National Novel Writing Month Beginning

Alright, so here's an excerpt from the beginning of the novel I want to use for National Novel writing month. Obviously, it's sci-fi (I know, I'm a nerd, so sue me). I've had it bouncing around my computer for probably about six months now, unfortunately. I really love this beginning, but for some reason, I'm having trouble digging further into it, even though I've got a pretty decent plot outline going on.

Anywho, tell me what you think, and if it's worth continuing.

Prelude:

In 2027, our world began to change. Nature began to reclaim the world, and- more frightening to the unprepared masses- magic began to appear. Or is magic the right world? It seems the only word, and yet, not quite right. Magic is something mystical, undefinable, a nebulous force beyond human ability to sense or define. The force that began showing up. . . it was very real, very definable to everyone who witnessed it. It altered reality, bent the laws of physics and made things happen that shouldn't be able to happen. It was regarded with fear and suspicion. As were those with the ability to use it.
They are known as warpers. For a few years, the force of humanity and the alien foe of nature were starkly separate; but it didn't last. Soon people- humans, the one part of this world that wasn't supposed to be touched by this new and budding evil- began to show the “contamination” of nature. They had the ability to call upon its strange forces and use them for their own purposes. The reaction to their appearance was chaotic- if a warper revealed their abilities in public, riots often started where the warper was hunted down and brutally murdered by the frenzied masses. It wasn't long after they showed up that the government took a stand against them. Laws were passed that anyone known or suspected to be a warper would be arrested and sentenced without hesitation, and without trial. It weeded out a lot of the warpers, but it also brought on the deaths of a lot of innocent people.
That didn't matter to the government. As fear and panic spread throughout the world and country after country fell to the destructive anarchy of the growing strength of nature, a group of men who only called themselves the Council stepped up to take over the United States where the president seemed to be failing. Times were desperate. People heard the news of what was happening in Europe, South America, and Africa, and were willing to take any chances to avoid the same fate. When the Council offered solutions to all of the problems, and promised to combat the threat of Nature with every means necessary, everyone looked to them as god sent. They gladly sacrificed at the altar all of their freedoms and cherished rights in exchange for oppression and restriction. People were ordered to gather on the coasts, areas that were more easily defended as Nature thrived and choked out our cities and proudly constructed edifices. Fences were raised around the cities, and the area outside became known as the Wild Zone. I remember how my father always used to tell me how much the fences reminded him of the Berlin Wall. The violence that befell anyone who tried to cross them, from either side, was no better than what had gone on in Germany all those years ago, he told me. I never really understood how right he was, until after he was killed by police for defending a young man next door who was accused of being a warper.
I remember that day well. The man's name was Vernon Wells. He brought us dinner on Thursday nights, because he knew my dad had trouble providing for the two of us all by himself. He would eat with us, too. He became a good friend over the years, and was always willing to help us out when we needed it. Dad saw him like a son; I think he even hoped that the two of us would grow up and get married someday. He would always joke about how his plain, good for nothing daughter with the lanky build and wheat blonde hair would grow up to be smart, rich, and beautiful, and some good would come of her yet. Vern knew I hated when dad displayed his faith in me like this, because it made me worry that I would let him down. But we went along with it, because I knew my dad only said it because he loved me.
That's why dad was so angry when Vern got accused of being a warper. Vern wasn't anyone to be suspicious of- he was your model citizen young man, who always did was he should. Dad tried to defend him, and got in a fight with one of the policemen. So the policeman shot him.
I don't think I've ever cried more in my life. Dad was my world, and now he was gone, and I didn't even have Vern to comfort me. I was suddenly all alone in the world, and the government that I had always known to be cruel but had ignored because I knew they were for the better of our country, they were my worst enemy. Suddenly, my priorities got all screwed up and I didn't care about school or a good future anymore. I just wanted to take down the bastards that had killed my father and my best friend.
In 2039, four days after my nineteenth birthday, I went to my first underground resistance meeting, joining up with a national group called Gaia. They sought to bring unity between humanity and nature again, and bring down the government in the process. There were a lot of warpers involved with Gaia, but there were even more humans. It made me realize that everyone was feeling the increasing pressure our government was putting on its people, and that a lot of different people wanted to bring them down.
That was three years ago. The year is now 2042. My name is Erin Maddox, and I'm a warper.

Chapter One:

I'm sitting in an abandoned playground across from my apartment complex. Kids don't come here much anymore, and that doesn't have anything to do with the fact that it's almost wintertime. People don't want their children out on the streets these days. Not because of kidnappers, or anything dangerous like that. They don't want the cops getting after them for something. Generally the authorities stick to older people; weak men that can't defend themselves against a beating, pretty women just ready for the deflowering. Sometimes, though, if they get bored, they'll go after the little ones too. So usually the park is empty. The swings sway in the breeze as if the ghosts of children still haunt their memories, and the colorful plastic animals stare into the empty grounds with chilling loneliness, as if somehow their falsely happy gazes will bring their masters back. That's one reason I come here. I figure the poor things could use the company, and they're probably as close to Nature as I'll ever get.
I'm watching as the fuzz make their routine accusation of a warper in my complex. I know they haven't gotten it right in years; when they find a real warper, you can tell, because the warper doesn't care about hiding their powers anymore and are willing to use them against the cops to defend themselves. In a sickening way, it's like those old witch trials where they'd throw a woman into the water, and if she drowned, she was innocent. Warpers are usually the ones that get away and run off to the Wild Zone, while the innocent ones are the ones that drown.
I've always wondered where they go when they get out there. Do they die as victims of Nature's malice, or do they survive? Are there communities of rogue warpers out there? Have they found a way to get along?
I watch as the police pull a young man out the doors of my building. His family are trying desperately to defend him, and all at once, I see myself there in the doorway of the complex fighting to defend Vern, crumpled on the ground a few feet away with the authorities beating up on him mercilessly. One kicks him in the stomach and a spew of red flies out of his lips with a cry of agony. His family can't take it- his father breaks past the cops at the doorway and runs to help his son up. I close my eyes, already knowing what's coming, because I've lived through this before. A moment later, a gunshot rings through the silent morning air.
I stand up from my seat on the bottom of the slide and walk across the park, in the opposite direction of the screams of shock and horror from the rest of the family. It's too early to face this today. Vaguely I wonder what would happen if they actually did catch a real warper in my building? What would happen if they caught me? Usually I keep an eye out for the warning signs of the raids, so that I can conveniently disappear when they search the building. But what if I slipped up?
I stop for a moment, by now a reasonable distance from the scene. I lean my head on the cool, rough bark of a nearby oak tree, and take a deep breath. I wish that I could smell what I would smell if it were really a natural oak tree, but I can't. The only plants within the cities are the genetically engineered ones, the ones that come from labs and are certified to never grow past a certain size or do anything Natural and unexpected. As far as I know, they look like the real things- green in the spring and summer, red in the fall, naked in the winter. And yet, somehow they seem sad to me, empty husks of what might have been. Like when they lost their natural traits, they also lost their spirit. But how would I know? I've never seen a Natural tree, so I can't do anything more than imagine.