Remembered: Chapter 1

For those of you who have read Fadeout, and even if you haven't, here's a sneak peek at the first chapter of Remembered, And Carillians for the Machine Book 2!

Chapter 1: Silas

The wet twigs and leaves slipped with every step Silas Durant took, often overstraining his leg muscles which tried so hard to keep his body upright. It had been two weeks on the run and he would have thought his muscles would be used to it by now. He glanced back at his sister Malina. Her eyes stared off at the distant trees. A bell rang probably from a nearby town, but she was not looking in the direction the sound was coming from. She was just staring at the last spot her eyes happened to look. The downhill slope they had been following seemed to have no obvious effect on her. Silas rubbed the sweat from his brow and then checked Malina’s forehead. She was sweating too, just not as much as he was, although she wasn’t breathing heavily despite the fact that they had been running for eight hours straight since early morning.

“We’ll stop at the bottom of this hill,” Silas said. There had to be some kind of stream or river nearby. He thought he could hear water trickling somewhere downhill. They would also have to find something to eat. Silas wasn’t sure how long he could make three slices of bread and a block of cheese last, but it was all that was left now after two weeks of careful rationing.

“Come on,” Silas said. He stepped and his foot slipped farther than he expected. His other leg slid into the dirt and his hands sank an inch in mud when they tried to stop his fall. Silas let out a laugh. That had to look awkward, but when he glanced up at Malina, she didn’t smile or look concerned. It made Silas feel alone, utterly alone when she did that. She was his sister, but all of her memories were taken out of her mind, removed to be sold for energy. She didn’t remember him, she didn’t even remember herself and he had to carry all of their memories by himself.

Silas quickly checked the pillowcase with the food tied to his back. He could feel the smooth surface of the glass e-mem resting against his back. The pillowcase was clean, which also meant the only memory Malina had left was safe too. The first chance he got he would find a way to get her memories and hopefully one day he would find a way to stick them back into her mind. But her memories were locked up in the Cartiam, the one place he was trying so hard to escape from. How would he ever get back there before her memories were shipped and lost forever?

He started to push himself up, but when he turned his noticed Malina’s right foot was soaked in blood.

“What happened?” Silas asked.

Malina turned her eyes to him at the sound of his voice.

He reached out and gently lifted her foot. Several leaves and a stick came up with it and Silas wiped all but the stick away. The angle of the stick appeared to pierce through her shoe into her foot and Silas couldn’t remove the shoe without taking out the stick first.

“I’m going to take it out fast, okay?” Silas didn’t look up because he didn’t want to see how calm her eyes would be. She never complained and now he wondered if he had been pushing her too hard.

Silas took a ragged breath and closed his fingers around the stick. With a quick tug he jerked it out of the shoe and gritted his teeth against the flow of blood from the hole in her shoe. He undid the laces and inspected her foot as well as he could. The stick had poked through the center of her arch, but the top of Malina’s foot was still whole. There was both old and new blood on her sock which meant that she had been running with the stick in her foot for a while and he hadn’t noticed.

“I’m sorry.”

She didn’t say anything. Much like she hadn’t said anything about the stick. He tried to think back if she’d sighed or grunted or made any sound over the last few miles that he should have paid more attention to, but he couldn’t remember. It would be up to him from now on. He would have to pay more attention, especially now that he knew she wouldn’t warn him if she was in pain.

Silas took off his cleanest sock and wrapped it around Malina’s foot. Then he put her sock and shoe back on and pushed himself up. Once they found the water he would clean her up and then they would take the remainder of the day to rest.

“Lean on me,” Silas said when he straightened. He wrapped his arm around her waist and took a few steps with her. Malina walked on both feet almost as if there was nothing wrong, but she didn’t seem to step as hard on her hurt foot as she did with her other foot. Silas tried pulling her weight on him when she did need to step on her bad foot and they slowly followed the sound of the water until the little creek came into view.

