Dark Inside

by Jeyn Roberts

Genres: YA Action & Adventure; YA Horror

Synopsis

Since mankind began, civilizations have always fallen: the Romans, the Greeks, the Aztecs…Now it’s our turn. Huge earthquakes rock the world. Cities are destroyed. But something even more awful is happening. An ancient evil has been unleashed, turning everday people into hunters, killers, crazies. Mason's mother is dying after a terrible car accident. As he endures a last vigil at her hospital bed, his school is bombed and razed to the ground, and everyone he knows is killed. Aries survives an earthquake aftershock on a bus, and thinks the worst is over when a mysterious stranger pulls her out of the wreckage, but she’s about to discover a world changed forever. Clementine, the only survivor of an emergency town hall meeting that descends into murderous chaos, is on the run from savage strangers who used to be her friends and neighbors. And Michael witnesses a brutal road rage incident that is made much worse by the arrival of the police--who gun down the guilty party and then turn on the bystanding crowd. Where do you go for justice when even the lawmakers have turned bad? These four teens are on the same road in a world gone mad. Struggling to survive, clinging on to love and meaning wherever it can be found, this is a journey into the heart of darkness – but also a journey to find each other and a place of safety.

Release date: November 1, 2011

Publisher: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers

Print pages: 336

Sample

Dark Inside

NOTHING

I’m standing at the edge of existence. Behind me, a thousand monsters descend. Their disguises change with each stride.

When they look in a mirror do they see their true selves?

Arms open wide. In front of me is nothing. No one ever knew how existence would end. Sure, they made assumptions: fire, flood, plague, etc. They studied the skies for locusts and watched for rain. They built their cities, destroyed the forests, and poisoned the water. Warning signs left behind in the ruins of ancient civilizations have been misinterpreted. The sins of mankind are always to blame. But who would have guessed it would be so gray? So empty.

Is there really a way back?

Hello? Is there anyone there?

Sorry, wrong number.

There are too many thoughts to cover in such little time. I knew they would find me. I’m glowing in the moonlight. My darkness was too bright to hide forever. They find all of us eventually. They play the odds, and they’re up a thousand to one.

In front of me is nothing. No bright lights, no darkness. No energy. Just nothing.

There is no future because we no longer have a past. Our present is devised of basic survival, and it’s about to end.

They have made sure of that.

I am Nothing.

I am existence.

I am pain.

I kneel down in the dirt and write some of my last words. I’d speak them, but there is no one left to listen.

GAME OVER