The following story is the account of how a dangerous community came to be, a community hiding in plain sight right here in the United States. I’m not claiming this account is true, but I’m not claiming it’s fictional either. All you need to know is that you must pay attention to whatever rings true to you. This is the story of A New Choice.
A New Choice — for illustration purposes only. Not the real location.
A New Choice
DNA testing had been around for decades, but it wasn't marketed to the public until the early 2000s when a company called DNA & Me released the first at-home DNA testing kit. The kit allowed customers to test their ethnic background by providing a saliva sample from the comfort of their homes and mailing it to the company's laboratory where it was tested for less than a hundred dollars.
Slowly, at home-DNA-testing gained popularity. It gave everyone the ability to proclaim, with proof, that they were more diverse than they appeared to be at first glance. Everyone found a way to gain social benefit from this. Dark-skinned people could claim they had European descent, and fair-skinned people showed off that they were not fully white and rejoiced in their new-found exotic lineage. People took to social media to make it known to their friends and followers that they were diverse, despite their looks. It gave everyone the ability to feel multicultural—even if their percentage of “otherness” was below one percent.
But not everyone was pleased with this showcase of ethnic homogeneity. For Burt Coldren, hearing about this widespread miscegenation triggered something within him that would later lead him to fund a complex segregated community, and with it the beginning of the small-time, modern-day eugenics experiment.
Burt was never particularly interested in eugenics and he never gave the concept of “race” too much thought. As a white man, he felt more comfortable around other white people only because they were culturally more like him, and therefore easier to deal with. However, interacting with minorities and other races seldom bothered him. In his hometown, Auburn, Alabama, most of his interactions were with white people and he never gave much thought to the few instances in which he dealt with blacks, Hispanics, or Asians. For instance, he didn’t mind having small talk with the few minorities he encountered daily, like cashiers, waiters, bank tellers, and co-workers—but he was never the one to start the conversation.
In the year 2008, following Barack Obama’s presidential nomination, the issue of race became one of the most hotly discussed topics among Americans. Burt was highly opposed to the idea of having a black president, not because of the color of his skin, but because Burt believed most minorities had bad ideas he wanted nothing to do with. In his opinion, any non-white presidential candidate would surely try to force a liberal agenda on the country, which Burt equated to an attack on whites. And this was something he wanted to prevent at all costs, for his safety and for that of his five-year-old daughter, Olivia. Burt was a single father. His wife had died two years earlier in a car wreck, so now more than ever he felt the responsibility of doing anything he could to protect his daughter from danger.
Burt was tired of seeing how minorities were taking over the country in a negative way. He hated watching the news and hearing about how pro-equality protests would shut down highways and how some of their members would call all white people evil. He hated civil disobedience and the unearned guilt society tried to impose on him for being white.
And unlike many of his acquaintances who liked to show off how liberal they were by stating their support for things like open immigration, Burt supported strict immigration measures because he believed immigrants from certain counties to be inherently dangerous and a threat to the American way of life.
A few weeks after Obama won the election, Burt saw a post on Facebook that piqued his interest. It was from Jon Brannon, one of his few black contacts. In the post, Jon posted the results of an at-home DNA testing kit he’d taken. According to the results, Jonathan was 22% French and German. Burt didn't have a real friendship with Jon, he was just an old coworker who had friend-requested him years ago. But knowing that Jon was part Caucasian bothered him greatly. It bothered him not being able to tell someone’s identity by their looks. After learning this fact about Jon, Burt wondered who else in his life was not what they appeared to be. He searched and found a recent analysis of the ancestry make-up of people across the United States. He was surprised to learn that a large percentage of black and Latino people had more European ancestry than he would have imagined. Nevertheless, most white Americans were still mostly European—only about 3% of European Americans had non-white ancestry. Burt deleted Jonn from his contacts list that night.
The next morning, Burt ordered three at-home DNA testing kits, one for him, one for Liv, and one for Dina, the girl he had just started dating a few months ago. He was glad to confirm he and Liv were mostly Western European. Burt’s exact results were 93% Western European, 6% Caucasian and only 1% of his DNA could be traced back to the Iberian Peninsula. He called Dina, excited to know her results, which he imagined would be like his. Dina was blond and gray-eyed. Her skin seemed darker than his because she worked in a toll booth where she was exposed to the sun daily, but he could tell that she was as white as him. Dina was stable, she liked him, Liv liked her, and she was as passionate about America as he was. And most importantly, she was normal. She didn't try to be something she was not. She didn't try to force him into having multicultural experiences like past girlfriends who had always wanted to try foreign food places or wanted to go on vacation to places where he didn't know the language. He could see himself with Dina for a long time, but he had to be sure.
"Hi!" Said Dina when she picked up the phone. She knew why Burt was calling her and jumped right into it. She told him that she was mostly Western European, but she was surprised to know that she was 34.5 percent Jewish European. She told Burt that she was excited to call her parents and find out more about their history and learn where that part of her heritage came from. Burt feigned some excitement, but he was disappointed by her results. They talked some more and made plans to meet over the weekend but Burt wasn't feeling well by the end of the call. His mind started racing. With her genetic makeup, having a kid with Dina would be a gamble. What if the kid came out looking Jewish? It wasn't that Jewish features bothered him but if the kid chose to identify as Jewish when he grew up, Burt knew it would cause problems between them because he didn’t care for Jewish culture—he was an American and he didn’t want to get involved with the costumes of other cultures. Burt felt a quiet rage at the thought of his not-yet-born offspring possibly dragging him to a synagogue or asking him to practice non-American traditions.
Burt turned his phone off and went out to a bar that night--he had some thinking to do. Burt truly liked Dina and she was much saner and easier to talk to than most women he’d ever dated. He didn't want to give her up over something out of her control. Plus, if he did break up with her, wouldn’t that make him a racist? But he didn't feel like one. He had never been rude or bad to minorities nor did he wish them ill. He was just accustomed to a certain way of life and he didn't want it to change just to accommodate people who were different. The more he thought about it, the more he realized that he didn’t want to find himself in a position where the course of his lifestyle was put in the hands of someone else—someone with the desire to instill multiculturalism in him.
Burt pondered about what to do for the rest of the week until Friday when he was supposed to meet with Dina for dinner. He called Dina an hour before he had to meet her and told her he would not make it to dinner and that he couldn't see her anymore. He was truly sorry to have to do it like this. He told her that he liked her but he had other priorities and he didn't think they had a future together. Dina had questions, but Burt told her that he didn't want to discuss it more. He apologized a few more times and then told her he had to go. He could hear through the phone that Dina was crying, even though she tried not to show it, which made it even harder for him to go through with it. Many other women would have begged through tears for an explanation or they would have yelled and called him names—but not Dina, she always acted with dignity.
He spent the next two weeks thinking about Dina and how he hadn’t been able to notice how different her background was from his. He thought about those hidden genes of hers, how they had laid dormant for generations, and how they had the power to spring up at any time and influence their host with undesirable ideas. How many more people from his social circles were also not what he thought they were? Now more than ever he wanted to know.
