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The Ruins
T.H. Hernandez
(The Union #2)
Publication date: June 16th 2015
Genres: Adventure, Dystopian, Romance, Young Adult
Heartbroken, grief-stricken, and wracked with guilt, seventeen-year-old Evan Taylor returned to the Union, leaving behind the boy she loved.
Now, she and her friends must find a way to do the impossible – warn the citizens of the Union about an impending rebel attack without alerting the government and risking retaliation against her friends in the Ruins.
When every move Evan makes is thwarted, it soon becomes clear she’s being watched. Faced with a daily fight to stay one step ahead of her pursuers, she returns to the Ruins. But life in the Ruins has its own dangers, and soon she’s fighting a different battle – to stay alive long enough to discover the truth.
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Excerpt:
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I slide the zipper of my duffel bag closed just as a knock comes on the front door. Eddie answers it, and I see my friends on the porch over his shoulder. Eddie greets them with a nod and pulls the door open to let them in. He met Lisa and Colin years ago in the Eastern Province when he was attempting to connect with his long lost daughter. Recognition replaces the indifference on Eddie’s face, and he smiles, shaking their hands.
“Eddie, you remember Bryce. This is Jack. Jack, this is my…my Eddie. Eddie McIntyre.”
Jack shakes Eddie’s hand with genuine enthusiasm. “It’s nice to meet you, sir. I’m a big fan.”
Eddie’s smile grows wide. This is his world, the one he knows how to live in — the one with adoring fans. “Good to meet you, Jack.”
Great, he can turn it on for a complete stranger, a fan, but his own daughter? I get stony silence.
Bryce reaches out and takes my bag, slinging it over his shoulder. I stand next to Eddie, not sure if I should hug him goodbye. He makes the decision for me, reaching an arm around and giving me an awkward pat on the back.
“Have fun,” he says, closing the door behind us.
We make our way to the express elevators in silence, no one finding it necessary to clue me in. Gliding down one hundred levels without a word spoken only increases the already building tension spiraling inside me, but asking questions when everyone else is quietly clenching their jaw, won’t get me anywhere.
Once on the ground, we take a commuter train the twenty-five miles out to the coast, emerging from the dark station into bright late morning sun. It’s a perfect Western Province day, all blue cloudless skies and yellow sunshine. We walk out to the boardwalk, a cool ocean breeze skating across my skin, fluttering strands of hair. The crashing surf is interspersed with screeching seagulls and children’s laughter. This is the most I’ve felt at home since getting back to the Union. Cleanliness aside, this is as close to being in the Ruins as I’ll get here.
A four-wheel-drive sand cruiser shuttles us to the check-in tent. We step out onto a path of groomed sand lined with solar luminaries that will light up at dusk, creating a glowing walkway. A campground employee leads us to a grouping of three white canvas tents adorned with strands of solar lights. Each tent has two cots, a small table with a vase of fresh honeysuckle and gardenias, and two folding chairs. Lisa and Jack dump their bags in one tent, and I follow Colin into another, setting my bag down. I suppose I could have let Colin and Bryce bunk together, but I don’t want to be alone.
The flap from the tent falls into place, and I spin around. “Colin, what the hell—”
He cuts me off, putting a finger to his lips. I’m trying hard not to freak out, but he’s making it difficult. His eyes roam over my face, his mouth pressed in a tight line. “I’ve got my ticket for the Northwest. I leave in a week.”
“Oh.” I drop into one of the chairs. Over the past couple of days, I haven’t thought much about him leaving. We both lapse back into silence. After a few minutes, I get up and go peek outside, looking for the others. Jack, Bryce, and Lisa head toward us with grave expressions. Turning back to Colin, I realize it’s the same expression he’s had the whole time we’ve been in here. Something really bad is going on.
They file into our tent, and Jack pulls a palm-sized electronic device from his pocket, moving it over the seams of the tent, the cots, the table. After glancing at a display on the front of the device, he motions for me to approach and sweeps it over me from head to toe. His shoulders relax and his jaw loosens for the first time since he arrived at my door this morning.
I raise both eyebrows, waiting for someone to clue me in, not sure if I’m allowed to speak yet.
Jack glances at Bryce before turning to me. “Someone bugged Lisa’s apartment.”
“What do you mean ‘bugged’?”
“I was helping her put up some speakers when I found a tiny Union-issue listening device. I swept her place with this and discovered twelve in total.”
“That’s insane.”
“We checked our place, too, and found another dozen there,” Jack says. “We need to check your dad’s place.”
“Why would anyone do that?
“You were gone a long time and so were we,” Bryce says, hands stuffed in the front pockets of his jeans. “Apparently someone noticed. We checked everyone’s clothing because we don’t know who planted the bugs, what all they had access to, or how long ago. We figured we’d be safest out here.”
A sliver of fear pierces me. “What did we say in Lisa’s apartment?”
Bryce shifts, pulling his hands from his pockets. “I don’t think it was anything specific. What about you at your dad’s?”
I shake my head. “Nothing. What about you guys at Lisa’s place before I got there?”
“Nothing much I can remember,” Jack says, dropping the device into his shirt pocket.
“What’s going on?” I ask, sinking onto my cot, my voice barely above a whisper.
“I don’t know,” Jack says. “But we’ve stumbled onto something even bigger than we realized.”
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| Reading Order & Links: Amazon (click on covers), & Book Depository (click on book #) |
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  The Union #1 Reviews: Jen |   The Ruins #2 Reviews: Jen |  The Uprising #3 Reviews: Jen |
 The Invasion #4 Reviews: Jen |
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About T.H. Hernandez:
T.H. Hernandez is the author of young adult books. The Union, a futuristic dystopian adventure, was a finalist in the 2015 San Diego book awards in the Young Adult Fiction category.
She loves pumpkin spice lattes, Game of Thrones, Comic-Con, Star Wars, Doctor Who marathons, Bad Lip Reading videos, and all things young adult, especially the three young adults who share her home.
When not visiting the imaginary worlds inside her head, T.H. Hernandez lives in usually sunny San Diego, California with her husband and three children, a couple of cats, and a dog who thinks he’s a cat, affectionately referred to as “the puppycat.”
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