Revolution: New, Dark World, #4

By Chrissy Peebles

 This is book 4, the conclusion of this series. 

No matter what the cost, Sky fights to get her world back. She vows to have the life she has always dreamed of. 

Can she have a normal life?  

• Language: English
• Publisher: Dark Shadows Publishing
• Release date: Oct 4, 2017
• ISBN: 9781386134534

Book preview

Chapter 1

It was morning in the rebel camp, and I groaned as all of my aches and pains woke up at the same time.

Pain. Good. A part of me thought, revelling in the pain that throbbed through my body. It took my mind off of my emotional pain, stopped me thinking about Brett.

My beautiful husband was gone. I felt like my heart had been ripped out. The guy was my life, and now he was gone.

It hurt so damn bad.

The pain at losing him speared through me all over again. It wasn’t a sharp pain. It was more of a dull ache; a sense of vacancy; an emptiness in my heart that I knew would never go away.

Not ever.

I would never forget him or our precious baby.

I opened my eyes, squinting at the early morning light, reaching out a hand to where the cold blankets of my little cot bed lay beside me.

Not the warmth of another’s flesh. Not Brett’s broad shoulders, I realized. Everything had happened so fast the last time that we had been attacked by those animals from Vita. Brett had tried to save me, we had been through so much together – but the bullets had found him in the end, not me. I would have to get used to this feeling of emptiness, and I didn’t know whether I ever could.

It should’ve been me. Not him. He wasn’t the fighter. It wasn’t in his blood. He just fought at my side to make me happy. I thought we could have a life here if we kicked the cannibals out of Vita. I was so naïve. We should’ve ran like Brett said we should. But I couldn’t leave all those people. I had made a commitment to fight. Even now, in my sadness, I would continue to fight. And I was going to do just that. No matter how much it hurt. 

I was laying on one of the military-style cot beds under a deep green tarpaulin that made the hasty quarters Ward had ordered me into. It had been six months since the loss of my husband, months that now I couldn’t even remember with any clarity. I remember wandering around the rebel camp in a daze, unsure of who I was or what I was even doing here. Carla and Rachel had both tried to talk to me, but it was like a deep sea fog had wrapped its clammy arms around me.

I must have been in shock. I realized, remembering how I had seen a video of it once; one of those late-night documentary channels. Usually, the body goes into shock when it suffers intense physical trauma, but rarely, very occasionally, it can go into the same state of emotional shut-down when the personality has a life-shattering event. A death. A breakdown, a divorce – that kind of thing. The body and the mind start to work on auto-pilot, and the mind is shielded from all sorts of emotions as it builds its own protective layer about itself.

Thank God I snapped out of it. I thought to myself, stretching and realizing that my limbs hurt. I had been running and training every day, I had managed to force myself to keep that up at least, and now I was paying for it, it seems.

I’m ready, I announced, my voice croaking into the chilly morning air of the tent. I knew what had to come next.

Revenge.

THE REBEL CAMP THAT I was staying at (and most familiar with), was the one run by Ward. It was the first camp that I had encountered ‘topside, after living the rest of my life down in the underwater city of Asha. I had been a gardener – and a damn good one, too, but that was before all of the events that had brought me up here.

The same events that had eventually led my husband, Brett, to his death.

Up here, topside, we had discovered that the world was not a barren wasteland – far from it. It was, in fact, a recovering wilderness. There were thriving communities (well, one at least) but it thrived on a dark secret. The people of the city of Vita fed on the people of the underwater cities. They were cannibals, using us as their own meat farm.

But then, there were the rebel camps. Others who had managed to escape from the underwater cities, and had decided to fight back. Ward was just the dark-haired, handsome leader of one of them. The leader was killed during an attack. A month after the funeral, Ward was given the official title of leader. Together, he thought that we had a chance at defeating Vita – even with all of its guns and armaments, and the fact that it had been training and preparing for years. They prepared while we were stuck down in that underwater city. How fair is that?

