Series: Designed #1
Publication date: October 17th, 2022
Synopsis:
Seventeen-year-old Mireya is the youngest person on Earth in 2055. Well, one of them. She and her classmates on the military base where she lives are survivors of Zika-Two, a mosquito-borne virus that took out the very youngest and oldest of the world's population fifteen years earlier and rendered the remaining humans infertile.
Formerly banned research into cloning, genetic engineering, and artificial intelligence is green-lighted by a government desperate to prevent looming human extinction. In fact, it was experimental nanotechnology that saved the lives of Mireya and her friends.
She's always been told this makes her special. She certainly doesn't feel special. As hard as she tries, she can never seem to please her indifferent parents, and her periodic memory lapses threaten to sink her already-shameful class rank to dead last. She just wants to be like everyone else, to be normal.
Mireya's never left the base, never wanted to, and never questioned why she's been content to stay there her whole life--until she runs into Heath. Actually, he bumped into her with his Gideon Corp delivery van. She's not hurt, but she is baffled.
Why did the alluring young guy look at her like he knows her? And why did he seem shocked at her very average eye color?
When one-by-one her friends visit the physician and come back acting like strangers. Mireya decides to venture beyond the gates of the base to the nearby city of Atlanta to search for answers. And for Heath.
What she'll find is the imposing walls surrounding Gideon Corp, the world's largest corporation, hide many secrets about the cataclysmic global event and perhaps even Mireya herself.
DESIGNED is perfect for readers who loved Hunger Games, Divergent, Delirium, The Wrath & the Dawn, and the Selection.
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Excerpt
"Did you notice people staring at you today in the city?"
"Yeah sort of," I said. "I mean I figured it was because I should have been in school, and they were wondering whether to report me to the truant officers."
Heath shook his head. "That's not the reason. They stared at you because they haven't seen anyone like you in a long time. About fifteen years to be exact."
"Like me? You mean a teenager? There are no teenagers in Atlanta?"
"There are no teenagers anywhere--not outside the military bases," he said.
"But... everyone our age survived the Calamity. We were the last."
"No, everyone my age survived the Calamity. Everyone your age died."
"But..." My voice drifted in astonishment. "At school they taught us--"
"At school they told you what they had to tell you to keep you from feeling weird."
Fat lot of good that had done me. Maybe if I'd known the truth, I actually would have believed it when I was constantly told how "special" I was.
"So then, how did the kids on the base survive?" And why hadn't my newborn baby sister?
"You said there's no way viruses aren't making it past the base walls. If what you're saying is true, we should have died like all the rest."
"You would have," Heath said. "But you got an experimental treatment... from Gideon Corp."
My insides went cold. "What kind of experimental treatment?"
"My father said all the military base kids are injected with nanobots. The nanos repaired the cells that were being ravaged by the Zika Two virus. They saved your lives. The red pills keep your bodies from rejecting them."
I rocked back on my heels, suddenly dizzy. "Nanos? In my body?"
I felt as if my skin was crawling. The thought of microscopic robots creeping through my veins gave me the heebie-jeebies.
Heath nodded and continued in a no-big-deal tone. "Yes, and they're still there, repairing damage, keeping you strong and healthy. They're kind of a small miracle, really, pardon the pun. Not that they're perfect. They need tweaking every so often. In fact my dad said there was a recall on the last batch."
"A recall?"
The term brought my woozy brain back to full alertness. Mom and Dad had been discussing a recall last night before dinner when they both been acting so strangely.
"What do you mean?"
"It happens. It's nothing you'd notice," he said. "As far as you're concerned, you simply get an injection. The fix would happen on a subcellular level. Really Reva, it's not a big deal."
"That's easy for you to say--you're not the one with a bunch of electronic spiders crawling around inside you."
A thought occurred to me. "Or do you have them too?"
"Me? No. One hundred percent organic here."
He grinned as if he hadn't dropped a life-altering bombshell on me.
As if he hadn't informed me that I and the kids I'd known all my life weren't "lucky" to have survived the Calamity--we'd been chosen to survive.
AMY PATRICK is the award-winning author of the popular Hidden Saga, Crimson Accord series, and Designed, a new YA dystopian romance. She lives in Rhode Island, where she enjoys writing in her car at the beach year-round and dreaming up captivating new science fiction and fantasy worlds for her readers to devour.
Visit her website where you can find a complete book list. Join her VIP mailing list for the latest book news, insider information, and fun freebies.
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