A family seek refuge in the Australian outback as tyranny takes hold, but who can they trust?
The world is at war and an authoritarian government has taken control in Australia. A terrorist group known as Day One is attempting to destroy civilisation so humanity can start again.
Shareen Miller becomes caught in a bureaucratic nightmare when she’s detained by an Auto-Enforcer for not having the right travel permit on the way to a job interview. Shareen’s detention sets off a chain of events that leads to her five-year-old twins being taken by the government.
With her husband Daniel, grandmother Alma, and sister Layla, Shareen seizes her children and escapes from Sydney. On the road, she reveals a secret about her missing mother Veronica that she’s been hiding from her family for five years.
What follows is an intense journey into the harsh Australian outback where nothing is as it seems, and no one can be trusted.
As they fight for survival, Veronica’s family finally learn the truth about why she left them. The stakes couldn’t be higher as the future of humanity hangs in the balance.
The early morning light hurt her eyes, but the air was fresh, and it was a relief to escape from the dream. Ben was burrowed into his sleeping bag, while Phoebe hung over the edge of her bed. Daniel had his pillow crammed around his ears.
Omniscience was as desolate as the previous day, and the dream clung to the edges of her mind, leaving a strange, lingering feeling of unease that was different to the familiar panic she’d been carrying since they left Sydney. As she got to her feet and picked up the sleeping bag to shake it out, there was a flash of movement near the ute. Shareen dropped the sleeping bag and stared. When nothing else happened, she slipped her runners on to investigate. If it was a snake, everyone would soon know about it.
Her first thought when she saw what appeared to be a child dressed in a white sheet standing behind the ute was that she was still dreaming. The figure had its back to her, and matted hair hung to its waist. Shareen tried to say something, but her jaw was locked, and her legs were anchored to the ground. She could only watch in fascinated horror as the figure slowly turned around. The face that looked back at her was not that of a child but a woman. It wasn’t Veronica. This woman was too old. She had milky eyes and a gnarled body like an ancient tree. Her filthy smock dress looked like something a cult member would wear.
The woman stepped towards her, and Shareen stumbled backwards, but her throat was still paralysed. She couldn’t take her eyes off the woman’s face.
“What the hell?” Daniel was beside her in a second, grasping her arm. “Are you OK?”
Before she could answer, Phoebe let out a shriek, followed closely by Ben, and then Layla.
“Oh, my,” said Alma.
“Stay where you are,” said Daniel. “No one move. Has she said anything?”
“No, I just woke up and she was here,” said Shareen.
“Is it our grandmother?” said Phoebe.
“Daddy, is it a witch? Is she going to hurt us?” sobbed Ben.
“She’s not your grandmother and she’s not a witch,” Shareen said in the calmest voice she could muster. “We don’t know who she is yet.”
The woman’s face cracked into a toothless smile, and she raised her arms and started moving on the spot in a bizarre dance as she hummed to herself. She looked deranged.
“Who are you?” Daniel took a step closer, and Shareen glanced behind to make sure Layla was with the twins.
The woman didn’t reply, but she stopped moving and stared at them.
“Do you live here?” he asked.
Her face grew serious as she considered the question. “This is my home. The spirits don’t want you here.”
“We’re looking for Veronica. Do you know her?” said Shareen. She watched intently for any sign of recognition. There was the barest flicker in her eyes.
“All the seeing ones are gone,” she said sadly. “In the ground now.” The comment would have unsettled her at any time, but after her dream, it was chilling.
The woman squatted on her haunches and hummed to herself.
“What do you mean, in the ground? What happened to Veronica?” Shareen pressed.
She looked up again and seemed surprised to see them still there. “Gone,” she said in a wistful voice. “Long time now.”
Did she mean that Veronica and all the others were dead, and all that was left of the cult were these crumbling buildings?
Daniel moved closer and crouched down beside her. “What’s your name?”
“Ni.”
“How long have you been here?”
“Forever.”
“Does anyone else live here with you?”
“No.” She shook her head. “Not anymore.”
“Where did they go?”
“I told you,” she said in a sharper voice. Her eyes bore into him for a moment before her face relaxed into a dreamy expression again.
“Okay, thank you for answering our questions.” He stood up. “I think she’s harmless,” he said under his breath. “Crazy as a cut snake, but she won’t hurt us. I wonder how long she’s been out here on her own for.”
“What does she mean, that they’re under the ground? Do you think Veronica could be…dead?” It was hard to say out loud.
“I don’t think she knows what’s going on. You can’t trust anything she says.”
The woman suddenly pointed towards the road they’d come in on and her face was angry. “You must leave. Leave now. Go. Go. Go.” She stabbed her finger at the sky.
“Please calm down, Ni. We won’t cause you any harm,” said Daniel.
Janine Frances lives in Australia with her partner David and dog Banjo.
The journey to publishing her novel Omniscience has been a long one. After doing the nine-to-five grind in Sydney for many years, with a couple of stints as a high school teacher and bank teller in the outback, she is currently relishing the freedom that comes with living in a picturesque small town and working from home.
Janine has an MA in Creative Writing. She chose to write a speculative thriller because it’s an exciting genre that asks important questions about the future.
