The third book in The Salvation State trilogy by Marcus Damanda just released. I love this series, and highly recommend it!
BLURB:
Four Days till the Lamb …
On Angel Island, the Ceremony is ready. The cameras are in place. For Ruth Black and her husband, the Reverend Matthew, there’s just one problem: their intended sacrifice has plans of his own.
Huddled around a forbidden computer in the compound’s junk shop, five teenage prisoners launch an escape against impossible obstacles: a barricaded church, the electrified perimeter fence, the Key Tower guards, an invisible wall in the water that surrounds the island prison—and against the soldiers of Open Light of Day, led by the most ruthless collector of wayward children in all of New America.
They have to run during the ceremony. Far from keeping it secret, they need as many people to know the truth as possible, or there’ll be nowhere to run. For Rebecca Riggs, Daniel Forester, and their fellow Forgottens, the road home leads through Revelation Way.
****
EXCERPT:
Rebecca held Daniel’s left hand so tightly, he felt as though he didn’t have to do any of the work, at least as far as holding was concerned.
He hung over the side of the roof, right hand gripping the corrugated stone gutter, letting go only when she nodded to him. Still she held him, inching closer to the side herself, sliding too easily over the wet, arched tiles. One foot, two feet, she lowered him—closing in on the drop herself.
Behind her was Caroline, muttering “Oh my gosh” on repeat. Behind her was Gnash. And at the back was Asher, still at the portal, anchoring them all with an expression Daniel was sure would have been agony personified, if only he could see it. He couldn’t let this take forever.
They’d been careful to pick a point between two of the high stained-glass windows. They couldn’t make any shadows. Daniel forced his legs to hang as though dead, resisting the temptation to make contact with the wall. They couldn’t have any unnecessary noise either—even though the eight hundred and fifty-some kids in the chapel were making plenty for camouflage.
The drop from the steepled roof of the praise-and-worship building was twenty feet down to the flat roof of the boys’ school wing. Hanging himself off the edge cut the drop to less than fifteen. Rebecca edging him farther, clutching with tears in her eyes and with both hands, cut it to maybe twelve.
“Let go,” he grunted. “Now or never.”
This might hurt, he told himself. Bend your legs. Don’t cry out. The impact will be loud enough.
Still she held him.
“Do it,” he said.
But it was the rain that conquered. No one could have held him forever in the rain.
****
BUY LINKS:
Amazon ~ Smashwords ~ Evernight Teen ~ Barnes and Noble
****
BOOKS ONE AND TWO:
Blurb:
“This is what the truth is. Second Salvations murdered my parents, and I’m running away.”
A single post over unregulated Internet channels. A sleeping society awakens to a chase, broadcast live on television screens all across the New United States of America…
Rebecca and Daniel have never met. A fifteen-year-old preacher’s kid and a sixteen-year-old atheist outcast, they appear to have little in common. And yet they have both attracted the attention of a recruiter for Angel Island, where bad kids go to be remade—or destroyed.
Agents of the all-powerful New America Unity Church will stop at nothing to get them. They’re building an army, a modern children’s crusade, in which Rebecca and Daniel may be just the kind of future leaders they need.
If not, they might be just the kind of sacrifice necessary to keep the rest of the faithless in line.
Blurb:
The chase is over. For Rebecca, Daniel, and the rest of the Forgottens of Second Salvations, there is only one choice: get with the program or die. But there’s a spy lurking somewhere within the cabins of Angel Island, someone with contacts in the outside world. Ruth Black is determined to find out who it is before the world learns the truth about her—and about the special punishment ministry of her husband, the Reverend Matthew.
Rebecca and Daniel are not destined to remain forgotten very long.
Welcome to New America: one nation, under God. An island prison, just for kids, built to convert the very worst of them. Kids like Rebecca and Daniel, with one impossible task:
Escape.
****
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Marcus Damanda lives in Woodbridge, Virginia with his cat, Shazam. At various times throughout his life, he played bass guitar for the garage heavy metal band Mother’s Day, wrote for The Dale City Messenger, and published editorials in The Potomac News and The Freelance Star. Currently, while not plotting his next foray into fictitious suburban mayhem, he spoils his nieces and nephews and teaches middle school English.
https://www.facebook.com/MarcusDamandaAuthor/
https://twitter.com/marcusdamanda
https://www.marcusdamanda.com/