Welcome to dystopia – #MMRomance #ScienceFiction #GiftCertificate #MFRWHooks

For today’s MFRW Book Hooks blog hop, I’m sticking with my Science Fiction Week theme and offering an excerpt from my dystopian MM erotic romance The H-Gene. Set in a near-future America which has been devastated by environmental disasters, civil war and a catastrophic plague, the book imagines what it would be like if MM sexual attraction were actually a death sentence.

Come to think of it, that’s actually the way things are in some places in the world...

If you comment on this post, you’ll be entered into my Science Fiction Week giveaway, with a $10 gift certificate as a prize. Be sure to include your email so I can find you!

Blurb

When love is forbidden, the whole world’s a prison.

Dylan Moore will do anything for freedom. Seven years ago, a gay plague spread to heterosexuals, killing millions and sparking brutal anti-gay riots. The Guardians rounded up men who tested positive for the homogene and imprisoned them in remote quarantine centers like desolate Camp Malheur. Since then, Dylan has hacked the camp's security systems and hoarded spare bits of electronics, seeking some way to escape. He has concluded the human guards are the only weakness in the facility's defenses.

Camp guard Rafe Cowell is H-negative. He figures the lust he feels watching prisoner 3218 masturbate on the surveillance cameras must be due to his loneliness and isolation. When he finally meets the young queer, he discovers that Dylan is brilliant, brave, sexy as hell — and claims to be in love with Rafe. Despite his qualms, Rafe finds he can't resist the other man's charm. By the time Dylan asks for his help in escaping, Rafe cares too much for Dylan to refuse.

Dylan's plan goes awry and Rafe comes to his rescue. Soon they're both fugitives, fleeing from militant survivalists, murderous androids, homophobic ideologues and a powerful man who wants Dylan as his sexual toy. Hiding in the Plague-ravaged city of Sanfran, Dylan and Rafe learn there's far more than their own safety at stake. Can they help prevent the deaths of millions more people? And can Rafe trust the love of a man who deliberately seduced him in order to escape from quarantine?

 

The Hook

They didn’t encounter any checkpoints until Marin. Steel webbing bathed in yellow floodlights blocked the approach to the causeway running along the Golden Gate Barrier. A skinny Latino in black coveralls emerged from the plastifoam hut beside the gate, accompanied by a robo-guard similar to the ones at Malheur.

“Halt!” he cried, brandishing an evil-looking rifle. The order was redundant—Dylan had already stopped and rolled down the driver side window. However, he didn’t turn off the engine. He appraised the strength of the fence. Could Pachelbel ram its way through? The checkpoint was located in a pass, flanked by steep, brush-covered slope on both sides. No escape in those directions.

“This your auto?” the sentry barked in Dylan’s face.

“No, sir, it’s mine.” Artemis hadn’t made a sound for more than a hundred miles but now she sat up in the back seat. She held her arm out of the window. The robot stepped forward and deployed a scanner from its chest. “Artemis Long, ID 541291881,” it intoned.

“I live in Sanfran,” she continued. “Two-fifteen Seventeenth Street. I’m just returning from a trek in the Cascades. I’m a mycologist. That means I study mushrooms,” she added. “Rafe, would you get the registration chip out of the glove compartment, please?”

Silently, Rafe followed her instructions. The cyberguard scanned the chip then handed it back, droning its acknowledgement.

“What about you guys? You from Sanfran, too?” The glare of the floods illumined the sentry’s face and Dylan knew that the man could see his and Rafe’s expressions equally well.

“Dylan Moore, 33609861022,” he volunteered. “I’m from Boston. You can scan me, but my chip battery seems to be dead.” He stretched out his arm for the robot to corroborate this. “Rafe and I are here to visit friends.” He held his breath, waiting for Artemis to object to the change in his story. The old woman said nothing. He exhaled slowly. There were still no comments from the back seat.

“Long way to come for a friend,” the guard commented. The robot circled the car and scanned Rafe’s chip. “Rafe Cowell, ID 231890815827, H-minus,” it droned.

“You’re right—it’s always been a big country but it’s much bigger now with so many gone… But Jim is getting married. We all grew up together—Rafe and I just had to come. Then our solar panels crapped out in Oregon and we had to walk two days to find civilization. Fortunately, Ms. Long offered us a ride.”

“Yes, I thought I could use the company,” Artemis interjected. “And Mr. Moore kindly offered to drive, to help a tired, old woman.”

“Okay, okay. You’re clean. Go ahead.” The gate swung open. The man in black waved them through. With infinite care, Dylan fed fuel to the engine. It wouldn’t do to stall out now.

“Oh, officer!” Artemis called back out of her open window. “Any unusual security alerts since I left on Tuesday?”

“No, ma’am. Everything’s been quiet.”

“I heard a rumor about some H-positives escaping from one of the quarantine camps,” she persisted.

The sentry exploded into laughter. “You kidding? No way. We’d be doing swabs and gene profiles of everyone coming in if that was true. Nah, those faggots are safely locked up till the day they die.”

“Right,” replied Artemis. “Well, thank you.”

Dylan braced for her challenge as they drove into the tunnel. She was silent. When they emerged, he guided the vehicle across the top of the enormous concrete and steel dyke, erected more than a decade ago to protect the city from high tides and storm surges. He’d read about the resistance to tearing down the iconic bridge that used to arch over the gateway to the bay. Hundreds had chained themselves to the girders. The deadly floods of ‘27, though, had changed all that.

He expected her to say something. She remained quiet as he drove through the storm-blasted trees of the Presidio and turned left on to Geary. Finally, he was the one to speak. “You said Seventeenth Street, right?”

“That’s right. Do you know the way?” Her voice was even and controlled. Nervous sweat broke out on Dylan’s forehead, despite the clammy fog sweeping in from the ocean.

“Maybe I should let you drive now.” Dylan didn’t want to admit that he’d been in the city before. “Actually, why don’t you just drop us off here?”

“That’s all right. Take a left here. Then your third right. You’ll stay with me tonight.”

Rafe shifted to look at their passenger. “No, thank you, you’ve already done more than enough to help.”

“You’ll be safer in my house,” Artemis said. “Apparently the Guardians don’t yet know about the situation at Malheur Camp. Or, if they do, they’re keeping it secret. I’ll bet that’s it. They don’t want anyone to know that they’re fallible.” She pointed to the intersection ahead. “Turn right up there. My house is half a block down.”

Dylan obeyed, wondering how much she really knew. He’d been correct—she was dangerously intelligent.

“They’ll be looking for you, though. Don’t fool yourself thinking that they won’t. You’ve been lucky, but luck will only get you so far. Here. Pull into the garage.”

They’d reached a weathered Victorian that towered above anything else on the block. Some of the neighboring buildings were burned-out rubble. Others were makeshift shacks erected on top of the embers.

“Your biggest piece of luck,” Artemis added, unlocking the reinforced grate that protected the front door, “was meeting me.”

Buy Links

Kinky Literature – https://www.kinkyliterature.com/book/7233-the-hgene-after-the-plague-book-1/

Amazon US – https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08CVNK6NL

Amazon UK – https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B08CVNK6NL

Smashwords – https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/1032512

Barnes and Noble – https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-h-gene-lisabet-sarai/1137338272?ean=2940164186050

Kobo – https://www.kobo.com/th/en/ebook/the-h-gene

Apple Books - https://books.apple.com/us/book/x/id1523511955

Add on Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/54529211-the-h-gene

Don’t forget to comment! And I hope you’ll visit the other authors participating in today’s Book Hooks.

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