In a future laid waste by environmental catastrophe, one woman in a shielded megacity discovers a secret hidden within—and the nightmare of what lies beyond.
The Skyfire Saga
Her designation is H124—a menial worker in a city safeguarded against the devastating storms of the outer world. In a community where consumerism has dulled the senses, where apathy is the norm and education is a thing of the past, H124 has one job: remove the bodies of citizens when they pass away in their living pods.
Then one night, H124’s routine leads her into the underground ruins of an ancient university. Buried within it is a prescient alarm set up generations ago: an extinction-level asteroid is hurtling toward earth.
When her warning is seen as an attempt to topple the government with her knowledge of science, H124 is hunted—and sent fleeing for her life beyond the shield of her walled metropolis. In a weather-ravaged unknown, her only hope lies with the Rovers, the most dangerous faction on Earth. For they have continued to learn. And they have survived to help avert a terrifying threat: the end of the world is near.
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Books by Alice Henderson
The Skyfire Saga
Shattered Roads
Published by Kensington Publishing Corporation
Shattered Roads
The Skyfire Saga
Alice Henderson
REBEL BASE BOOKS
Kensington Publishing Corp.
Copyright
Rebel Base Books are published by
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Copyright © 2018 by Alice Henderson
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First Electronic Edition: April 2018
eISBN-13: 978-1-63573-046-3
eISBN-10: 1-63573-046-5
First Print Edition: April 2018
ISBN-13: 978-1-63573-049-4
ISBN-10: 1-63573-049-X
Printed in the United States of America
Dedication
For all the people out there, who, like Jason, are fighting to preserve wildlife and our amazing planet
Chapter 1
Ben had barricaded the door and been as quiet as possible, but now they’d come for him. He could hear them pounding on the door. He scrambled out of his hole beneath the floorboards. He’d found tunnels down there. Rooms. Maybe there was a way out, a tunnel he could escape through. But he wasn’t sure, and he could die down there if he got trapped. He just couldn’t stake his life on it. He hadn’t had enough time to explore.
He knew they wouldn’t find the hole. They wouldn’t know to look for it and wouldn’t waste the time anyway. He spent precious seconds heaving himself up through the hole and then replacing the floorboards. As he threw the rug in place, the strange beeping emanating from those parts below stopped. It had started a few days ago, coming from somewhere under the building, in that dark catacomb of rooms. He’d never found the source. And now the Repurposers were here.
He shouldn’t have unplugged from the network. He knew that now. But he had had to unplug because of the chatter. How could he listen to the mysterious beeping over all that chatter? He’d never noticed it before, the constant talking. But suddenly, when he tried to concentrate on that strange alarm coming from below, he realized he couldn’t hear anything but the monotonous drone of meaningless voices: What handbag was the star of High Rise Living carrying in last night’s episode?—Win 80,000 creds by playing the beta version of Maximum Shopping!—Get a new look for your avatar!
They must have immediately noticed his absence from the network and sent the men. He had to get out of there. He ran to the barricaded front door, ready to throw the furniture aside. When he peered through the peephole, he saw men waiting in the hallway. They’d covered this escape route.
There was no other way out of his apartment. No windows that worked. No back doors. Just the front door and the tunnels beneath, which as far as he’d explored had not led out.
A deafening buzz erupted on a wall he shared with his neighbor. They were cutting through. He had to get out of there. He grabbed a chair, ran up next to the wall. As the plaster caved in, he waited until a head appeared. He brought the chair down hard. The man crumpled, but another took his place, and Ben struck him too. He grabbed the second man, pulling him through the hole, then dove through the opening into his neighbor’s living pod. He’d never seen the neighbor in person before, though he’d lived next to him his whole life. There he was, sitting on his couch, eyes fixed on his display, hands flying over the virtual keyboard. The man didn’t even turn.
Ben ran. He threw open his neighbor’s front door and dashed into the hallway, smashing into one of the Repurposers waiting there. Then he bolted in the opposite direction, not knowing where to go. He’d only been out in the hallway once before, when they first installed him in his living pod. He had to make it to the street that he’d seen so many times from his window. Maybe someone could help him. He banged on doors as he ran, shouting for help. No one came out. No one even stuck a head out to look at him. Even though he knew the building was filled to capacity, it felt dead inside.
At the end of the hall he saw a door. He burst through it, and sudden heat struck him in the face. He stared around, not sure which way to go. He bolted left at random. He sucked in the torrid air, happy just to be outside. He’d only been outside once before, the day he came here all those years ago. Back then it had been freezing.
The streets lay empty. No one walked around. He could hear noises from the living pod buildings all around him, huge structures that reached into the amber sky. Light and sound emanated through the windows, coming from thousands of displays and entertainment channels. He shouted again for help, then thought better of it. No one was even coming to the windows to look, and shouting only gave away his location. For someone to help, they’d have to detach from the network. That’s what he had done, and now they would make him pay for it.
He spotted a shadowed place next to a building and ran to it. Pressed into the dark, he heard the whirring of some kind of machinery coming from inside. The wall felt hot, hotter than the sticky air. He caught