Madeline M Dunsmore

Beneath Still Waters Madeline M Dunsmore

Of flesh, blood, and a compromised genetic code, Dusty Dawson was a girl that was born imperfect and lived imperfectly. In a world rife with death and conflict, she found it hard to ever say that any one event in her life caused it to fall apart. In truth, the entire world had been falling apart for many years before she was born. Widespread strain in the relationship between those with perfect genes and those without bred unrest and hatred, and rising tensions between world powers led to bloodshed. A dying Earth suffered only further as forests became deserts and their raw materials became machines of war. Colonization efforts shoved the burdens of overpopulation and a lack of resources onto near and distant planets alike as an all-devouring cosmic plague. One war took her parents, and the next took her two older brothers. And now, she's spent the past two months chasing nothing but smoke and shadows after the death of her little brother, taken too soon during a fire whose true origins remain a mystery to everyone but Dusty herself. A need for revenge grows within her, and with every day that it remains unsatisfied, it only festers. Paranoid, outcast, and forsaken, Dusty is rapidly finding that she cannot trust anyone as her search quickly pulls her into an undertow that runs deeper and stronger than she ever anticipated.