PRESENTED BY YA BOUND BOOK TOURS
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Breakout
by A.M. Rose
Six days.
That’s the amount of time until Lezah’s execution.
She’ll die never knowing what got her locked up in that godforsaken prison in the first place. Her only chance of survival is to escape. Except the monitoring bracelet that digs into her wrist, the roaming AI, and the implant in her neck make freedom close to impossible.
Her best chance is to team up with the four other inmates who are determined to break out, even if one of them is beyond gorgeous, annoying—oh, and in for murder. But he has a secret of his own. One that could break Lezah if she finds out, but could also set him free.
Figuring out how to work with him and the rest of this mismatched group of criminals is the only way Lezah will survive to see the outside world again.
But nothing in this prison is as it seems. And no one.
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• Genres: Young Adult, Science Fiction, Fantasy• Add the book on Goodreads!
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Heavy footsteps echo through the
hall. From the corner of my eye, two AIRS appear, bigger than the humans they
were built to resemble. Artificial Intelligent Roaming Security
marching our way means only one thing. Someone’s time is up, and I just pray it
isn’t mine. They’re all hard steel where a soft mesh “skin” should be, with
inhuman faces that are cold and unforgiving. As if it couldn’t get any worse,
these two are larger than any I’ve seen. Something about their mechanical forms
appears more menacing than ever. AIRS are the only model of WALTER I’ve ever
been afraid of. A drop of sweat slides down my temple, but I know better than
to brush it away.
“That’s not mine. I swear. I didn’t
take it.” Twelve’s voice cuts through me like broken glass. That’s basically
what she is now. That’s what they’ll do to her—break her into a thousand
shards. She’s already as good as dead. It doesn’t matter what number is on her
bracelet, or however many days of her sentence she had left, her expiration
date is now.
Heavy footsteps echo through the
hall. From the corner of my eye, two AIRS appear, bigger than the humans they
were built to resemble. Artificial Intelligent Roaming Security
marching our way means only one thing. Someone’s time is up, and I just pray it
isn’t mine. They’re all hard steel where a soft mesh “skin” should be, with
inhuman faces that are cold and unforgiving. As if it couldn’t get any worse,
these two are larger than any I’ve seen. Something about their mechanical forms
appears more menacing than ever. AIRS are the only model of WALTER I’ve ever
been afraid of. A drop of sweat slides down my temple, but I know better than
to brush it away.
My chin trembles with the rumble in
the floor from their heavy frames. They stop at my right, in front of Twelve
and Thirty-three, the girls who share the room next to mine. Twelve’s knees
shake so hard her bright red hair vibrates. A puddle forms around
Thirty-three’s feet.
No one moves.
Or blinks.
Or breathes.
An eternity later, they grab Twelve
and spin her around. With a loud crack, her cheek slams into cold
concrete; red swells against her pale skin. Tears pour from her blue eyes and
slide down her freckled cheeks. She looks as scared as I feel, but I have no
right to. She’s the one with blood pooling at the corner of her mouth, with
big, scary AIRS assaulting her.
“No!” someone down the line yells.
“Don’t. Stop. You’re hurting me,”
Twelve begs, but the AIRS don’t respond. One digs their hand into her pocket
and yanks out a fork.
Someone gasps and jerks back, then
pays the price for it with an electrical shock from their metal wristband.
“That’s not mine. I swear. I didn’t
take it.” Twelve’s voice cuts through me like broken glass. That’s basically
what she is now. That’s what they’ll do to her—break her into a thousand
shards. She’s already as good as dead. It doesn’t matter what number is on her
bracelet, or however many days of her sentence she had left, her expiration
date is now.
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A.M. Rose is the author of Road to Eugenica, and Breakout (formerly titled Not Innocent) is the writer of young adult novels, drinker of too much coffee (with way too much coconut creamer), and lover of all carbohydrates.
Currently, she lives in Houston, TX with her three boys (yes, her husband is in that count) and three cats. When she isn’t writing, she is an avid reader, critiquer, (is that even a word?) and trampoline enthusiast. She is a graduate from San Diego State University with a BA in Communication and a minor in underwater basket weaving. (Okay, maybe not the basket weaving part.)
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