Draft of the Second Chapter of "Reversing Entropy"
The sun hadn't even rose, but she couldn't rest for any longer, nor did she want to. She knew who might be after her and Madeleine needed to move; she had been resting for far too long after she fell asleep last night on the side of the road, a huge mistake when you're trying to hide from the raiders that inevitably rise up out of disasters such as the bomb. The raiders were likely normal people once; they were people who had jobs and people who would work hard to provide for their families, but something inside of them must have changed when everything fell. No, she felt their ruthlessness is something found in a specific group of people, something that emerges after everyone else around them either goes into shock or survival mode. While the rest of the world fell, the corrupted rose into power, unveiling their true selves from a thin cover of society. This breed of person entered into neither shock nor survival mode but instead stayed the same as they had been; it was only a matter of time before their true self became unveiled.