At first, he tried getting people he knew to reveal their origins simply by asking them about it in casual conversation. He asked his tanned-skin friends about their family history but stirring each conversation into where he wanted it to go proved to be difficult. Most of them got distracted mid-conversation, they made jokes or they simply said that they didn't know their family tree well enough. Eventually, Burt did manage to get one friend to tell him about his family. He found out that his parents were from Texas but that they probably had some sort of Latin background.
Burt was stunned once again. Like with Dina, he would have never suspected that his friend was not like him. Despite having dark brown hair, he was blue-eyed and had fair skin like himself. Burt didn't sleep much that night. Instead, he stayed up watching the tv, switching from one news channel to another. He didn't consciously know it when he sat down to watch, but he was looking for evidence he could use to back-up the fear slowly brewing within him; the fear of the different, the fear of the other. As he watched, he noticed the high amount of non-white faces he saw, in the news and commercials. He saw minorities as the suspects of crimes and as instigators of riots. He also saw them smiling, and celebrating the cultures they dragged with them to America from their home countries. They had parades and said things in other languages--things he couldn't understand--and they all looked too fucking happy about it. Burt smashed his empty beer can against the armrest of the couch and went to sleep in a bad mood.
Over the next few months, Burt came up with a wild plan to restore his community. No, he wasn't looking to restore the community, he admitted to himself, he wanted to create a new community where he would never have to fear the unknown—a safe space for people who were unapologetically white like him and who embraced their culture and did not want to be shamed for it. But he needed help.
On Facebook he joined groups with names like "White Pride", "Love Your Race- Stop White Genocide" and "Loving Your Race Doesn't Make Your Racist." He messaged the group admins, inquiring if they could help put him in touch with other Auburn-based people interested in forming a support group for people interested in preserving white heritage, but he had no luck. Some of the members in the group "White Pride" messaged him directly, hoping to enroll him in what appeared to be a sectarian movement resembling Nazism, but Burt declined. He wasn't interested in violence, he wanted to attain what he wanted through shared values, not through fear. He didn't want to force people to think like him, he wanted to find people who already thought like him and surround himself with them.
He tried Craigslist and other online forums but he didn't find what he was looking for. He wondered if perhaps he was being too vague. In the headline of his post he had written, "Do you think Auburn needs to be saved from cultural annihilation? And in the body of the message he wrote, "Need Auburn-based business partners to start a peaceful venture to foster the flourishing of white people in the area." He didn’t get any replies.
For two months he had no luck finding what he was looking for and became a recluse, not wanting to go out with friends dreading that they might make him interact with people he wanted nothing to do with. One of those evenings he was feeling more lonesome than normal and didn't want to be home. He wanted to treat himself to a good meal in a good atmosphere, so he called a sitter for Liv and set out to find a restaurant that might fulfill his craving. Burt assumed that by visiting a high-priced restaurant, he would have a lesser chance of hearing the blabber of minorities. So he drove to the other side of town—the affluent side—and found a five-star restaurant that he'd never visited before. It was called Sunrise.
He got a table for one and ordered from a young, green-eyed, waitress with blond hair. Burt sat back drinking a glass of water while he waited for his food and observed the restaurant. It was busy, but not packed. And there were very few minorities dining in. Later, while eating his meal, he noticed that the entire staff was white and most of them had blonde or light brown hair. Was it just a coincidence? Even the kitchen, where it was normal to see Hispanics, was staffed by white people. Then he noticed a tall, muscular, sharply dressed man talking to the girl who had taken his order. From the way the man addressed the girl, Burt assumed he must be the manager or owner of the restaurant. Burt watched him. The man seemed confident and did not appear to have any hint of guilt for who he was; white, blue-eyed, and affluent—or maybe he was reading too much into it, thought Burt. The man noticed Burt and nodded with a smile.
"Excuse me," he said to his waitress when she walked by his table. "Is that man the manager?" "He's the owner," she replied.
Burt waited outside the restaurant in the parking lot until the owner came out. He followed him to his car and approached as he opened the door. "Excuse me," said Burt. "Yes?" replied the man. "Can I give you this?" Burt handed him a two-page document and walked away. The owner watched Burt leave and then looked down to read the title. It said, "Do You Think Auburn Needs to Be Saved from Cultural Annihilation?" Burt had been driving around with copies of the document for weeks, hoping a moment like this would present itself. He had acted on a hunch and wasn’t sure anything would come of it.
George Stevens was 62 years old and had owned Sunrise for twelve years. It was his passion project, something he did for fun, not for profit. Realistically, he didn't need the restaurant to make a living given that he'd inherited a real estate business from his family and owned two percent of all the commercial spaces and some other residential areas in east Auburn. He'd started the restaurant after moving from Houston, Texas, to be closer to his extended family who lived in Auburn. Stevens approached life as a cowboy would, even though he didn't ride. He cherished tradition, he loved America and he believed that having a strong sense of masculinity was key for a man’s happiness. He was proud of Texas and his country. He loved cookouts, watching football, and country music.
Stevens had always been opposed to open immigration and harbored a secret dislike for minorities. But he'd always hired some minorities for his restaurant because they tended to quit less often and ask for fewer sick days or personal days than their white counterparts. It wasn't until Obama ran for president that he decided to hire an all-white staff. He knew it'd be less cost-effective, but he wanted to send a strong message to the Auburn community, or those that were perceptive enough to notice. He wanted to help preserve America's culture by employing real Americans. Furthermore, now that Obama was going to be the likely winner of the election, the nation had entered a new era where people like him would have to step up and stop pretending to be welcoming of other cultures. Now more than ever it was imperative to exert his free speech and express his dislike for foreigner invaders and his preference for old-fashioned American values.
Burt showed up at Town Creek park fifteen minutes before three in the afternoon. It was Sunday and some families were at the park but there were still several areas along the lake that looked quiet enough for a talk. He found a bench by the lake and waited. A few days after Burt’s brief encounter with Stevens in the parking lot of his restaurant, Stevens had found Burt’s contact information in the document, so he contacted him and asked to meet with him. Burt was anxious. So many things could go wrong. What if the fact that Stevens’s staff was all white was just a coincidence? What if Steven recorded their conversation and exposed him?
"Burt?" asked Stevens as he approached. Burt stood and offered his hand. "Yeah, hi. Thanks for showing up."
Burt had brought a copy of the document he'd already given to Stevens and noticed that Stevens still had the first copy he had given to him. Suddenly he felt he’d made a mistake. Why had he given Stevens the detailed plan? He could have just explained the idea to him without exposing its inner workings. Stevens broke the silence and told Burt that he appreciated how thorough his document was. He thanked Burt for reaching out and complimented him for his perception of what he saw at the restaurant and for understanding that they might have a mutual interest.
