Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Control: The State, #1
    Control: The State, #1
    Control: The State, #1
    Ebook102 pages1 hour

    Control: The State, #1

    By Tom Wright

    ()

    Read preview

    About this ebook

    Set in future Austin, TX, the state forces the obedience of its population through a sophisticated drug. The Academics, the police force for the state, enforce order and ensure the drug is administered to the people. While most of the citizens are turned into drones, a token fighting force rebels against the state's military might.

    Kara, a soldier of the resistance, is given the daunting task of turning her old friend Matt, a captured Academic, to her side. Orem, the resistance leader, must face his past and make the right choices for the resistance, even if it costs him dearly.

    The ideologies of the state and the resistance cannot co-exist. One will triumph and the other will be extinguished. Can Kara and Orem prevail against the state?

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherTom Wright
    Release dateJan 15, 2015
    ISBN9781507012444
    Control: The State, #1
    Author

    Tom Wright

    I’m Tom Wright. Web guy by day, author… also by day. My wife, Molly, co-founded the Austin Science Fiction/Fantasy Book Club, so I read SF/F pretty regularly. After several books, I can firmly say I enjoy fantasy with lots of action. I write what I enjoy, hence the popcorn fantasy. I live in Austin, TX with Molly and our two daughters.

    Read more from Tom Wright

    Related to Control

    Titles in the series (3)

    View More
    View More

    Related ebooks

    Dystopian For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Exploring The Boundaries

      May 31, 2018

      The human body: a horse gliding through a field. A monkey skipping between branches. A comet hurtling through the black moors of space. The human body can be these things, or anything, without pain. Sontag famously declared that “everyone who is born

      16 min read

    • Article

      Failure to Thrive

      Dec 15, 2019

      Alice read John Mark’s letter, her eyes narrowed, as I paced our tiny apartment. The envelope contained instructions for retrieving two sets of human remains from the University of Florida. I sometimes worked for John Mark, the director of the Milwau

      20 min read

    • Article

      What Happened When a Hurricane Flooded My Prison

      Aug 3, 2018

      On Aug. 26, 2017, at 3 a.m., I awake to an officer screaming for everyone to get up and hurry to the second floor of our unit. Thunder crashes in the distance, and raindrops the size of quarters smack the window by my bunk. Soon, I hear only the sou

      5 min read

    • Article

      Why These Children Fell into Endless Sleep

      Sep 22, 2021

      I had barely stepped foot over the threshold and I already felt claustrophobic. I wanted to turn back. People shuffled into the room in front of me, while somebody else stood directly behind me, a little too close. It felt hard to escape. I could see

      12 min read

    • Article

      Wait Times

      Mar 29, 2021

      Wait Times
      16 min read

    • Article

      In The Event Of An Emergency

      Feb 5, 2021

      HUMANS shouldn’t climb onto roofs or ladders unless they have a harness or a set of wings. It’s day 13 of lockdown and the evening before Good Friday. A woman brings her husband to the ER because he’s spent the day drinking beer and painting the roof

      9 min read

    • Article

      No One Lives Here

      Mar 29, 2021

      FROM ISSUE #49: SURVIVAL STORIES GENEVIEVE ANNA TYRRELL is a visual artist and creative writer. She earned her BS in Electronic Media and Film at Towson University and her MFA in creative writing at the University of Central Florida. Her writing has

      8 min read

    • Article

      A Nurse’s Coronavirus Routine: Recording Videos She Hopes Her Family Will Never Need To Watch

      Apr 3, 2020

      Anticipating a call to treat #coronavirus patients in the ICU, a Seattle nurse makes videos for her family — just in case she doesn't come home one day.

      4 min read

    • Article

      Open Short Story Winner Tight Situation

      Apr 4, 2024

      When Carol first wakes up, she thinks it must have been a dream. The ringing phone had been distant, muffled as if the landline device had been buried in a bag of something soft like cotton wool - the packing material stuffed so tightly into its bag

      6 min read

    • Article

      Pneumadectomy

      Jan 10, 2022

      Rolly stood for a few minutes in the shade of the large oak, just out of sight of the boys gathered on the dry shaven green of the bowls club. All aged around eleven like himself, they were dividing up their meager numbers for a game of soccer, knowi

