OFF PLANET

The Aunare Chronicles, Book One

Every day I wake up with fear screaming through every cell of my body, telling me to run, run, run before they find me.

Run before they pull me from my bed and drag me through the streets. Run before they throw me in an execution arena and cheer while I'm tortured until the last scream is ripped from my body.

But every day I shove that fear down and get out of bed. I tell myself they won't find me today. I'll be okay. I can make it one more day without being found. I just have to keep going. But it's a lie. Everything about me is a lie.

I'm not sure how much longer I can keep living a life of lies before I'm caught.

And yet, I have to keep going. I have no other choice. I've lasted thirteen years stuck on Earth with my mother, hiding, hunted, knowing that one wrong move could mean our deaths, and I'm not giving up now.

It's not our fault we're stuck on the wasteland that is Earth. It's high crime, high poverty, high pollution, run by a corporate conglomerate—SpaceTech. They seemed like a savior when the world's economy collapsed but having them in control is even worse than our former fascist government. And just my luck—the only thing that SpaceTech wants more than money is me. Alive. Dead. I don't think they care as long as I'm found because I'm the half-Earther daughter of the Head of the Aunare military, the biggest alien threat to SpaceTech's authority.

I haven't seen my father since I was six.

When everything went violent between SpaceTech and the Aunare, he was off planet. Returning Earth to save us would've meant war, and apparently my life wasn't worth the risk. He abandoned me and my mother here, and so far, we've survived. But every day is hard. Whenever things get truly bad, I close my eyes and see myself on a beach, hear a voice calling out my true name—the one I can never say aloud—and I know wherever that is, whoever that is, it's home.

I have to find my way home somehow. One day, my luck will end. I have to leave Earth and SpaceTech territory before they find me.

If there's one thing I've learned, it's that no one is coming to save me. Not the Aunare. Not my father. No one is coming. I'm going to have to find a way to save myself.