MERCURY STRIKING
The Scorpius Syndrome #1
Rebecca Zanetti
Releasing on January 26, 2016
Zebra
With nothing but rumors to lead her, Lynne Harmony has trekked across a nightmare landscape to find one man—a mysterious, damaged legend who protects the weak and leads the strong. He’s more than muscle and firepower—and in post-plague L.A., he’s her only hope. As the one woman who could cure the disease, Lynne is the single most volatile—and vulnerable—creature in this new and ruthless world. But face to face with Jax Mercury…Danger has never looked quite so delicious…
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USA Today Bestselling author Rebecca Zanetti has
worked as an art curator, Senate aide, lawyer, college professor, and a hearing
examiner - only to culminate it all in stories about Alpha males and the women
who claim them. She writes contemporary romances, dark paranormal romances, and
romantic suspense novels.
Growing up amid the glorious backdrops and winter
wonderlands of the Pacific Northwest has given Rebecca fantastic scenery and
adventures to weave into her stories. She resides in the wild north with her
husband, children, and extended family who inspire her every day—or at the very
least give her plenty of characters to write about.
{Excerpt}
Buildings
crumbled like they always had in the rough area of L.A., and shadows lingered,
like before, waiting to harm. But these were different. Jax wandered down the
street, looking for survivors, when the patter of gunfire stopped him cold.
The small distribution center. Shit.
Dodging into a run, he hurried
around rusting cars to the warehouse, finding a group of Twenty gang members
firing on a huge black guy wearing a bloody football jersey. The man looked
familiar and seemed to be protecting the warehouse.
Keeping out of sight, Jax had angled
around to the back, only to find a bunch of elderly people and kids hiding in
the warehouse near a barrel of what looked like toasted oats.
The gang would kill them without a
thought.
Jax hustled by them, gun out, and
inched up behind the football player’s side. “I’m with you.”
The guy half turned, a wild glint in
his dark eyes. “You sure?”
“Yep. Jax Mercury.” He angled
farther and fired, clipping a Twenty member in the side, having given up his
allegiance the second he’d taken his oath in the military. “You have any combat
experience?”
“Wyatt Quaid. No.”
“From the Niners?” Jax took aim and
fired again. A yelp of pain filled the afternoon.
Wyatt fired and hit the dirt. “I
used to be.”
“Go left, and I’ll go right,” Jax
said, shifting into command mode. For now, he had a mission, and he’d win it.
“Jax?” Wyatt asked, yanking him back
into the present.
“Is your stomach okay?”
“No.” Wyatt grimaced. “You ready?”
“Yep.”
The back door to the cavernous space
opened, and a group of twenty people filed in. They wore torn clothing but had
jackets and hand-stitched patches on their arms showing they’d completed the
training for scavenging. Jax breathed out. “Fuck, they’re young.”
Wyatt winced. “No shit.”
“They’re supposed to at least be
sixteen years old,” Jax muttered.
“They are.” Wyatt stood. “Line up.”
The kids, and there was no doubt
they were kids, formed two lines of ten. Jax shoved to his feet, eyeing them. A
couple kept his gaze, while several more dropped theirs to the floor. “How many
sections are there inside our grid?” he asked.
“Seventeen,” a blond girl in the
back said.
The girl should’ve been planning for
college and going to dances, not memorizing the layout of their territory.
“Good. How many sections outside to the west?”
“Fifty sections straight west,” a
kid barely sporting a goatee said from the left.
“Good.” Jax walked back and forth in
front of the line. The kids were smart so far. “Do you ever go out of your
ordered area?” he asked.
“Only in extreme situations to avoid
Rippers.” The blonde spoke up again.
“What’s a Ripper?” Jax asked.
A couple of the kids chuckled.
“Zombies,” one muttered.
Jax cut a hard look at Wyatt.
Wyatt shook his head. “Zombies don’t
exist, dumbass.”
The kid with the goatee shot an
elbow into his buddy’s gut. “We know that. First of all, zombies aren’t real.”
He stood at attention. “Second of all, if zombies did exist, then they’d be
what was left over after a human died. The person dies, and then the zombie bug
takes over. Everyone who ever watched The Walking Dead knows
that.” He sighed and looked down at his feet. “And third, zombies don’t exist
in real life.”
“That was number one,” his buddy
drawled.
“No shit.” The kid rubbed his eyes.
“But if they’re still human, it seems like we could reason with them.”
Jax rolled a shoulder. So long as
the kids knew how to scavenge and how to defend themselves, he had to send them
out. “You have to understand that the bacteria does not always kill human
beings; sometimes the patient survives, but the Scorpius bacteria still remains
within the body, stripping a small part of the brain. The contagion alters
brain activity in everybody who is infected, but only turns half of the folks
into killers. We don’t know why. It might have something to do with oxytocin,
which is a chemical we think relates to empathy. Some folks lose it all, and
some only part or none.”
