The 45th Parallel , livre ebook

4 Horsemen Publications, Inc. - T.S. Simons

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153 pages

English

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Description

Would YOU abandon your destiny?

Growing up on Lewis, Caitlin and Seraphine’s lives are ordered and calculated. Immune children, they were created by the previous regime for the sole purpose of ensuring the survival of the human race. A virus has decimated the planet and their destiny weighs heavily. With only a few surviving communities left on earth, their role in re-settling the world is critical.

But what if you reject the purpose your existence is designed to address?

In this thrilling new Antipodes series, join Cait and Sera as they reactivate the Nexus and embark on a thrilling journey, discovering fascinating new worlds, and in the process, endangering not only themselves but everyone they have ever loved.

Sujets

Science-Fiction

Toute la Science-Fiction

Post-Apocalyptic

Apocalyptic

Science Fiction

Fiction

Informations

Publié par	4 Horsemen Publications, Inc.
Date de parution	24 janvier 2023
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9798823200370
Langue	English
Poids de l'ouvrage	10 Mo

Informations légales : prix de location à la page 0,0350€. Cette information est donnée uniquement à titre indicatif conformément à la législation en vigueur.

Extrait

Table o f Contents
Dedication
Acknow ledgements
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Chapter 41
Chapter 42
Chapter 43
Chapter 44
Chapter 45
Chapter 46
Chapter 47
Chapter 48
Book Club Questions
Author Bio

The 45th Parallel
The Latitude Serie s Book 1
Copyright © 2023 T.S. Simons. All rights re served.

4 Horsemen Publication s, Inc.
1497 Main St. S uite 169
Dunedin, FL 34698
4horsemenpublicat ions.com
info@4horsemenpublicat ions.com
Cover by J . Kotick
Typesetting by S . Wilder
Editor Jen Paquette
All rights to the work within are reserved to the author and publisher. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning, or otherwise, except as permitted under Section 107 or 108 of the 1976 International Copyright Act, without prior written permission except in brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews. Please contact either the Publisher or Author to gain per mission.
This is a work of fiction. All characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used ficti tiously.
Library of Congress Control Number: 20 22945574
Paperback ISBN-13: 979-8-823 2-0038-7
Audiobook ISBN-13: 979-8-823 2-0036-3
Ebook ISBN-13: 979-8-823 2-0037-0

Dedication
Caitlin, I was never fortunate enough to have a daughter of my own. You are a strong woman ready to take on the world. I can’t wait to see what you achieve in life. Reach for the stars and never settle for less than yo u deserve.

Acknow ledgements
P eople come and go, but in a year of immense and tumultuous personal challenge, you learn who your genuine friends are. Those who stand by you when the going gets tough, who are always ready to listen on the other end of a phone or a message. The ones who check-in, for no reason other than they care—those are your people. I am truly blessed to have you in my life.
Four Horsemen- thank you for believing in me, and especially Jen- thank you for your edits. I love working with you.
Serafina, Chelle, Stevie, Deb—you ladies are all awesome authors in your own right, and I am so happy to call yo u friends.
BB—knowing someone has your back makes all challenges achievable. I can’t wait to see what the future brings. Love you.
To everyone who has bought, reviewed, or recommended one of my books—thank you. While I am an over-caffeinated, sleep-deprived, and overthinking night owl, knowing that someone eventually reads my books makes it all w orthwhile.

