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THE ELEMENTAL CHRONICLES
CLAIMED BY THE DON
UTOPIA

ALSO! GUESS WHAT? THE SERIES ISN'T OVER--NOT IN THE WAY YOU THINK!

Eeros Wolfe-Brooks has never spent a moment of her life alone. In fact, overprotected by her mother Mira Brooks and father Sebastian Wolfe, Eeros has never spent a second off the Island of Paradise, and despite her requests to explore the dead zone, life is good. Humanity thrives despite the virus that ended the world over thirty years ago.

Until the past Mira's been hiding from her daughter comes back and everything becomes threatened--supplies are running low, people are going missing and secrets are exposed. Even worse, there is a dark truth to what happened five years ago when a horrible accident struck the island and cost the live of Mira's first daughter. Now, Eeros wants to break free of the overbearing island life and get to the bottom of not only her mother's secrets but why a new evil now threatens not only their lives but their future too.

In order to save the dead zone, Eeros and her friends will have to find out the truth of what's beyond all that they've know and hope it's not too late for all of humanity. 

TEASER:

One |

I was born into a dead world.

My mom has told me little about how the world ended, instead she tells me of so many stories about how humanity fought back against an evil that tried to kill us. She writes about it too, stories of her friends, of how she changed this island and established the supply routes. Sometimes I don't believe her, I see her as the hotheaded mom that snaps when I don't do my dishes. Then I see her at work, and I see how much people respect her. This entire island is ready to obey every order from her, the council titles her their leader and when there's problems she is the first one to fix everything.

"Everything except me," I muttered softly.

The sand was soft against my back, my hand stretched out towards the clouded sky as soft drops of rain fell on top of me. It was calm. Despite the cold of the wind, and despite how much anger had filled my heart. My eyes closed, and I pushed back the tears that brimmed. My mom couldn't understand why I was so angry at her and that just made me hurt even more. After all that we've gone through, after what happened to Rose—

"Bunny," the familiar accented deep voice sighed.

My eyes opened and the familiar blood red eyes of my dad stared down at me. All anger melted away as I sat up, the tears I held back began to bubble and I felt like I was five again. It was silly, I had turned eighteen a week ago and yet here I was acting like a baby. I stood slowly, wiping my face hard enough my sweater scraped against my skin.

"Fighting with mom again?" he chuckled.

I kicked at the sand, "I-It's not fair. She's not being fair."

"Walk with me," he sighed, readjusting his zombie-proof vest.

Curiously I did, tugging along beside him as we walked up the beach and towards the town. Around us, people squealed at the rain, running to get out of it. Shops moved to take items inside, and windows began to close. The rain always seemed to sneak in from nowhere, but that's how it had always been, or so my dad told me. He said it was because we lived on the island, so the weather was more unpredictable.

"I want to go on a supply run," I said to him.

He nodded patiently, "I know."

"And she won't let me!" my voice sputtered, anger leaking from my throat, "I'm eighteen now, I'm not a child, I can make my own decisions. I've trained harder than any other officer, I know more about herbs and survival than even Ben, and I can kill a grown ass man with a fucking—"

"Language," he scolded but didn't stop my rant.

I sighed deeply, "You know I'm capable, so why can't she?"

He stopped walking, thunder in the distance, "Eero, you know she thinks the world of you, Mira thinks you're the more capable than even me or her. But she doesn't think you're ready for the world outside the island, and you have to trust her judgement."

I groaned pulling at my light brown locks, "I feel like one of Farris' birds. She said when I'm eighteen I can go on supply runs but I'm eighteen now and she won't let me. She's a liar."

He snickered at that, "Bunny, you just turned eighteen, give it time."

"When mom was eighteen she was skimming squirrels and killing zombies," muttering, I started walking back down the street, "I'm not even allowed to go for a walk without her sending you along to make sure I'm not fu—freaking swimming across the way into the fallen city."

"When your mom was eighteen she was alone living off squirrel meat fighting for her life every day for years of solitude."

I opened my mouth, my face burning.

"Eero!"

We turned, my mood brightening as I watched Ben run down the street, rain bouncing off his leather jacket. Trailing behind him was Aunt Lisa and Uncle Oliver. It seemed the most recent supply search was done faster than expected. As soon as I looked over at Aunt Lisa my smile melted off, her eyes were hard—something had gone wrong.

"Hey Eero," Uncle Oliver said smiling.

Aunty Lisa's smile didn't meet her smile, "You've already gotten bigger."

I puffed out my chest, trying to ignore the tension, "Make sure you tell my mom that, maybe you can convince her to let me go on supply runs."

"Supply runs are a bad idea for you right now," Uncle Oliver replied with a frown, "Especially now since the—"

"Ah, Mira and I have decided not to discuss work with Eero yet. Go on with Ben, we'll talk later bunny," Dad chuckled lightly but I could hear the way his tone tightened, "I'll cook something nice for dinner. Maybe squirrel."

I nodded at his joke, "Sure, sure."

He walked over to meet up with Aunty and Uncle as they waved at me again. I waved back, suspicion growing in me as Ben hummed, slinging his arm over my shoulder. Bernard Junior was my best friend, while he was technically a year younger than Rose, we grew up together closer. He smelt like spice and burnt wood, no doubt evidence of whatever happened out there. I looked over at him, curiousness filling me.

"Nope, don't even ask," he said brightly, walking us towards the resident building.

I frowned, "Ben."

"Nope."

"Bernard," I snapped.

He paused, "Damn, you're really going to go there?"

"Don't treat me like a child too," I growled.

His eyes rolled, "You're not a child, you're barely a person."

I gasped, how rude!"

"Let's go to the roof," he mused.