The fact was, that even if we didn’t have a chance – we had to try it anyway. What else could we do? Just let them continue to feed off of all of the other people down there in the underwater cities?

No. So here we were.

I got dressed and washed in my small tarpaulin tent, stepping out to blink in the harsh sunlight of the early morning. The sun had just crested the distant buildings, and although it was chill and cold, it looked to be a bright day today.

I still couldn’t quite believe what it was like up here on the surface. The wind that tickled my blonde hair and teased at my collar, bringing with it the scent of green things far off, and wood smoke from the many early morning campfires. I pulled the knitted shawl hat I had found – obviously spun and knitted here in the camp, for its coarse handiwork was plain, around my shoulders and shivered a little.

My stomach rumbled, and I remembered that I was ravenously hungry. I couldn’t even remember the last time that I had eaten. Maybe I hadn’t. I thought. Maybe I had been too depressed?

But now my hunger was awakening, and I could smell something being grilled nearby, so I headed toward it. The camp itself was more permanent than makeshift – this was the central camp, not any of the satellite ‘lodges’ that Ward had encouraged his scouting parties to set up around the perimeter of the camp that we occupied. On the edge of a small waterway, with marsh reeds at one end, there were makeshift jetties – black marks sticking out into the river, where occasionally there would be wooden and power boats tied up. Ward had an idea that we could intercept the underwater cities directly over the sea, before the corrupt governments down there transported anymore of their citizens to the meat processing factories up here on the surface in Vita.

But the problem is always the technology! I stubbed my toe on a boulder at the edge of the muddy path. Us rebels were fierce, determined and committed, but it was hard to find the same resources that Vita had. They had managed to build up or recover a lot of the lost technology from the time before doomsday when most of the population had fled to the underwater cities. Vita had guns, guard towers, factories, cars, fuel, batteries – even a small energy-producing plant!

We had whatever we could salvage, steal, or make.

This rebel camp was, as I say, better than most of the others – there was an almost permanent palisade wall around the outer edge, we had caches of fuels around the site. A few actual concrete bunkers – obviously shelters or something from when the asteroid hit all of those years ago, which had somehow managed to survive the blast thanks to some quirk of local geography. Those were enlarged and dug deeper – one had the small medical facility, while the other’s top floors were the council chambers, and lower were the cold stores for the not-very-much food that the rebels managed to find or grow.

The camp itself was made up of tents, tarpaulin benders, shacks and tree houses. Different factions loosely collected to form simple districts here and there.

There was the distant sound of squawking from some of the domesticated chickens that the camp depended on. Someone must be collecting eggs for breakfast, no doubt. The camp was waking up, and tins were clanking against each other as people prepared their breakfast meals.

My steps had unintentionally taken me to near the edge of the reeds, where the path wound along the edge of the camp, behind most of the buildings. Out here there was a good view of the shining water and the mist around it forming a strange glow. On the other side, there were the small attempts at irrigation – raised beds banked edged with wood, and covered with rounded tunnels of plastic and glass. Old car windows and a few sections of stained glass that must have come out of some forgotten warehouse somewhere sat next to each other in a huddle.

Sky! A voice said, and I looked up in shock to see that I was not alone.

Ward, I greeted the leader of the rebels, taking in his height, the broadness of his shoulders, and his messy tangle that was his dark hair. He stood before me with his camo trousers on, but bare feet and his shirt off. Even despite everything that had happened to me – I couldn’t help but notice how handsome he was.

In another life, maybe, I thought sadly, enjoying the brief flutter of embarrassment that I saw across his face. He had already confessed to me how much that he cared for me, and already he knew that I was in mourning for my lost husband and my baby.

Uh, I wasn’t expecting anyone, he said hurriedly, picking up his dark coal-grey shirt and slipping it over his still wet chest. I come here to take a dip in the river some mornings, clear the cobwebs, he said a little sheepishly as if I had caught him out at something.

