Beyond the Valley of the Keepers

It is December 26, 2112, the day after Gifting Day. Lady Christiana Applewait, a legacy citizen of the Central Zone, and her friend Dr. Jason O'Reilly have been running from the Blue Guard. Though Christy is in line for a seat on the Council of Twelve, her position has not protected her from obsessive stalking by Chief Inspector Ward Stoner. But, they cannot stop. They must fill petitions to place a Citizens' Referendum on the ballot at the next election in order to overturn the Length of Days law. If not, Christy's dear grandparents will turn seventy-five and reach the age of extermination. They will enter the never-ending-sleep, thus ending their Length of Days.A judge in the Central Zone placed a two-year stay on final-sleep travelers while Christy and Jason gather petition signatures in the other three Zones. The four United Zones were formed after the great upheaval in the previous century. They will have to cross Zone borders, closed for many decades. With each zone sealed off from the others, Christy and Jason have no idea what to expect or who will guide them. They will meet the Hollow people in the new Bible belt of the far west; the quiet rural people of the mid-west who live on government farms and work in government-owned mills; and the underlings in the east who live in the sewers and old subway passageways under the city. Fear of detection will not keep them from trying to succeed. God will be with them.