Escape! - Softcover

Ferguson, Scott A.

 
9781592115075: Escape!
Softcover
ISBN 10: 1592115071 ISBN 13: 9781592115075
Verlag: Histria YA, 2025

Inhaltsangabe

For fans of The Hunger Games and The Man in the High Castle!

Abigail Henderson was a slave in the Empire of Truth and Light; a fascist country that was as bad as Nazi Germany but followed Moses’ instructions to the Israelites (Book of Numbers 31:17: Now, kill all the boys. And kill every woman who has slept with a man). After surviving a truly horrific processing, she was sold to Dr. Kurt Van Heflin, to be a companion to his blind granddaughter Inga Van de Clerk. It wasn’t long before she became more than just a slave; she became part of the family. Not too long after beginning school, Abigail encountered a bully who pushed her down the stairs, breaking her arm. Because her arm was bothering her one night she learned the family’s secret; Dr. Van Heflin was helping the resistance fighters! She offered to help and the doctor agreed.

What followed is a trilling and action-packed story of survival, resistance, love and search for safety amid a war that threatens to swallow the world.

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Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Scott A. Ferguson was born in Shakopee, Minnesota. His father worked in commercial radio, which led the family to relocate around Southern Minnesota and Iowa until his father secured a job with the Voice of America in Washington, D.C. The family subsequently moved to Virginia, where Scott graduated from high school. In 1976, Scott commenced his career with the U.S. Secret Service. During his tenure there, he met his future wife, and they married in 1983. Over the course of more than 40 years, they raised two remarkable boys in Southern Maryland.

Auszug. © Genehmigter Nachdruck. Alle Rechte vorbehalten.

They had been in the shelter for over three days.  Throughout that time, the sound of explosions had gotten louder and louder.  Finally, about two hours ago, the power died; the lights went out and the air circulation fans stopped.  Throughout the shelter, she could hear some children screaming and others crying.  She held onto her mother’s arm with a death grip while her mother tried to soothe both her and her little brother.   

Suddenly, there was a blinding light as the doors to the underground shelter were forced open and dozens of soldiers with flashlights and lanterns came pouring in.  Other soldiers with machine guns and rifles began pushing and shoving them out of the shelters, toward the streets above. Still holding on to her mother, she got up and headed for the exit when she heard a soldier behind her begin shouting at someone.  She looked around just in time to see the soldier try to pull a woman up onto her feet. When she refused to move, the soldier raised his machine gun and pointed it at her.  The woman, obviously hysterical, curled into a ball crying so loudly that she probably didn’t hear the soldier yell at her to move.   He tried to prod the woman with the barrel of his gun, but she still didn’t move.  Suddenly, the soldier fired a burst and the woman fell to the floor, dead.

The other people screamed and began stampeding for the doors.  She clung onto her mother as hard as she could as they were shunted forward.  Soon, they moved through the doors, up the stairway, and out into the bright sunshine.  As she looked around, she couldn’t believe her eyes; when she had gone into the shelter, the city was still filled with tall buildings and thousands of people.  Now, almost every building had been reduced to piles of bricks and rubble.  Instead of plain ordinary citizens, all she could see were hundreds of gray-clad soldiers and black-clad officers.  

She looked across the street and her heart almost stopped.  There, pointing directly at her, were at least twenty black army tanks —each with a machine gun and gunner on top of the turret. In her mind, every machine gun was pointed directly at her. 

They had not taken more than ten steps when they approached a group of soldiers.  Before she knew what was happening, a soldier had ripped her hands off her mother’s arm and she was being corralled in with other girls while her mother and brother were being forced toward what was left of a building wall.  

A group of soldiers surrounded the girls, their guns pointed into the group.  Then, a black-clad officer began speaking through a loudspeaker.  “The Army of Truth and Light has conquered your country and your capital city has been destroyed.  Since your government refused to bow to the inevitable and join the Empire, you, as citizens of the capital city, must pay the price.”

