The Truth and Other Lies

By Keira Donegan

The once united nation of Poland now sits, divided in two. K E I R A D O N E G A N
With the country at the mercy of the fi erce dictator two girls
battle to escape their camps in search of a new life.
Emily is fourteen, she watched her parents die and works
everyday to provide for the wealthy but has no food for
herself.
Ashlee is fi fteen, she has watched her friends be drowned
and slaves away in the fi elds for hours but barely gets a
single grain to eat.
Together here two girls learn what it means to be a survivor
as they fi ght to make the world a better place.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris AU
• Release date: Mar 18, 2014
• ISBN: 9781493136216

Keira Donegan

Author Biography coming up soon

Book preview

Copyright © 2014 by Keira Donegan.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

Rev. date: 03/05/2014

To order additional copies of this book, contact:

Xlibris LLC

1-800-455-039

www.xlibris.com.au

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523103

CONTENTS

Prologue

Chapter 1 The Escape

Chapter 2 Ronan the Saviour

Chapter 3 Giving Up

Chapter 4 Jacob’s wrath

Chapter 5 Torture, pain and sacrifice

Chapter 6 Forgiving the unforgivable

Chapter 7 We’re Not Alone

Chapter 8 Just another statistic

Chapter 9 Time to say goodbye

Chapter 10 A change of power

Chapter 11 Halfway to Germany

Acknowledgements

A mistake is always forgivable,

rarely excusable and always unacceptable.

-Robert Fripp

This book is dedicated to all

The special people in my life…

And to all of those people I would like to say

Thank You.

PROLOGUE

T he sun was shining and life was great, Ashlee and Leelah were playing on the riverbank, pretending to be explorers. The two of them giggled as they drew maps in the water. If we use the water as our map then no one will ever be able to steal it from us Ash! exclaimed Leelah, Ashlee nodded her head and proceeded to draw her secret map of the world. Leelah’s mum called out from the porch of the house Leelah! Time to come in its getting dark! saddened; Leelah hugged her best friend and the two girls headed their separate ways. Ashlee skipped along the pebble pathway all the way home, she reached the front gate and smiled as she noticed that the fire was burning and her mother and father were in the house. Ashlee opened the gate and continued to skip until she reached the door where she was greeted by baby Morris and her father who scooped her up and hugged her super tight, like he always did. It made Ashlee felt safe knowing that at the end of every day she found herself in her father’s arms.

CHAPTER 1

The Escape

I t is the year 3013 and the Technologic Empire has fallen, anyone who could not get out of town fast enough was taken away to live in a village, to work as slave. Ashlee was one of the few who could read or write, and when the empire fell Ashlee’s parents knew that her skills would save her, so when they put up the slavery lists they pushed Ashlee forward. That was the last time Ashlee had heard from or seen her mother, father and her little brother Morris. Everyday Ashlee and the other 200 women and girls would be rounded up and taken over to the fields, and from there they spent their precious few hours of light, weeding the plants and harvesting the few grains of wheat and rice that the harsh summer gave them. There were no rations so the harvesters had to steal food from the harvests. If it went unnoticed then you were safe but if you were caught then you would be severely punished, sometimes you were beaten so badly that you could not work and if you could not work you were deemed useless and therefore must be exited from the world. She was hungry and some days she so hungry that she could barely move. But somehow she always managed to get up and survive another day. Not only were the jobs tiring, exhausting and hunger inducing but in the fields there were snakes and where there were snakes there were rats and other disease infected animals. If you were scratched, cut or bitten then you were a dead man. Out here there was no readily available water source or food, let alone a bottle of anti-venom or antibiotics to fight infections. Many of the girls had attempted escape before but they were always found and hung. Suddenly there was a yell from across the field, coming from the Governor’s lodgings. All of the workers quickly ducked their heads and pretended that they had not heard a thing. But Ashlee was worried about the kind Governess who would sometimes come out to the girls and give them water or a few bits of rice. And it was for those kind deeds Ashlee and the others were grateful of her. It was Friday night; food night. When all of the guards, the Governors and their wives were eating, the lovely Governess would slip out to the girls and give them some rice. But tonight there was no rice and the entire group of workers was uneasy, they were hungry and the heat made it impossible survive with no water. But they all clung onto the hopeful return of the Governess. As the night began to engulf the camp and the guards all returned back to their lodgings, the girls fell quiet. Some even drifted off to sleep, but not Ashlee, she was hungry but she did not want any food, she wanted to find the Governess. There were rumours going around the camp that the Governor abused his wives, and that when he drank he would hit and beat them. So far no one was able to prove it. Ashlee wished that she wasn’t going to be the one to break the news. As Ashlee stood up and tip toed her way around the mass of sleeping bodies, she edged over towards the door. But the bottom of her work dress brushed over the top of a young girl, who looked to be Ashlee’s age, she bolted upright, staring at Ashlee through her wide, sunken eyes. She whispered what are you doing? Ashlee replied in a hushed voice as not to wake the remaining workers of the camp. Shh! I’m going to check on the Governess, don’t follow me but the girl stood up and replied while walking towards the lodges I don’t care if I die, at least I will die knowing the truth about this hell hole. So they walked outside to find the Governess. The temperature had dropped below zero overnight, the girls had no shoes and were shivering, their feet were stiff and they no longer had feeling in their toes.