I last used this URL for a story that I was writing but have since scrapped. It was to feature the story of four young people who travel across New York state, looking for a safe place to live but ultimately shaping the future of the New York area.
Even though that story was scrapped, I continued to play with ideas in that universe. In November of 2014 I participated in NaNoWriMo for the first time and produced a novel called The Red Eye Effect, which featured a character from the proposed After Adults novel.
A few weeks ago I had an epiphany. I want to make an epic novel series, or at least construct a long-reaching story. At this point the story spreads from Kansas to the east coast, from New York to New Orleans. It begins two years after the Adult Apocalypse (or maybe even sooner) and doesn't end until 10 years after the cataclysm. After Adults started off as a novel, but now I want to make it a series.
After Adults (AA from here on) is a story of survival, reconstruction, and struggle for power. It begins with the adult apocalypse, an event caused by an artificial virus that broke loose and caused an epidemic that swept through the world, killing everyone over the age of 18. Following the global bloodbath that ensued as street gangs took over, the world population was trimmed to just a tad over 1 billion, all teens and children.
One strange result of the adult apocalypse was something called the red eye or blood eye. Appearing in about 1 in 250 people, the physical alteration is accompanied by an increase of speed, strength, pain tolerance, and the like. Throughout the story, people with the red eye effect deal with being used as weapons, forced into positions of leadership, and also been ostracized and feared for their difference.
I don't have a full plot established yet, because there's so much of it to write. There's going to be a large cast of characters I can already tell. Here's the bird's-eye plot so far.
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We begin in the Pennsylvania area, early during the period of the street gangs. Alexander Caffey's brother is killed while they are gathering food, and Alex leaves the town he lives in to wait out the bloodshed. When he returns a couple months later he sees fliers for a group calling themselves the "Order of Friendship." He talks with a couple teens who represent the Order and sees it's the best thing for him to survive. He becomes a mechanic, scrounging bikes and car parts so that people in the Order can move around better.
A couple weeks into his job, a large amount of vehicles pass through and get repaired. They are for the Order's military branch, the Knights of Friends. He talked with the Knights and eventually decides he wants to join them, seeking adventure and something better than what he has now. After going through the bootcamp he is stationed in southern New York, near the edge of the Order's border. There he faces war and watches as the Order spreads further into the state. He also meets May MacAllister, who he later starts a relationship with. After a year in the Knights he opts to retire to his hometown, which has become more organized and peaceful than it was when he left. Alex and May marry and establish lives as mechanic and nurse.
Concurrent with them is Joshua Gardner, 16 years old. The son of a Lutheran pastor, he lost his faith after the adult apocalypse, but after reading a convincing tract he regains his faith, and finds himself called to re-start the church his father preached at. At first he only has a few people come to the church. As word of it grows, and as people in the group lend their support, it becomes more popular. He and the more zealous members of the fledgling church get the chance to evangelize to some of the local gangs, resulting in the death of one member. When the Order passes into the region, a few members start to show up less often. The church was an important source of food and water for the congregants, but now there's something better coming along.
Joshua looks into the Order and finds they have a place open for people who have a knack for computers, which includes Joshua. He takes up a position in the town in a group called the Electronics Restoration Agency, where he helps restore a kind of Internet in the area. Some time later, he receives a letter from another young man, in another state, saying that he also has a Lutheran church. The two of them meet and establish the Eastern American Synod, with Joshua as the leader.
Then we move to Richard, the 16 year old leader of the Order. The aim of the Order is to restore peace, order, give people a feeling of purpose and love, and meet the basic needs of those who join. Within the Knights, the military branch of the Order, is a special operations group called the Rangers. They are heavily trained, and many have the red eye. One Ranger is Sarah 25, who has contributed greatly to the knowledge of the red eye. After a mission where her boyfriend and fellow Ranger, Jeremy, is killed, she defects, motivated by the way Richard weaponizes people with the red eye. She begins a plot to get Richard out of power by coercing gangs to attack Order establishments. Eventually she is stopped and takes on a fake name to protect herself. She tries a brief stint as a teacher in the New York area, still wanting to do something good for the world, but eventually leaves to go south.
