BLOG TOUR - UNNATURAL SELECTION BY VICTORIA ESCOBAR

Title: Unnatural Selection

Author: Victoria Escobar

Genre: YA Sci-Fi

Publication Date: 4th November 2014

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I had no name. My assignment was M001/A5. Marpesia Project Test One, Fifth Embryo. I wasn’t considered human. I was a thing to be owned.

I just wanted freedom. I wanted out of the lab and away from being the guinea pig for hundreds of scientists. I wanted to see the world with my eyes not through a computer monitor.

Instead I took two bullets, fell from twenty stories and ran to save my life. From who and what I had no idea and that wasn’t important at the time. Life was important.

I had my freedom but no idea what to do with it. There’s no way to out run the past, and I had to face it. There were too many strings loose and too many people that would be more than happy to lock me in a cage again.

Life was an evolution of natural selection but thanks to human intervention I was Unnatural. I would be deciding who to allow living, and who needed to die.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Born in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, but with the ability to claim eight states as home; Victoria Escobar writes fiction from her current home in New York. She writes whatever comes to mind and because of such has a variety of genres written including Young Adult, New Adult, Paranormal, Urban Fantasy, and Contemporary Fiction.

In spare time if not with family, and friends Victoria enjoys curling up with a book from a favorite author with music playing. If not reading or writing she spends time drawing, sketching, crocheting, or some other random art project. She enjoys staying busy, but most of all enjoys staying creative.

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EXCERPTS

I was what I would deem as book smart. I finished all the high school lessons when I was fifteen and had continued an independent study since Dr. Hiroto said there wasn’t any funding to give me a tertiary level education. I was certainly not stupid–but I didn’t know how to live in this world. After watching the bored people around me, I wasn’t sure I would ever be comfortable out here.

I would learn. I would have to learn if I wanted to stay out here. To jump start that education, I began people watching in earnest. Primarily those that seemed about my age. I didn’t want to talk to them, I doubt I had the social skills needed to talk to them, but I wanted to see how they interacted with the world. With any luck, I could mimic them.

I was relieved to see that even though I was the only natural red head in the station that there were other kids that dyed their hair in rainbows of color. I supposed it was a way to shout individuality since the Genetic Alteration Act had passed. I understood the red, orange, and blond hair colors but the pinks, greens, blues, even the purples, were weird to me. They caught me staring and I pushed a smile to my lips as I nodded to them. My palms sweated a little and I hoped they didn’t invite me to join them.

They whispered among themselves a moment, still watching me. The largest of the boys with a hideous green to his hair rolled his shoulders, nodded to the girl talking animatedly with her hands and then turned and walked my way.

This could be an interaction lesson, I reminded myself. I swallowed my suddenly dry throat and studied the way he walked in a sort of ‘I’ve got muscles’ way. I would have to study other guys and see if this maneuver was commonplace.

“You got a problem?” he asked when he reached the bench I sat on. His voice was deep, like the rumbles of the subway train when one stood above ground, not below.

I knew enough from his stance that he was on offense, which meant I should be on defense. His six foot frame easily towered nearly two feet above me when I stood. He stepped back, his brows lifted and his mouth no longer flat-lined, then he studied me closer as his mouth moved in a fishlike fashion.

“Do you?” I asked quietly. I didn’t like fighting. I had five black belts out of necessity, not because I wanted them, but I rarely used them. I could use a gun as easily as I could break a neck and had no taste for that either. However, all that aside, if the towering boy struck at me I would drop him to the ground and show him first hand just how mighty David can be to Goliath.

“Kaia doesn’t like being stared at,” he grumbled but still didn’t swing at me.

“I like to watch,” I answered without actually looking at him.

He glanced back at the girl and crew across the platform–they thumbs upped him–and then back at me. “Just don’t stare anymore at Kaia anymore.”

I shrugged and sat back down pretending to fiddle with the music on my phone. “Whatever.” I wasn’t sure that was the right word to use, but in all the books I’ve read about teenagers they used it often as a way to dismiss or end a conversation. It worked in this situation too and he nodded, grunted, and then walked away. I exhaled slowly and focused on the music in my ears instead of the people.