First, I needed a name.

At the gates of Orwell, there were two of the glowy-eyed guys watching us walk in the door. Sometimes they would scan you with their scanner gun to see if you were who you really were. (Whoops, forgot to tell you. All of us human-type folk had a barcode tattooed on the back of our neck. Later, I burned mine off with a Zippo and a lot of liquid courage) Of course, with my striking resemblance to Mercutio the Foul, (All Illuminati were trained from birth to fear my visage at sight, although the pictures they used were grossly different from mine.) I was quickly detained. I was really starting to hate this place.

14 minutes of excrutiating pain later, I was tattooed, and my name was Johnny B. Goode. They didn’t believe me when I told them my real name.

Orwell Senior was smack-dab in the middle of Lower Orlocksville, (PoorHumansburg, I liked to call it). It boasted dormitories for the students that didn’t have homes worth living in, i.e.: me. Maybe next time I’ll show you my campaign map of Orlocksville, with major boroughs mapped out, but not now. I have to tell you about my comrades in arms.

I never really paid much attention in school, even in my own time. Answer me this. In all of your high school classes, was there a guy who just screwed around the whole class? Well, that wasn’t me. I slept, mostly. The problem with sleeping in class in the future was that the teachers had small, yet painful riot prods to wake you up. So I listened sometimes.

This was my class schedule. (There were no semesters, just the same thing every day, day after day after day. Wore you down and made thoughts drift towards revolution.)

History of the Illuminati, our Masters Eternal (ZZZZZZZZZZZZ --- Zap! OW! --- ZZZZZZZZ. It’s a cruel cycle.)

Worship at the Altar of Long (The only religion in this brave new world. This class I could successfully sleep in, seeing as how we had to bow down towards a crucifix for an hour and a half. Little did I know that this was the one class I should have paid attention to.)

Basic Arithmetic (In this class, I excelled. It was grade two math for the masses.)

Music Appreciation (This class could have been enjoyable, although there was only one record we listened to. "You Are Nothing Compared To The Illuminati", by Lithpicis Junior, and his big band!)

In between worship time and math class, lunch was served. Gruel, usually. It was during this short time that I found time to see my comrades. Well, they kinda found me, the first time. Beaten to a bloody pulp and lying on the ground was how they found me the first time.

I forgot to mention this, but Orwell wasn’t exclusive to us human folk. A small but influential number of Illuminati children went there, presumably to hone their human-beating skills. The suckup humans followed them around everywhere too, and one day, they all beat me senseless for sleeping in one of their chairs. It was on that day that I met my brothers and sisters in rebellion.

So there I was, bloodied and beaten, in a clump on the ground, when suddenly, a hand was thrust towards my face. I looked up, and a beautiful face looked up at me. She put a small piece of paper in my hand, and ran off.

This is what the note said.

So I did.

I got to Girls Dormitory 17 at 12:35 and said the code word. They let me in two minutes after they scanned me with the door-mounted scanner.

I recognised the leader from before. She was a prominent Human being at my school, and in my book, that was all right with me. Four angry-looking girls with riot prods flanked her.

"Sit."

I did.

"You’re Johnny B. Goode, right?"

"Maybe. Why do you ask?"

"If you aren’t Johnny B. Goode, and you are who we think you are, we need your help."

"Why should I help you?"

She shooed her protection into the other room and leaned over towards me. At this time, I noticed her striking auburn hair and green eyes.

"I had a dream about you."

"And your point is?"

"You’re not Johnny B. Goode, you’re Mercutio Grey. And you’re here to help me overthrow the Illuminati."

"Why can’t you overthrow them yourself? You’ve got people power, and weapons."

"You’re not going to believe this either, but since Lithpicis Von Carfiels took over the world, there hasn’t been any real violence at all. Ever. We’ve all been placid little sheep ever since the vampire became our shepherd. He bred out the unfriendly elements of humanity, and left us with the conformists."

"Where do I fit in here?"

"Don’t you see, Mercutio? You’re the last living human being on Earth who knows how to fight back! Your species needs you, Mercutio!"

"Call me Ash. I hate my other name."

"My name is Alexis. Good to know ya."

She knocked twice against the door, and her protection entered the room once more.

"Ash, here’s Molly, Jane, Raine, and Hope. Girls, meet Ash Grey, our new sister."

"Hey, wait a minute," I said, "I’m no one’s sister!"

Molly was as tall as Alexis, which is to say about three inches shorter than me. She had long black hair and a nice smile.

Jane and Raine were twin sisters who both had blond hair and blue eyes. They also shared an angry attitude towards the Illuminati.

Hope was almost a foot shorter than I was, but she made up for it in prettiness. She was a fox! There was only one thing I found unpleasant about her, and that was her paleness. She was almost albino pale.

Later on, I asked Alexis where Phil put all the angry humans who wouldn’t play nice. She told me that after the nuclear Armageddon Phil inflicted upon those of us not under his control, he put the leftovers to work on building his radiation proof dome. After they finished it, he banished them to a life in the outer lands (hence the term Outlander, what everyone called me at the hospital). I took the outer lands to be what used to be Ontario or Quebec. That was over a hundred years ago. Now, whenever an Outlander manages to make it back to New Orlocksville, he’s reasssimilated into the general population. Fresh blood. The majority of the Outlanders live in unorganised bands, fighting amongst themselves for fun. Sometimes I envied them.

"How are we gonna do this with just the 5 of us?" I asked.

"It’s not just the five of us. There are a few cells in every school, maybe a hundred Sisters in all. Do you think that’s enough?"

"I don’t really think so. And you’re all girls?"

"Hence the term ‘Sisters’."

"I see. We’re gonna need some guys. I think we should start some clubs, and gradually admit the boys with our organisation."

There was a general consensus all around.

"How about weapons? What do we have?"

"We’ve got riot prods. That’s about it."

"That’s all you’ve got? Those don’t even kill people!"

"That’s the idea! Killing people is wrong!"

"You’ve got to get around the fact that those Illuminati guys aren’t people anymore. They’re freaks. Mutants who’ve enslaved our entire species. Some of them are going to have to die. And for that to happen, we’ll have to get some real weapons. One more thing. So, we’ve got shit all for weapons, but what does the enemy have?"

"I don’t know, although the library at school has information on stuff like that. Let’s just say, they’ve got a lot. The only thing we’ll have going for us is numbers. There’s only about five thousand Illuminati in Orlocksville, while there are about a million of us humans."

"Well girls, I think we’ve got to go on a field trip. Is there any museums from my time here?"

Alexis nodded.

"We’re going to have to go get us some guns."