The machine gunners on top of the tanks cocked their machine guns and pointed them at the people grouped against the building wall.  The officer continued, “In accordance with the orders of our Supreme Commander, General Joshua, all males and any female old enough to have been with a man will be killed.  All females too young to have been with a man, in other words, girls of thirteen and under, will become the property of the Empire of Truth and Light. They will be taken to Brighton where they will be processed and sold as slaves.”

Without warning the machine gunners opened fire on the men and women, boys and older girls.  She screamed out their names as her mother and brother were ruthlessly mowed down by the hail of bullets.  The other girls were screaming, too, as they were forced to watch the carnage, but she couldn’t hear them over her own screams.  

Suddenly, it was silent except for the cries of the remaining prisoners.  Through tears, she watched as a dozen soldiers and officers began walking through the dead, occasionally shooting survivors.  Soon, that was over too, and only the group of younger girls was left alive.

The soldiers then began lining them up and herding them through the city to the train station.  As they walked, she looked around at the destruction of the once beautiful city.  Everywhere she looked, all she could see were dead bodies, destroyed buildings, and burning military vehicles.  When they came near the capital building, she could see flames shooting through its roof and out its windows.  The president’s mansion, which had been across the street from the capitol, had been leveled.  

After about an hour of traipsing through the rubble-strewn streets, they finally arrived at the train station.   When they moved around the heavily damaged building, she saw a long line of freight cars standing in front of the platforms.  Everywhere she looked, there were soldiers forcing girls into the freight cars. Finally, it was her turn.  

As she approached the open car door, she could see girls were being forced in from the other side too.  When she hesitated, a soldier hit her in the back with the butt of his gun.  She stumbled and would have fallen had there been enough room, but there wasn’t.  Instead, she knocked into another girl, and after apologizing, moved as far as she could toward the back of the car.

After a few minutes of maneuvering, she finally reached the wall of the car and leaned her back against it.  It wasn’t long after that that the doors closed with a boom and they were left in semi-darkness.  All around her, she could hear other girls sobbing and sniffling as they were forced to stand crammed together, their bodies pressing against one another.

The sun beat down on the roof of the boxcar, and before long, it became stiflingly hot.  As they continued to stand in the sweltering heat and close quarters, they all began to sweat.  It didn’t take long before someone vomited. Of course, the smell of vomit made others vomit.  Soon, it was all she could do to just breathe. 

Eventually, the sun began going down and so did the temperature in the cramped boxcar.  Once darkness had completely enveloped them, she began shivering from the cold.  She guessed that it must have been near midnight when the car gave a sudden lurch and began moving.  She hadn’t realized that she had dozed off, but as soon as they began moving, she woke up again.

She looked around, but couldn’t see much in the dark and crowded boxcar.  Even so, she could hear countless other girls sobbing and calling for their mothers.  Tears fell down her cheeks as she realized that she, like everyone else, no longer had a family.  She turned, and finding a crack between the wooden planks that made the wall, began watching the world pass by.  

After a couple of hours, the train began slowing down and finally came to a stop.  Then, without warning, it began going backward.  She looked out the crack in the wall and discovered they were being moved onto a spur.  As they came to a stop, she could see another train come barreling down the track they had just vacated.  The moon was shining so she was able to see that the other train was a freight train carrying tanks and artillery towards the battlefront.

After about an hour, another train came flying down the track.  This one, she noticed, was a passenger train; probably carrying soldiers to the battlefield.  After another hour, their train began moving again and she...

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Verlag
Histria YA
Erscheinungsdatum
2025
Sprache
Englisch
ISBN 10 
1592115071
ISBN 13 
9781592115075
Einband
Taschenbuch
Anzahl der Seiten
300
Kontakt zum Hersteller
Nicht verfügbar
Verantwortliche Person
Simon and Schuster Netherlands BV
info@simonandschuster.nl

Herculesplein 96
Utrecht
3584 AA
Niederlande

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