Elusion the elusion tril.., p.1
Elusion: The Elusion Trilogy Complete Boxset, page 1
Elusion
The Elusion Trilogy Box Set
A Science-Fiction Dystopian Novella
Copyright© 2020 Alex Baker
All Rights Reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or
portions thereof in any form whatsoever.
This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events,
real people, or real places are used fictitiously.
First Digital Edition November 2020
Free Gift
Sign up to my mailing list to receive this FREE exclusive copy of The Game and always be notified of any new releases, giveaways, contests, cover reveals and so much more!
CLICK HERE to sign up for my newsletter
Description
Sheena Wilder’s life is about to go from being totally controlled to totally out of control and will leave her fighting for survival in a world gone mad…
In a country where the government has taken control of its citizens and dictates every aspect of life, Sheena Wilder is simply trying to survive. Staying under the radar of a government that has no tolerance for those going against its stringent regime is a daily challenge. Society has become so disconnected Sheena’s own parents are barely part of her life, despite living in the same house.
Knowing there must be more than their restricted existence, Sheena and her friends devise a clever deception to venture into the outside world for the first time ever. But what should have been an exhilarating adventure to the never-before-seen Great Lake goes horribly wrong. Desperately trying to get back to the safety of their confined environment, the friends are separated.
Will they be safe from the militarized police? Will Sheena ever see her friends again? Will her life ever be the same?
This first book in the Elusion Trilogy will take you to the edge, as Sheena struggles to elude the dictatorship that’s even more ruthless than she could have imagined.
Table of Contents
Resist
001
002
003
004
005
Capture
001
002
003
004
005
Evade
001
002
003
004
005
006
007
Other Books By Alex Baker
About The Author
CLICK HERE to sign up for my newsletter
Review This Book
Resist
The Elusion Trilogy Book 1
001
Sheena Wilder woke up at 0500 to get ready for school. Unlike most kids her age, she jumped right out of bed and ran for the bathroom to start her day. VR classes didn't necessitate a shower or getting dressed, but a couple of years ago, she and her friends agreed to get more out of life and make an effort as if they were going to real school. Once she was clean and dressed, she hurried downstairs for breakfast.
She opened the fridge to find several bottles of purified water, a half-gallon of milk, some condiments, and not much else. The government was rationing food deliveries again after a series of outbreaks at food processing plants. Apparently, before she was born, there had been food riots as the chain of distribution fell apart, and there simply wasn’t enough food to feed everybody. Over two million people had died of starvation before the government stepped in and used the military to manage the food supply chain. The weird thing was, farmers were still raising and growing enough food, but they had to destroy a large portion of it because there weren’t enough truck drivers and workers in food processing plants.
At least now food was guaranteed, though how much a family was entitled to seemed to shift every few months based on wages, family size, and how much money a family owed to the courts and government. Sheena’s parents had only been arrested once, together, for loitering in front of their house. They didn’t starve, but everyone had gone to bed hungry for the next three months.
Sheena checked the cabinets and found some rice, pasta, and government-issued biscuits. To meet the needs of hundreds of millions of hungry mouths, the government designed biscuits—a compact, spoilage-resistant brick of foodstuff loaded with protein and fiber but nothing in the way of taste. Every family in America had a box of them in their house, provided no one had been arrested recently which had become an increasingly difficult situation to avoid. Technically it wasn’t illegal to be outside your home for recreation, just as long you maintained movement, meaning standing still for too long could lead to an arrest and a fine like Sheena’s parents had faced.
Sheena took a biscuit, crushed it between her fingers, and let the dust and bits fall in a bowl. Then she used a careful amount of milk to soak the dry, broken pieces of the unpleasant brick. Despite food restrictions, Sheena’s parents encouraged her to eat especially as she was her getting close to being six feet tall. Her parents had grown up in a time when food wasn't guaranteed and now they were dedicated to her never having to live in fear of going without.
After grabbing a spoon, Sheena hurried upstairs to get ready for school. Passing by her parents' rooms, she could see the glow of the wall monitor from under their doors. It wasn’t even 0600 and they were probably already working. It was common for parents to sleep in separate bedrooms due to the need for privacy during work. Sheena’s grandparents had allegedly shared a bed during their marriage, something unheard of today. It seemed so archaic to share a bed with someone. Wouldn’t it get too warm? How big was the bed? Didn’t you need separate sheets and pillows?
Sheena didn’t have time to think about the weird world her grandparents had grown up in—she needed to connect with her friends before class started. Sheena closed the door to her bedroom and dialed up her circle: Yua, Angel, and Luis. With one hand she dialed their citizen codes and ate her bland breakfast with the other. Her tower hummed to life, the fan cooling its internal components. On the wall screen, it showed a wiggling rectangle, illustrating the fact her friends were being contacted.
