The Serpent Underneath

Twenty years ago a social-economic collapse set off cascading failures to our systems of civilization devastating the U.S. population and leaving survivors struggling to endure and ultimately rebuild. Haven Segreti was taken from her isolated family compound as a youth and forced to conform and serve as a member of an elite administrative pack behind the community walls of the New Republic. Now an adult she stands on the precipice of a new world where individual choice is sacrificed to the greater good and yet she is plagued by choices: torn between an illicit liaison with her enigmatic mentor Adrien and a chance of a deeper connection with a troubled young man set on revenge; between submission to this world and rebellion against it; between helping her friends flee to a better future and saving the family she left behind from the wrath of an elite leadership bent on their elimination. The protégé of the President of the Ruling Council Adrien Damaso has moved quickly up the ranks of the new order but his intentions are far more treacherous than others realize. Adrien cloaks an incisive intellect and vicious appetites behind a mask of compliance while manipulating people and circumstance toward his own subversive ends leaving a trail of gruesome murders in his wake. His hidden ambitions may actually prove to be Havens best chance of escaping if he doesnt kill her first. To the west in what is now the Republican States of America Nathan Hambrice wakes from a coma to find the world he knew is gone. With the aid of a military leader with ulterior motives Nathan travels east in search of his family. His plan is to locate a former co-worker whose family compound might have survived the collapse. The former co-worker is Havens mother Alexandra and Nathans incursion into the rabid wilds of the New Republic does not go unnoticed putting him and anyone who helps him in grave danger. This dystopian thriller weaves engaging characters through an allegorical tale that plays American political theory against opposing ideologies and both present and looming social political and philosophical issues for a terrifying view of a future it may be too late to avoid.