Excerpt from New World Order, Book 3 of the Sunset Rising Trilogy

By: S.M. McEachern

(Sunny O’Donnell, travelling through a landscape 300 years after the apocalypse)

I opened my eyes and looked around, wondering how long I had been asleep. My neck was stiff from the way I’d slept propped up against the rail. When I’d crawled into the back of the wagon this morning, I figured the stench alone would keep me awake. It smelled exactly as I imagined the sewer in the Pit probably smelled. So I used my blanket as a barrier between the stained boards and me, balling Jack’s t-shirt against my nose to block the stench. Hayley raised an eyebrow when she saw the shirt, but I ignored her. She was still behaving sheepishly over letting her tough-girl exterior slip when she had almost been eaten by a tiger, so I figured she couldn’t say much about my attachment to a piece of cloth.

The sun was warm today, even in its late afternoon position, and insects buzzed around the bears and us. In the wagon with me, Reyes was sprawled out flat in the middle with Summer tucked against him and using his shoulder as a pillow, and a still-unconscious Zach was at the back, closest to the rumps of the beasts pulling us. From my position against the side rail, Hayley rode her bike across from me, and Jin-Sook and Eli were behind me, also riding bikes.

I kind of smiled when I remembered how mad Hayley had been when she’d found out the “heathens” (she’d whispered to me in a low tone) knew how to operate Dome vehicles. I was forced to confess that Jack and I had borrowed a few from inventory and permanently loaned them to Dena’s barangay so they could have a little fun. That explanation hadn’t helped her mood any more than being forced to spend the day escorting our bear-drawn wagon with two heathens for comrades.

From behind my sunglasses, I studied Hayley. She had taken off her jacket and cap under the warm sun and she looked a lot smaller without the added bulk. Her t-shirt hugged her lean, sculpted physique, making me wonder how much time she spent in the gym. Yet despite the tough image, her big brown eyes and the soft brown curls framing her face gave her a very vulnerable, feminine quality. She carried herself with a superior arrogance not uncommon among bourge upper crust, but after watching her yesterday I wondered how much of that was an act.

I was still a little in shock that Reyes had comforted her after the tiger incident. He hated the bourge; she despised urchins. Water and oil, yet they somehow came together—if only for a few moments—even though awkwardness had set in when they parted. The thing was that those few moments were affectionate. Not that I personally cared if they decided to start something with each other. But on a greater scale, I figured if those two haters could overcome their prejudices enough to be friends, then there was hope for everyone else.

Hayley cast a sidelong glance at Reyes’ and Summer’s sleeping figures, and I quickly closed my eyes so she wouldn’t catch me staring at her. Then I remembered I had my sunglasses on and she couldn’t see my eyes anyway. I opened them again, but her focus was back on the trail in front of her.

I knew there was no romance between my best friend and my ex. A few months after we had been liberated from the Pit, I gave Summer a little push toward Reyes. During my engagement to him, she had never been shy about telling me what a catch he was, so I let her know that I wouldn’t mind if they started a relationship. She laughed and assured me that Reyes was like her brother. The thought of ever kissing him “that way” was gross.

My neck really was stiff, and I finally moved, stretching it one way and then the other. A distant whirring, like that of a motor, made me sit up straight. I strained to make it out.

“You hear it too?” Hayley asked.

I nodded. “What is it?”

“I don’t know. It’s the second time today we’ve heard it.”

“Maybe we’re getting close to the city,” Eli said. “Ryder has quite a setup for recycling plastic.”

That perked me up. Was I close to Jack? I turned around to look at Eli. “How much farther, do you think?”

“I don’t know,” he said. “We haven’t come to the old city yet.”

“The old city?”

“I’ll know it when I see it,” Eli said.

I noticed sweat rolling down Jin-Sook’s face. She looked to be in a lot of pain. I stood and stretched my stiff joints. “I need to move. Mind if I ride for a while, Jin?”

She didn’t hesitate. “Sure.”

Before I left the back of the wagon, I dug into my backpack, took a painkiller out of my first aid kit, and gave it to Jin as we switched places. We fell a little behind, but Eli stayed back with us to keep a lookout for cats. We caught up to the wagon, and Jin-Sook hopped in the back. I pulled my bike alongside Hayley.

“You doing okay?” I asked.

She rolled her eyes at me. “Yeah, I know I lost my cool. Rub it in, Sunshine.”

I blew out a sigh. Did she ever switch off the tough-girl act? “I didn’t mean anything by it, Hayley. I would’ve been terrified by that cat too.”

“It’s just—” She stopped and closed her mouth tight for a moment. “I sent my men away. It was stupid of me.”

It took me a second, but then the implication of what she’d said dawned on me. She had sent three of her soldiers to escort Wilcox back to the Dome, keeping only Zach and Jonas with her. Zach was unconscious, and Jonas had deserted her, leaving her alone to rely on a group of urchins and heathens when faced with death.

“Hopefully you know that you can trust us now,” I said.

Her expression was contrite. “At least until we get home, right? Then we’re back on opposite sides of the fight.”

It wasn’t unexpected that war was on her mind. Ever since Reyes’ confession, I had been worried about the same thing. But it was surprising that she was bringing it up to me. At first I wasn’t sure how to respond. I didn’t agree with violence as the way to resolve our issues, but I understood why the Pit would choose that route.

“Are you blaming the Pit for the fighting?” I asked.

She turned a sharp look on me, but within a few seconds her features relaxed. “I don’t know anymore. Alex, Jack, and I have been friends since we were kids. I knew something was—” She stopped talking and shook her head. “But Alex?”

My eyes shifted between looking at Hayley and navigating the path in front of me. “You know something, don’t you?”

She heaved a sigh. “Just rumors. And I never act on rumors.”

I didn’t push her for more information. The thread of trust that was growing between us was too weak to support rumors. Better to deal in truths.

We drove in silence for a while, and I allowed myself the indulgence of appreciating my surroundings. The trees were a little different from the ones I was used to seeing in the mountains, and their branches were thick with buds. There seemed to be more birds flitting through them and more animal burrows by their roots too.

Then we rounded a bend, and the sight that greeted us was so startling that I almost fell off my bike.

“What the—” Hayley breathed. At least she could form words. My mouth was too busy hanging open.

“There it is,” Eli said. He smiled broadly at our expressions. “The old city.”

It stretched as far as the eye could see. Tall, crumbling spires rising out of the forest like monolithic giants, their iron skeletons broken and rusted to a bloody brown. I had never seen anything like it. The old city Jack and I had explored seemed like nothing more than a village compared to the sprawling expanse of this kingdom. How many people must have lived there? Millions? More? Stark against the intense blue of the sky, the disintegrating spires were an ominous headstone for a civilization that had once ruled the earth.

End of Excerpt