We slipped into the lobby, and Ben shrugged his jacket off. I paused, admiring the beautiful tattoos that covered his arms. I have seen him shirtless, they go from his shoulders down to his wrists, he had got them done at sixteen at Wolf Cove while I can't even fucking leave across the port.

"You want one?" he commented, a twinkle in his eye.

"Right," I snorted, "Like my mom would let me get a tattoo."

"Next time Felix comes ask him," he replied ignoring my comment.

We made our way up the metal stairs slowly, heading up the ten floors towards the roof. Silence fell over us as we did, which was a reoccurrence in our friendship despite both of us having loud personalities. Sometimes however, we found a nice comfort in silence. He pushed the roof door open before stepping aside so I could go out first. I did, knowing I'd lost that fight long ago and stepped out onto the roof. It was raining harder now, but this roof had long ago become our secret meeting area. We had tarps set up across the top and silly plastic chairs underneath. In the winter we'd even "borrow" an outdoor heater from my mom's dusty garage.

"Ladies first," Ben gestured to one of the chairs.

My brow rose, "Thought I wasn't even a person to you."

"You're not," he joked, "You're like a pet that looks like a lady."

I threw the chair at him—which he caught. As he did, I moved over to the side of the roof, confusion filling me. In the distance I could see Idris running down the street, no doubt making his way over to the roof to meet us. He paused, looking up towards us and waving—the kid had excellent eyesight. We think he must have got it from his dad—all the illicit kids had special abilities like their parents.

Except me.

Idris had hyphened senses, and Ben had hyper regeneration and I had not a damn thing. Both my parents were illicit and I was born with no ability. It was frustrating, Dr. Brown didn't understand it, and neither did Dr. Lilith but I could see in the old bag's eyes that she had an idea. She just didn't want to say shit about it, stupid old bat.

"Why is Idris here?" Ben asked surprised.

I shrugged, waving back at him, "Ophelia's not going to be happy about that."

"Ophelia needs to get over herself," Ben snapped turning at me with bright eyes, "We all lose people, that doesn't mean you get to abandon your son."

I nodded slowly saying nothing. I hadn't been born at the time, in fact, Idris was a few months younger than me but we all know the story not told. Ophelia fell in love with an illicit by the name of Sam Dore. He died two years after Idris' birth and unable to cope with that ditch baby Idris at the Tunnel Town. Tom Cain was more than happy to adopt him, saying Idris was like a grandson to him. I fully agreed with Ben but I was happy Idris was under Tom's care, he was kind and firm and Ophelia was a scary lady.

"What happened to you anyways?" I asked him softly, "What's going on?"

Ben hesitated, "I shouldn't say anything—"

"—there's a lack of supplies," Idris suddenly said panting.

We turned. Idris stood in the door way, his hands on his knees panting hard. The fury jacket on his shoulders slipped off, his shaggy white hair covering his bright green eyes as he panted hard for air. I frowned slightly, sure Idris was allowed to travel with his shitty lungs but I wasn't? Mom really was unfair.

"Idris," Ben hummed with judgement, "Eero and I were just discussing how the emergency meeting was none of our business and I shouldn't disclose top secret information."

He looked up like a startled rabbit, his cheeks a deep red, "Oh!"

"No," I corrected, "We were just talking about how it needs to be discussed—what the fuck do you mean no supplies?"

His eyes widened in an impossible way and he took a step back, "Ah!"

I jumped him, knocking him onto his back and straddling him. Both my hands were on either side of his face pinching his cheeks in a terrible way. The way I know was a perfect interrogation strategy. He cried, tears pricking in his eyes.

"Supplies are running out and supply groups keep going missing!"

I froze, my body turning cold, "What?"

Supplies running out and groups going missing? My heart turned cold, the last time a group went missing they returned as zombies and killed...I inhaled sharply. This has happened before and was chalked up to a terrible accident, but if this has been happening again and more than once this is no accident. Something has been going terribly wrong.

He sniffled, rubbing his cheeks, "S-Sorry Ben."

"It's alright kid," he sighed, "You had no chance, Eero's is relentless."

I got off of him and stood, "Oh my god, why aren't you guys freaking out?"

"Because it's not our business," Ben replied, "The settlements will handle this."

Idris' bottom lip trembled, "I overheard grandfather talking. They said it needed to be handled without anyone knowing and without "it" happening again. I'm not sure what he was talking about. It did scare me a little."

Ben nodded slowly, "They probably want to handle this without causing panic."

That didn't make sense. Zombies were always a threat, and so was harsh winters and other things that caused low supply years. The way they were talking, there was something else happening and it wasn't something as small as normal zombie threats. And if they were comparing it to what happened five years ago.

"But all the leaders are being called? Not just the ones involved with the specific routes?" I demanded, "Something feels off about this."

Ben looked at me with a heavy gaze, "Eero seriously, not our business."

I frowned, deciding that I was tired of being treated like a child. I wanted to know what the hell was going on, and I was tired of being the last one to know everything. I walked over to the roof edge and looked across the island over towards Mom's garage. My eyes narrowed and my brain began to calculate a stupid idea.

"Whatever you're thinking, the answer is no," Ben warned.

I turned towards them with determination, "Mom keeps all information locked in her trailer. I am going to find out what the hell is going on. Are you guys going to help me?"

"I-I'll help any way I can!" Idris replied, sitting up with a small smile.

"Fuck, fine," Ben groaned, "But if we get in trouble, I'm throwing you under the bus."

I nodded, my fingers curling with determination.

It was time I found out what exactly my mom was hiding.

BEYOND THE DEAD ZONE COMING AUGUST 2022! IN THE MEANTIME CHECK OUT MY OTHER BOOKS! I'd recommend my current work in progress:
THE ELEMENTAL CHRONICLES

DAUNTED BY THE DON