Ava Altair grew up reading fantasy and science fiction novels. She graduated from Florida Tech with a BS in Science Education – Physics and a minor in Computational Mathematics. She taught as an AP Physics teacher for five years in Florida. She now lives in Oregon, teaching horseback riding lessons and managing the stables with her mom. She enjoys hanging out and talking about science concepts and story ideas with her dad.

What it is to be human doesn't apply anymore. The surface of the Earth has been poisoned by years of abuse and now most life lives beneath the waves of the ocean. Over the last 500 years, humans have become fragmented and specialized by genetic manipulation, but two main factions exist in the Undersea. The hybrids, a race that continues to genetically modify themselves to climb the social ladder, and the humans, the unmodified organic race that makes up the lowest tier of society. 

Alex, a Delta Six hybrid, finds an unlikely companion in a human man, Jack, while on a mission to steal the Athena file. Alex withholds the file to elicit help from Jack and they set out on an adventure across the Surface. Their relationship is tenuous until a device mysteriously links them together. Now, running from Alphas, an elite group of hybrid assassins, Alex and Jack must weather the hostile surface of the planet to reach their common goal. They soon find they can't both have the thing they want most, but also can't seem to let each other go.

FLUX

"Do you really think you should be doing that?"


"Oh what, this? Ronson and his men have been doing this for ages. It helps them get used to the sun on the Surface. I'm just trying to catch up to them."


"Well, yeah. We've been putting it in the food so everyone will be able to live up here. Ronson's people have been on it and they have almost no radiation effects. So what did you really come up here for?"


"Actually, I think I came up here for this. People were fighting in the cafeteria. One man was seriously injured." He left out the part of himself being stabbed. "And I just went to get Brooke and someone came in and tore the whole hospital area apart. She said it was a roid-rager. He had black veins just like the ones on your arm. Are you sure you want our people on this stuff?"


Chapter 126: Poison, Part 2