they updated me on what their next plan is. They came from a small village where they got supplies for an attack, now that sector 4 is weakened and easy to breach they plan to sneak in tomorrow night while I distract the guard. They will then sneak into the system’s headquarters, but they will try not to kill anyone.
Edmund June 11, 2046
I’m working in the fields when I step on something and I look to see what it is. It’s my Mom laying there, her face is pale with deep cuts, her eyes are cold, and she does not breathe. My father runs up behind me furiously and picks me up only to slam me onto the cold hard ground. I wake up in my bedroom still frightened from the nightmare. My parents aren’t back so I can’t stop worrying and I have a hard time focusing on work. I don’t know what to do. I’m starting to doubt that this system is fair and good.
Heather June 12, 2046
We attack tonight, so I must leave earlier to distract the guard so the grim walkers can sneak in. I return with the group of workers from sector 4, in exactly ten minutes I am to distract the guard for fifteen minutes or more if I can. I go and report in to the guards to tell them I got lost while gathering wood and overheard a plan to attack sector 9. They believe me and tell all other guards over radio to report to sector 9 for an attack. The guard thanks me and rushes to sector 9. Now I wait patiently.                                                                                                                                                                       
Edmund June 12, 2046
Still I worry about my parents, so I am going to request a visit to headquarters where I’ll be able to ask about what happened to my parents. After work I ask the guards if I can visit headquarters and at first they say no, but then I tell them who I am and they say yes. Not after long, they escort me to headquarters which is located at the center of all the sectors and I notice quickly that everyone is in clothing that looks clean or even new.
I am lead to the office of Kristin Rewop, Edward Nottulg, and Oliver Yenom the system’s leaders. I ask them where my parents are, and they tell me that it’s true that Skins were created for the very purpose of “natural selection”, but the antidote they received years ago isn’t effective so they tracked down my parents so they could continue my grandparent’s research. My parents refused to take part in helping them so they were thrown into a cell where they are right now.  I start to yell at them to release my parents when I hear shots being fired and people yelling. I turn around to see people armed with guns. One rushes toward me gun in hand, I black out.
Heather June 13, 2046
The attack last night was successful two casualties and one wounded on their side and one casualty and two wounded on our side. Thanks to some kid yelling at the leaders they were distracted, so we took out two of the guards in the room and knocked the kid out so that he wouldn’t resist and get hurt. Earlier I went and visited the kid, turns out it’s the same guy from sector 4 who was staring at me through the fence his name is Edmund. As for what the next step is having the leaders admit what’s been going on since this whole thing started and getting the people to trust us and from there we plan on making a fair system by restoring democracy. Edmund’s parents are working on a cure that will prevent more humans being turned into Skins and a separate cure to turn Skins back into people.
Edmund June 13, 2046
Well apparently I helped the overthrow of the system last night and my parents are all alright thankfully. Actually they’re better than alright a long time ago they used to be a part of the Grim Walkers and not only are they proud of me, but they reunited with some of our family. When I woke up earlier you think that I would’ve been greeted by my parents, but it was that girl from sector 4 (It really is a small world after all) her name is Heather, she updated me on everything that had happened.
Heather December 20, 204?
It’s not even a year after the overthrow and everything is horrible. Everything was working out beautifully no one was hungry and everyone was happy. We were rebuilding the walls one night in October when suddenly there was an intangible amount of skins everywhere. Edmund’s parents made an antidote, but all it did was slow the process. So many died that night, but I managed to escape. I’ve lost count of the days I’ve been running, scavenging, and fighting all by myself. I met a kind woman during this living underworld, but she was bitten and I killed the skin that was once her.
Now I’m surrounded by skin in the deep snow with few bullets left in my pistol. I notice a small shack and run for it. The skins run after me thrashing their arms while moaning, but I’m much faster. I enter the small rundown shack and slam the door behind me readying my pistol at the door.  Suddenly I feel I feel a sharp pain in my shoulder and I scream out in pain. I pull away violently and turn around to see a skin with its teeth crimson red with my blood. I shoot the skin and drop to the ground against the wall. My shoulder still stings from the bite and I can already feel myself fading. I’m going to turn into one of them! My pistol still has one more bullet left and my whole body is in pain. Black dots start to form in my vision in a few minutes I’ll just be another blood thirsty Skin. There’s no way that I’ll ever help them, this can’t be I would rather die slowly than become one of them. I aim the pistol at my head and by now I’m almost knocked out, but with my pistol in hand I decide my own fate and say hello to my parents.