Citizen Hill is a genetically enhanced warrior trained since childhood to hunt infected humans and rogue Gollums. When a new faction, Elysium, moves into the Autonomous Zone, declaring ownership, the Therian Federation tasks her with one mission: infiltrate the organization, take the leader, Julian Bless, into custody, and disband the followers. Once on the inside, she discovers a horde of infected humans and Gollums responsible for a shocking series of brutal attacks devastating the Township of New Therian.
These monsters are different, nothing like the mindless beasts sheâs fought beforeâthe creatures crave mammalian meat, mainly uninfected humans.
When the Gollums turn on the humans in the Autonomous Zone, slaying whole colonies to eat their flesh, word gets out. The leaders of New Therian, fearing a Gollum invasion, quarantine the city. The act results in a massive lockdown, sealing the New Therian in a dome for fourteen days.
Citizen, forced to turn to the humans of Elysium for survival, finds herself at odds with her programing, her creators, and what it means to be human. Fighting side by side with Julian Bless, she discovers thereâs more to the virus, the Gollums and Trolls, the Federation Leadership, and her origins.
Citizen Hill is a genetically enhanced warrior trained since childhood to hunt infected humans and rogue Gollums. When a new faction, Elysium, moves into the Autonomous Zone, declaring ownership, the Therian Federation tasks her with one mission: infiltrate the organization, take the leader, Julian Bless, into custody, and disband the followers. Once on the inside, she discovers a horde of infected humans and Gollums responsible for a shocking series of brutal attacks devastating the Township of New Therian.
These monsters are different, nothing like the mindless beasts sheâs fought beforeâthe creatures crave mammalian meat, mainly uninfected humans.
When the Gollums turn on the humans in the Autonomous Zone, slaying whole colonies to eat their flesh, word gets out. The leaders of New Therian, fearing a Gollum invasion, quarantine the city. The act results in a massive lockdown, sealing the New Therian in a dome for fourteen days.
Citizen, forced to turn to the humans of Elysium for survival, finds herself at odds with her programing, her creators, and what it means to be human. Fighting side by side with Julian Bless, she discovers thereâs more to the virus, the Gollums and Trolls, the Federation Leadership, and her origins.
Citizen Hill
âI am Elysium.â A cloaked figure at the head of the altar raised a fist. âI. Am. Elysium.â
The crimson-colored hood cast a shadow across his face. Patches of pale skin peeked out from beneath the fabric. A scan of his measurements confirmed he matched the height and build of the target.
Found you. She glanced at her surroundingsâthe crumbling remains of a concrete and steel building taken down five years ago during the first waves of attacks of World War III.
Youâre definitely not a ghostly aberration.
Those three simplistic wordsâI am Elysiumâincited a unified chant among the faction occupying the pit of the chamber. Murmured voices, both male and female, rose, producing a combined echo.
Perched on a steel beam on the third floor, overlooking the ceremony, Citizen Hill activated the zoom-in function of the T-581 ocular implant nestled in her left eye. The crosshairs floated together, forming a plus sign, then multiple red dots covered the exposed lower half of the targetâs profile.
Static, followed by a squelch, squawked in her ear.
âSeventeen percent match.â The handlerâa feminine voice without a faceâgrumbled. âGet me more.â
Damn, not enough for a raid. She inched out as far as the steel beam allowed.
âA little to the left, you snowball aberration.â Her words, only a whisper, escaped her lips like a soft breeze on a frigid autumn morning.
The lines came together once more, and an explosion of red dots filled her vision, at least three times more than the prior scan.
âHold steady,â the handler squawked again, âor youâll lose him.â
Refusing to breathe, for fear of interrupting the facial recognition, Citizen Hill remained motionless, lids wide open. A Syth-L, short for synthetic life form, contained major organs like those of a human, but only for show. She, like a handful of others, looked human enough to pass as a fleshy, but to do so, took up extra space better spent processing necessary intel. Plus, without an emotion chip, she didnât see or feel the need to replicate the simulation of life.
Itâs not as if Elysium followers care.
âTalk to me,â she whispered under her breath, waiting for instructions.
âSixty-eight percent match, thatâs enough for now,â said the handler. âStand by for an intel drop.â She was new, unknown to Citizen.
Hmm, whereâs Steel? Heâs never missed an assignment, not since she went activeâand the old-timerâs never late.
âCopy that.â She considered asking but thought twice about doing so. Handlers and operatives never co-mingled, and they certainly didnât make non-work-related inquiries. âStanding by.â
Nothing came. Just static. She refreshed the link.