We all need our little ways to make this life more bearable. I nodded and even managed a smile, letting him know it was okay. I guess that I too had come here for the same reason – to start the day and my new life in peace, before I was thrust into the fire.

So, uh – how are you-? Ward mumbled, clearly embarrassed. It must have been obvious from my complexion and the deep circles around my eyes. No, wait – here. He went into the greenhouse, picking off a number of the gigantic pods from the tall corn plants that clustered there, unwrapping them from their green, papery-like leaves to reveal well-formed sweet corn cobs. You must be hungry, come with me. He walked past me, all of a sudden in control again and in charge as he led me to the biggest fire pit in the camp where people were congregating already.

Here they greeted each other; a ragtag band of rebels – all hard-eyed, lean-boned men and women that I had worked, trained, and fought alongside.

Sky! It was Rachel, my best friend who had managed to escape with me from Vita. She stood up and crossed over to me quickly, pressing into my hands some fresh-baked bread that they were sharing around the fire. It’s good to see you up and about, instead of just training every day.

Nothing stops the Rebel Princess, one of the other rebels remarked, causing a small titter of laughter around the smoking fire. It was well-meaning laughter, though, and one that I knew wasn’t meant with any ill intention. When they had first met me I was wearing a princess ball gown, and ‘rebel princess’ was the nickname that Brett had given me. It had kind of stuck since coming to the camps.

Too right, I responded, tucking into the fresh-baked (and delicious food).

On the other side of the fire, Ward sliced the cobs in half and started grilling them on the metal frame that they had, much to the appreciation of the small assembled crowd. Food was starting to pass around, and soon we were all tucking into a gorgeously, fresh breakfast.

The food wasn’t as varied as the stuff that I had grown down in Asha, but somehow it tasted much better. Must be the fact that my body craves it more, I thought, or maybe it was just because that it was cold.

Sky, there’s news, Rachel said at my side, pitching her voice at me. She was a good friend, one that I knew that I could trust. A part of my heart that I thought I had lost quailed. What now? Someone else has died?

It’s your father, Rachel said.

No. I shook my head quickly. Was he dead too? I knew that I just wouldn’t be able to handle it if my father too had been killed in one of his scouting missions. He was the leader of one the other rebel camps, and since we (Ward, myself, and Brett) had started trying to contact the other rebel camps and recruit them to join in our fight against Vita, I had been reunited with him. His camp was now our closest ally in our loose alliance, and I knew that he would do anything to fight at my side.

But the thought of losing him too was almost too much. I could feel the grey walls of the emotional fog starting to close around me, as I wanted to draw back into myself, hide my head and not think or feel ever, ever again...

No, Sky – it’s okay! Rachel said quickly, placing a reassuring hand on my shoulder. He’s really okay, but he sent word last night that his scouts have found something – something very interesting.

Found something? I said. Like what?

"Something that could tip the balance of the war in our favour!" Ward chipped in, to an accompanying cheer from the other rebels who sat around next to him.

What do you mean? I asked.

Well, the good news is... Ward said, not just to me, but to the entire crowd here at the fire pit. That rebel scouts have discovered where there is a cache of military grade equipment, in an old bunker from the old times – before the asteroid.

How....? I started saying, as people cheered.

Your father, Sky. His team raided an abandoned place and found old strategic maps, pointing to the fact that there was this bunker in place. All we have to do is get there, blast the doors, and we can have everything that we need to storm Vita and put an end to its terrible ways once and for all! he said triumphantly.

Something stuck in my mind. The bad news, though... You said that this was the good news – what’s the bad? I said, looking up at Ward.

He caught my eye – a flash of annoyance, a quick nod. He knew that he couldn’t fool me. Yeah, well, you’re right my Rebel Princess, there is indeed some bad news, Ward confessed. The territory that the military bunker is in currently is said to belong to a group called the Savages.

The Savages?