50. EXODUS – Young Adult Science Fiction

Mentor Name: Trisha Leigh

Mentee Name: Anna Patel

Title: EXODUS

Category: Young Adult

Genre: Science Fiction

Word Count: 77,000

Pitch:

Eos Europa is a genetically engineered specimen, raised by the government in space until she’s called to fulfill her Purpose: to deploy to Earth and fight a plague that transforms humans into The Muted. Monsters with pitted eyes, skeletal faces, razor-sharp groupthink capabilities, and an insatiable hunger for flesh, The Muted are extinguishing humanity.

But when a few teams of specimens deploy only to betray The Cause they should be fighting for, Eos’s Purpose changes. Now, it’s up to her team to find these Traitors, capture them, and bring them back to be executed.

Finding the Traitors’ hideout should’ve marked the fulfillment of Eos’s Purpose. Instead they reveal truths that make Eos question everything. The people who raised her lied about her Purpose, The Cause, and even her own creation.
Specimens aren’t sent to Earth to save people. They’re sent to destroy them.

Excerpt:

Through my pod’s small circular window, I can see Earth.

From a distance, it’s impossible to believe the mayhem it hosts. I’m too distracted by its powerful presence in the night sky, too consumed by its unparalleled beauty, to properly see it for what it really is: a planet-sized burial ground for the human species.

My mentor, Onyx, sits rigidly across from me, a cold desk dividing us.

Her upper-lip stiffens, which is usually a bad sign, as she scans through the holographic pages of my portfolio. The specific dates and times of every developmental progression I’ve ever made is documented here, including my first smile, words, and steps…

And the day I should’ve exhibited some sign of a skillset.

I stretch, cracking my knuckles. A bad habit. “Is…there a problem?”

Onyx doesn’t blink. I wonder if all Final Evaluations are this shaky and unpredictable. My gut says, Nope. Just yours.