      10 min read

    • Article

      In The Sun’s Shadow

      Feb 1, 2018

      In The Sun’s Shadow
      12 min read

    • Article

      The Chair of Opportunity

      Jan 10, 2023

      Taylor put his clothes back on and waited in a well outfitted room. It was far posher than any doctor’s office he’d ever been in and he wasn’t sure why he’d been given a physical, much less one more thorough than any he’d ever had before. When they’d

      10 min read

    • Article

      The Shifting Shape of Love

      Nov 27, 2023

      The Shifting Shape of Love
      3 min read

    • Article

      How To Corrupt the Youth

      Sep 1, 2020

      How To Corrupt the Youth
      19 min read

    • Article

      A Cardiologist’s 9/11 Story

      Sep 13, 2018

      The morgue was inside Brooks Brothers. I was standing at the corner of Church and Dey, right next to the rubble of the World Trade Center, when a policeman shouted that doctors were needed at the menswear emporium inside the building at One Liberty P

      14 min read

    • Article

      Dark Dweller

      Jan 25, 2023

      Dark Dweller
      6 min read

    • Article

      Two-Percenters

      Mar 10, 2022

      Reginah stared at the crystal vial her friend Twylea had laid on her desk. A gentle light bloomed within the desk’s frosty surface, illuminating the liquid sealed in the vial in shades of lavender. “Go on,” she prompted. Twylea could be annoyingly sl

      14 min read

    • Article

      Five Poems

      Jul 1, 2019

      You agreed to meet him in one of those cafés you imagined yourself writing in if you could afford to live in that city. He was also a writer, but older, and you wanted to know how to get published. Slip a picture of yourself in with your poems, he ad

      6 min read

    • Article

      Amnesia: The Great Work

      Apr 30, 2020

      Amnesia: The Great Work
      5 min read

    • Article

      Lace Round the Sky

      Jul 1, 2022

      Lace Round the Sky
      8 min read

    • Article

      Intelligent Creatures

      Jul 6, 2023

      Intelligent Creatures
      19 min read

    • Article

      Reaching OUT

      Jan 17, 2024

      Reaching OUT
      6 min read

    • Article

      The Worst and Best Day

      Apr 16, 2022

      The Worst and Best Day
      8 min read

    • Article

      86 Operations But Taylor Is Still Smiling

      Nov 24, 2020

      Reaching forwards as far as he could, my son, Taylor, six, popped a 2p piece in the arcade coin pusher. ‘Look, Mum, they’re ready to drop,’ he grinned, staring through the glass in anticipation, his face lighting up at the tinkle of coins dropping fr

      4 min read

    • Article

      Braving the STORM

      Aug 17, 2021

      Braving the STORM
      6 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for Control

    0 ratings

    0 ratings0 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

      Book preview

      Control - Tom Wright

      Chapter 1

      29.888665

      -97.950554

      Taylor swallowed, staring longingly at the water fountain on the wall. Can I finish the mission before it sets in? She shook her head. Not worth figuring out. But where do the Academics get their water?

      She straightened, trying to look the part of a Lapaz-drugged worker. Her utilitarian beige uniform made her fit in with the rest of the drones running the neo-engine factory. She shuffled amongst the drones while they went about completing mundane tasks, in their Lapaz-forced obedience.

      Taylor tried to keep her face blank, not showing her fear, or her thirst. Her water supply had run out two days before, while she watched the Academics rotate through their guard. Uncertainty kept her pinned in her hiding place in the stairwell, but she figured out the guards’ schedule now. She considered following a woman as she left her guard post, and taking her water, but the risk was not warranted. If a guard’s body was found, the Academics would go on alert, and Taylor’s mission would fail.

      The multi-story building in San Marcos was just one of dozens left behind from the old world. Taylor was amazed that the electricity and water still worked, despite an obvious lack of maintenance. The tiled floor of the lobby was chipped and broken in several places, and the glass panes of the revolving front door were covered in spidery cracks. Despite the damage sustained during the gas crises and the neo-engine war, the factory was clean and free from debris. Janitorial drones, identified by their faded blue coveralls, swept and mopped, or washed windows. Taylor heard them vacuuming every now and then. She had a blue jumpsuit stashed in her bag if she needed to impersonate one of the cleaning crew.