Stevens explained that he hadn't been actively looking for an opportunity like the one Burt was presenting to him, but he admitted that he had felt dissatisfied with the way things in the country had been going for a while. He was thirsty for things to change. He was tired of being expected to feel bad for something he was born into, something he didn't choose; his skin color. Sure, he disliked foreign cultures, but lately what had been bothering the most was other white people. White liberals who hated themselves and had given in to the cry of diversity and wanted to make him hate himself as well. He missed the old times when those conversations didn't exist. When one needn’t feel shame if one didn't have a black friend or if one didn’t treat the help as close friends. In his opinion, every group was different and it was unnecessary to force connections that weren't meant to be.
After further discussion, and multiple meetings, Stevens and Burt came up with a plan. Stevens was going to reach out to a couple of friends who might be interested in investing in their project. Stevens had land that he could contribute to kick things off, but they would need more supporters with means. Some of Stevens’s friends, unlike him, were unequivocally racist. They didn't dislike foreigners, they hated them. Their animosity was fueled by more than cultural differences. Steves thought that perhaps with the right guidance he could channel their questionably-motivated passion into something productive.
Two of the men he reached out to turned him down immediately. They did not want to be associated with the project and risk being socially ostracized. One of them, however, was excited to give his support and told him that if he and Burt came up with a sound business plan, he could commit to investing up to three million dollars to fund the project for the first two years.
For four months, Stevens and Burt met up regularly and developed a plan that consisted of four phases and a mission plan. Burt had taken the liberty to name the community, A New Choice.
A New Choice is a living-space for the proud white American that desires to flourish among like-minded peers. A space untouched by multiculturalism in any form. Residents of a New Choice are motivated by love for their kind, not by hate for the other.
At a glance, the first phase of the plan looked like this:
Purchase at-home DNA testing kits to test potential allies.
Scout potential allies and offer them the free at-home DNA test.
Pitch community concept to those individuals with confirmed desired ethnic background.
Facilitate housing in the community for new recruits.
The plan Burt and Stevens presented to their prospective investor explained everything living in the community would entail:
During phase I, the community would consist of only ten houses which will be provided to suitable families or individuals. These families or individuals would be asked to provide a small financial contribution as a contractual agreement to enjoy the community's benefits.
Employment within the community premises would not be possible during phase I, which meant residents would still have constant contact with the outside world. Therefore, individuals would be required to sign the community’s confidentiality agreement and never discuss anything related to the community with anyone.
Romantic relationships must be approached with caution and tact. It is up to each individual to vet their prospective love interests before engaging in a relationship. Individuals are allowed to invite new parties into the community as long as they meet the community's standards and they are in agreement with the community's lifestyle and beliefs. Any individual who is found to be seriously implicated with an unfit romantic partner could be banished from the community.
Community affiliation shall be completely voluntary. Not only do we want to avoid trouble with the law, but we also want our members to know they are free and that no one is coercing them into participating. We are united by ideas, not by force or violence.
The business plan was the following: Stevens would provide a section of land just a few miles away from a local Preserve and Nature Center. It was an area that would allow them to build the community at the center of a forest to pass semi-unnoticed. A year prior, Stevens had ordered that all vegetation be cleared because he had planned to sell it for retail space, until now. It was a generous contribution from Stevens and Burt was well aware that if he didn't make sure to bulletproof their business plan, both Stevens and his anonymous friend would walk away, and then he would be in deep trouble as he planned on investing his own life’s savings into the community. Burt worked as an Engineering consultant and made good money, but nothing close to the level of Stevens.
Using the capital provided by Steven's friend, who they began calling "Silver," they would begin the construction of a small neighborhood within the community. It would include multiple apartment buildings, one convenience shop, and one small healthcare center. Just the basics to get started. In the first year of the community, all residents would receive most of their services from outside the community. But the plan was to expand as soon as possible and make the community as self-sufficient as possible in the years to come.
As so it began. After some preparations, Burt and Stevens gifted forty-five at-home-DNA test kits to some friends and acquaintances in their extended network. They had to come up with prefabricated pitches to justify the gift to their friends and avoid raising suspicions. Burt’s and Stevens’s go-to method was to strike up a conversation and casually mention they had received a free at-home DNA testing kit at work during a health fair. They predicted most people would mention how “they've always wanted to do one of those tests” or they would express curiosity at knowing their own results. At that point, Burt and Stevens would mention that they'd received an extra kit at work and then offer it to the person, saying they didn't have use for it. Many of the people they offered it to took the bite. Burt and Stevens waited a few weeks after the testing kit had been gifted before contacting the person again to inquire about the results. Following this method, they identified eighteen viable candidates. But they still had to execute the most challenging part of the process; weighing the person's views on race, culture, heritage, and multiculturalism.
Burt and Stevens needed a strategy to get people talking about their views on race. They knew most people would be hesitant to voice their views if asked directly, but they figured that if they volunteer their view first then the other person might feel more comfortable talking about the subject—but they had to be careful about it. They didn't want to gain enemies in the process or alienate themselves from people who might not agree with them because they'd still have to interact with them in social situations. Therefore, they decided to kick off each conversation with a mildly controversial statement, but nothing that would get them immediately shunned by the other person.
Sometimes, Burt began the conversation by stating something about Obama—something along the lines of “I’m worried about what will happen to the country now that he’s president,” and then he waited to hear the other person's reaction. He was looking to see if they also had reservations or if they were enthusiastic about him. if they disliked Obama, Burt was interested in knowing their reasoning; was it because they thought his policies were too liberal or because they were uncomfortable with his Muslim background and his potential bias towards minorities? In most instances, it became evident after only a few minutes of talking to these potential recruits that many of them did not align with Burt's views and that they could never be persuaded to consider his perspective.
Burt liked using Obama as a gauge to guesstimate people’s worldviews based on the opinions they had about him. Many people disliked Obama’s economic views but still supported his other socially progressive views. But Burt was interested in those who opposed everything he stood for and what he represented. Those were the people he needed to reach. They were the people who feared being pushed to the side to make room for multiculturalism at the cost of their own culture, and they were the ones who would be open to a rescuer if the offer was appealing enough. Obama’s win had shown them that unless someone stepped up, they—the unashamed white—would be condemned by the liberal majority. Burt would be their rescuer, he would show them that the time for white voices was now.
One morning Burt was at home getting ready for work when he noticed the USPS truck parked outside. He knew the mailwoman. Her name was Wendy and she liked stopping by Burt's house to say hi to his dog Tobs, a friendly Doberman. Burt had given Wendy one of the at-home DNA testing kits and he was eager to know her results.
"Hey there, Burt!" said Wendy as Burt opened the door and walked up to the gate. Tobs was standing against the gate enjoying Wendy's attention.
"Morning." Said Burt.
“I have my results."
" What did they say?"
"Nothing surprising. Turns out I'm just plain old European."
"Oh yeah, nothing linking you to exotic foreign lands?" said Burt in a playful tone. He didn’t want her to sense his eagerness.
"No, I'm as white as they come, but that's alright by me. To tell you the truth I would have been disappointed if I wasn't. That would mean my parents lied to me about their roots and well, it would just be unpleasant."
Burt nodded. He sensed this was her way of expressing her pride.