He found the safest route down the creek bank and helped Malina down. The mud was thick and oozed around his shoes and the water seemed to fill the air with the taste of cleanliness. Leading her to the nearest flat rock, Silas had her sit while he removed her shoe and the socks and placed her foot into the water.

The mid-spring water was cold and made his fingers go numb while they were gently rubbing her foot and scrubbing the socks. After hanging the socks up to dry, Silas inspected Malina’s foot again. It wasn’t bleeding and the hole didn’t look nearly as big as the amount of blood in the socks had suggested. But there was a large bruise, dark and puffy, that covered the sole of her foot.

“Look,” Silas said and pointed to the foot. “You need to tell me when it hurts. Okay?”

Malina’s brown eyes stared at him, like a little child who didn’t speak the same language.

“When you feel pain,” Silas touched the wound, “You tap me on the shoulder.” He took her hand and rested it on his shoulder. He let his hand drop, but Malina left hers there a moment longer and then she placed her hand in her lap.

Silas pulled the pillowcase over his shoulder and opened it.

“Here,” he said handing her a whole slice of bread. For himself, he drank some water and tried not to think about food.

Silas let all his air out in a whoosh. The plan to keep running wouldn’t be sustainable much longer. When he escaped the Cartiam with Malina it was thrilling to be free. What he hadn’t counted on was how hard it was to stay that way. In one sense it was so much harder than he’d ever dreamed possible. He was in charge of everything: food, clothes, a place to sleep and any health issues. Never had he imagined how hard it would be to find food in the forest. There were just leaves, trees, dirt and rocks, none of which looked anything like the food he’d been served in the cafeteria.

The bell from the town rang again and Silas refused to let the sound call to him. There would be nothing in the town but the threat of being caught. Out in these woods they were safe. He had seen or heard no one over the last two weeks and it was best that way. If only he knew how to find food it would be perfect.

“I’m going to look around,” Silas said. “To see how close we are to the town.”

He double checked to make sure her foot was out of the water and resting in the open before he added, “You stay here.”

Malina stayed as she was and when Silas peered back at her five minutes later she was still in the same position. There was something to be said for how well she obeyed him. He should have been worried. He doubted she would move if the creek flooded. She’d drown where she sat and still not move. But he’d be back before that could happen.

It was rough going. The ground was soaked from all the rain that had fallen over the past few days and it was difficult for Silas to find any secure foothold. Still he managed to hike over three wooded hills and at the top of the fourth was a road. Not like the old roads he had seen in the woods every now and then, this one was current. Packed gravel and tar smoothed the surface of the road. He didn’t have time to inspect the road more because a rattle of wheels and clopping of hooves sounded near the bend and he quickly retreated to the nearest trees.

The wheels grew closer and Silas’ heart thumped louder. He checked his arms and legs to reassure himself they were not sticking out in plain sight. They weren’t but he pulled them in closer to the center of the tree just in case. As the wagon passed the tree, Silas inched along the trunk always keeping the tree between him and the wagon. Once the wagon was past, Silas peeked at it.

The wagon was pulled by an ox and it must have belonged to a farmer because it was full of seed bags. On the tail flap of the wagon sat two boys, both younger than Silas. At first he thought they must have belonged to the farmer, but when the farmer glanced back both of the boys ducked so they wouldn’t be seen.

Silas waited until the wagon was almost out of sight before he started following it. The boys stayed on the wagon until it was in sight of the town’s first buildings. Together they jumped off and slipped between the two closest buildings with the farmer unaware of his passengers. Silas wanted to creep closer and see where the boys went, but it would require him leaving the comfort of the trees and that was something he wasn’t willing to do. It made him wonder what they were doing though. Did they have family or were they more like him?

The more he thought about it, the more it seemed like those boys were hiding from society too. It was doubtful they were Carillians too, but just knowing they were there made him feel a bit less alone in the world. He stayed and watched a few more people mill about the town. Each person had their mind on their own troubles and didn’t bother with anyone else. No one was in the habit of questioning random new people. That was something at least. He wanted to get closer and watch more, but the sun was close to setting and he didn’t like to leave Malina alone for long periods of time.

