Title: Daeios: 140 Feet Down
Author: Colleen Eccles Penor
Publication Date: November 9th 2019
Number of Pages: 340
Genre: Dystopian Thriller
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They believed Daeios would be a safe haven.
They were wrong.
Fleeing apocalyptic weather, a young survivalist woman and her family seek safety deep underground. But a new danger awaits them.
When the leaders of the shelter announce their plans to repopulate the earth using all fertile females, Shea knows she will be forced to become a breeder. Horrified at her impending fate, Shea must make the gut-wrenching decision whether to breed with an elderly, sadistic man and bear his child, or to fight the breeding, knowing that defiance will endanger her life and that of those she loves most.
A dystopian thriller with overtones of The Handmaid’s Tale, Shea’s chilling story will appeal to readers with an interest in family and survival.
I exhale a sigh of relief. I’ve been holding my breath, but oh, my God, we have to get out of here before someone comes and sees what Mother has done. Someone may have heard the shots. We’ll leave, and the rain will cover our tracks, but we have to hurry. I lay my gun on the table and step down from the RV to help.
Mother faces me, and she’s terrifying. She’s all sharp angles and shadows and smeared mascara. I expect a thunderbolt and lightning and a bloodcurdling scream, but there’s nothing but hammering rain. My mother is soaked, her skirt clinging to her slender legs, her white bra showing through her blouse, translucent with rain. Her wet hair looks black in the gloom. Loose tendrils hang from her previously tidy bun. If she’s concerned about having killed a man, she doesn’t show it. It makes me wonder if there’s something in her past I don’t know about.
I turn back inside to see Maya holding Jace. She’s rocking him as they weep quietly.
“Maya, come help with Dad. Hurry.” Jace lunges for Maya when she gets up, but she’s too quick for him to reach her. He continues to sob, his shoulders jerking. I doubt if he even knows what happened. I despise his weakness.
Maya’s still crying as we run toward Dad, and I want to cry, too, but I need to be strong for her if I can. We fight against the wind that pushes us toward Dad’s attacker. I don’t want to see him, but my eyes are fascinated by this abomination.
The man’s remaining eye, wide open and all black, stares at us as raindrops fall in the pool of blood collecting around what’s left of his head. I imagine evil spirits, their voices howling on the wind, are pulling us toward the man’s reach, and I panic, tugging too hard at Maya’s arm, but it breaks the spell, and we run to Dad.
Colleen Eccles Penor wrote and illustrated her first children’s book, The Rubber Ducky, when she was seven, and sold it for 25 cents, keeping 100% of her royalties. She's a United States Army veteran who served as a military police officer, where she learned survival skills and the use of multiple weapons, skills needed by the characters in DAEIOS: 140 FEET DOWN. This is her debut novel.
Most people my age have experienced at least one “it’s a small world” encounter. My most memorable such experience happened while I was in the military.
I was hanging out in a pub with some people from my platoon and wasn’t enjoying myself in the least. Too much cop-talk. While people-watching, one of my favorite pastimes, I saw a group of men my age who were obviously having fun as they were laughing loudly and high-fiving. I went up to them and asked them what they were doing (celebrating a birthday) and I ended up spending the rest of the evening having fun with them and developed a friendship with Wayne.
Once, Wayne came to pick me up for a night out. As I settled in and fastened my seatbelt, Wayne asked, “Okay, so you’re a military police officer and you’re from Wyoming. Do you know Bob Palmer?”
My jaw almost hit the floor. I had worked with Bob at McDonald’s before joining the army. Wayne had been stationed with Bob in Germany before coming to Maryland, and Bob had talked to Wayne about me, giving Wayne the two clues to my identity. Wayne called Bob that night as I sat beside him. When he said, “Guess who I’m with?” it was Bob’s turn to have his jaw hit the floor.
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