      The State kept the complement of guards at this factory to a minimum. Smart, she thought. It had taken several months for the resistance to figure out the location. Would’ve been a lot easier if we had more people to follow in and out. The State must keep other factories close by, because it was difficult to power remote locations. The resistance could bring down power lines or disrupt water flow far too easily for the State to work outside the grid. Eliminating this factory would cause a serious shortage of neo-engines, maybe enough to turn the tide to the resistance for a while. If the State couldn’t power their copters, tanks, or trucks, the resistance could quickly gain the upper hand.

      Taylor realized she was walking too quickly as she passed a drone. She slowed down, pacing herself next to the drone. Fitting in was easy enough, walking with an aloof air, moving at a slow but steady shuffle. Complacency could get her killed. She suppressed a grim smile. Getting killed is the least of my concerns, she thought. Getting killed before mission-complete, that’s the thing that scares me.

      She tried to take her mind off her thirst. Passing another water fountain did not help. She thought back to the day she felt a lump in her stomach. Anger and bitterness crashed into her that day, when the HQ nurse told her that cancer swept through her body, already spread too far for removal. Taylor lashed out at the nurse, asking if he had anything more than a few years training with a first aid kit. She apologized after, but still felt guilty. The cancer wasn’t anyone’s fault, not even hers. She had lived as healthy as anyone could while constantly on the run. That she had made it so long without taking a bullet, or worse, taking Lapaz again, was a miracle. A miracle she did not understand, but would use as best as she could.

      A few more months. Painful months. I always felt sorry for the ones sent out, knowing they would not come back. Even though she was ready for the mission a few weeks ago, she waited for several days until Orem showed up. Orem saw every suicide mission off, no exceptions. He spent the day with her, asking her questions, writing down her answers. You’re a hero, he said. We need to remember all of the heroes. We’ll need your strength even after you’re gone.

      She remembered that conversation well. She had blushed at Orem’s attention. I’m not a hero. I’m dying anyway.

      Have you fought the State this whole time because you’re already dying?

      She shook her head. He spoke again. Why do you fight?

      I have to. Someone has to stop them. I can’t let them keep hurting people like… Her voice trailed off.

      Like they hurt you?

      She nodded. He took her hand, holding it in both of his. No matter the circumstances, this is the bravest thing you’ve ever been asked to do.

      Taylor focused on the mission again. She glanced at the worker next to her, then stepped behind him as they came to a security door separating her in the lobby from a hallway on the other side. Her hand shook as she bent to show her ID to the scanner, mimicking the motions of the drone ahead. She sucked in her stomach, trying to keep the gun strapped to her abdomen from showing. She nearly winced as the hard lumps in her stomach flared painfully against her taut muscles, pushing into the gun. The Academic standing on the other side of the glass did not give her a second look. Taylor kept her eyes forward, pressing her hand to her side to keep her nerves from showing.

      The worker walked with agonizing slowness, but Taylor kept exactly behind him, wondering if the Academic was looking at her now. She waited until both she and the worker turned the corner, then pressed her hands to her stomach, massaging gently. Waves of pain radiated out of her, and she bit her lip to keep from gasping. The Academic down the hall probably would not hear her, but she didn’t want to take the chance. Her throat burned, and she walked briskly to catch up to the drone, still trying to ignore her thirst.

      After the first Academic at the security door, she didn’t encounter any other soldiers. Could be a bad thing, she thought. Means there’s nothing here that they care about. The resistance intel only knew the location of the factory, not the floor-plan. She had to make do with what she could figure out on her own. As she walked, still following the worker in case anyone saw her, she peered into empty offices spaced out along the hall. Each held a desk and chair, facing away from the window. A few had computers, but most were empty but for the simple furniture. Why was this guarded? And where are we going?

      They reached the end of the hall, where the last office on the right stood with the door open. Okay, time to backtrack. She turned, but a voice caught her attention as it barked out the open doorway.

      Take this to the third floor, office 303.

      Taylor stopped herself from swearing out loud. An older woman in an Academy dress uniform stepped out of the office. The heavy green pants were the same that their soldiers used in the field, but her top was a starched brown button-down instead of the field soldier t-shirt. She held a manila folder out to the worker in front of her. Taylor kept her face devoid of emotion, although her mind raced. Is anyone else in the office? No time to find out.

      The woman reached for her radio as she asked, Why did they send two of-

      Enjoying the preview?
      Page 1 of 1