A hologram of Yua appeared first. Yua was a sixteen-year-old female-identifying person just like Sheena, except Sheena was half black and Yua was half Japanese. Sheena was about eight inches taller than her, though Yua liked to exercise at home and was probably stronger than Sheena. Unlike everyone else Sheena knew, Yua wore her hair shoulder-length.
When Sheena’s parents were kids, people would go to places called salons and get their hair styled in all kinds of interesting fashions. With back-to-back-to-back-to-back pandemics ravaging America and its economy, the salons became a thing of the past. Almost everyone wore their hair short and managed it at home with state-issued clippers. It wasn’t illegal to have long hair, yet, but it was definitely a political statement to go so boldly against convention. But that’s why Sheena loved Yua. She was only sixteen but was already her own person. She had strong, compassionate beliefs and held ideals which some police might find worthy of a fine and court summons. She cared deeply about everyone and refused to be placed in a box where others could define her.
“Can you hear me?” Sheena slipped on her headset. She kept the visor up as they weren’t chatting in VR.
“Yeah,” Yua responded, her near lifelike projection animated what it was capturing in Yua’s bedroom. Yua was so pretty. Aside from her hair and her compassionate ideology, she had learned to create and use her own makeup and altered her clothes to the point just before it wouldn’t raise the suspicion of the police. Like food, prescriptions, and hygiene products, clothes were rationed to families by the government. With a chain of pandemics coupled with the ensuing economic collapses, no physical store was financially viable enough to stay open through so many disasters, and the net-based stores became the sole providers of goods and services.
“Your top looks really cute today,” Sheena said. It wasn’t the only thing about Yua that was cute.
“Thanks. I just finished the alterations last night. I have beautiful skin, and I want people to see it.”
“You’re braver than I am. If the police find proof you have breasts, they’re going to fine you.”
Yua giggled, tickling Sheena’s heart. Making Yua laugh was always the high point of her day, though Sheena wouldn’t exactly consider herself funny like Luis. Speaking of him, his image appeared in her room, fused with the bed.
“Luis, take a step forward. You’re in my bed.”
Most bedrooms had furniture against the walls to prevent this exact problem.
“Oh, my fed! I’m stuck in bed and I can’t get out! Tell Mrs. Werther I’m going to be later...forever...” Luis crumbled to the floor, becoming one with Sheena’s bed as he dramatically gave his monologue. Sheena snorted a laugh and covered her mouth, making Yua giggle again. Luis was tall and black just like Sheena, though he was half Mexican instead of half white. Sheena didn’t know a single person who was only one race, though in her grandparents’ day it had been quite common. Luis was the comedian of the group, though he had aspirations of being a professional athlete.
A long time ago, schools were held in-person and actually had a variety of sports teams that students could join. Sports were insanely popular in America, one of the very few forms of entertainment not policed by the government, and Sheena couldn’t imagine each school having its own sports team let alone several. When Luis wasn’t in class o
Not a minute later, Angel appeared in Sheena’s room. Luis was doing push-ups when Angel appeared, never missing an opportunity to knock out a set of twenty. If Luis ever fell or had to get on his hands and knees to look for something, he always did a set of push-ups.
Angel was the savant of their circle, a hardworking genius when it came to both hardware and software. Angel was short, non-binary, half white and half Puerto Rican. Angel went by “he” because he considered himself as more than a boy. There were tons of gay, trans, and non-binary kids in their classroom, and they had learned early on in school that society had long been cruel to those who were different. But now society was cruel and indifferent in new interesting ways, equally oppressing everyone who didn’t have money.
“How is everyone this morning?” said Angel, who was working on something, Sheena couldn’t see what. Angel always had his lightbook on him, was always coding something or building something. Everyone from the age of ten and up knew how to code, but Angel was on a completely different level. He did a lot of things which could get him in a lot of trouble but was smart enough to never get caught. He had skipped ahead a year in class to join Sheena, Yua, and Luis, and they were already talking about skipping him ahead a second year. But he seemed to be happy where he was. He was a bit quirky, but he was a good person.
“Fine, Angel. What are you working on?” Yua asked, floating in a seated position.
“Just something to let me detect police ATT’s,” Angel said, adjusting the electronic components of his lightbook. ATT’s were all-terrain tanks. The police patrolled the streets in the heavily armored vehicles that were capable of demolishing homes and disabling all utilities within in a thirty-yard radius. They were rolling battle stations on treads. The police spent twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week looking for people to arrest and fine. So many things were illegal, no one could keep track of everything that was a crime. The safest thing was to stay indoors.
“That sounds illegal,” Yua said.
“It is, but I’d rather not have an ATT take me by surprise.” Angel closed the casing of the lightbook and booted it up.
“I have a question,” Luis said. “Why are we meeting in AR instead of VR? Classes are starting in five minutes. Shouldn’t we just put our headsets on?”
“Because the police will have access to our comm logs if we use the school’s VR to talk to each other,” Angel said as he typed on his lightbook.
