Eventually we stopped defending him. There were some things I couldn’t explain away. Danny had become cold, brooding…bitter. He didn’t seem to care what anyone else thought—except Ava. Frickin’ general’s daughter. He definitely didn’t want to hear about Kate. Twice I’d caught him at the dinner table and asked if he’d talked to Kate recently. Both times he got up and walked away before I could finish my sentence and I was left standing there—in a war of glares—with Ava. I really couldn’t fathom what Danny saw in her. Beyond her looks, if he honestly wasn’t getting any, I don’t know what her purpose was.
Or maybe he was actually with her now. Maybe that blow-up doll had replaced Kate. What guy lying next to that every night wouldn’t give himself a pass and roll with the hormones? It made me sick thinking about it. My heart went out to Kate, waiting for him in Hawaii. She couldn’t wait to have him back, but she wasn’t getting the same Danny back. This one would have never come to save me. This Danny wouldn’t even try to save himself.
We’d found out a little about the missile damage. Keena had effectively wiped out all the Qi Jia capital cities—their headquarters—in America. Best as anyone could tell, she leveled the playing field—perhaps taking out as much as ninety percent of their entire forces. Damien had sent word to Australia, England, France—anywhere he thought we might have survivors and let them know what had happened. His hope—our hope—was to get everyone together in Hawaii and come up with a plan to take our country back.
I felt guilty about a lot of what we’d lost since the beginning of August—I’m not going to lie—but I also knew the other truth. If I hadn’t gone with Lazzo and Danny hadn’t come for me—if we hadn’t ended up in Cheyenne Mountain—Qi Jia would have had control of those missiles. Not Keena. One day Qi Jia would have figured out how to do essentially the same thing she did with them. But when they launched the missiles, they’d all have hit Hawaii—they’d have wiped us completely out.
We definitely wouldn’t be getting on this plane—talking, laughing and looking forward to landing in Hawaii—looking forward to the future.
There wouldn’t be a future to talk about.
As we boarded the plane for Hawaii and lifted off into a stormy sky, I looked around at the passengers. Everyone else seemed happy. Everyone else seemed worry-free. I glanced at my brother, sitting across from me with his arm around Ava. She smiled at me, and I resisted the urge to flip her off. I turned to Blake instead. “Do you think anyone would mind if I threw her off the plane.”
Blake smiled, nodding slowly. “Unfortunately, Hayley…” He sighed. “Unfortunately I do.”
He twisted the top off a bottle of beer, lifted it up and took a long drink. “Aaaahhh…” he sighed.
“Good?” I asked.
“Terrible.” He shuddered. “So awful.” He held another bottle out to me. “Want one?”
I laughed and took it from him. “Why not?” I popped the top on mine and took a swig. I nearly gagged. “Whoa!”
“Right?” Blake laughed. He held his bottle out toward mine. “Toast.”
I clinked mine against his.
“To the future,” he said.
“To the past,” I added.
Blake raised his bottle again. “And to pillows.” He smiled and began to take another drink.
I punched him in the shoulder, as he laughed and feigned injury.
“Forget that!” I shook my head and glared at Ava again.
Forget that.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Ever N. Hayes lives in the Upper Midwest with his beautiful wife and four incredible children. Two college degrees and 8 years of professional journalism experience prepared him for writing books but nothing has prepared him for the editing and publishing process! So he leaves that to the professionals. Ever N. Hayes can be reached via email at EverNHayes@yahoo.com
Book 1: Emergency Exit was written in 72 days, but took 29 draft revisions (and 8 more months) before publication in April 2014. It has since sold almost 27,000 copies and reached #7 on Amazon’s “Most Downloaded Fiction” bestseller list in June 2014.
Book 2: Redemption was written in 80 days, but took 17 draft revisions (and 5 more months) before publication in November 2014. First returns (Professional feedback from bloggers and MAXIM Magazine) indicate that Redemption raised the bar on the original. I would love to know what you think. EverNHayes@yahoo.com
Book 3: I am currently working on a Junior Fiction Sports book (Current Title: The Magician) expected to be released by Valentine’s Day 2015. At that point I will commence the concluding chapter of this series (Title TBA-Year 2025). Estimated publishing date: Summer 2015.
Thank you for your support! Please leave a review!
DREAM CASTING
As authors, we envision our characters a particular way. Readers often have an entirely different vision. In Emergency Exit I debuted a “casting list”—my story’s main characters cast by the Hollywood actors/actresses as I imagined them. I was encouraged to bring it back for this book… and coerced into making a few character changes.
Ryan: Ryan Reynolds of The Proposal.
Danny: Liam Hemsworth of The Hunger Games.
Hayley: Willa Holland of the CW’s Arrow.
Tara: Lauren Conrad of The CW’s The Hills.
Kate: Katharine McPhee of ABC’s Smash and CBS’s Scorpion.
Blake: Corbin Bleu of High School Musical.
Lazzo: BJ Britt of ABC’s Marveclass="underline" Agents of Shield.
Eddie: Adewale-Akinnuoye-Agbaje of Pompeii.
Reagan: Diana Agron of Fox’s Glee and I Am Number Four.
Sam: Eli Goree of The CW’s The 100.
Flynn: Bella Thorne of Blended.
Nicole: Kate Mara of House of Cards.
Damien: Lonnie “Common” Lynn, Jr. of Just Married.
Keena: Shay Mitchell of Pretty Little Liars.
Governor Barnes: Josh Lucas of Sweet Home Alabama.
Captain Baker: Max Martini of Captain Phillips.
Commander Boli: Faran Tahir of Iron Man and Star Trek.
Ava: Katrina Bowden of 30 Rock.
Jenna: Emma Stone of Easy A and The Amazing Spiderman.
Grandpa Dan: Kevin Costner of The Guardian and Robin Hood.