In a society where rebels are unwanted, the Outcasts have their own underground world.
What type of society applies the word Defective to healthy young humans?
Published: August 13th, 2016
In a society where rebels are unwanted, the Outcasts have their own underground world.
What type of society applies the word Defective to healthy young humans?
IT IS ALMOST A PERFECT WORLD. One government rules earth—the Commonwealth and one people—the Commoners. The pure society of the Commonwealth has but one contamination, the 1%, the Outcasts—rebellious kids and young adults who for some puzzling reason cannot or will not conform.
When Dante’s girlfriend vanishes like thousands of other Outcasts before her, he enlists the aid of friends to find her. They discover the shocking secret of what extreme the Commonwealth of Earth will go to ensure that Outcasts reform and obey the rules!
Book #2
Book #2
Ivory vows to find out more about what is going on at Dead Horse Bay but the FRE burned her boat, the Renegade. She must find a rogue replacement, a fixer-upper boat someone threw away a long time ago. Ivory is a Smuggler, a member of one of the Outcast underground groups of New York City.
Ivory is obsessed with saving Outcasts from vanishing from the Commonwealth of Earth. She has smuggled an Outcast out of Dead Horse Bay, but can she smuggle herself in to learn more about the secrets the Commonwealth is hiding?
Or perhaps the answers she and her friends seek are in Lockup, the dreaded insane asylum Outcasts are dragged to when they have accumulated 50 demerits. At Lockup is the Mortuary, a tunnel leading into darkness. All Ivory must do to be thrown into Lockup is to act even more rebellious and gain the attention of Behavior Drones and the FRE (Fanatic Rule Enforcers).
Ivory will do whatever it takes to save herself and her friends from extinction in a world where people have become immortal, except for Outcasts, the thorn in the Commonwealth’s side.
EXCERPT
The
lights are out in the Brooklyn Underground since the birthday party is supposed
to be a surprise for my girlfriend, Kiara. The only thing visible are 324
glow-in-the-dark red No circles on our clothing marking all of us as Outcasts like
the way the Nazis marked the Jews with a yellow Star of David before gassing
them 131 years ago. Only our Outcast symbols are more in-your face, bold red
circles with a red diagonal down the center. The Commonwealth is sending
Outcasts a blatant message by forcing us to wear the symbol as if marking us as
illegal, broken, untouchable, and unwanted.
The
Commonwealth longs to be known as The Republic of Free Will. Their rules allow
us to wear what we want but if our clothing is not the required silver jumpsuit
for our age group, and then we must wear the Outcast No symbol. There is no
cheating the system either. Like dogs, the Commonwealth has shot every Outcast
through our necks with scanning ids.
Our
scanning ids propagate throughout our bloodstreams so there is no beating the
scanners. In fact, Scanner Droids are
equipped with image processing and a camera eye. Scanners roam the
Commonwealth. Scanners are magnetic and if a Scanner catches an Outcast being
out of compliance, the Scanner will latch onto him or her and hold the Outcast
in place against the closest magnetic field until the FRE (Fanatic Rule
Enforcers) arrive. Scanners are like giant refrigerator magnets. It really
pisses me off to see Outcasts dangling from walls of buildings, which are all
equipped with magnetic holding places.
Outcasts
are in the minority, our numbers fading fast into the endangered species category along with animals, which the
Commonwealth has replaced with robotic countertypes. A mechanical dog cannot
shit in your yard, right.
We
Outcasts only feel safe in our undergrounds. Below the streets of New York City
exists a subterranean city consisting of secret crypts, forgotten or abandoned
subway stations and tracks, and tunnels known only to Outcasts. The NYC
Underground has been here for centuries, and the Commonwealth has pretty much
forgotten the underground ever existed. The Commonwealth does not care to look
back at past mistakes, which is what the underground is. Besides, the
Perfections are germ freaks. They
would never dirty themselves by climbing down into our grimy world. We are
beneath them. See, I made a pun. Get it. Underground. Beneath them. And the
Commonwealth thinks Outcasts are dumb.
Everyone
on earth is called a Commoner, which is a joke to Outcasts. There are
Perfections and there are Outcasts, period.
Crap!
It has been an hour and Kiara still is not here. I glare at everyone acting
fidgety. Quit whispering about starting
the party without her. Dammit! Kiara is coming.
I
scroll through my text messages.
Where are you, Kiara?
I am waiting for you Kiara, you know where.
Don’t you dare stand me up for your birthday!
Are the parents giving you problems?
Hurry up!
Why don’t you answer?
I am beginning to get worried. Quit joking around.
Are you sick?
Have you had an accident?
Kiara, please let me know that you are okay.
Kiara, this is Dante. This
message I followed with a secret code to let her know that the texts are not a
trick.
Finally,
I send one more message and my finger is shaking, my breath is raspy, my eyes
are stinging. Kiara, have they taken you?
Have the FRE
Quick,
I hit the delete button. Worry about Kiara made me almost forget about the
airwaves. We may be invisible in the Underground but the Commonwealth is always
listening. My text mentioned the FRE and had I completed and sent that text,
the Commonwealth might discover that we suspect the FRE of involvement in the
disappearance of Outcasts. The Perfections think Outcasts are stupid because of
the way we dress and act but Bones
Outcasts hang out in the Brooklyn Underground. We would notice if one of us
went missing. Last year, Luca vanished and a few days ago, Adrian disappeared.
The
clock ticks and Kiara still does not show up for her 18th birthday party.
Everyone is thinking of Sebastian. The President’s son vanished two years ago,
and no one has seen him since. We are a class-based society and even though we Bones Outcasts do not like the Powerfuls (Manhattan Outcasts), we were
all concerned about Sebastian and believed his father was holding him prisoner
because Sebastian wanted to solve the global mystery of why and how Outcasts disappear without a trace.
Thus, I broke into the President’s penthouse in Manhattan from an outside
window. I am talking 90 stories up a slick building using suction cups. They call me the Spider and the Bones bet the Powerfuls that I could do it. It turned out the President for Life
is not that big a dickhead. Well, maybe he is since Sebastian is probably…no, do not even think it! Sebastian is
simply missing. He must be alive else Kiara...
If
Sebastian being the only child of the President of the West Commonwealth, the
richest man on Earth, could not be saved then Kiara… Oh, God, where is the air? I cannot breathe. That night climbing
the 90 stories, I never felt so weak before until now; only this time
helplessness surrounds me. As we wait for Kiara there is only silence in the
Brooklyn Underground, our underground of the Bones Outcasts, except for a few sniffling girls scared of
disappearing next, and me. My stomach rumbles and a panic attack is coming on.
Kiara is the best thing that ever happened to me in my sorry life on this
crappy planet that frowns on Outcasts because we dare to be who we are with no
excuses.
About the author:
Author B. Austin writes Dystopian and Science Fiction Books. She is the author of the Young Adult Dystopian series Defective.
OMG I love the trailer! If this doesn't convince people nothing will! <3
ReplyDeleteThis sounds really good, It sounds like a book i would enjoy. I look forward to reading it, and the cover is great too. thank you for the giveaway as well.
ReplyDeleteI'd like to read this book! How many of us have felt like outcasts in our own society? I like reading about WWII and the ostracization of part of the population. It makes me realize how lucky we are these days :)
ReplyDeleteThank you for the giveaway!
ReplyDelete