Guest Author Katrina Cope of Australia

So pleased to have Katrina Cope back on the Scribbler. She has been featured here before with Book 1 of The Sanctum Series. Now you can read an excerpt from Book 2. Her links are listed below. 

Scarlet's Escape

 

Wow! What a ride. Ever since I have pressed the publish button on my first book ‘Jayden & the Mysterious Mountain’ on September 2nd, 2013, I have learnt so much about the publishing industry, indie and mainstream (with still a lot more to learn). I learnt from my mistakes and worked on fixing them making sure not to do them again for the next release of ‘The Sanctum Series’. This is the whole reason why the 2nd book ‘Scarlet’s Escape’ took so long to release after the first.

 

I started with no history, no contacts and not knowing anything about the whole industry. You have a great original story with lots of emotion, characters, and twisted plots not to mention a nice cover – it’s going to take off all by itself, right? Ha, ha! No, I wasn’t that naive but I had a long way to go.

 

I am delighted that as my first book reaches more people I am starting to have more people like my work and they are keen for the next stage in the series.

 

I have also had the honour of receiving a 5 star rating from Readers’ Favorite reviewer Dinorah Blackman for the Preteen category and it is now posted on their site: https://readersfavorite.com/book-review/26767

Copyright belongs to the author. Used by permission.

 

When they entered, they were astounded by the amount of weapons in that one building. It was like a huge gun closet where the collector had gone mad. There was every kind of gun and rifle, many more than the two boys had ever seen before. Further inside there were grenades, missiles and boxes and boxes of explosives.

“Alpha?” Jayden spoke over the communicator.

“Copy contender.” Avando’s voice sounded over Jayden’s headset.

“Can you see this?” Jayden asked him in shock.

“Yes, I can. Unfortunately, it is as I had suspected. I will need you to destroy it.” Avando told him.

“Destroy it?” Jayden queried in surprise.

“Yes, this is why you have been sent in. It is a great danger to our people.”

“Copy,” Jayden responded getting over his initial disbelief. “How would you like us to do that?”

“Well, looking at all those explosives, the best way would be to blow it up.”

“Really?” Jayden was surprised.

“Yes! There is too much to be able to do anything else.” Avando confirmed.

“Copy Alpha.” Jayden set to work with Aaron’s help.

They began to work, rigging all of the explosives and setting them all ready to blow in five minutes. Then they prepared to leave in haste, heading for the main door. They peered out the window near the door and as they went to open it, they realised that it also needed a code to exit from the inside.

“What?” Jayden said out loud involuntarily. “Who puts a security lock on a room from the inside?” His voice started to tighten in panic. “Aaahhh! Puzzler?”

“Copy.” Eva’s voice sounded over the headphones.

“We need a code and we need it now!” Jayden started showing a slight panic.

“Just try the code that you entered last for getting in,” she stated like it was obvious.

“What was that?” he urged.

“C59835,” she advised.

He entered the code but found that it didn’t work. “No good Puzzler,” he said as dread filled his voice.

“Ahhh! Okay!” she sounded surprised. “Show me the pad and I’ll set to work.”

Jayden showed her the pad so that she could copy it and get to work on the code. “Be quick, puzzler. We only have four and a half minutes left to get out in one piece.”

“Copy,” she said and went silently to work. At four minutes left Eva spoke. “Try these…” and she rattled off several different codes, which Jayden entered quickly, but with no success.

“No good puzzler. Give us some more, please.” His voice was even tighter with tension now.

“Copy,” she said and silently went to work again. At three and a half minutes left, her voice came over the headset again. “Right try these,” she said and ran through several more codes, again with no success.

“We need more quickly,” Jayden almost screamed at her. The sweat from the stress was starting to run down his face. He wiped it away with his sleeve and looked at Aaron anxiously, only to see his emotions mirrored in Aaron’s face. To make matters worse, the security alarm had set off from not having the correct code put into the system before the required time. Terror crossed both boys’ faces at the same instant. “Now puzzler. We need the good code now!” He was yelling both from panic and the need to be heard over the alarm.

A few seconds later Eva’s voice sounded over the headset. “Right try these ….” She called out a few more, finally with success. The light turned green and the alarm stopped, with only two and a half minutes remaining to get far away from the building and out of harm’s way.

They opened the door to see that there were soldiers running in their direction. They both glanced at each other with a look of dread crossing their faces, but they had no choice left now other than to make a dash for it, out the door in full view of the soldiers. Immediately they heard voices yelling at them, then shooting, and next they heard bullets hitting the building behind them. They continued to run to the side of the building from where they had come from, but they were not so lucky as to be able to make it.

It all happened so fast. Jayden felt himself falling forward to the ground. No matter how hard he tried he could not get up. He started to crawl forward in the direction they were planning to go. He glanced around quickly to see how Aaron was doing and saw that he was also crawling along the ground. ‘Great,’ he thought sarcastically, ‘that’s not going to help us get out of here quickly!’ They both picked up their rifles and started shooting back at the soldiers, which slowed their advancement after them. Aaron and Jayden continued to crawl. Their progress was annoyingly slow and the soldiers started aggressively coming at them again. So they were forced to start shooting back, slowing them down yet again. When they retaliated enough to deter them, they continued crawling towards their exit. Jayden glanced at his watch. To his horror he saw there was only thirty seconds left.

“Contender!” Avando’s voice came over the headset. “You really need to hurry, as you are still in the danger zone.”

Jayden didn’t respond but continued moving as fast as he could with Aaron in close pursuit.

Fifteen seconds. “Come on contender!” Avando almost shrieked over the headset.

They were already going as fast as they could, so all that they could do was to continue on at that speed. Ten seconds … five … then it happened. One brilliant flash accompanied by a large whoosh, which flooded over them.

“Contender?” Avando spoke over the communicator. “Contender?” Urgency now pierced his voice. “Come in Contender! Contender?” Nothing. Silence followed Avando’s voice.

 

 

 

Thank you Katrina for sharing this excerpt from your novel. Please visit Katrina's website for more information on this keen author and her novels. http://katrenee11.wix.com/katrina-cope-author

Please visit again on Friday, March 13th and read an excerpt from my second novel - The Wall of War.  A tale of Incan gold. I am presently completing the second draft with hopes of having a completed novel by Fall, 2015.