He snuck deeper into the woods before he broke out into a slow run and jogged back to the creek. It pleased him that he had been able to find his way back to wherever he needed to go in the woods. Often when he first left he would take a moment to memorize the trees around him and when he returned he found there was always something he recognized. He felt at home in the trees perhaps because they crowded around him and gave the appearance of the walls he was too used to seeing as a child.

Silas was too busy looking around that when he burst through the bushes the first thing he saw was Malina sitting on the rock with a red fox standing a foot from her hand. The fox’s head whipped up.

“Get away!” Silas yelled and he jumped down the bank into the shallow creek, cold water splashing up his legs. The fox jerked and then trotted away into the bushes. His heart pounded as he tried to walk without slipping.

“Are you all right?” he asked her.

Malina looked at him. He wasn’t sure if she looked a bit pale or not, but her hands were calm and whole. Her foot was still up on the rock where he left it and aside from the bruise looking a deeper brown it didn’t appear like the fox had bit her anywhere.

He collected the dried socks and fitted them over her foot. Then he held out his hand to her and said, “Here let’s find a place to sleep.”

Malina took his hand and he pulled her up. He turned her toward the shore, but what he saw stopped him cold. The rock Malina was sitting on was stained in blood.

Remembered Opening Poem

Before I even knew who the characters of Fadeout would be I had the words of a poem stuck in my head. I wrote the poem and then built a whole series around it. But the poem was always first and everything else flowed around it.

So as I was writing Remembered, the second book in the series, I began to think about possible poem ideas for this book too. This one instantly came to me and I wanted to give you a sneak peek. And if you stick around you may see a few chapters coming over the next few weeks.

The Robber in the Night

An Ajak Tale

On a warm summer day it is easy to believe in right

The world is spinning happily, turning bright day into night

You think you see a dust cloud, but you say it’s far away

You focus on your work and move on throughout your day

With the goats and pigs both fed and an apple on your plate

You don’t see the cloud is closer and will soon decide your fate

Then with an open window to let in more than the breeze

You drift off into nothingness while quiet hands do seize

All your wealth and freedom now gone without a fight

Each taken by the notorious, elusive robber of the night

Fadeout Review

I got a review of Fadeout!

I've been looking for reviews for my newest book and I asked Kindlemom from My Guilty Obsession because she had reviewed The White Lilac last year. She graciously accepted and read my book in record time. Just yesterday the review came out. She gave Fadeout 3 stars and had this to say about it:

"Anyone who has read any one of Adams' books knows that they are unlike anything else out there. Full of imagination and originality galore."

Yay! It made my day. :)

Happy 4th of July!

Happy 4th of July! I'm going to be spending the day with my family celebrating the independence of the American colonies from England, with some great food and light displays. And I'd like to share the celebration with you!

 

As a little holiday fun/treasure hunt. I've posted the cover for Breakthrough, the 3rd book in And Carillians for the Machine series. But it's hidden on my Facebook page. The first person to find it and e-mail me with the correct location of this cover, along with the answer to "What appears 7 times on the cover?" will get a free e-book from Smashwords, your choice The White Lilac, Fadeout or Remembered (when it is released).

So here's the 4 steps:

1. Go to my Facebook page. If you want to like it that would be great, but not necessary, although I do post information there that I don't here.

2. Search for the Breakthrough cover.

3. Look at the cover and identify the 7 things that appear across it.

4. Send me an e-mail including where the cover is located, your answer to what appears 7 times on the cover and which book you would like to: adamschristinawriter@yahoo.com.

Enjoy the hunt! :)

Remembered Update

Now that The Compound is out I've returned my focus on Remembered (ACFTM Book 2). The problem is that it took me longer to get The Compound done then I planned and now I am not going to be able to make my overly optimistic hope of publishing Remembered by July 20th. I still plan to have it out this summer, but late-August is looking more like reality.

