Alex Morgan

In the 22nd century, Earth has been harvested by a race of aliens known as the Xini. In the aftermath, all the planet’s resources have been stripped. Dakota sets out from Dallas in search of his lover, Grayson, who vanished on his way to St. Louis after the invading fleet departed.<br><br>Dakota faces unknown dangers in the devastated plains of northern Texas and southern Oklahoma as scavengers -- human beings reduced to shells after the Harvesting -- roam the earth attacking anything that moves in an effort to survive.<br><br>He finds a group of survivors struggling in what little remains of Oklahoma City, led by the tough, handsome Colonel Welch. While Mother Nature unleashes a fury of natural disasters to purge herself of the Xini rape, Dakota must decide whether to stay with the colonel and help him make the colony viable, or continue onto St. Louis to find Grayson.

Harvested

Everything was so clear before. Find Grayson and reunite with him. Now he had no idea what to do. He needed to walk away, to put some distance between them, figure out what to do.


He turned to leave, took one step, and stopped. Several dogs started barking furiously.


Grayson hadn’t moved. “Just the dogs,” he said irritably.


“Not that. It’s a rumbling sound.”


Gray shook his head. “I don’t hear anything but the damn dogs—” His sentence was cut off as the noise became audible and the ground began shaking. Screams were heard over the rumbling and the crude shelters started collapsing.


Dakota struggled to keep his balance but Grayson crumpled to the ground. Around them, people poured out of their huts, falling to the dirt before their abodes flattened.


Chapter 24