June sat on her cot looking into the darkness of the camp, the bland stale smelling room almost maddening as quiet whispers and coughs filled the silence of the night. She knew now her name was no longer June, but now Offred. They had taken even that from her. Her cot felt warm and itchy, and the nightdress all humans in the camp were given itched just as bad. She had been at the camp now for over three years, and had lost many friends to the monsters of the night.

They called it the Flesh Camp, but it was really an old high school, one of the many that were scattered around their northeastern town, another hollowed out building to keep humans in. It's old walls creaked in the middle of the night as the wind blew hard against the window panels. All the windows had been barred long ago when the buildings had first been made into the Flesh Camp, and all the doors were sealed to prevent escape. If she had known any better she would think this is what animals felt like in a zoo. She let out a sigh and looked next to her. Her little sister Sarah, with her mousy hair now shining in the moonlight, took long breathes that told June she was dreaming sweetly.

She was six now, barely even remembering their parents, or their brother Luke. And tomorrow she wouldn't remember June. She had been assigned a house, to be what the Order called a Bloodmaid, where she would be used for others to get their nutrition and youth back, and she would forever be separated from her family.

Those monsters...

Beautiful horrible creatures of the night, they had overtaken the whole country by now. Vampires, Bloodsuckers, the Undead, whatever you wanted to call them, they were all the same. It had started when the president had been assassinated, some said it was the vampires themselves who took out the higher officials that ran the country, they had caused hysteria behind the curtains of a so-called structured government. Funny that it had been taken over so easily... but it was also the same day June's parent's had died. She had been sitting in the living room, the white couch she loved to lay on where she had an afternoon nap right after school, when the breaking news poured over the television screen. Images poured over the government buildings being taken over as smoke filled the sky. She remembered being wide eyed and still, watching as looters took over cities. It was how they lived back then, as everyone had at the time. All the signs were there, but people ignored it. They ignored how government officials were keeping quiet about the deaths, about the disappearances of people. June hated them, ignoring wasn't the same as ignorance, ignoring takes work. Like a gradually heating bathtub, the human race had been boiling to death without even knowing it. There were rumors, but it was just that. When they slaughtered Congress, when they blamed organizations and terrorists, all while the vampires had been waiting diligently, watching us destroy each other until they came and took over.

She remembered panic. Pure unaltered panic as she saw people outside her own home looting in the streets, people crying and wondering what had happened as they watched their loved ones dying left and right. Then Luke had come home, his tall frame shadowing the doorway as his blonde hair was swept back like it was whenever he was stressed. His dark blue eyes were hollow as he looked to her with despair while closing the door quickly to the chaos outside.

"Mom and Dad are gone" he whispered.

"What do you mean?" June said shocked as she got up from the couch.

"I mean they are dead June, this morning...oh God what are we going to tell Sarah?" he said holding his head in his hands "A car crash...it was a hit and run..."

June had been frozen to the spot that whole night. They had managed to keep intruders out of the house as they grieved. It all happened so fast...her brother had cried in her arms, and then Sarah. No tears had left her eyes though she had become a stone statue, unable to grasp that her parents were gone and it was up to her and Luke to take care of Sarah.

And then like a nightmare, the vampires emerged from the darkness and took over the country almost over night

They called themselves the race of Gilead. Pale porcelain faces, eyes darker than a moonless night, and teeth sharper than a snakes. They sprung up and took over, throwing away the government June once thought she knew and making their own.

Then the harvesting started.

Luke had found out about it first. He had been at the grocery store getting Sarah lunch packs for school, when he saw the black vans start picking people off the street. It explained the disappearances, but June like everyone, had thought that it could never happen here. It wasn't a particular person, or a group of people, but everyone that the vampires set their eyes on. Luke had barely escaped and came home in a hurry. She had been asleep then, now, she was awake.

He had told them to pack quickly,nothing heavy that they couldn't carry along with them. Sarah had almost refused to leave her toys behind, but June convinced her just to take the small stuffed elephant her parents had given her for her fifth birthday. Sarah agreed and left the house fast with June and Luke. Leaving felt like being a coward, but Luke had told June over and over that it was the only way to keep them safe. Outside the borders of the country, they could live free and away from the undead. Their neighborhood that was once friendly and inviting had looked like a war zone when they had finally decided to run away. Houses were gutted open, people leaving like rats deserting a ship. Some had managed to escape, but like most, many had been captured for the vampires.

They were making their way south, somewhere that the vampires had not sprung up. Luke had stolen a car, something that wasn't uncommon in those times, and had driven them to the border of what was now called the Order of Gilead. They had taken over most of the USA, along with many cities in the UK and Europe. Australia and some of South America seemed to be where most humans had flocked to. Luke suggested south and June was more than happy to agree with him, as long as it meant getting away.

