Chapter One

My name is Sabian. I am immortal. And I am being hunted.

I have been living this way for 18 years; running from The Consortium. I guess you would call me a nomad, I'm forced to move my camp constantly to avoid detection. I prefer to think of myself as a traveller. The Consortium would call me a fugitive. My name is on the list; I am a member of The Hunted. There aren't many left now, there are only so many places you can hide from The Consortium and one by one they have captured or executed every member of The Resistance I can remember.

It didn't used to be this way. Before The Consortium things were different. It requires a long memory to reminisce about life before The Consortium, they have been around in some shape or form for fifty years or more. I don't remember exactly when they started although I really should. At first they were just a collection of businesses joining together to lobby the government on issues particular to their industry. As they grew they encountered more success and influence. More businesses from different industries joined forces eager to reap the rewards availble to the cojoined. They called themselves at first The Union, then The Cooperative before finally settling on The Consortium. As they grew in size so too grew their influence. The government had to lisen to their advice, at first, and then their demand or risk losing everything they controlled. A board was elected, like in many companies, to direct and manage The Consortium headed by The Chairman. He is an old man, that is for sure, he still has the job. The Chairman always had the ear of the leaders, whispering his demands for them to follow. This became laborious and too demanding as clever leaders found ways to disobey so The Consortium sent puppet leaders for election. And of course they won. Who would vote against The Consortium when they controlled your job, your food, your house, your water... What then, they argued, was the point of an independent government when it was essentially just a subsiduary of The Consortium. So now we have it The Consortium control everything and The Chairman controls The Consortium.

But this was a long time ago. They just gradually took over everything so people barely noticed, and their rules became more and more stringent until every aspect of life was covered by The Guidelines. I couldn't understand why people just accepted it. Maybe it was fear of reprieval or maybe it was just easier to accept and adjust than to fight and risk everything. So most people are now members of The Acceptance. They live their lives as hopeless drones of The Consortium it does not even occurr to them to question their dictats. Their lives are grey.

The Resistance were the only sane people I ever met. There were many and yet there were few. There would never be enough to defeat The Consortium. But that was not what we tried to do. We lived outside The Consortium and The Guidelines. We protected each other from detection and punishment. We were a set of people, of all different kinds, who knew that The Consortium were dangerous and didn't like the road we were going down. We made a stand.

We were more than outnumbered. We were outsmarted and outwitted. And then it began.

Eighteen years ago The Consortium began The Purge. Everyone had always known of the existence of immortals, witches and such living amongst the humans. Some people had always been uneasy about us preferring not to acknowledge their existence. Something about the supernatural scares humans, maybe it is the reminder of their own mortality. Or maybe there are just naturally afraid of anything different to themselves. Either way it wasn't hard for The Consortium to persuade the proletariat that we were a danger. They portrayed us as wild beasts rabid and unsafe. The said we lurked amongst the people, shady and suspicious never identifying ourselves. There was something in the fact we were different that enraged them. So different that they couldn't accept us. I think it's because we are immortal and it reminds them of their own mortality. There's nothing more they fear than their own death.

Now there is no resistance. Only acceptance. I live in the hills of this land constantly moving to avoid capture. I keep the walls in sight at all times so that I know that I am as far from the centre as possible and so as far from The Consortium as possible. One day I'd like to cross those walls, to see what life is like on the other side. For as long as I can remember, even before The Consortium, this land was encased in twenty foot high walls. On the other side, freedom.