Sanctuary Tax

After a catastrophic recession shatters America, safety becomes a privilege reserved for the wealthy. Behind towering walls, the elite thrive in glittering Sanctuary Zones—while the poor are forced to pay the crushing “human tax” to remain inside. One missed payment means exile to the wastelands, a death sentence disguised as freedom.

For Maya Alvarez, a twenty-six-year-old maid in Zone Seven, survival is a daily calculation of coins, sweat, and sacrifice. Every shift polishing the homes of the rich is another desperate bid to keep her six-year-old son, Leo, safe within the walls. But no amount of work feels enough, and Maya knows the system is designed to break her.

Then, one night, she stumbles upon a hidden passage beneath the Sanctuary—an abandoned tunnel leading beyond the walls. Escape suddenly becomes possible. Yet as Maya wrestles with whether to flee, she uncovers a secret network of workers whispering of rebellion. They don’t see the tunnel as an exit. They see it as a weapon—a way to expose the Sanctuary’s greatest lie: that the walls are impenetrable, its order unshakable.

When the Council moves to expel hundreds of families, including Maya’s closest friend, she is thrust into the role of reluctant leader. To protect her son and the countless others like him, Maya must risk everything to confront the system that profits from their suffering.

In a city where safety is sold and humanity is taxed, rebellion is the only sanctuary left.