"The Uprising" is a term that will send shivers down anyone's spine. Several hundred years ago, the dead rose from their graves, and stormed Paradise City. Old, mangled corpses with no sense of direction spread all over the country, bringing plague wherever they went. In a desperate attempt to save her world, the goddess of this world, Aahila created four heroes to push back and defeat the evil. Each hero had their own crest. Tess, the hero of bravery, owned the square crest. Cyria, the hero of fidelity, owned the circle crest. Tyra, the hero of virtue, owned the triangle crest, and Peyton, the hero of integrity, owned the pentagon crest. Soon after the heroes had succeeded, the people of Paradise City wanted to show their gratitude to the four heroes, giving each one their own domain in the city to live in. As time went on, the legends of the four heroes became blurry. Some details were forgotten, and some left out entirely. Soon, the original legends were lost to the sands of time, all that remained were statues and forgotten monuments.
y/n was born many generations into the future, where the legends of old were discarded and replaced. y/n lived a normal life, with two loving parents and a close friend. Now they live alone, saving money to go to college and pursue their dreams. That is, if fate didn't have other plans for them.
Watch as y/n is forced to go undercover to save their city, finding centuries-old secrets never meant for the likes of them, along with remnants of a past life and ties to legends they had never heard before.
Centuries after the Fall, the United States has been wiped away. The crumbling remains of the great American empire are home now only to savage, lawless tribes and packs of ravening Damned-the twisted children of the apocalypse. Most of those few who survived humanity's destruction spend their short lives in a violent struggle for survival.
But some light still flickers in the darkness: the Blessed of Bountiful live in seclusion, relying on walls both physical and spiritual to protect them from the Desolation that their world has become. Among them are the Saints, those few men and women born with superhuman abilities that the Blessed see as gifts from God. The violent apostate tribes of the Northeast Kingdom have always been a danger, but up until recently its small size and the vigilance of its people have made Bountiful an unappealing target. As attacks on the community grow harsher and more frequent, however, even the steadfast Blessed are forced to start preparing for the worst.
With her home's very existence threatened, seventeen year old Ever Oaks, a Saint with the power to heal, is forced to make a difficult choice, one that may come to define her people's future...
Exile was a semi-finalist in Mark Lawrence's Great Self-Published Fantasy Blog-Off (#SPFBO). Fantasy Faction said it was "extremely cool," and Bookish Lifestyle called it "more than just a story, a journey and an experience."
When I'm asked about it, I often describe it as "X-Men meets The Walking Dead."
In addition to reading it here for free, you can buy Exile in e-book or paperback on Amazon.com.