Reverb: Feedback Serial Book Two: Feedback Dystopia, #2

By Shane Hall

A Dystopian Future Where Singing Is A Felony And Music Is Banned​

There's Only One Place Left to Run

Eric, the doctor, Terry, the celebrity, and Clarice, the victim, all flee into the lawless tunnels, where the cowardly untouchables of Flatson live in seclusion.

Eric and the others must avoid exploitative criminals and escape with their families to a legend: the illegal music bar known as Marley's.

The singers and police both face severe upheavals, as both Leonardo and Jack make their moves.

Sometimes, we just don't have any other choice.

Janet and Will, forbidden lovers, have no choice but to tell the truth. Winona has no choice but to face her own inner ugliness. And Eric has no choice but to let go of someone, even if it ruins him forever.

Or so they think.

Reverb is the second of four novella-length episodes in season one of a multi-season, dystopian thriller of politics, hatred, love, bitterness, and warped minds.

If dystopian futures fascinate you, scroll up and grab a copy.

Feedback's Most Relevant Categories

* Dystopian New Adult Science Fiction

* Science Fiction Mystery Serial

* Augmented Reality Science Fiction

* Dystopian Futures

* Posthuman Science Fiction

* Post-Nuclear Apocalypse

* YA Dystopian Science Fiction

• Language: English
• Publisher: Shane Hall
• Release date: Nov 28, 2017
• ISBN: 9781386791959

Book preview

REVERB

Episode Two of the Feedback Serial

Shane Hall

Editing by Sandy Ngyuen, a Fresh Set of Eyes

This e‐book copy is for your enjoyment only. Please support the author by purchasing additional copies as needed.

The Feedback Serial is a bizarre story, and entirely a work of fiction. Any and all similarities to real‐life events, persons, etc. are entirely coincidental and unintentional.

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Last Time

Eric, an imposing but friendly doctor‐to‐be, finds his friend, Freyara, missing after a meeting to discuss her recent technological discovery.

Since his best friend, Will, is the second in command at the Coltra Police, he seems free of blame. But that soon changes when he's falsely raised to the top of his graduating class.

Will has his own concerns, being a leader of a singer group in secret, and the boyfriend of Eric's underage sister, Janet.

Freyara's mother, Magnolia, suspiciously attempts to have Eric learn mortality manipulation: an outlawed method of raising the dead. Eric doesn't realize that she is being forced by Freyara's kidnappers to possibly frame him.

The beautiful and highly influential celebrity, Terry of Omega House, makes televised comments against Eric. However, she is also forced to obey the Nexus: the same commanding group of shadowed figures that guides Magnolia.

Before the pieces can come together, a rising journalism figure and enemy of the Nexus, Leonardo, traps Eric's girlfriend in his tower and reveals Will's secret. This instigates a fight to get Eric arrested.

Ultimately, the Nexus kills Eric's cousin and Terry's best friend, Clarice. Leonardo tries to use this to arrest Eric, while the Nexus seems bent on using Eric's medical skills for mortality manipulation.

Against their predictions, Eric beats the Bird, working for the Nexus, in a fight, forcing him to kill himself. But the police are on the way, and Clarice, freshly revived, would not be treated well as a revived person.

As Janet awakens after being kidnapped by the group that took Clarice, Eric drives with Terry and Clarice to the last place he can: the underground tunnels where convicted criminals are 'allowed' to live and do crucial labor jobs.

Chapter Eleven

The Trash Bin

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The right side of Will’s jaw was tender, and his head was pounding where it’d hit the rubber floor. He rolled onto his back and stood up, grabbing the desk to help keep his balance. Oh my God, he groaned.

Will didn’t want to go after Eric, but he had no choice. He stepped into the deserted hallway. It was late and most of the other police officers had gone home.

Chief! Will barged into Monty’s dark office.

Huh? Monty dropped his bottle, spilling rye whiskey. He got drunk right after midnight every night, like clockwork. Damn.

Chief, what’s happening with that mortality manipulation room? Did you get the suspects?

How the hell do you know about that?

Just answer me, please!

The suspect’s on the run in a different car. Carl’s taking care of it.

Will ran out of the office and flipped through the contacts in his TCS. He tapped for Carl and waited.

Carl here, deputy chief. Chasing a suspect at the moment.

Carl, said Will, is the suspect heading for the Tunnels?

Yeah. I’m herding him down there.

"What? You’re trying to get him into the Tunnels?"

The chief wants ‘em out of our jurisdiction.

That’s illegal! We’re supposed to try and arrest suspects!

Chief’s orders.

"Why would Monty… never mind. Carl, don’t push him into the Tunnels. You’ve got to stop him from going down there. Do you understand?"

"I have higher orders not to stop him, sir."

Carl, listen to me! Monty doesn’t understand. We need them above ground.

We’re getting close to the Tunnels. I don’t think I’ll be able to stop them.

Use a PIT maneuver if you have to! Will yelled.

Will, that maneuver’s illeg—

That’s an order! Will cut him off. If you have any respect at all for the law, you’ll stop them! The words came out of Will’s mouth, but they felt like someone else’s. The man you’re chasing needs to be arrested at all costs.

Ah, man. Carl paused. I always figured I’d get myself fired for you one day. All right.