Chapter 1
T he steel band tightened around my chest as we lugged our possessions down the winding dirt path in the dim pre-dawn light. “ Move, will you! Stop dragging your bony ass.”
“In case you hadn’t noticed,” Sera hissed from the shadowy gloom behind me, “it is entirely because of you we need to run away like criminals in the middle of the night! If you hadn’t been stupid enough to play them off against ea ch other…”
“I didn’t think they would actually do it,” I fired back, panting as I clambered through the access hatch in the dome, holding it open for my sister. “Who would have known that they were stupid enough to fucking duel? Where do they think we are? The eighteenth century?”
“Bloody men,” Sera muttered, dropping her bags through. “They will do anything to get in yo ur pants.”
“I can’t help it. I didn’t want this,” I murmured, moving out o f her way.
“Oh, who are you kidding, Caitlin?” she sniped as she stepped through behind me and closed the hatch. “You lapped it up. You love the attention, flaunting your curves and using your tits to your best advantage. You loved every second until they worked out you were shagging them both. I just didn’t think they would fight over you. Not physically , anyway.”
Stopping dead in the road, I exclaimed, “Hey! Don’t you think I am worth it?”
Sera grumbled. “Sometimes. Right now, out here in the freezing cold, carrying everything I own and not asleep in my warm bed, frankly, no. I don’t.”
“Fair call. Give me your laptop bag. I can carry it.”
As the pink gold of dawn tinged the edges of the horizon, we moved into the deadzone beyond, that bleak space where no one had lived for over thirty years, not since every living thing perished after water-borne protozoa rampaged across the earth. The only survivors were the people, plants, and animals carefully selected to live in protected, domed communities. Outside was a wasteland—death as far as the eye could see. The air outside the domes was thinning to almost unbreathable levels, although replanting projects were underway to restore the oxygen levels before they dropped to a point where we couldn’t travel between communities. The few of us who traveled needed to carry oxygen canisters, although most people were too fearful of being infected. With the lack of living vegetation, erosion had been devastating to the earth’s surface. Dust storms now battered the shells almost weekly, pitting the waterproof but breathable fabric surface of our home. The torrential pummeling had caused many communities to develop backup plans in case the domes were breached, exposing us to the deadly protozoa.
Unapproved travel between domed communities was prohibited, but since one of our mothers was Chief, we prayed she might make an exception for us, though we knew it was unlikely she would cut us any slack. Besides, we couldn’t exactly stay here. Being a former military officer, and now Chief of the Association of Collective Communities, Illyria was tough and treated us no differently than her team. Fair, but firm. Seraphine and I were full sisters; although we had never been told the complete story behind our conception, many of the files were redacted or missing. We knew from one of our regular attempts at accessing our medical files that our biological mother Freyja had donated her eggs, and they were modified by a team of scientists twenty years ago. Along with twenty-four other girls, we were immune to the protozoa that still existed in all water on earth. All water, except in the protected communities where we lived. Antipodes had once linked these communities, portals open only on the solstices and equinoxes, which joined a domed community with its partner at the opposite point on the earth. Fourteen years ago, those portals had been deactivated by our mothers, Illyria and Freyja, and Tadhg and Jake from the Newgrange community where we had lived for seve ral years.
Leaving Callie and Tadhg made tears spring to my eyes, especially running away in the middle of the night without saying goodbye. Jake and Makayla, too. They had treated us like family since we arrived to undertake our apprenticeships. Even though Sera and I had our tiny cottage on the outskirts of the main township, Callie insisted we come for dinner weekly, or she would drop off meals at our place several times a week when we had a deadline. Initially, I thought she was monitoring us to send reports on our welfare to Cam, our Dad. Since they first met in Melbourne at the initial selection testing, she had remained one of his best friends. But over time, I realized Callie was one of the most genuine and kindest people I knew. Much like Aunt Di, both were Australian, wholesomely good people, making everyone feel welcome within minutes of meeting them. Callie was open and honest, with never a bad word to say about anyone. With every meal she served, she made us feel at home an d special.
After living in our own place for so long, I wondered where we would stay when we got home. We had been raised by two mothers and a father in a joined home with our various siblings and a menagerie of pets. “The madhouse,” Illy had called it. Our biological father, Luca, had been murdered before we were born. But we were loved and nurtured by all our parents and siblings. Sera and I were born a few days apart, to different surrogates, but had learned that we were full siblings after our seventh birthday as we had been returning from a cross-world journey to Australia, and my parents felt I needed something positive to outweigh the trauma I had experienced. We had always been close: best friends. But now, we were inseparable. Illy often teased that we were as close as Sera’s twin sisters, Allison and Summer, who were bonded on a deeper level than anyone I had ever seen, often not needing to speak aloud when in each other’s presence.
We clambered aboard the vessel, and I untied the craft as Sera started the engine. I cringed, listening to her starting it, the grinding shuddering down my spine, wishing she would let me manage the more mechanical aspects. We had lived in Newgrange, apprenticed to Jake, Callie, and Tadhg for the past three years, and it was an odd feeling knowing we were leaving for good. They had trained me as an engineer, primarily tasked with ensuring that we maintained a stable power supply for our burgeoning communities, using a variety of solar, wind, hydro, and algal bioreactors, though I often meddled in oth