Meanwhile, Joshua has become something of a community leader. He isn't a governor, just a pastor and computer technician. Even so, the governor of the town knows that Joshua is a person of influence, although only a small percent of the town actually goes to the church. The synod has grown to 4 churches, with some others planned to be established. He has also gotten word of the existence of two other religious entities: the Baptist League, which is a bit more far flung than the synod, and the Catholic Church, which has two main hubs of activity around Pennsylvania and North Carolina. There is some tension between the Order and the religious bodies. After all, it is the Order that seeks to provide things like order and purpose and meaning. Yet it seems like these churches do it just as well. Some governors of the Order are happy to work with these churches. Others, not so much.
In the heartland of America, another large alliance has formed. Led by a succession of gang bosses, the Topeka Alliance spans the area of Topeka and Kansas City. Caleb Reid calls a meeting to establish a new position of power in the hierarchy of leadership, which is ultimately titled the First. The role of the First is to execute the commands of the High Boss (think Hand of the King from Game of Thrones, but not really as powerful). It's been 7 years since the adult apocalypse at this point, and a sort of electrical system using cobbled-together wind turbines has been established in the area.
The position of First falls upon 21 year old Samuel Tanner. He gets settled into the role, and is instructed by Caleb to help launch an attack on the nearby city of Manhattan. The attempt is victorious, and after Samuel has established some order in the area, he is then instructed by Caleb to lead a group to see what lies beyond the Osage Barrier. Osage is a small town south of Topeka, and during the adult apocalypse there was a battle among American soldiers to stop what was behind the Barrier from ever being disclosed.
Samuel leads the group through the barrier and into the secret underground lab. There they find a variant of the virus which caused the adult apocalypse. Realizing what Caleb (or many others) might do with that knowledge, he lies to Caleb about what they found. His lie is found and Samuel is threatened with death. Samuel asks his gang boss to threaten civil war if he is killed, and Caleb relents. Caleb begins plotting to take over St. Louis, Missouri, and intends to use the virus variant. Samuel discretely plots to have the virus destroyed en route, and succeeds without anyone ever knowing.
At the same time, Richard is dealing with gangs that would want to spark war. After being assaulted by a red-eyed gang boss that desired Richard's power for himself, he becomes more careful and less idealistic in his method of leadership. Skirmishes break out between the Order and the New York City Alliance, a group in the Long Island region. Richard brokers a peace and offers the NYCA some more territory.
A few months later, the Order of Friendship and Topeka Alliance meet for the first time on the outskirts of their territories. Samuel and Richard both desire to make peaceful agreements, but Caleb sees them as a threat. Caleb's call for war is supported by many bosses who would want the resources and power of the Order for themselves, and Samuel finds himself leading a war he does not approve of. The Topeka Alliance scores some decisive victories but stands no chance of winning - the Order is too big, its Knights too well trained, its Rangers too deadly.
During the conflict there is also an exchange of ideas. One such idea is the republicanism that has grown in the Order. Calls for a change from the gang-led government to one like the Order are made. Caleb resists these calls, but after he is fatally wounded, a reform of government is made. Peace with the Order is made, but within the Alliance there is now a political race between Samuel and Nathaniel, who shares some of his political beliefs also differs in significant ways. The people vote, and Samuel wins.
After 8 years as leader of the Order, Richard concludes that his time is done. He retires to the town where the first veteran of the Knights, Alex Caffey, lives and establishes a construction/repair business.
Michael Carter was one of the people displaced by the Topeka-Order war. He left his hometown on the edge of Order territory to seek a more peaceful place to settle down. His southward path took him to Baton Rouge, Louisiana. He meets a nice girl and pairs up with her.
Michael is not the only notable person to enter Baton Rouge. Having spent the last several years travelling, stopping here and there, Sarah (still under her fake name) encounters Markus Schmidt, who styles himself an Emperor. He claims to lead the Empire of Houston, which surprisingly has grown to control land from Texas to Louisiana. Sarah helps Markus take Baton Rouge in exchange for being the Lady of the city, to which Markus agrees.
Michael learns about the newly established Lady Holcomb and seeks to become a worker of her estate. He eventually becomes a fisher/cleaner.
At the point, 10 years after the adult apocalypse, there has been great advancements in restoring electricity. In fact, both the Order and the Empire are on the verge of having some functional power lines. Tensions grow between the three major entities (the Order, Empire, and Alliance), which threatens to escalate into war. Samuel struggles with threatening to use the virus variant he once
stopped Caleb from using, in order to give the Alliance headway in the
struggle for electrical power. Michael helps Sarah and Kristen, the girl who became her successor in the Rangers, lead a large coalition of red eyed people into preventing war.
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This is a lengthy, but not complete, exposition of the grand plot.
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