The white icon in the lower left of her GUI vision spun in a never ending circular motion. She was losing reception and needed to get to higher ground.
Citizen didnât know how long this ceremony of theirs would last.
Humans have so many bizarre rituals, none of which make sense.
âSister Citizen.â A figure stopped behind her. It was one of the priest elders. The same tall, thin man in the same brown robe, who had greeted her earlier.
Hmm. His footsteps had gone unnoticed to the earâa most unfortunate turn of events.
She had made contact with the group known as Elysium this morning but had been tracking them for over a week. After surviving the wasteland, Gollums, and infected humans, she had completed the first part of her missionâinfiltration. Now, she needed to move on to milestone twoâacquire the target.
âOh, hello.â Citizen crawled off her perch and joined him. âI didnât catch your name?â
She kept her voice low, monotone to a degree, to replicate the pitch and rate of the other cult followers.
âI am Master Dunlam, one of Julian Blessâ senior supporters.â The robed man tucked both of his hands into his long sleeves, like one would a muff, then held them in front of him. âI do hope you will join me with the rest, down below.â He cast a suspicious gaze her way.
Citizen needed to get away from Dunlam and the group to re-establish coms, but that looked like it would have to wait.
âSure.â She replicated a smile with just a peek of teeth for a more natural look.
Master Dunlam motioned for her to lead the way down the winding path of what use to pass for stairs. Static in the connection slowly overtook the channel. The L-5 receiver wasnât cutting it.
Iâm definitely upgrading when I return to base. She chewed on which model to try out next. The L-7 offered new surveillance features but came with bugs. Donât need to fry my circuits as a beta-tester. She sighed, then thought, the L-6.75 receiver it is.
âAcknowledge, CH,â the handler barked in her ear. Citizen loathed her codename. Hated her serial number too. CH012SYTH-L sounded so lifeless. Thatâs why she gave herself a real name, Citizen Hill.
She sent a busy code of text through the implanted chip connected to her processor, so the priest wouldnât hear.
Her handler switched to messaging, but the connection continued to fade the closer she got to the ground. The broken concrete walls and steel formations made coms harder. Thatâs why she went to the steel beam in the first place. The com link went dry.
So close, she thought with a sigh.
The lack of response would frustrate HQ, but setbacks come with the territory when in the middle of an infiltration mission.
She and her escort reached the ground level and joined the crowd in the back of the chamber. The group was a little over one hundred by the last headcount. They were all walking in single file across the altar that Bless stood behind.
One at a time, each follower kneeled, bowed his or her head, then placed a hand on the large red stone that sat on the altar. Every last one of them flattened a palm on the stone, remained there silently for a couple of seconds, rose to full height, then walked away. The next person repeated the ritual.
Citizen had no idea what it meant and wasnât going to ask.
âYou do not have to take part in the dedication ceremony if you do not understand it.â Master Dunlam stood right behind her like the shadow she couldnât shake.
âOkay, thank you,â said Citizen, in her best human tone. âI will wait.â
After everyone walked by and touched the stone, Bless finished his address. She knew it was him and didnât need HQâs approval to move in. But this meddling priest was too close to her though. He had already caught her up on her perch overhead, which made the human suspicious of her, so she must proceed with caution.
Citizen stood next to the figures clothed in dirty rags and ponchos. If she could get lost in the crowd, she could shake free of Master Dunlam, then isolate her target.
This was a short book, combining monsters, a rebellion, a genetically enhanced warrior with an infection. It seems to have a bit of everything and that might be why I struggled with this. Maybe other readers would enjoy this ore, but personally, I couldnât get going with this book. It took a lot of stopping and starting for me to get through it, which for a short book, it shouldnât have.
The switching focus of each chapter was a stumbling block for me too. By the time I got into each scene or character, it switched and by the time the book returned to them; I had to go back and reread bits of the book to remind myself what had previously happened. I rarely have this problem when reading books, but it just didnât hold my attention. I wouldnât say the issue was too many characters. Other books Iâve read with more characters have managed to engage my attention much better. Where this book differs is, I couldnât connect with all the characters, whether they were good or bad doesnât matter. They just didnât provoke any emotions in me and so I wasnât either rooting for them or against them.
The character, Citizen Hill had the potential to be a strong character, but although there were parts of the book in which I enjoyed reading about her, she felt flat in other parts. I would say the author tried to cram too much into the book and because of this, other elements like character development were neglected.
As a side note to the author: if this is the final version intended for publication, you might want to have a reread. These were quite a few mistakes throughout. One example is: His faced had gone from fear to a smile.
I wish I could be more positive, but the review is just my opinion and other readers might enjoy it more than I did.