"That was my reaction as well," said Burt and he added, "I mean, don't you think there's been a little bit of conspiracy lately to make people like you and I obsolete? I mean no disrespect to non-white folks, but is it really that bad to be white nowadays?"
"No is not, buddy. And you're right, there seems to be a lot of hostility toward the average American. Personally, I’m sick of it."
Burt wanted to talk more, but Wendy had to get going and continue her mail route. The following week, however, he waited until she came back to the neighborhood and left an envelope in the front seat of her truck while she was gone delivering some mail. The envelope contained the same documents that he'd given Stevens in the parking lot of his restaurant. He didn't leave his name, but he left his number. If she was interested, she could call him and then they would talk.
Four weeks went by without hearing from Wendy. Burt was disappointed because she seemed like a good candidate and he didn't have any leads on anyone else. But then she called. She was surprised to hear his voice at the other end of the line. She asked if he was messing with her but he made it very clear that he wasn't. "Oh well," she thought, maybe she shouldn't be surprised. If she thought the way she did then others were bound to think the same way too. She didn't know much about Burt, but she knew his character. He'd always been friendly and welcoming, so she decided to trust him.
Wendy was forty-four years old, divorced, and had been delivering mail for seven years. She was short and stocky, with a pleasant face and an unwavering gaze. She considered herself a just woman and she hated delivering mail to the poorer areas of her route. The dogs there were not friendly, people were loud and children were allowed to walk around in nothing but diapers. It was all very crude to look at and be around. But she remembered that it didn't use to be that way. There had been a time when she was very young when those people weren't around. In those years, only other people like her populated the neighborhood and owned businesses there. Now all kinds of out of towners ran businesses and she was the one expected to adapt to their way of life, not them to hers.
Burt gave more details about his plans to build the community to Wendy over the phone. He told her that he would need her to help him find more people who felt the way they did so that they could have a solid base to kick off the first phase of the community. He also explained that she would be expected to provide a small monthly monetary contribution that would go toward her housing and utilities once construction in the community was completed. He advised her to start saving as soon as possible for when the time came.
Arrangements were made to begin construction. Over the next six months, Stevens, Burt, Wendy, and Steven’s unnamed business partner managed to recruit six more people. With eleven people, Burt and Steves decided to move forward. They scheduled the move-in date to March 1 of 2010. On that day construction would be completed and everyone would be prepared to start a new life. The goal was to train their current recruits to recruit even more people in the upcoming months while construction was underway.
It was exciting. The eminence of it all began to feel real to Burt. Some nights he would be unable to sleep because he couldn’t stop thinking of what he was building for him and his daughter. Liv was the most important thing in the world to him and ensuring she grew up in a safe environment was one of the biggest incentives for him to bring the new community to life. He wanted to shield Liv from the dangers of the world, and the threats to her identity.
Burt had been assigned a condo on the far end of the community, with a straight view to the community's main gate. Some condominiums would be bigger than others but they would all be spacious enough for anyone to live in comfortably. Those who made larger contributions to the community would be able to take the larger units.
Stevens drove out to the construction site once a week to make sure everything was moving as scheduled. As construction began to progress, people began approaching him and calling his office asking for information about the new development. All he could say was that all the units had already been pre-assigned and were no longer unavailable—although this wasn’t true. The community was designed to have one hundred and fifty units and by the twelfth week of construction, they only had twenty-five future residents. But he was confident they would find more people soon. He would worry about explaining the vacant units later on when the community was completed.
There was another thing to consider; making sure that that the government stayed out of their business and that people didn't accuse them of breaking anti-discrimination housing laws, but It wasn't so easy to achieve. Stevens planned to draft contracts for the members of the community that would give them the status of guests, not tenants. That way he and Silver would still be the property owners, and thus they would have the legal right to pick and choose who was "invited in" and who wasn't. In this way, they would also have the right to impose rules of conduct within the property to the residents since they would be considered guests.
PHASE 1
The community was located off highway 280 and there was nothing else built within a three-mile radius of them. To get to the community people had to take a road that cut through the forest and ended right at the entrance gate to the community. This road was the only way to get to the community. The gate was solid for privacy and the walls surrounding the community were eight feet high to deter intruders from trying to jump in. There were also four watchtowers along the fence surrounding the community. These towers were slim so that there was only room for two people standing up. This slim design made the towers appear to be pillars instead of watchtowers. They had been built this way to avoid calling attention to what they were.
Within the first three months of having moved in, the initial thirty-eight members managed to recruit ten more people. Now the community had nineteen women and twenty-nine men. There were a handful of couples, but there were no families yet. Because of where the community was located and because they were so few of them, nobody paid attention to their activities during those first months.
Toward the end of the fourth month living in the community, Burt called a meeting for the residents. In this meeting, Burt spoke about their achievements and the state of the culture. His aim was to inspire them and reinforce their shared beliefs and ideals. He offered tips to maneuver the outside world and reminded them that to preserve their lifestyle, they all had to stay out of trouble. Burt emphasized, "The last thing you want to do is to offend a minority." He paused to see if anyone had a reaction he should make a note of but no one protested. He continued, "Remember, we don't want any problems with anybody or it would jeopardize what we've achieved."
The one hundred and fifty housing units were distributed among eight buildings and the buildings lined up with one another in the shape of horseshoe close to the perimeter of the community. Inside the horseshoe, there were another five buildings and some open plots of land available for future construction. The housing buildings were lined up this way to ensure that any given neighbor's activities outside their home could be visible to everyone else. Above all, Stevens wanted transparency. If anyone engaged in questionable behaviors, someone would see.
A week later, Silver called a meeting with Burt. He was dissatisfied with the pace the community had been growing. Silver hadn't moved into the community and wasn't planning on doing so until their numbers were stronger. He wanted the safety of numbers, which would legitimize their plight. In the meantime, his living address remained unknown even to Stevens, and the community didn't know about his existence or that he was a major financial contributor to the movement. With the mounting pressure to grow the community, Burt convinced Stevens to provide him with some financial assistance so that he could quit his job and focus on growing and managing the community full time.
Burt resorted to the internet to find new members. He knew that there were more people out there who thought like him, Stevens, and Silver. But to get into the homes of potential allies, he thought, they had to treat them as customers; offer a service, and then deliver. Burt approached one of their newest members for help. Celine was a twenty-eight-year-old woman with knowledge in Marketing. She had done a lot of work in digital advertising and she told Burt that he might have good results running a digital ad campaign. Celine volunteered to set it up. Thanks to Google’s and Facebook’s elegant targeting system, they would be able to reach their desired targeted audience; right-wing-leaning, affluent, or middle-class white people in the state of Alabama.
The ad Celine set up looked clean and simple. It featured the image of a blue-eyed, blonde woman in her early thirties leaning against a baby-blue colored backdrop. She was smiling with her arms crossed. The ad read "healthy Caucasians needed for paid research." And the headline on the link under the image read, "Find out now if you qualify." Burt was worried they wouldn't get enough people to take the bite, but the ad was a hit. Thousands of people clicked lured by the money offer.