All this will be dependent upon me working fast and hitting no surprising bumps. Which doesn't seem likely not, but that's why they have the element of surprise attached to them. If I knew when I would have problems I'd be able to start fixing them today. If anyone knows how to predict such things please let me know! adamschristinawriter (at) yahoo. com or via Twitter or Facebook. Yep, I'm desperate. :)

Book Cover for Remembered

 

 

Over the last few days I've been feeling a need to focus on marketing a book before I send it out. But to do this the very least I'd need is a cover. So I started working on other book covers for ACFTM and this is the result. What do you think? Does it look like an interesting YA Sci-fi Dystopian novel?

Fadeout is here!

 My second book Fadeout is now available online.


It's the first in a series and it follows the story of Silas Durant, a 13 year old Carillian who has lived on a human farm his whole life and Jamar Pelacroix, a boy of privilage whose father owns the farms. When they meet Silas is in the midst of planning how he can escape along with his older sister, Malina, and he's not sure he can trust Jamar. All Jamar wants is a friend and all Silas wants is to protect Malina from the Machine including the terror that comes with it. But their dreams reveal they are on opposite sides of a class war. Only if they can work together will everyone make it through alive.



Only 2.99 at Amazon, Smashwords and Barnes & Noble.


 
 
Here's a sneak peek at the poem at the very beginning of the book.

And Carillians for the Machine

A darkness filled the nation, little ones beware

Oppression comes to all and torments without care

Chaos, pain and death chase our people every night

We only had two choices: Die or stand and fight

 

The battle that we won was not without its cost

Someone had to pay for the dignity we lost

Tireans, Faans and Ajaks begin new life serene

Justice for all and Carillians for the Machine

 

Ajaks in the chamber, Tireans on the throne

A cow in the stable, a hawk to soar alone

A horse on the battlefield as a Faan is to war

A spy in the branches and a boat on the moor

 

Memory is the answer, emotions are the key

Protection for our cities, light for all to see

A moment of compassion hides a lone wolf unseen

Plague, darkest night and Carillians for the Machine

 

Dangers on the horizon, Tireans beware

Before the foul disease starts spreading everywhere

A dagger in the shadows, bloody and unclean

The answer is Carillians for the Machine

Sneak Peek of Fadeout!

Here's a look at my next book Fadeout, a YA dystopian.

 

Thirteen year old Silas and his older sister, Malina, have lived on futuristic human farms their whole lives. They have no future. They know it’s just a matter of time before the day guards come to take their memories and emotions leaving them shells. And Malina’s day is much closer than either of them would like to admit. Silas realizes they have to escape before this happens, but it’s not going to be easy and he’s running out of time.

 

I plan to release Fadeout in February 2013 with the sequels to follow shortly.

 

 

 

Fadeout

Chapter 0.5: Silas

The guards brought the fifteen year old boy in yelling and kicking. They forced him down on the table in the center of the room. Two guards held him while a third secured the straps for his arms, legs, chest and chin. He was left alone for a few minutes, but the time did nothing to calm him. He strained and pulled and screamed.

There was a nervous hush on the other kids that eight year old Silas could almost taste. All 27 of them had been locked in the adjacent room for over two hours, but no one wanted to move. They were frozen, watching the boy through the glass wall. It was the first time Silas had been taken anywhere without his parents and now they said he wouldn’t be living with them anymore.

Silas leaned closer to the glass. The boy on the table looked a little like his parent’s neighbor, Mrs. Dowell. He had her light brown eyes and the same lips. Although he had several strands of dark hair growing on his upper lip, that weren’t quite enough for a mustache. Silas knew Mrs. Dowell had children and her youngest had been a boy. She didn’t like to talk about it but she had left a teddy bear in the old crib and boys were always given teddy bears. It struck Silas deep inside that this could be her son.

