Welcome to the CORE: Commonwealth Objective for Reform and Efficiency Detective Reese Parker is a survivor. Having left behind a violent past in Welfare Colony 6, she is now a sketch artist and detective with the New York Enforcer Division. Her entire focus is maintaining peace and order among the CORE’s remaining two million residents, to make certain their society never faces another economic and nuclear Breakdown. She must also keep her secret. Because she never wants to be sent back to Colony 6. With constant Teev surveillance and rigid control in the CORE’s most heavily populated state, Reese’s job mostly consists of tracing small-time juke pushers or sending rebellious students to reconditioning. She doesn’t have to face demented fringers that encroach upon the Core like her counterparts in Dallastar do, or patrol the northern borders where radiation-crazed animals attack unwary travelers. She’s content with being the most accurate sketch artist in the CORE. But when one of her sketches puts her up against a human monster bigger than anything else that threatens the CORE, it’s a fight she might not survive. Note from the author This novella is part of my Colony Six futuristic dystopian sci-fi series. After finishing the first two books, I decided I wanted to write about the catalyst that took Reese, one of my important characters, back to Dallastar near where she grew up and where the series really begins. This is the case that almost got her killed and eventually led to events that in subsequent books reunites her with her childhood crew from Welfare Colony 6, otherwise known as the Coop (after the cramped conditions and chickens they raised there for extra food). You can read this story either before or after the first two books—it doesn’t have spoilers. If you are new to my series, keep in mind that this short piece won’t contain the intricacies of the much longer novels, but I hope it’ll give you a taste of my post-apocalyptic world. I’ve included terms at the end of the novel to help catch you up, so maybe take a peek at those. Enjoy!

Eighty years after Breakdown, Detective Reese Parker has pulled herself up from the dregs of society in Welfare Colony 6 to become a sketch artist and enforcer for the CORE (Commonwealth Objective for Reform and Efficiency). She works hard with other enforcers to maintain peace and order among the CORE's 2 million residents, especially against the radiation-crazed outsiders called fringers. But Reese hides a secret she can never share with anyone, a secret that killed her father and ruined the life of the person she once loved more than anyone. When a new assignment sends Reese to Amarillo City, near where she grew up, she's partnered with Jaxon Tennant on the Violent Crimes Investigation Unit, and she knows her secret won't stay secret long. Somehow their past is connected to missing scientists and programmers, but all leads go nowhere: evidence disappears, witnesses change testimony, and names vanish from the CORE database. Someone is willing to do anything to stop Reese and her former Colony 6 crew from discovering the truth behind what has been done to them—and thousands of others. To learn what they have become, Reese and her friends must go against the very foundations of the society they serve. There is no going back. Sketches (Colony Six, #1) is the first of a series following the six members of the Colony 6 crew.

Exciting new series from the bestselling author of the Unbounded Series. Enforcer Jaxon Tennant and his former Colony 6 crew are the last hope for a post-Breakdown society, where CORE Elite experiment on and enslave those they profess to aid. Jaxon’s gift of premonitions, his visions of what will be, are growing stronger and more frequent—and equally more terrifying. But he sees nothing of the vision he needs most, and if he doesn’t find a way to change that, there may not be a future for one of his crew. When they attempt to save a potential ally, the man turns out to be more than what he seems, and the crew must make a hard choice. Either way, people will die. When their plan goes sideways, they start down a path that might get them all killed before they have the chance to save the CORE’s two million residents. Before Jaxon has a chance to win the woman he will always love. What more they uncover about their past and Jaxon’s parentage might be the most startling revelation of all.

It’s time for sixers to fight back! Lyssa Sloan is a sixer, one of the lucky few who escaped Colony 6 before the extermination began. Lyssa has long been forced to hide the truth of her daughter’s birth and her own unusual ability, even from the man she loves, or risk exile to a colony. Now with tightening control throughout the CORE and a new Elite plot to enslave more of the population, she and her reunited sixer crew are all that stand in the way of a corrupt government bent on total control.The crew braves radiation-crazed beasts to seek help outside the CORE Territories. But will the leaders of Newcali become their allies or lead to their downfall? Whatever the answer, the betrayals they must make mean there is no going back. It’s now or never.