"As far back as I can remember, I've been surrounded by water. The salt in the air even now makes it hard to breath, forcing me to squint. Sand clings to every inch of me, caking my pants and shoes. The wind from the ocean picks my hair up, sending it blowing back towards the multi-colored houses lining the shore line.
***
'Quinn, don't panic,' Lexi says through gritted teeth. She holds fistfuls of my shirt now, and I hear the rubber soles of her shoes squeaking.
'Too late,' I whine, grabbing the barbed wire in a last desperate effort to regain some balance. The razor sharp blades cut into my palms, making me jump again. Lexi sucks in air and loses her grip on me.
I hold my breath and close my eyes, feeling the wind cradle me from all sides as I fall at about twenty-four miles per hour, considering the height of the wall and my weight. Now, I wish I was surrounded by water."
South of Compound 4, another compound exists. Within the wall of Compound 5, children are trained and tested for perfection through the Intelligence Exam, a test that every student takes during their sixteenth year. Pass, and you stay within the compound. Fail, and you are sent to another compound. It's common knowledge that they are building a perfect population to remain when the rest of the world falls to the Virus.
Yet, what happens when Quinn faces the threat of Compound 5, a short blonde girl whose name he can't pronounce, and begins to question everything he's ever been taught, pushing the limits of the system and his own comfort zone? When a student receives the compound's first ever perfect IE score, a storm makes its way in from the ocean. Can Q unravel the secrets held within the walls, or will he lead his family and friends to a war they can't win against a woman who seems to be triumphing against all odds?
Selected is the sequel to Immune, found on my profile.
Record Ranking: #25 in Science Fiction
{COMPLETED} "now that you've had your fun electrocuting me, would you care to hop in the backseat?"
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Freak DNA. That's what I like to call it.
The fault to my genetic code. More often than not, it's a curse.
The static running through my blood gave me a name. A cruel, daunting label of a measly bug. A roach. That's what I am to them, to the government. Roach; the nameless monster with electricity for a sense and lightening as a second nature. It ruined my life, the sparking currents playing tag in my mind, running around and bumping into everything, shaking me loose.
The government, actually. They ruined my life. My curse just gave them a reason.
You see, the normal population with ordinary DNA, they don't know about the people like me. The roaches of the world. We don't get that kind of recognition at the camps. There, we are only one thing in the military's eyes. We are weapons and we will act like it.
Everyone else out there, bathing in the goodness they don't know they've got, they don't know about the roaches their stepping on. As long as their getting closer to the sky, they don't care what they stand on to reach it.
They don't know about the sparkling dreamer that's killed 7 people before her 17th birthday.
They don't about the ghost of a girl peaking around corners for her entire life because even home wasn't safe.
They don't know about the fighter of steel and iron sucking on his bloody lip courtesy of the wars he battles in as nothing but a shadow.
They don't know about the masked villain who would do anything to see the army they lead claim the throne
They don't know about us. But they will, because we will rise. And when we arrive, we will arrive violently.
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Started: 10.06.15
Finished: 3.17.16