He had picked up fake teeth and contacts for their eyes. The Nightwalkers had very distinct eyes, they glowed like cats eyes in the night, the reflective lens of the creatures visible when light passed by in iridescent colors. A subtle but accurate difference between humans and vampires. June had such trouble putting the contact in Sarah's eye and had to eventually hold her down to quit her struggling.

The teeth had been simple, just cap them over your canines and bottom teeth and you looked like one of them. Luke stopped by their friend Mora's house to pick her up as well. Mora had been hiding out in an abandoned apartment for months now, trying desperately to avoid capture. Her lovely short red hair bobbed in the night as she jumped into the car with her backpack.

As they made their way to the border, June shook in her jacket and held Sarah close to her who was wide eyed. It had been on the edge of winter when they had decided to go, and Luke had planned a specific route to take them as far south as possible without running into problems. They were passing one of the many border patrols in West Virginia, hoping to make it down near Tennessee in a few days and then farther and farther south till they reached Texas. The woods were hauntingly still as June remembered looking outside before turning to Sarah. She looked like a small kitten in June's arms, and kept licking her chapped lips from the cold. June looked back to the front of the car and saw they were next. Luke handed the guard the passports casually and looked to Mora with a smile. They had been in love for some time, and June had grown very close to Mora in the past months. Mora was independent, resilient, and June admired her greatly. She had seen Mora's passion and her bravery, she only wished she was the same. Instead, June found herself much like how her mother was, calm, nurturing, and careful. A stark contrast to the woman she knew her brother intended to marry once they were safe.

The guard looked at their passports and waved his meter over the car, making sure that they didn't possess any weapons or UV light pills. There were rumors about a human Resistance, and that they had made the technology to be able to kill the vampires at a distance rather than hand to hand combat. The vampires possessed enormous strength and were lightning quick. All they needed were their fangs and hands to rip a human apart if they chose to. The Resistance had to think of a different way to be able to fight back. UV light pills were now a threat to the vampires, and they were now making sure that they ceased any production of it. The guard handed the passports back to Luke and they seemed to be in the all clear, when Sarah suddenly sneezed and her canine cap fell from her mouth.

June automatically grabbed Sarah, knowing the guard had seen her human teeth, and bolted from the car. The woods were not far and June could make it if she carried Sarah. June could hear Luke's deep voice yelling for her to run and Mora's screams in the night.

Sarah started crying in her arms and June's breathe was growing short as her legs pumped battery acid through her veins just to try and outrun the guards. She could hear the spatter of gunfire in the night and she tried to steady her breathe while carrying Sarah's small body. The snow had began to fall, big flakes that dampened June's hair and made her body shiver. The trees had slowed the vampires for only a moment, but it was enough for June to get a head start, her feet moving blindly forward as long as it was away from the guards. Sarah cried in her arms as June tried to quiet her as their heaving breaths echoed in the air.

Eventually she became lost, and the guards had grabbed her immediately as soon as her legs stopped moving. Sarah shrieked as they pulled her away from June's arms that had almost become an iron grip around her. But she had been so weak, so tired and cold, June collapsed on the ground and felt the impending blow to the head as the guard hit her with the butt of his gun. Then everything went dark.

June had woke at the camp, the stone building blurry at first as she had tried to nurse her pounding head. They had taken the high school were June had attended and made it into a make-shift shelter at first, the cots lined up in rows as people around her began waking up as well. Her body was completely bruised up and battered as she hurriedly looked around to find Sarah next to her sleeping in her own cot. She breathed a sigh of relief and looked for Luke and Mora in the crowd of people also waking very confused and looking for loved ones. Everyone had different tales of why they were at the camp. Some had tried to escape, some had been taken off the street, and very few had come of their own free will to avoid the process of being taken.

She had found Mora, her face puffy and bruised from the guards beating and learned that they had taken Luke to a separate camp for human males. The camp her and Mora were in was for females only. The rules of the camp were simple, do not try and escape, and you may have a chance of living. All of the humans were made to wear white hospital gowns and were allowed only a certain diet. Raw eggs, meat, and some dairy along with vitamin pills that tasted like chalk. Absolutely no fruits, grains, sweets, and seafood. Only those kind of delicacies were reserved for the highest of human pets.

