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  Flames flickered behind us. Matt bolted away from the spreading black smoke, which spilled out of the park and thinned as it reached the homes around us. It wrapped around the old man's vintage car, almost lovingly.

  We didn't stop until we had climbed the hill to Cherry Street and passed the real entrance to the park, my home. A single light remained on by the guard booth, showing that it was empty. Dead.

  Matt panted with exhaustion. So did I. We leaned on each other, away from the toxic cloud's reach, and breathed the air that would only make us wheeze. Matt and I had brought something far worse to Earth than pollution.

  Behind us, a cloud of darkness hung, coating yards and rising around streetlights. The pulse cannon hadn't destroyed all of it, but it had given us the chance to flee.

  Another horn wail came from the second fallen tripod. Hopefully, it was a final one.

  "Tess," Matt said. "Thanks. For not leaving me."

  "What kind of person do you think I am?" I asked, thoughts turning to Winnie again.

  All we could do was watch as the black cloud smothered all life underneath it, promising more horror to come.

  Chapter Eighteen

  It took an hour for the cloud to settle completely. Matt and I remained in a yard, hidden in the shadows, while the black smoke first hugged the ground tighter, dropping from around the streetlights. It finally settled into storm drains or onto the ground itself, forming a black snow that didn't glitter. All noise had stopped except for the distant blades of Enforcer choppers.

  People had left.

  While Matt and I waited, I grasped my bleeding arm. The Grounder had stabbed into my skin with one of those tentacles, leaving a centimeter-wide wound halfway up my forearm. The Grounder had impaled an artery. With each heartbeat, more blood seeped out of the wound, but Matt tore a piece from the sleeve of his gray uniform and handed it to me. I wrapped the makeshift bandage around my arm, stopping the flow of blood. I nearly passed out a couple of times, which forced me to sit. Matt had his injury to deal with, too.

  We would need to return to the park for medical supplies.

  Neither of us spoke. We could do nothing but wait. Mostly, Matt and I were in shock. But that slowly wore off as the black smoke finished settling and silence reigned. I couldn't see what position the moon was inside the park, but I was willing to bet that we had reached the wee hours of the morning.

  "We need to heal ourselves," I said. "We can't go to a hospital."

  Matt peeled himself from the house that we stood near. "I know."

  Tension hung heavy in the air. We had everyone fighting us now. Matt and I were the only two members of Fiona's mission, and we were up against the Great Council and everyone in the Mars Identity Movement. The two of them hung together as I had suspected. We were up against something so much worse than I'd imagined.

  A powerful alien force.

  The end of the world.

  But at least I was no longer just a pest. I could fight. I could do something. I'd let that anger simmer inside of me until Matt and I reached the Great Council itself. Then we would save my parents before more of the cylinders landed. I knew deep down that Mom and Dad would hold out against the Grounders for as long as they could.

  Matt and I stepped through the main entrance to the park. I led the way, running past the greenhouses. The smoke hadn't arrived here. Each bomb only spread across a limited area. We could get back to my house and the broken walker, where I had left Mom's tablet.

  "What do we do?" I asked.

  "Grab your med kit. Heal ourselves. Then we need to fix our walker."

  "Fix?" I asked.

  "Fiona knew that the Grounders might use pulse cannons," Matt said. "Our nanobots can repair its legs. Marv should be dead. Tess, you're unbelievable. You took out so many of those things."

  I eyed the bloody bandage on my arm. Matt and I would have to spend some time in my house. Alone. The repairs would take time and I didn't want to stay in the open. He might have brought war, but he had also brought me home, even if it were by accident. He had also brought me the truth about what it truly meant to be an Earther.

  We were the Grounders' enemies from the start.

  Warriors.

  At last, we climbed the hill to my house, which remained untouched by the black dust. In the distance, near the hole in the dome, twin tripods lay ruined, both covered in soot. I averted my gaze from the Grounders who formed lumps underneath it. We entered through the front door. I didn't waste time. More Grounders would come, probably as soon as they had more Identity backup. Matt and I had to get that walker up and running as soon as we injected ourselves with medical bots and patched our wounds.

  Then we had to rescue my parents. Standing by and waiting for this to end wasn't an option.

  Matt and I injected ourselves with the medical bots, and almost right away, I felt a comfortable tingle as the tiny bots stitched my artery together. Matt leaned against the wall and rubbed his broken arm. He would take longer.

  "We have to hurry," I urged.

  He pulled himself from the kitchen wall. "I know. Our walker has repair bots, but they might take an hour to rebuild the legs. Then we have to get out of here. I hope there aren't too many people left in this city."

  "There probably aren't," I said, thinking of that radio program that played back in the museum, the one that caused people to flee their homes centuries ago. "People panic. It's human nature. They don't know what's going on."

  It was my best guess as to what we would see as soon as we left the park behind. The march to the Great Council wouldn't be easy.

  But together, as Matt and I continued to heal, we ran outside and towards our broken tripod.

  END OF PART ONE

  Thank you for reading Drafted (Homeworld Trilogy #1). This story will be told in three parts, and the second installment of this series, Invaded, is now available! See the next page for this book, and some possible freebies!

  If you liked what you read, Invaded (Homeworld Trilogy #2) is up for sale! See what happens to Tess and Matt next. A huge revelation waits that changes everything...

  You can find it at your favorite eBook retailer!

  www.hollyhookauthor.com/books

  Holly Hook is the author of several Young Adult fantasy, science fiction, fairytale, post-apocalyptic and adventure series. She has been writing since very young and publishing her work since September of 2010.

  Thank you for reading Drafted! This is the first book of the Homeworld Trilogy! If you enjoyed this book, you may want to leave a review or tell your friends! The next book of this series, Invaded, is now available! If you want to know when I release my next book, and also when I have something cool like a freebie or sale, be sure to sign up HERE for the latest news. You also just might get some free stuff just by signing up...and you can also visit my website at www.hollyhookauthor.com to contact me or see my other titles!

  --Holly Hook

  Also by Holly Hook

  Barren Trilogy

  The Storm

  The Freeze

  The Pulse

  Deathwind Trilogy

  Twisted

  Torn

  Unleashed

  Destroyers Series

  Tempest

  Inferno

  Outbreak

  Frostbite

  Ancient

  The Destroyers Omnibus

  Flamestone Trilogy

  Alone (#1 Flamestone Trilogy)

  Found (#2 Flamestone Trilogy)

  Freed (#3 Flamestone Trilogy)

  Light (A Flamestone Novel)

  Homeworld Trilogy

  Drafted

  Invaded

  Infected

  Standalone

  The Deathwind Trilogy Box Set (Books 1-3)

  The Flamestone Trilogy Books 1-3

  The Barren Trilogy Box Set

  The Homeworld Trilogy Boxed Set

 

  Holly Hook, Drafted