Whenever people clicked on the ad they were redirected to a short survey that asked them basic questions about their ancestry. Those who could trace their parents’ and grandparents’ ancestries to European countries were considered to have a higher chance of being pure-blooded and were then invited to the paid portion of the test. Only 10% of the survey takers were invited to this part of the test. They were redirected to a landing page with a vague statement about the purpose of the research experiment. It stated that the study was intended to gather more information about the ethnic backgrounds in different regions of American. The user was then invited to send their mailing information in exchange for a free at-home DNA test kit, which they would then be sent back to the alleged laboratory conducting the study, and in exchange, the laboratory would send them a $40 gift card plus access to their results.
The ad ran for two months and the vetting process took another five. It was a lengthy process because each kit that was mailed back to them was then mailed to the company that manufactured the kits for testing. It would have been easier for Burt if they had their own lab but they didn’t have the kind of money for a venture of that magnitude at that point. Every time one of the DNA test kits showed that one of the survey-takers was an ideal match for the community, Burt would pose as a lab technician and call the person, inform them of their results and ask follow-up questions in exchange for another gift card. He told them that the study intended to quantify whether ethnic heritage influenced cultural and political opinions.
He reiterated to them that their information would be kept confidential. He asked them about their household, the number of dependents, and their political affiliation. He also asked specific questions about certain laws relating to immigration, welfare, and global trade. Most of the questions were yes or no answers but the tone in which people answered gave away a lot about their view on certain topics. If Burt suspected an interviewee might be in alignment with his views, he would mail them a brochure about the community with pricing information and a whole section dedicated to explaining what they stood for.
Thousands clicked the link. A few hundred received a free at-home DNA test kit, two hundred received a phone call, and forty-three received a brochure with information about A New Choice. Stevens had reluctantly agreed to fund the experiment after Burt assured him that this was one of the safest ways to find new candidates. Plus, he didn't want to ask Silver for money until they could show him that the community had a real chance to grow.
Burt had made sure their operation couldn’t be easily traced back to them. He’d even rented a P.O box under a fake name, which they used to send and receive all the testing kits. Every week, Burt went to check the P.O box to see if anybody had written back in reply to the brochure. Two people had written back demanding to know the address of the community because they wanted to report it to the police. Many more didn't respond, but at least fifteen people showed genuine interest. Some said they would consider it for the future but that it wasn't a good time for them to relocate, but others asked for more information—they were ready to pack their stuff and join. They were excited to be part of something that they thought they would never see in their lifetimes. One of them wrote saying how honored he was to be invited and how he thought "great things like this were a thing of the past."
Almost a year went by since the first ad was run on before the few new recruits moved into the community. And in the second year, the community managed to acquire even more members. By this time, Burt had held several meetings in the community’s town hall offering guidance to new members to help them integrate into the community.
“Welcome to our 6th session. Before I begin I want to thank everyone for continuing to make the transition into our new home so easy. We’ve been here for two years and we have yet to encounter any big issues. In fact, that’s what I wanted to talk to you about today. I want to prepare you for potential future backlash, as we all anticipated when we signed up for this. So far, no one but us knows the purpose of this community. To the outside world, this just appears to be a regular housing development and luckily not many people have pressed us too hard for information about what we do here. However, we need to be prepared because, in two months, we will go public. Well, not exactly public. We will launch a website in which people can find out more information about the community, but our location will not be disclosed to them unless they pass a rigorous vetting process. We’d decided to go this route because we are eager to grow the community. We currently have 67 members but our goal is to get to 150 within the next four years to finally fill in every housing vacancy in the community. We believe that reaching this number will allow us to do great things. Image one hundred and fifty like-minded individuals working together, devising more ways to become self-sufficient and sustainable. And hopefully, in time, expand our territory.” His audience was engaged, nodding in agreement and smiling excitedly at what was to come.
“Now, the goal is not to take over the world. As we’ve stated over and over, we do not want to wipe out those who are not like us.” An attractive young man in his mid-twenties smirked at the mention of this. He was the poster boy for the Aryan ideal; blue-eyed, platinum blonde hair and a well-maintained physique. He wouldn’t dare tell anyone, but wiping out those who were not like him did not sound like a bad idea to him.
“All we want is to be free to choose who we associate with and to be able to preserve our traditions and heritage. And we want a comfortable living environment. Tell me, Is it too much to ask to have a place to live without the nuisance of seeing businesses with signs in languages we can’t read every time we leave the house? Are we not allowed to walk into a store without getting frustrated with the cashier because they don’t speak English?”
The room felt energized and the members were engaged. Burt left the stage and the members stayed to talk to each other. They shared stories of instances where they had found themselves in similar situations; ill-equipped to deal with people from other cultures.
Everyone walked out of the meeting with a renewed sense of purpose. They felt sure that they were doing the right thing. Burt assured them that they shouldn't fear for their safety now that they were going to be more exposed to the outside world. Silver would pay to have armed security and a closed circuit of cameras would be set up around the perimeter of the community. Plus, additional cameras would be installed at strategic points within a quarter of a mile from the community. The land in which they built the community was at least a ten-minute drive from other residential and commercial areas, so they lived comfortably secluded and anyone who didn't reside in the community would be spotted quickly if they came too close.
Thriving
As time went by, the community grew and became stronger. Everyone worked efficiently, each member scouting new recruits in their spare time. As affluent people joined the community, more and more businesses began to open inside A New Choice. Not long after the community was built, Stevens and Silver bought every available additional piece of land within fifteen miles of the community. A New Choice expanded as their member numbers grew over the years, slowly but steadily.
There was trouble in the earlier years. There were instances where members decided to leave and had to be subjected to an exit screening. It was important to know why they were leaving. Burt would sit down with them and ask why they wanted to leave to make sure they wouldn’t turn on the community. The few people that had had to leave on their own claimed that they still supported the beliefs of the community, however, work, family, and other external factors forced them to relocate. Stevens decided to revise the entry contract after ten people left the community within a two-year period. The revised contract ensured newcomers would be bound to a non-disclosure agreement that would result in legal action if information about the community was disclosed.
Sometimes, Burt received threatening emails from paranoid people who spent too much time on the internet who were convinced A New Choice was a hate group that was planning a new holocaust or to take over the government. In the first five years of the community, there were at least three instances where outsiders attempted to break in, but failed, and instead vandalized the walls surrounding the community. In the sixth year of the community, two members were stalked at their workplace by opposers of the community, forcing one of them to decide to leave the community for good. All of these attacks were isolated and performed by lone-wolf types acting alone. But the reality was that these stalkers didn’t have any concrete facts to prove their claims against A New Choice, so convincing others to join them in protest proved difficult. Stevens, Burt, and their legal team had gone to great lengths to keep their activities private, so there was little information online about the inner workings of the community that outsiders could use against them.
In 2016, there was a cultural shift that came as an aftermath of Donald Trump winning the US presidency. Trump’s rhetoric against immigrants and his push for a border wall resonated with a lot of Americans. Burt didn’t like Trump because he considered him a buffoon that didn’t know what he was doing, but he was pleased to see that, thanks to Trump, more and more people were speaking out in defense of white culture and white heritage. It was that year that the number of people interested in joining the community skyrocketed.
