In a future laid waste by environmental catastrophe, one woman in a shielded megacity discovers a secret hidden within—and the nightmare of what lies beyond.     The Skyfire Saga   Her designation is H124—a menial worker in a city safeguarded against the devastating storms of the outer world. In a community where consumerism has dulled the senses, where apathy is the norm and education is a thing of the past, H124 has one job: remove the bodies of citizens when they pass away in their living pods.   Then one night, H124’s routine leads her into the underground ruins of an ancient university. Buried within it is a prescient alarm set up generations ago: an extinction-level asteroid is hurtling toward earth.   When her warning is seen as an attempt to topple the government with her knowledge of science, H124 is hunted—and sent fleeing for her life beyond the shield of her walled metropolis. In a weather-ravaged unknown, her only hope lies with the Rovers, the most dangerous faction on Earth. For they have continued to learn. And they have survived to help avert a terrifying threat: the end of the world is near. Alice Henderson is a writer of fiction, comics, and video game material. She was selected to attend Launchpad, a NASA-funded writing workshop aimed at bringing accurate science to fiction. Her love of wild places inspired her novel Voracious, which pits a lone hiker against a shapeshifting creature in the wilderness of Glacier National Park. Her novel Fresh Meat is set in the world of the hit TV series Supernatural . She also wrote the Buffy the Vampire Slayer novels Night Terrors and Portal Through Time . She has written short stories for numerous anthologies including Body Horror, Werewolves & Shapeshifters, and Mystery Date. While working at LucasArts, she wrote material for several Star Wars video games, including Star Wars: Galactic Battlegrounds and Star Wars: Battle for Naboo . She holds an interdisciplinary master's degree in folklore and geography, and is a wildlife researcher and rehabilitator. Her novel Portal Through Time won the Scribe Award for Best Novel. Visit her online at www.AliceHenderson.com. Shattered Roads The Skyfire Saga By Alice Henderson KENSINGTON PUBLISHING CORP. Copyright © 2018 Alice Henderson All rights reserved. ISBN: 978-1-63573-049-4 CHAPTER 1 Ben had barricaded the door and been as quiet as possible, but now they'd come for him. He could hear them pounding on the door. He scrambled out of his hole beneath the floorboards. He'd found tunnels down there. Rooms. Maybe there was a way out, a tunnel he could escape through. But he wasn't sure, and he could die down there if he got trapped. He just couldn't stake his life on it. He hadn't had enough time to explore. He knew they wouldn't find the hole. They wouldn't know to look for it and wouldn't waste the time anyway. He spent precious seconds heaving himself up through the hole and then replacing the floorboards. As he threw the rug in place, the strange beeping emanating from those parts below stopped. It had started a few days ago, coming from somewhere under the building, in that dark catacomb of rooms. He'd never found the source. And now the Repurposers were here. He shouldn't have unplugged from the network. He knew that now. But he had had to unplug because of the chatter. How could he listen to the mysterious beeping over all that chatter? He'd never noticed it before, the constant talking. But suddenly, when he tried to concentrate on that strange alarm coming from below, he realized he couldn't hear anything but the monotonous drone of meaningless voices: What handbag was the star of High Rise Living carrying in last night's episode? — Win 80,000 creds by playing the beta version of Maximum Shopping! — Get a new look for your avatar! They must have immediately noticed his absence from the network and sent the men. He had to get out of there. He ran to the barricaded front door, ready to throw the furniture aside. When he peered through the peephole, he saw men waiting in the hallway. They'd covered this escape route. There was no other way out of his apartment. No windows that worked. No back doors. Just the front door and the tunnels beneath, which as far as he'd explored had not led out. A deafening buzz erupted on a wall he shared with his neighbor. They were cutting through. He had to get out of there. He grabbed a chair, ran up next to the wall. As the plaster caved in, he waited until a head appeared. He brought the chair down hard. The man crumpled, but another took his place, and Ben struck him too. He grabbed the second man, pulling him through the hole, then dove through the opening into his neighbor's living pod. He'd never seen the neighbor in person before, though he'd lived next to him his whole life. There he was, sitting on his couch, eyes fixed on his display, hands flying over the virtual keyboard. The man didn't even turn. Ben ran.