American War

Born in 2069, Sarat is a Southern insurrectionist whose experiences during the war radicalize her as a terrorist. She is bald, dark-skinned, and over six feet tall by the time she is 17. Even as a child, she displays a defiant streak, entering Camp Patience’s excrement-filled drainage ditch as a misguided show of her will and fearlessness. The imagery associated with this incident is reminiscent of a baptism of filth, as Sarat exits the ditch, shaves her head, and feels “new and impossibly light” (111).

At that moment, she is approached by the terrorist recruiter Gaines who indoctrinates her in a philosophy of anti-Northern hate. More than anything Gaines tells her, Sarat is radicalized by the 2081 Camp Patience massacre, during which her mother is killed and her brother grievously injured. Over the next five years, Gaines trains Sarat to become a deadly sniper. At the Tennessee border, Sarat assassinates the North’s top military commander, General Joseph Weiland. In celebration, she travels to Augusta where she has sex with Layla Denomme Jr., the closest person Sarat has to a significant other.

The following year, Sarat is arrested by federal authorities and detained at the Sugarloaf Detention Center, where she is subject to enhanced interrogation techniques including beatings and stress positions.