However, all 150 units in the community had been full since 2015, so when demand rose, Stevens and Burt decided to expand. By the end of 2017, construction of a satellite location of the community had begun; it would be called, A New Choice II. The new community was located fifteen miles away from A New Choice, and unlike the first community which had been paid off by Stevens and Silver, construction on A New Choice II was fully funded by prospective members. By 2020, A New Choice and the satellite location had grown to 630 members.
Some local Government members had attempted to dismantle the community in the past, but Silver's legal team had made sure that the community's practices remained within the law. Two lawsuits had been filed against them but they were eventually dismissed. Burt and his team made sure to keep all of their DNA bookkeeping secure to avoid giving the government ammunition for more lawsuits against them. All that the government knew was that A New Choice was known for housing caucasian residents only—they were not aware that DNA testing was part of the vetting process.
After 10 years in the community, Burt had built the life he always dreamed of. Four years into the rise of A New Choice he met a woman of Swedish descent and after seven months of dating they were engaged. Annette was beautiful, young, and new to the community. Initially, Burt befriended her to help her adjust to her new life. She not only saw him as the leader of the community but as the revolutionary who had dared to envision the impossible and made it happen. When he started paying attention to her, she sometimes caught herself imagining what life would be like if she were his partner. In that role, she would have a chance to have a worthwhile legacy.
The best thing was that Annette loved Liv as if she was her own. They were a real family and Burt felt the happiest he’d ever been. It was around that time, when Liv was 9 years old, that Burt had the idea to develop an education plan specially tailored for the children in the community between the ages of three and eighteen; a plan specially designed to safeguard their minds. For two weeks Burt worked tirelessly on the plan at his home office.
After being reviewed by the handful of educators that lived in A New Choice, the plan was instituted as a pillar of the community and was implemented twice a week as an after-school program. All children participated. Kids between the ages of 4 and 10 were taught about the customs and rich history of their European predecessors—but the word race was never used. Older kids were taught about the dangers of the outside world. They were shown statistics about the number of crimes committed by foreigners and minorities and how this rampant crime could lead to a very fearful outcome. They were told stories about majestic animals that no longer roamed the earth because they've been hunted down to such small numbers that they eventually disappeared. And they were told that white people were also in danger of extinction for a similar reason—because other cultures wanted to annihilate them. They were told that if they wanted to help keep themselves and their families in existence they should have special considerations for their own kind so that they wouldn’t meet the same fate of extinct animals.
In addition, the entertainment of minors was restricted to a pre-approved library of music and films that did not conflict with the community's beliefs. Rom-coms with all-white casts were allowed, action movies where the white hero saved a fellow soldier from the confinements of an Asian prison, etc. Even films with likable non-white characters were allowed, so long as they had a very minor role in the story—after all, community members insisted they didn’t hate other races, they just didn’t want to be around them. Music couldn't celebrate diversity, nor could it come from non-white musicians. It was a time-consuming process but the Culture committee enlisted volunteers within the community to help with the vetting process. No one had complained so far. There were plenty of songs, paintings, and movies out there that were up to the community standards and their digital library grew by the day.
These were the circumstances that shaped the life of Burt’s daughter. Liv didn't mind the weekly lectures because they always ended with fun games and activities. And as the community grew and more children were born into the community throughout the years, she made more and more friends her age.
Everyday Life
Burt had devised these and other measures to keep children in line. He showed them the flaws of the outside world, he ensured they stayed within the walls of the community, and he shaped their thinking to align with the ideals of A New Choice. All the kids abided by the rules. They sought to please their parents and elders because good behavior was rewarded. They seldom had to be disciplined. And when young people did break the rules, it was often something minor. Sometimes the older teens managed to bypass internet security to download forbidden movies or music. But spy software installed in their devices alerted the Culture committee of suspicious activities. Kids who violated the guidelines of the community were grounded by their parents.
Parents were motivated to keep their kids in line, or else their whole family might risk being evicted from the community if they accrued too many offenses. Burt was proud that Liv had never gotten into trouble and that she had never been involved with anyone who’d violated the guidelines of the community. Liv was studious and she didn’t spend too much time with boys even though she was a beautiful girl. She had many girlfriends and she even volunteered to help Burt at work when she had time to spare.
But Burt had made mistakes in the process of raising her. He had encouraged his daughter to think independently. He had taught her to challenge narratives—not suspecting one day she might challenge him.
Even though A New Choice had several shops and offered a variety of services, everyone continued to exit the community either for work or in search of services not found in the community, such as hospitals and auto retailers. Children in the community spend the bulk of their childhood within the walls of A New Choice. There was no need for them to be taken to the outside world often. A New Choice had schools, a health clinic, after-school activities, and even a few entertainment spots, such as an arcade, a pizza place, and an indoor climbing facility. Nevertheless, activities outside the community did take place from time to time. The main event all children looked forward to was the annual outing to an amusement park.
Liv had visited a total of four amusement parks since she was nine years old. She was seventeen now and she was set to visit Disneyworld in Orlando for the second time. The trip was sponsored by Silver and all the children got to fly in his private jet. It was a weekend trip and the children stayed at a hotel near the park—always supervised by chaperones from the community. Burt went over the rules for the trip with Liv even though she knew them by heart:
Don’t talk to strangers.
The group leader is in charge of placing all food orders.
Don’t get separated from the group.
Liv had always obeyed the rules like the rest of the kids, and Burt had no reason to suspect things would be any different this time. Liv had always been a good kid, she was trustworthy and loving toward him and his wife. The only time she’d ever acted out was at the beginning of her teen years. He specifically recalled a time when she was twelve years old when for a few months, she acted distant from him and Annette and refused to tell them why. But things eventually went back to normal, and they didn’t have any other issues with her ever since. Burt assumed it was a passing phase of teen angst, nothing to be concerned about.
The morning of the outing, before Liv left the house to meet up with the group, Burt noticed she kept glancing at him from across the table as they had breakfast. “What is it? He said jokingly. “Do I have something on my face?”
Liv shook her head. “No, it just . . . Well, do you still like living here, dad?” she asked.
“What do you mean?”
“Do you like living in the community?”
Burt looked at her, confused. For years she had attended his Town Hall lectures in which he stated how proud he was of A New Choice-—why would she question whether he liked living there? There was only one thing about living in the community that troubled him, but he hadn’t told anyone about it, and he had been careful to conceal his inner conflict from his family, so Liv should have no reason to think he was anything but happy in the community.
“Yes, I like it very much. Why do you ask?”
“I was just wondering. I know you lived in the outside world for many years, so I was just wondering if you missed anything about it, I guess.”
Burt smiled to appease her, “no honey, I don’t miss anything about it. Our community is perfect.”
Liv half-smiled. It wasn’t a good smile, but Burt didn’t know what to make of it.
“What’s bothering you?” he asked.