Thank you. As soon as Will hung up, he got a call from a nameless contact. Hello. Who is this?

I take it you’re having a difficult night, said Leonardo.

Eric’s life was destroyed after you called him. Is it my turn now?

I’m flattered by your inductive reasoning and wild imagination, but don’t waste my time. Three things. One, Monty’s agreed to assist me. I feel it’s only right to warn you.

You can’t be serious. The old man must’ve been drunk when he agreed to that.

In return for Monty’s help, I’ll keep Jack away. That’s that.

"Don’t get comfortable with your little arrangement, said Will. Jack’s controlled the police long enough, and I’m not trading one secret boss for another."

Two, you’re going to let Eric escape into the Tunnels.

That’s funny. I’ve just given the order to stop that from happening.

Will, said Leonardo, you’re not making good decisions.

Now you’re wasting my time.

Very well. Three, go out the back door and look in the southwest corner of the parking lot.

Why?

Go look. Leonardo hung up the phone.

scene break

Janet was coming to. She remembered Clarice yelling, Get out, Janet! Now! Then she saw the men in balaclavas and they shot her with a dart.

She was in a fetal position, unable to move much at all. Her hands and feet were bound with plastic zip ties. The rigid plastic was gouging into her wrists and poking through her socks. Janet felt the floor beneath her with her hands. The polyester pile of the carpet told her that the tight, dark space must’ve been the trunk of a car. At least it’s parked.

Something heavy and tough was covering Janet’s chin, mouth, and the bottom halves of her cheeks. Her lips were hot inside the thing and it was pulling the hair on the back of her head. She tried to shout, and an electric jolt rushed through her facial muscles, causing an involuntary scream. Her jaw seized and she moaned. The thing released a second shock that seemed to course even deeper into her head and neck.

Janet realized she was in a police clamp. I’m a singer, it was only a matter of time before this happened. She began to cry. Her tears pooled where the clamp pressed against the side of her face that was nearest the top of the trunk.

She breathed as deeply as she could through her nose until she could think clearly. Janet finally brought her knees and fists together and pushed with all her might against the back seat of the car. It didn’t budge. I don’t have the strength to break out.

A memory washed over her. When she was nine years old, her big brother saw a documentary on child abductions. He then took it upon himself to train her to get out of difficult situations. When she complained, he said, You’re gonna be ready for those sick bastards.

One of the escape exercises involved zip ties. Like magic, Eric’s fifteen‐year‐old voice guided her. Feel for the locking bar and stick your fingernail in there. You’ll slip right out of the tie. It’s called shimming.

Janet swept her fingers through the air until she found the protruding end of the plastic tie around her wrists. She strummed it and felt her way down to the cube that locked the tie together. She slid her fingernail into the locking bar to release the mechanism and pulled her wrists apart. Her left wrist shot up and knocked against the door of the trunk. She slowly stretched her cramped arms and shimmed the tie that bound her ankles.

They haven’t killed me yet, so I’m sure someone will come for me. It’s probably going to be a man. I can’t overpower a man. Okay, let’s say I get out of this trunk, then what? I probably won’t be able to run fast enough to get away, anyway, I can’t leave my mom behind … wherever she is. I’ll kill a man, or try my best. I’m not afraid. Okay, I’m afraid. But that makes me dangerous, right? I wish I weren’t wearing a skirt.

Janet managed to squirm onto her back. As soon as the trunk was popped, she would kick it up, jump out, and make a run for it. Something was poking her between the shoulder blades, and she didn’t know how long she could hold her position.

She began counting seconds to distract herself. Her count was irregular, sometimes slow and sometimes fast, but it kept her mind off the pain in her back. Around seven hundred eighty, she heard footsteps. Someone lifted the trunk and Coltra’s streetlights flooded inside, revealing the silhouette of a man.

Janet kicked both feet at the man’s chest as hard as she could. He turned and her feet scraped him more than anything, but she caught him off guard and was able to scoot out of the trunk. She landed on her feet, but she fell down and tiny bits of gravel dug into her knees.

Janet, said Will as he helped her up. Thank God you’re okay.

Will tapped on his TCS and there was a click. He reached behind Janet’s head and pulled the clamp away from her face. He hurled it into a wall, and it chipped the bricks before landing on the ground.

Janet was inhaling and exhaling deeply, her mouth widening with each breath. She clasped her arms around his chest like a belt and let out a short wail.

Not too loud, said Will. I’m so sorry, but not too loud.

Janet calmed herself and let go of him.

Your mother was tied up in the alley. She’s safe now. Let’s go inside.

scene break

The entrance to the Fifth Sector Tunnels was a semicircle surrounded by raised stones. Eric saw red lights and darkness ahead of him. He pressed the gas pedal to the floor and sped toward what looked like a diseased tongue above a gaping throat.

The armored police cruiser behind them accelerated and pulled along the passenger side of the car.

He’s gonna bash us! The cruiser’s red and blue flashing lights were reflecting off Terry’s face.

There was a loud bang. The car lurched left as the passenger window fractured into a distorted spiderweb. Eric clenched his teeth. He wanted to slam into the cruiser, but he couldn’t risk it—for Clarice’s sake. He pulled the wheel right, trying to resist the