Chapter 1

Run.It was all I could think, the word pinballing around in my head as my feet pounded the concrete. Run, run, run! Back to the wall, I slid to the ground, curling into a ball in the shadows as the blinding spotlight passed overhead.

Their pursuit was endless, making it clear they knew someone was hiding. No doubt their fancy heat-seeking equipment indicated my huddled form from the sky, though God knew how. I was so cold, I was surprised to still emit any heat. Gasping for breath, I dared to look into the black, hearing the helicopter’s blades cutting through the gloom. As dark as the night, it was camouflaged from sight once the spotlight was cut, but the darkness didn’t disguise its relentless noise. Sound was the last bastion of hope I had, the one sense they couldn’t confuse.

“You are commanded to stop!”

The male voice thundered from all around, amplified to ensure everyone in a five-mile radius heard. Panic clawed at my insides. Sound was no longer my friend. They had taken that one remaining flicker of faith and used it against me.

“Stop running, citizen!”

Citizen?I shook my head, my teeth chattering as I huddled against the brickwork. That was a laugh when all these men wanted was to strip away my rights.

“Stop running, or we’ll shoot.”

On that point, I had no doubt. I’d heard more than five thousand women were culled last month alone, fleeing from the hordes of men crusading around the country, and those were just the ones we knew about. The world had changed, the constitution torn up. There were no rules.

You have to run!

The familiar voice screeched in my mind, reminding me of my fate if I ceded, if I gave in to the oppression. Summary execution would be an improvement on the reports I’d heard from the warehouses. I shivered as memories from the few women who’d avoided the plight reverberated in my mind. Sketchy radio warnings blasted where we could hear them, conveying the insidious masterplan. Warehouses of women; catalogued and processed with only one function in mind. None had consented to be there. None given a choice. We had run out of places to hide and people who would conceal us. We had run out of time.

Women were being hunted, stalked until every female of childbearing age had been processed. Someone had decided there weren’t enough of us having babies. Someone had taken stark action to turn things around, and the worst of it was they’d done so with the popular vote. The propaganda had done its job, brainwashing everyday people into believing catastrophe awaited if someone didn’t act. Suspended in a fearful stupor, the people had stood by and allowed the machine to grow teeth, to snatch law-abiding citizens and force them into warehouses. I didn’t know all the details. All I knew was the machine was out of control, spewing how they had no choice, how they had to act, how it was for the greater good.

I swallowed as the helicopter completed another circuit.

“Last chance!” The menacing tone resounded through the air. “Come out now or face the consequences.”

Pulling in a shaky breath, I edged toward the hedgerows. If I could only make it to the foliage, I would have some cover, and there might be animals, something else with a heat source that would throw them off track. This place had been a farm once, but like a lot of places, it was deserted, abandoned as women fled and men signed up to work for the machine. Everything had crumbled so fast. In the end, there had been no resistance.

I edged against the wall, only a couple of feet from the relative sanctuary of the undergrowth, when I heard them. Men on foot, their heavy boots audible despite their attempts at quiet. Shit! Fresh adrenaline flooded my system as I tried to ascertain where they approached from, but by the time I could decide, the noise was coming from all directions. They were everywhere!

“There.”

One gruff voice came from my left, and like a scene from a sci-fi horror, they came into view, the lights at the end of the weapons visible before their dark forms loomed.

“Grab her.”

Another voice, this time from the right, and suddenly, the place was littered with dark, moving shadows. Lurching to my feet, I narrowly avoided one grasping hand as I stumbled forward.

“Halt!”

It was futile to think I could outrun them, crazy to assume I could hide, but I couldn’t stop. I had to run. Defiance to the menace was all I had, the last glimmer of my power in this dystopian nightmare.

“Take her out.”

The order echoed from behind me as I charged for the bushes, but I dared not look back. I was committed. I fell as the bullet hit, the noise of the shot splintering the night as pain ruptured in my side.

“Fuck.”

Hitting the ground, I was aware I’d landed on earth rather than concrete. Glancing up, I realized the foliage was just ahead of me—I’d almost made it. Clutching my side, I expected to feel evidence of my life’s blood seeping away, but all I could feel was something hard penetrating my clothes and puncturing my skin.

“How much did you give her?”

My head clouded, I was vaguely conscious of two men towering over me.

“Enough to knock her out.”

“I preferred it when we could just fucking kill ‘em.” Dark laughter swirled, the only thing to permeate the fog except the sudden cold.

“Yeah, well, you know the new order. We’ll run out if we do. We have to bring them in instead.”

A bright light shone in my face, forcing me to recoil. Sprawled on the ground, there was nowhere to go.

“The bitch is still awake.”

“Not for long.”

Dimly, I noticed one rise over me.

“Once she’s out for the count, we can get something to eat.”