Title: The Liars Beneath Author: Heather Van Fleet Genre: Young Adult Thriller
A romantically dark YA thriller set in the backdrop of Iowa’s suspenseful farmlands.
After a tragic accident ends her best friend’s life, 17-year-old Becca Thompson succumbs to grief the only way she knows how: by wallowing in it. She’s a fragment of the person she once was—far too broken to enjoy the summer before her senior year. But when Ben McCain, her best friend’s older brother, returns home, Becca must face her new reality head on.
She isn’t interested in Ben’s games, especially since he abandoned his sister during the months leading up to her death. But when he begs for her help in uncovering the truth about what really happened the night of his sister’s death, Becca finds herself agreeing, hoping to clear up rumors swirling in the wake of her best friend’s accident.
An unhinged ex-boyfriend, secret bucket lists, and garage parties in the place Becca calls home soon lead her to the answers she’s so desperate to unveil. But nobody is being honest, not even Ben. And the closer Becca gets to the truth—and to Ben—the more danger seems to surround her.
Clearing her best friend’s name was all she wanted to do, but Becca is quickly realizing that the truth she craves might be uglier than the lies her best friend kept.
It was almost midnight when I heard the knock against my window. Three soft and consecutive thuds, all of which match the beat of my heart. Why he chose that way to get my attention instead of texting, is a mystery. The kind of mystery I was way too amped up to question.
I wasn’t excited in the sense that I like him and want to spend time with him or anything. At least that’s what I told my racing heart when I first saw his smile from the other side of the glass. He’d been crouched on his belly on the roof of our porch like a stealthy spy, and the sight was something I’d never forget.
I’d thrown a hoodie on over the Tee I’m dressed in, pairing it with some denim cutoffs. Then I tossed my hair up into a messy bun and slid on some cherry Chapstick—but only because my lips were chapped. That’s it. No other reason whatsoever.
Once my Docs were on, I slid out my window and met him head on, the two of us jumping the five feet off the low hanging roof. I’d giggled uncontrollably when he landed on his butt instead of his feet, and he’d nearly pulled me down with him when he tried grabbing my laces. That would be the last time I’d ever not tie my boots.
“Guess what?”he whispered when we started to walk away from the house. “I researched your family tree today and found out that you, Becca, are the biggest sap.”He ended that statement with a tap to my nose. My freaking nose, for God’s sake.
He’d booped me.
My response—one which had been paired with a hard thump to his equally as hard abdomen: “You’re so dumb, you planted a dogwood tree and expected a litter of puppies.”
We both laughed at how stupid we sounded, yet at the same time it felt good to just be goofy. Or dare I say, normal. Though that word—normal—was a bit of a stretch when it came to the two of us anymore.
After that, Ben took my hand like it was the most natural thing in the world and proceeded to lead me to where we are now: the middle of the cornfield.
I trail my fingers over the silky corn stalks, marveling at their height and the way the midnight moon reflects off the green color. Nothing about this spot eases my frazzled nerves, of course. It doesn’t give me peace of mind like it once had when I’d come out here with Rose either. It’s kind of like the alcove in that sense—a spot tainted by a bad memory, despite the many good memories trying to override it.
Ben moves closer, our shoulders brushing.
“What are you thinking about?” he asks.
“Stuff.” That no longer matters. A time and a place and a memory that’s long past.
“Rose said you guys used to hang out here a lot.”
I shrugged one shoulder, unwilling to indulge in what happened the last time she and I had been out here. It’s not a huge thing, smoking weed and all, but for some reason, I don’t want Ben to know that it’d been my bucket list item, not Rose’s. It shows my age—how I’d been so young and inexperienced.
Not that I care what he thinks.
“It’s nice,” he continues. “Quiet too. I can see why you liked it.”
“We did some of our best thinking out here.” Thinking that was more along the lines of Rose smoking joints, while I stood by to keep watch.
“Hmm.” He nods, kicks the toe of his foot into the dirt. “I’m gonna go to that party on Saturday,” he tells me out of the blue.
I frown. “You think that’s smart after beating up Adam like you did?”
“Yup.”
“Why?”
“Because Adam’s gonna be there.” He looks away, but I don’t miss the flex of his jaw—not even in the dark. “I don’t trust the guy.”
I turn him around by the shoulders, forcing him to stand in front of me. “What’s there not to trust, exactly?”
“Lots of things.”
“Like what?”
“I’ve got facts that need exploring.” His lips purse.
“Yeah.” I roll my eyes. “Because you’re suddenly a detective now. I forgot.”
Adam wouldn’t hurt a puppy, let alone be behind Rose’s death. He used to talk big, but his love for my best friend was endless. Without a doubt, I know that’s who her secret boyfriend was. I just don’t get why they never went public.
“I’m more of a private eye, actually.” He covers one eye and curls the corner of his upper lip, making an argh noise.
“That’s a pirate, not a private eye, dork.”
“Either way, they’re both sneaky, right?” I sigh, wondering if he’s always been this weird. Cocky, a smartass, and a huge instigator—that’s Ben. Not funny.
Heather Van Fleet is a stay-at-home-mom turned book boyfriend connoisseur. She’s married to her high school sweetheart, a mom to three girls, and in her spare time you can find her with her head buried in her Kindle, guzzling down copious amounts of coffee.
