Recruitment: A Dystopian Novel Novels & Stories

Nova says, agitated. I chuckle at her reaction. I was just getting started with the story. "It didn't matter to them. Twenty-one was the perfect age. Still navigating the earth, new to how the world works, but also not that new. I was the perfect prey. I remember the first week there, all the recruits -- as the superiors called us, we were all put into a large room," I pause. "I still remember what it looked like. The white painted walls on every corner. The single exit that taunted us every darn day. They opened the door twice every day, Sometimes more. But whenever it was opened we all knew it was not for anything good." A sour taste appears in my throat and the urge to itch the spot till

Daniel said quietly, "you still don't understand." "Then enlighten me." There was a challenge in her voice now. She wasn't going to let him dismiss her with another clever answer. Daniel smiled. "I would love to." He settled deeper into the chair, looking almost too comfortable for a man being interrogated. The leather creaked beneath him again as he adjusted himself with the deliberate ease of someone preparing to make a point he had been building toward for quite some time. "Nobody doesn't recruit people because he needs employees," he began. "He recruits people because he recognizes ability. If you understand that, everything else becomes easier."

Even if it meant lying, stealing, or selling his soul to the rich bastards in the sky. The day started out like any other in the Ruins—dry heat pressing down from a burnt-orange sky, dust swirling through broken alleyways like restless spirits. Around here, the only job left for the Forgotten was mining Adrium, a post-apocalyptic miracle metal discovered buried deep in the bones of the earth. They said Adrium was stronger than diamond, five times lighter, and impossible to replicate. The walls of the Citadel gleamed with it l; unclimbable, unbreakable. Motion-detection lasers lined every inch, scanning for body heat, movement, hope.The message was clear:

“It will be much like it was at the World’s Fair opening, Evelyn. Simply follow my lead. Can you do that?” Evelyn’s pulse kicked up a notch. Their trip to the World’s Fair had been like visiting an alternate existence. It went beyond simply politely 'familiar'. That had been an imaginary World of Tomorrow where the natural hierarchy and boundaries of wealth and social status had been erased, like the idealized Democracity or the egalitarian Futurama. Where people attracted to one another were free to explore that gift in each other's company without question.

Someday, she could have her pick of employment and be any sort of Mother she wanted to be. Now, walking down the hall to her dorm room, certain she’d find Mist inside, looking as if this was just an ordinary day, Rain realized every bit of all of that had been a lie. The Bridge led to death for everyone--the men deemed imperfect, the tiny babies who hadn’t grown the way the Motherhood preferred, women who had gone against the grain. They’d all been killed. By what means, Rain didn’t know, but she didn’t want to find out either.

​The air in the "Deleted Scenes" bin didn't just smell of wet ink; it tasted of ozone and the cold, metallic tang of a failed future. As the bookstore reality collapsed above them—the sound of Julian’s typewriter dying like a stuttering heart—Nora hit the floor of the Dystopian Sector. ​The ground wasn't made of wood or grass. It was a shifting mosaic of rusted steel and discarded data-slabs. Above her, the sky was a bruised purple, choked by the "Narrative Smoke" of a thousand abandoned plotlines.

Realizing the danger that she was putting herself in by sharing her opinion and feelings out loud, she chattered about more neutral topics the rest of the way to their destination. Kendra learned that the campus was only a small part of the city that housed the regime. While the campus was manned by scientists and military personnel - both human and alien – the rest of the city was populated by aliens and their human servants. Only the Winabegs were allowed to have servants, though. The lesser aliens were left to fend for themselves when it came to menial tasks that the Winabegs relied upon the humans to do. Occasionally a free human from the outside of the city would enter to trade and ba

It’s the aftermath of an apocalypse of life on earth as we know it. The planet has suffered a devastating alteration to its surface composition. Although the earth has been resilient in the face of catastrophe over the millenniums and has already begun to rejuvenate in some way or another, there is speculation that it might never completely recover from the nuclear war that raged as a last resort for the powers that be to hang onto the control of the planet and not lose it to the few humans who were assisting with the invasion of a dominant alien race. There are only a select few areas that aren’t affected. These areas were quickly seized by the invading aliens and the humans who’d worked

The energy coming off of him felt like walking into a brewing thunderstorm. He turned and fixed me with his intense gaze. “It’s not a sane world. Explain.” Well, that was an alpha command if I’d ever heard one. Another hard swallow, because I couldn’t seem to clear the lump in my throat. But this was Colin. I could tell him anything. “I’ve been getting these emails…” Colin listened without interruption as I haltingly got out the story of the bizarre recruitment emails, including pulling up the last one on my phone to show him how it’d taken a turn for the threatening.