“Nothing. I was just wondering. Just curious,” she replied and this time she gave him a more convincing smile so he stopped pressing her about it. There was nothing in his daughter’s behavior that could make him suspect she did not trust him as a father and a leader. Whatever was on her mind was probably as trivial as she assured him it was.
The evening after the children returned to the community from their weekend trip, Burt was informed that Liv had been separated from the group for almost an hour during their visit to the park. Liv told him she’d gotten lost after going to the bathroom, but she assured him that nothing bad had happened and that she hadn’t talked to anyone. Apparently, Liv had felt sick and was embarrassed to know people were waiting for her outside the bathroom, so she had convinced the group leader to head over to the next ride and she would catch up with them later—but when she finally went to look for them she couldn’t find them.
Burt wanted to be upset with Liv but he knew he couldn't fault her for attending to her stomach problems, so he let it go. Still, he was uneasy. He wondered what she had seen while she was separated from the group. What if someone had tried talking to her? The thought alone made him feel sick, but she assured him she hadn’t talked to anyone outside of their group.
A few days later, Liv surprised him with an unusual request; she wanted to study gymnastics and she wanted his permission to attend a school in the outside world. Burt tried to find an instructor within the community but he didn’t find anyone that could do the job. Why had Liv chosen gymnastics when the community offered classes for many other sports?
Burt tried to dissuade her, but Liv was persistent and convincing. She promised she would make sure not to waste his and Annette’s time, that if she could attend a class outside of the community she could drive herself to it, and that she would only exit the community to go to her classes and nowhere else. Burt told her he would think about it.
For the next few days, Burt visited a few gyms to find a proper private tutor, someone that was white and that could be professional enough to focus only on the lessons and never blabber about his or her personal life because he didn’t want Liv to be exposed to progressive ideas when she went to class. He finally found someone that checked all the boxes and enrolled Liv in the classes. Liv was delighted.
A few months later, while watching TV in the living room, he’d heard Liv in the kitchen humming a song that he hadn’t heard in many years, a song he’d last heard before moving into the community. He was immediately worried. There was no way Liv could have heard it in the community because it wasn't in the Culture Committees list of approved art. Yet, even with all of those restrictions, it appeared Liv knew it—unless it wasn’t the song he was thinking of? But if it was that song, where had she heard it? Maybe she had heard it during her gymnastic lessons, but that was unlikely because he’d asked Liv’s instructor not to play music during their lessons for this very same reason. Burt remembered that that song had been composed for a soccer World Cup, it was a song that told the story of two lovers separated by distance that are finally reunited after many years. However, the song was used during the world cup as an allegory for breaching cultural gaps and coming together. He’d only heard Liv humming the song that one time and then never again, so he forgot about it.
The next couple of months were routine for him. He was still leading the Town Hall meetings and he and Stevens were in talks about expanding the infrastructure in A New Choice to allow for more housing units and grow their member base. It was important for Stevens to expand—the more they grew, the more they could influence others to join their cause. If their numbers were bigger they could perhaps think about influencing the county’s politics in the future.
Burt was not on board with the idea of growing. He had never thought of creating satellite locations, it was enough for him to have the original community. Burt was uneasy about growing their numbers because he didn’t want to attract more outside attention to the community—handling the 800 plus members they already had was challenging enough. But he relied on Stevens’s financial support for A New Choice, so he had had to agree to A New Choice II, and now he had no choice but to help grow the community even more.
Although Stevens was now in his 70’s, he was still the final authority in the community. He was the current top benefactor and he had connections to ex-military that were now part of the community’s security team. Burt had hoped that by now, Stevens would be less involved in the day-to-day of the community, but it was the opposite—nothing got done without his approval and he had eyes everywhere. The truth was, Burt feared Stevens. It hadn’t always been that way, but five years prior, there had been an incident in the community—a break-in from an outsider—that had pitted Burt and Stevens against each other. In the end, Stevens got his way and Burt had been forced to stand by while Stevens dealt with the intruder in a way Burt hadn’t condoned. That had been the moment Burt began to fear Stevens.
But five years had gone by without any other incidents of that magnitude. Although he could not change the past, Burt was hopeful that they would never find themselves in a situation like that ever again, and in that way, life went on.
Olivia’s Secret
It was 2019 and life at home was normal for Burt, however, he had started to notice a change of behavior in Liv. She was on her phone more and seemed to be quieter around him as of late. He checked her phone to see was hiding anything but found nothing but texts to her girlfriends. It was routine for him to check Liv’s phone to make sure she was abiding by the rules of the community regarding phone use. It was every parents’ job in the community to make sure their children did not break these rules.
Perhaps Liv’s recent detachment was due to something Burt had always anticipated; a boyfriend. He didn’t mind if she was dating someone, as long as he knew who the boy was. In fact, the community encouraged relationships between teens. One of Burt’s best initiatives had been putting together a Spring Formal in the community to encourage teens to socialize. The proposal had been promptly approved by the community’s Culture Committee. The formal wasn’t a high school dance but it had the same format. The annual dance was intended to socialize all teens in the community between the ages of thirteen and seventeen—including those who lived in the satellite community, A New Choice II. It was an important event held at the community’s satellite location and many friendships and romantic relationships blossomed as a result of it every year. It was important to allow the kids to get to know each other and help them find romantic connections because it helped keep the community together and it kept the kids safe from the temptations of the outside world. Although dating someone from the outside world wasn’t against the rules for those over 18, it was challenging to keep a relationship with an outsider because they weren’t able to enter the community unless they were willing to abide by its guidelines and they met the community’s DNA requirements. In the event a pregnancy happened with someone outside of the community, the child would be subjected to DNA testing before being allowed in the community.
Even though a large percentage of the community was Christian and conservative, sex education was imparted to every kid over ten years old—this had also been Burt’s initiative. Personally, he would prefer to discourage sex among teenagers, but he reasoned that it was better for the teens of A New Choice to be sexually active with each other within the safety of the community than for them to feel ashamed about it and search for trills on the outside. It was an awkward subject for him given that he had a teen daughter of his own, but he felt strongly about lessening the appeal of the outside world. The Spring Formal was one of the ways in which the community tried to keep the young people happy and make them forget about the substantial rules they had to abide by, especially about communicating with each other.
For instance, no one under eighteen was allowed to call or text anyone outside the community. They could only communicate with other residents. And all minors were forbidden from having a camera on their phone to prevent anyone from spreading footage from A New Choice to the outside world. These were some of the ways in which the community restricted technology. The children were allowed to visit encyclopedia sites online to do research for their homework, but access to search engines like Google or Yahoo was limited and monitored. They could also use social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram but they were only allowed to interact with other members of the community and their profiles had to be kept private. The existence of these regulations on young people’s behavior made Burt feel at peace. He never imagined that his own daughter would be the one to find a way to circumvent them.