The Aunts made sure that all human were "re-educated" in the ways of the vampires. Humans were food, slaves, and property to the vampires and nothing else. They had no rights to speak, had no opinions and had no say on whether they lived or died. Their bodies and blood were for the taking, and whoever owned a human made all the decisions. It was like telling a herd of cattle they were going to be the next burger. June hated the propaganda the Aunt's tried to throw at them. They tried to make it seem like this was all for the greater good of humans, that they themselves should be thankful that they had the Order to take care of them. It was a bunch of bullshit in June's eyes and many others.

The Aunts were all female vampires, a lower class of vampire that was sent to keep others in line. Their class depended on how long they had been a vampire, the lower classes having only become "part of the darkness" for a few centuries. Others, called the Old Ones, had been around for far longer. The Aunts all wore brown dresses with their hair up tight, a sign of their caste, and carried around electrical cattle prods to keep the others in line. If a human spoke out of turn, if they gave the Aunts a harsh eye or a resistant stance, they would be shocked into obedience.

June sighed and looked to the Aunts break room, its florescent light glowing bright above her. The Aunts never slept, just took breaks and played cards with each other. Sometimes an Aunt would be caught going down into the human beds and feeding from an unsuspecting human, those that were caught found themselves dead on the walls of the borders of Gilead. Punishment was brutal in Gilead; anyone caught drinking more than their rationed blood was to be sentenced to death.

June looked back to Sarah, now sucking her thumb and holding tightly to her elephant. The guards let her keep her toy, knowing that she would be stripped of it later in life when she hit puberty. The human children thankfully were left alone, being dubbed Daughters and Sons, too young to actually feed from. Only the richest vampires paid heavy fees to drink from children, but even that was considered taboo among their own kind.

Though it still scared June, a Daughter could be transferred to a household and brought up along with other vampire children till they hit a certain age, then they would be come Bloodmaids or Martha's, the equivalent of half breeds in Gilead and sent into servitude for the vampires. That was now June's fate, of Offred's fate. Offred meant "Of Fred", meaning she was now the property of the man who was named Fredrick.

Property... the word felt sick even in June's head.

They all were stripped of their names, now only numbers to the Aunts. Junes was 2406J, meaning she was the two thousand, four hundred, and sixth human to enter the camp. The J was the only remnant of her name. Thankfully Sarah was 2407S, so her cot was right next to June's, although she mostly slept in June's cot.

June covered Sarah up more with the wool blanket and thought about tomorrow. She had been told that she specifically had been chosen to be a Bloodmaid. According to the Aunts, it was a high blessing for a human.

"You could be sent to the Farm as a Unhuman, where they strap you to a machine and you spend the rest of your puny mortal life giving out blood. No walks, no sunshine, no clothes, no nothing, you are just food to us and will be treated so. Luckily for you, someone found you attractive enough to keep in their house, bless yourself human" the Aunt had said handing June her new clothes to wear. June felt as if the Aunts were nothing more than broken records, another speech that would "re-educate" had been given a red dress and a red cloak with red shoes and sent away, the material cold but sleek against her hands.

"A question Aunt?" she said bowing her head as she was supposed to.

"Yes human?" the Aunt said.

"What about 2407S? She is too young to be left alone at camp; I was hoping I may take her with me till the Agency finds a house for her?" June said hopeful she could take Sarah with her.

"That cannot be allowed 2406J, but I will give you this comfort, 2407S will be given away tomorrow too, a nice family with three or four young Keepers, she will be taken well cared of. Your Commander made it so when he found out you were kin to each other" the Aunt said looking her up and down with those cold eyes. Keepers were what the Aunt's called the vampires that owned humans within the household.

"Great Thanks,Aunt" June whispered and walked out the door. It did give her comfort that Sarah would go to a family and not be left alone in this hollow cold place. Daughters that were adopted had a very good life, they were well kept and had very nice clothes and were treated with some respect. June thought the vampires only did this because they knew that a happy Daughter would make a happy Bloodmaid and be willing to give themselves to their household completely.

June on the other hand, had a different story. She was almost malnourished, having her regular diet taken away by food the night walkers fed her. They made her weak so that she wouldn't be able to fight or to run away. It was a system that the vampires had worked on for centuries, and now it was a fine tuned and well oiled machine that her kind had been put through the last three years.

June looked under her bed and pulled out the red dress. Its haunting red glowed in the moonlight, looking more like blood than the poppy red it was supposed to resemble.

Bloodmaid.

The term was almost cherished and hated by many. It meant that a human would leave a Flesh camp and be entered into the vampire world. It meant giving your body to two or three people to feed from and endure the pain. It meant having to sleep and eat according to someone else. It meant slavery and freedom at the same time, freedom being that she would be out of danger rather than go to the Farm.

It meant a lot of things to June, but the most important thing it meant was that she would be away from Sarah and the humans, and into the world of the of the night.