A man in a white coat walked calmly over to the boy and began attaching some kind of head gear to his forehead. A thick strap went completely around his head. Two studs were connected to the straps and a visor was hooked to them so that it curved around the top of the boy’s head. Lastly, a sensor on the top of the visor was screwed to a large metal box with a clear tube running to a deep rectangle container. The man stepped back and went to monitor the numbers on one of the screens.

Now that the boy was connected, he struggled even more. The man in the white coat clicked several sections of the screen and different colored lights reflected off the table. The boy stared up at them and his muscles began to shake involuntary.

“Please, don’t,” he begged.

Silas couldn’t see what the boy was watching. It was higher than the top of the glass would allow him to look. One of the other boys in the room tried to press himself against the glass, but it must not have worked because he gave up after a minute.

“Stop please. I won’t do it again,” the boy repeated over and over. Tears began to form and slipped down the side of his face.

Something flashed on the screen the man in the white coat was watching. He glanced up to a small room made from darkened glass with metal stairs leading to it.

“He’s ready,” was all the man in the white coat said.

There was a loud click, a speaker crackled and a deep voice said, “Start the Machine.”

At those words the boy began struggling again. There was a grinding noise. All the lights in the building brightened and the boy screamed. He kept on screaming as small glass balls rolled down the tube from his head to the container.

Some of the girls in the room began to cry. Soon it seemed as though everyone was screaming or crying. A girl ran to the door and began pounding on it, but no one let her out.

Silas swallowed. He tried to close his eyes, but he couldn’t. The process lasted for hours. Most of the kids huddled together in small groups as far away from the window as they could. Silas wanted to hide with them, but he was motionless. He wanted to cry or scream, yet nothing would come out.

The more glass balls that rolled away, the quieter the boy got until he was completely still and then everything became too quiet. The boy’s eyes were dull and unseeing. His fingers limp and his mouth parted. His chest breathed so softly that Silas kept watching to see if it would stop, but the boy kept on breathing, in and out. Then the man in the white coat came back and unhooked the completely unresponsive boy. Another man came, lifted the boy into a wheelchair and took him away. There was no need for restraints. Silas didn’t think the boy even knew what was happening to him.

A speaker in their room crackled and several of the girls started crying again.

“This is your only warning,” the same voice from earlier said. “Fall in line, obey the rules and don’t make waves or this will happen to you.”

The kids struggled to their feet and lined up by the door. Silas joined them secretly relieved to be moving again. They waited in line for another hour until a guard came and escorted them to their new rooms, a ten by ten foot cell with a double bunk, a toilet and some cubbies. Boys were taken to one ward and girls another.

That night Silas huddled in his new bed. He couldn’t sleep. He kept picturing what had happened earlier. Every sound made him jump. Even the hissing of the hallway light was strange. So when footsteps sounded down the hall, Silas was immediately tense. The door to his cell slid open and Silas watched in horror as two guards entered. They grabbed him and moved him out of his cell, away from the boys ward and into the building where the Machine was kept.

No sound would come out of Silas’ mouth and he felt like he wanted to collapse, but somehow his feet kept him upright and held his weight. There was a spotlight on the empty table where they had strapped the boy. It made the chrome seem shiny and dangerous. Silas could hardly take his eyes off it, but then he heard someone talking in the corner.

“This one might be damaged. See how he’s not crying or shaking.”

“Test him anyway.” It was the voice from the speaker.

The man in the white coat appeared out of the darkness and held a scanner near Silas’ head. It beeped and whirled but did not hurt. Silas stood still holding his breath and hoping that whatever they planned to do would happen quickly.

There was a final beep. The man pressed the button and held the scanner to Silas’ head again. When the final beep sounded once more the man grunted.

“He doesn’t even register.”

“Test him again.”

“I tested him twice to be sure. This boy has no emotional registry at all. He must be defective.”

There was silence from the darkness, then a sigh. “Not necessarily. I’ve heard of cases like this. We’ll have to keep our eye on him and I want to get regular updates sent to me, my eyes only. Wipe the last hour from his memory and take him back.”