The kid nodded. “So there’s no hope
for Rippers.”
“No.” Jax kept the kid’s gaze.
“Don’t try to reason with them. There are two main types of Rippers. The first
is organized and intelligent like a serial killer. If one of these attacks you,
it’s planned, and they have bad things in mind for you. The second is disorganized
and just plain crazy, and they’re more likely to rip you apart like an animal.
Run from either.”
The kids started to shuffle their
feet. Jax put bite into his voice. “When you’re out on mission, your goal is to
be as quiet as possible. Don’t be seen, and definitely don’t be heard. What’s
your motto?”
“Shoot first, question later,” the
kids said in unison.
“Good.” Jax clasped his hands at his
back and walked toward a small girl, another blonde, this one with bright blue
eyes. What was her name? Haylee. Yeah, that was it. Her mother, April, worked
as a cook at the soldier headquarters. “Who’s the enemy?” he asked softly.
Haylee kept his gaze. “Everybody not
in Vanguard.” Sadness and determination lifted her chin.
“Yes. Out there you’ll find Rippers,
rival gangs, and just ordinary people willing to kill you over a bottle of
water. You wouldn’t be wearing that patch if you weren’t fit and prepared to
fight.” He’d set the training requirements himself, and they included learning
how to fight hand-to-hand, with a knife, and with guns. The kids were as much
soldiers as scavengers, but he needed supplies more than protection right now.
“We require medical supplies, food, water, and gas. Go out and find some.”
Haylee drew in air. Her eyes held
both an old wisdom and a desolate acceptance. “To what end?”
Jax paused. “That’s a good question.
Right now, it’s to survive. The bacteria is still running its course, Rippers
are either getting reckless or planning big, and rival gangs want our supplies.
For now, we fight.”
She swallowed. “For now.”
Smart kid. “Then hopefully we find a
cure or at least a way to live with the infection, and we build anew.”
Including some sort of civilization.
“But now we fight,” she whispered,
her face too pale.
He tried to infuse confidence and
arrogance into his voice. “And we win.”
The kids stood at attention and then
slowly filed out.
Jax eyed Wyatt.
“I know. They’re young and have no
clue what a Ripper will do.”
Yeah, but who did? Jax loped toward
papers taped to the west wall where the entire seven square blocks of his
territory had been painstakingly drawn. The outside buildings had all been
fortified with turned-over trucks, vans, and other vehicles. Kids and the
elderly were in the dead center near the hospital, which used to be an
elementary school, and the current food depot, which had once been a small
grocery store.
He’d planned every single inch of
Vanguard territory with protection and survival in mind for his force of five
hundred people, but it was getting more difficult to keep the enemy outside.
“We need to shore up the eastern edge,” he said, pointing to a series of old
apartment buildings.
Wyatt nodded. “We have a new force
of soldiers ready to defend, but none have seen combat.”
“They will soon enough.” Jax rubbed
his left eye to get rid of the pain behind it.
“When’s the last time you slept?”
Wyatt asked.
Jax shrugged. “Day before yesterday?
Maybe?”
Wyatt shook his head. “How do you do
that?”
“Military training.” Jax turned to
recheck the security for headquarters. Training wasn’t all, though, was it? He
swallowed and kept going, not looking back. Now wasn’t the time to share his
secrets, not even with Wyatt.
{Details} eARC provided via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review
{Rating} 4/5 - I really liked it!
{Review}
Another winner from Rebecca Zanetti; I couldn't put it down.
Zanetti paints a bleak picture of the future - a deadly bacteria that kills you or, if you survive, changes you into a new person, but more likely turning you into something like a zombie or a high functioning murdering sociopath. Resources are scarce, people are afraid and desperate and fighting with all they have to survive for just another day.
Jax is a gangbanger turned soldier turned leader of a small band of survivors. He doesn't want to be a leader and struggles with what that means is a big part of his journey throughout the book. Jax is all alpha male; he's loyal, honorable, determined, he'd walk through gunfire, bombs, for someone he cared for or considered his responsibility. If I was living in a world where the Scorpius bacteria reigned there's no one I'd rather follow than Jax.
Lynn is an anomaly. She's the girl with a blue heart. A girl everyone is looking for. I admired her strength, terrible things have happened to her but she never gives up. Her notoriety and blue heart make her an outsider and target of distrust leaving her feeling alone but she takes it and keeps going. Jax and Lynn are such a great match, complimenting each other, strong where the other is weak and they're both so protective.
Mercury Striking is the first book in the Scorpius Syndrome series and I can't wait to see what happens next.