He was at work when he got a call from Annette saying Liv had had an accident at the gym studio. She told informed him had accompanied Liv to the gym that day to see her progress, and Liv had collapsed in pain in the middle of her floor routine. Later, when Annette and Liv came home, Burt was shocked to hear that Liv was pregnant and that she was three months along. The doctor had cleared Liv to go home but told her to abstain from her gymnastics lessons until the child was born. Burt was livid, demanding to know how it had happened and who the father was. Liv revealed the father was a boy from A New Choice II, but she refused to give a name.
“That is why you didn’t want me to come with you today. Have you been attending those lessons at all?” Asked Annette to Liv.
“I was. . . until I found out I was pregnant a couple of weeks ago. After that, I told my instructor I was injured and I couldn’t come to class for a while.”
“But you were still exiting the community,” Annette pointed out.
“Because I didn’t want you to suspect anything if I stop attending.”
“What were you doing then, outside?”
Liv paused and looked down as if she didn’t want to say. “Liv, tell me what you were doing,” said Annette. “I was researching where to go if I had to leave the community for good. I knew you wouldn’t approve,” she said finally.
Burt, who had been silent through all this, finally spoke up. “Is that what you want, to leave?”
“No, I love the community, I don’t want to leave. . . Dad, I’m sorry.”
Burt and Annette discovered Liv had no intentions of getting an abortion, instead, she wanted to have the child and give it up for adoption. She also volunteered to remain house-bound for the remainder of the pregnancy and suggested that they could tell people that she had gone abroad for an extended visit to family members.
After much discussion, Burt and Anette agreed to Liv’s plan. When the time came, a midwife from the outside would be brought into their home to deliver the child—and Liv will give up her parental rights to an adoption agency.
Burt had always trusted Liv. He had raised her to be a person of integrity but her transgression made him question everything he’d thought of her. He wondered about the identity of the father and planned on doing a DNA test on the child as soon as it was born. He had access to the DNA profile of everyone in the community so he would be able to know who the father was—unless it wasn’t someone from the community. The thought perturbed him but he didn’t entertain it because there was nothing to indicate that Liv would ever endanger herself to get involved with someone from the outside—she knew all of the dangers of dealing with strangers.
The current state of things
Caring for Liv for the ensuing months has been challenging. They can’t exit the community with Liv too often or they would risk being seen, so they avoid going to the hospital as much as possible. Sometimes Liv feels sick and all Annette can do is to give her over-the-counter medications and instruct her to rest.
Liv’s behavior has been exemplary during this time. She doesn’t complain, she volunteers to help her mother around the house and she continues to show interest in the activities of the community. She even asked Burt if he could arrange for his Town Hall lectures to be live-streamed so that she could watch them at home. It is the little things like this that make Burt trust Liv a little more day by day. He hopes that she has learned her lesson and that she would never again betray his trust.
Whenever Burt and Annette have to be away from home at the same time, they are at peace knowing that their security system will alert them if Liv ever tries to get out of the house, something she hasn’t tried to do so far. As an added security measure, they confiscated all of her electronics so she doesn’t try to communicate with any of her friends and confide her situation to them. Remarkably, she has not asked to get her phone back in all of these months. Burt believes she wants to earn back their trust. Naturally, Burt went through her phone when he first found out she was pregnant to see if he could find out the identity of the child’s father, but he found nothing—Liv had probably wiped the phone’s contents before returning from the hospital.
As Liv’s due date approaches, Burt can’t help but feel conflicting emotions. He wants things to go back to normal but it is hard not to think of the child. He is curious about how it will look, although he has told himself that it would be best if he doesn’t see it. Still, he can’t help but wonder if it may look like him or like Liv. Burt wants grandchildren, but this is not the way he wants it to happen. And yet, someone, with his DNA, would be out there in the world, not receiving his guidance. But he has to put the community first, it is his life’s work, and he must protect the lives of everyone who lives there. Everything has been going well—for now—Liv is seven and a half months along and soon the nightmare will be over. No more hiding, no more lying.
Update:
As of today, Liv is still in the community, but everything she has told her father is a lie. She does not plan on giving up the child and moving on with her life in the community; It’s all a ploy to sabotage her father and A New Choice. You see, when Liv was fifteen years old, three years before she became pregnant, she snuck into her father’s home office—which was supposed to be off-limits—and accidentally found evidence that her father and Stevens murdered a man, a non-white reporter who had broken into the community to look for evidence of racists practices. The man was caught, and although Burt tried to find a non-violent solution, Stevens decided to get rid of the man. It was clear to Liv that the man had been murdered for the color of his skin, not just for having broken into the community.
This was the beginning of Liv’s distancing from A New Choice’s belief system. After all, she has been thought that the reason the community exists is to keep them, “the vulnerable whites,” away from dangerous minorities, but what she discovered documented in her father’s secret journal proved that is not true.
To date, no one in the community except for Burt, Stevens, and now Liv know about the incident, but Liv has never told nor her father nor Annette of her discovery. Liv has been sitting on this information for three years—until now.
Although well aware of the dangers, Liv is planning on using the birth of her child to make a statement about her views. When the child is born, her parents and everyone else will discover that the father of the child is not a white man.
The fact is that Liv used those gymnastic classes as an excuse to exit the community and meet up with her boyfriend, a guy she met during that trip to Disneyworld. The truth is, she didn’t get lost at the park by accident, she had planned to separate herself during the trip to explore the park on her own. But the details of their relationship are not important, what you need to know is that he is a “minority” and he’s on board with Liv’s plan. The two have been communicating with a phone he gifted Liv after they started dating, and which she kept hidden from her parents. When she’s closer to her due date, Liv will contact the media and give them the evidence she has against her father and the community, and on the day she goes into labor, her boyfriend will organize a group of people to show up and protest outside of the community. It will be the only way to make sure Liv and the baby are safe because no one on their right mind would dare hurt them while there’s a protest right outside the gate demanding her release—at least that’s what Liv’s counting on.
The details of the plan are complicated and I’m not sure she will succeed. What if someone in the community finds out she’s hiding at home and not abroad visiting family members? If they notice she’s pregnant they’ll know something’s up. They could even force her to take a fetal DNA test, and if that happens, her plan would be ruined and her life and her child’s life would be at risk.
Burt, Stevens, and everyone involved in the killing of the man should certainly go to prison for it, but what about the rest of the people in A New Choice? Liv reluctantly agrees that they should be free to hold onto their beliefs, no matter how vile they are, but the reason she wants to sabotage them and the community is so they don’t continue to indoctrinate new generations with their harmful views like they tried to do with her.
Although Liv tries to hide it, I know she loves her father and it is deeply hurt to have learned the truth about who he is. If she succeeds in bringing down the community, Burt’s life work will be destroyed, and I don’t think either of them can come back from that. In any case, I hope her plan works and she gets out safely.
And if you find out the real location of A New Choice, please don’t attempt to help. Liv thinks that if the police get involved before she can execute her plan, Silver’s legal team will find a way to preserve the community—even if it means letting them arrest Stevens and Burt—and then he’ll just put someone else in charge and the people in the community will continue with their lifestyle and will keep spreading their destructive ideas.
For now, I advise you to wait. Liv promises she has it under control.
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