“Not like we’re going to class today anyway.” Yua smiled like she knew a secret. Sheena loved to see her smile, and her heart jumped knowing Yua had a secret.
“Are we really doing this?” Luis said.
“If I can get this fed-restricted scanner to work, we should be able to move around undetected,” Angel said.
“Uh-huh, and what if Mrs. Werther calls on us in class?” Luis said.
"I wrote an algorithm that should be able to answer any questions she asks us.”
“Would like to test this so-called algorithm before I leave the class, not while I’m away.”
“I already tested it. It works fine. Unless you’re worried you’ll miss something important in class today?”
“That’s not what I’m worried about. I’m worried about the police catching us skipping school. Sheena, you’re with me, right?” Luis looked in her direction. Last week, Yua had floated a plan about skipping classes to go out and explore the town. The friends had tried it once, hanging out in Yua’s backyard, mostly just talking, but playing some unregistered board games her grandparents had given her. It was considered primitive to play a physical game, but everyone ended up enjoying themselves. Going to and from her house was a massive risk as a potential cop lurked around every corner.
This week, Yua wanted to take it a step further. She wanted to go see Lake Erie. Sheena didn’t understand what the appeal of seeing a big body of water was, but she also wanted to be supportive of Yua. Being caught by the cops did terrify her, but so did staying inside most of her life. And spending real time with Yua was an exciting temptation.
Most people, for most hours, on most any given day were safe inside their homes. Everything was delivered, ordered online, came right to their houses. Almost everyone who worked, worked from home. Classes were held in VR at home. There was no real reason to travel outside the home and with so many confusing laws, encountering the police all but a guaranteed arrest. That guarantee couldn’t be more certain than being caught outside while classes were in session.
For most of her life, Sheena was comfortable living, staying, and playing at home, but ever since state-approved puberty kicked in, the walls of her home felt claustrophobic. She began to have panic attacks and had a noticeable downward shift in her mood. During her doctor’s visit, he assured her it was all very common and started her on juvenile anti-depressants. Sheena later learned that 78 percent of adults were on anti-depressants. Her depression and anxiety even had a colloquial name in the medical field: Stuck-Home Syndrome.
After telling Yua about her problems, she had said it was because humans weren’t meant to be cooped up inside all day. They were supposed to go out in the world and explore and be free. It was nice thinking but being wild and free didn’t take into account the deadly flu strains and antibiotic-resistant bacteria which had killed hundreds of millions of people across the globe in the past century. There was a reason people were confined to their homes and prohibited from activism or any type of public gathering.
“Sheena! Sheena, are you with us?” Yua’s sweet, androgynous voice brought Sheena out of her clouds of worry.
“Yeah, I’m here, was just thinking.”
“I don’t want you guys to think I’m pressuring you into skipping class today. If you’re uncomfortable, you don’t have to go.”
“No, I want to go. I’ve never seen Lake Erie up close, and I live less than a mile away. Plus, I could really use some time out of the house.”
“I’m going if only to test my scanner,” Angel added.
“Uhhhh, I guess I’m coming,” Luis lamented.
Sheena’s tower pinged, indicating classes were starting. Once the tower pinged for class, she had five minutes to get her headset on and enter the VR classroom. Sheena sat at her desk and flipped her visor down, isolating her vision from her surroundings. The classroom app was booting up, checking her credentials and loading the day’s lesson plan. The scanner in her visor scanned her eyes to make sure she was Sheena Wilder and not anyone else covering for her. Sheena winced as the flickering red light scanned her eyes. Every single morning she had to do it, and she hated it.
Once the app loaded, a hyper-realistic classroom which didn’t actually exist anywhere appeared before her. Several students were already in their seats including Yua, Angel, and Luis. A virtual avatar representing Mrs. Werther stood at the front. The VR avatars were not realistic like the AR holograms. The AR holograms actively captured real footage of the user and projected it. To avoid embarrassing situations and to ease the data usage of hundreds of millions of kids all using VR at once, the schools used avatars that represented the person behind the headset. They looked human, more closely resembling a video game model than an actual person and did the job of simulating a classroom experience.
Class started, and Mrs. Werther briefed them on the lesson plan for the day. Not that any of it mattered. The real plan was to spend the entire day out of the house together.
Sheena loaded the app Angel had sent her last night and waited. A black window of code appeared and began executing operations. When it was over, a message told her it was safe to remove her headset.
Sheena took a deep breath. If this didn’t work, the teacher would know immediately her headset wasn’t on, and her family would be fined for truancy, possibly restricting their goods, medicine, or toiletries. Skipping class felt like cutting the wire to a bomb. Sheena slowly slipped off her headset, still with the intent of pretending it had fallen off if something went wrong. There was a ten-second window where a student could place their headset back on should it slide off accidentally, like when sneezing.
