Title: The Clash
Author: Kindra Sowder
Genre: YA Dystopian
Editor: Elizabeth Lance
Cover Designer: Aurelia Fray
Publisher: CHBB
Publication Date: June 19th, 2018
Blurb:
Beyond enemy lines, death is close at hand.
Mila is a prisoner, captured by King and his men before they could make it to Dead End -- the last remaining stronghold of the resistance. Every connection has been severed, new secrets have been unveiled, and all hope seems lost. That is until a defining moment at the Basilica in Washington D.C. where King plans to bring the country to its knees, using her as fuel for the fire.
Her power grows to destructive proportions, setting the stage for an epic final battle that will change the United States forever. Can her group of rag-tag remnants, John Baker included, help her save the country? Or will she crumble to join the ruins of the country she has scarified everything to save?
Find out in the gritty final installment of The Permutation Archives, and ask yourself -- What would you sacrifice for freedom?
Kindra Sowder was born and raised in Rancho Palos Verdes, CA until the age of 12, when her family moved to Spartanburg, SC. She graduated from high school in 2006 with full honors and as a member of her high school Literary Club and the Spanish Honor Society. In January 2014, she graduated with her second degree in Criminal NeuroPsychology. She married her husband Edd Sowder in May 2014 and still lives in Spartanburg, SC where she is basing Burning Willow Press. Her works have earned multiple award nominations.
Author Links:
Buy Links:
The Harvested: https://amzn.to/2MA8dbH
The Pursuit: https://amzn.to/2K17uBN
The Scorned: https://amzn.to/2K6dvgy
The Defied: https://amzn.to/2teicug
A distinct whine of gears and robotics starting up caused my heart to jump in my chest. My breaths came in short, clipped gasps as I unwillingly breathed in the gas they pumped into the room. I would have held my breath if I thought it would do any good. It seemed that didn’t even matter. It would work its way into my system regardless if the sensations in my body were any indication. My eyelids began to droop, and my entire body began to weaken, one muscle at a time.
“Stay awake,” I whispered to myself.
I squinted past the light and fatigue as best I could, but still barely saw the large door open and blurry black shapes file in with what seemed to be massive guns gripped tightly. Blinking one more time, everything came into focus. That was when I saw the gas masks strapped to the soldier’s faces, even more menacing when all I could see were their harsh eyes. My breathing picked up, and adrenaline pushed its way into my veins, causing the effects of the gas to lessen substantially once my back met the wall behind me. The soldiers came closer, and before they filled the room, I spied Nero hanging back with a sinister grin plastered on his face – gray eyes dark.
“Get away from me.”
I reached out toward the soldiers, my power swirling into my hand, but nothing more than that. My vision swam, and my body started to go limp, my arm falling just a few inches. I completely lost focus, and the power was gone, deep down in the recesses of wherever inside of me it came from. Pink, the same color as the gas floating around me, swam into my vision around the edges, and my lids fluttered.
“Get away from me,” I yelled, barely able to see past the pink haze.
One soldier reached up and pressed a finger into his ear against a small communication device. His breaths inside the mask echoed, but his words were clear.
“Permission to wand her, sir?”
A voice came through the speakers in the room. Obviously, King wanted me to hear him. To know he was intent on doing whatever he wanted no matter how hard I fought against his will. He had learned.
“Permission granted. You might as well tranq her too. If the gas didn’t work, we obviously need more juice. Do whatever it takes,” King ordered.
“Roger that,” the soldier replied. He gestured with a finger toward another person in the room behind him. “You heard the man.”
My muscles were sluggish, and if I could have reacted to avoid anything, I would have. In a matter of seconds, I felt the jab of a tranquilizer dart and the growing numbness spreading out from the prick of burning pain. I knew exactly what this was. Paralisix flooded my veins, black spots forming in my vision just over the pink fog. I felt my body resist the drug, and they must have seen it because each one of them tensed, and then flew toward me with stun wands in hand. I had seen the wands in action plenty of times before. They worked much like a tazer, but I had never been on the receiving end of one in my life.
Surging forward, one of the men lashed out with the stun wand, striking me in the apex of my belly, stinging with such intensity my vision blacked out for a second and my body convulsed. Even more came down on me, and as I screamed in electric agony, I knew they wouldn’t stop until I stopped moving.
It didn’t last long. After the fifth jolt, I felt as if I left my body, and nothing existed.
