Water

Water. One page synopsis. 2050. Phoenix. The city is bone dry. Doors bang in the wind. Most of the valley has emptied out, a victim of climate change. But there are those who have remained. Some can’t afford to leave while others have carved out an empire where there are no laws, no societal norms. They have carved out a business based on slavery. The story swirls around two sixteen-year-old girls. Water, named for the most precious thing her parents could think of, is from a water wasteland. This resilient, whip-smart rogue has had to survive by concertina wire wits. Tandy, on the other hand, has been raised soft. Coddled and spoiled by Ross, her father, she has always had plenty of money, plenty of water, plenty of attention. She is privileged, educated, and ignorant of how people like Water live. But unknowingly, she has also been raised to be a slave. These two girls are thrust together against their will, forced to become friends when Water is kidnapped to be a companion for the spoiled Tandy. But things take a bad turn when Water overhears that Tandy has been sold as a slave. They must escape. Water weaponizes water. She turns on every spigot, tap, valve, hose, nozzle and faucet. The house floods and the girls escape into the netherworld of the city’s underground sewer system. This is a dangerous, dark, and fetid place filled with monstrous people. But they are not only escaping from something, but they are also escaping towards something, for Water is heading to the one person she thinks she can trust; John, a boy she only knew for one intense month. They are pursued by Ross and Ferris, a fierce, scarred warrior who survived the Wars. Six-feet-tall, she can track a bird in flight. Water and Tandy drop into this underground series of tunnels and immediately encounter a cast of people trying to survive. One of them survives by covering themselves with a costume of dirty rags and a rancid repellant smell. Another engages in cannibalism. Suddenly the sewer floods, separating them and sweeping them to Water World. They wind up on different shores of an underground lake. They are taken there to work and learn that the place uses slave labor to grow cotton and produce water for the people above. They also make friends and find out that there is a revolt brewing. Through a series of events, they all wind up at John’s house above the factory. This is not a happy reunion. And to make matters worse, the old man that Tandy was sold to also shows up. Everyone wants these two young girls for their own selfish reasons, but together, the girls make an unstoppable team. They manage to elude these men, rescue the slaves, and ruin the slave empire. But they are now on the run, and their pursuers are intent on finding them and bringing them back to a home that neither of them ever wants to see again.