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About Omniscience by Janine Frances
Title: Omniscience
Author: Janine Frances
Genre: Dystopian Thriller
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.
Excerpt from Omniscience
© 2022
Janine Frances
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.
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About Janine Frances
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.
