Rule Number One

The Wall reached above the morning fog like a drowning hand sinking last beneath the waves. He could see it through the meshed screen; the mash of metal and stone seemed to shine dully as the sun rose from behind the massive structure.

Once, what seemed very long ago, all children learned the plotting of lands and territories within what was once known as America. They would trace the lines of a map which marked the borders as they named each state and capital. Now those maps were gone, along with their invisible borders, because every person knew where their home began and ended with the turn of a head. Forty-seven feet of thick dense stone now wrapped around each of the fifty Ununited States.