The background over the story would be a terrorist regime taking over a nation and killing, reeducating, or enslaving anyone who had contact of the outside world, in any way. All the children were put into reeducation camps away from their parents and were given serums that altered and essentially erased all memories before Year Zero. At this point, the only adults left alive were either enslaved to feed the ruling class of children, entirely out of site of the children as well, or the ruling class of High Elders that oversee the whole nation.
Nearly fifteen years later, a kid about to turn 18 begins to have violent nightmares and flashbacks of a world he doesn't understand but somehow is familiar to him. Every night he sees the kind face of a woman sink below the surface of a red river. Confused about what this means, he seeks help from The High Council. Alarmed by the sudden relapse of a time he should have no memory of, the High Council, exile him and send a death squad after him. Learning to hide in the forests he finds a man, older than anyone he has ever seen. He's 32.The kid will try to ask the man of the past but the man has suffered several mental and physical injuries that affect his memory and speech. The death squad will learn of his whereabouts and kill the man right after the kid understands that there was a time before Year Zero. Running toward the ocean, the kid will be met by a small group of rebels that take him on a boat and lead him to an island where he discovers the true history of the world.
This is just an idea right now but I am hoping to start writing soon. I got this idea after watching the Killing Fields, a movie following a journalists escapades during the time of the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia, where the regime tried to kill anyone who had knowledge of the outside world and restart history to begin with them. What happened was pretty terrible but I just kept thinking what would it be like if something like this happened on a global scale? What would life be like?
