The Broken Society

The Broken Society of the first novel in the The Broken Society Trilogy written by A.K. Michalik.

Official Synopsis
For 217 Years, the Utopian City of Eden has been shielded from the world that was destroyed in a Nuclear Holocaust. What people think is a perfect city, there are secrets in the city's depths; secrets the government would kill to keep hidden. Blaire Houston has lived her entire life in Eden, she has always known their city being protected from the outside was never meant to be forever.

As a Member of the secret organization 'The Resistance' she knows that she has the chance to take down the dome protecting the city and let her people be free once again. Now with nowhere to hide, Blaire and her fellow Resistance members being chased away from their city will have to navigate the unfamiliar world beyond. While on the run, Blaire the Resistance must learn to trust a new set of allies in order to survive the harsh new conditions of Earth. When the truth is finally revealed, the people of Eden still cower at the rule of the government who hid a secret that prevents them from having their freedom.

Plot
Blaire is the best spy her organization "The Resistance" has. Blaire leaves her house and meets up with her friend Dulcinea, who not a part of the Resistance but knows about it and supports Blaire's every move in the organization. Blaire goes to the Secret Garden's military facility to attend the Handler's speech about how they're going to leave Eden by blowing the protective barrier. The Handler naturally decides that Blaire should be the one who blows the dome. While they're talking about the mission, Kai, an ex-friend of Blaire's gives a snarky remark about how Blaire is nothing but a scandalous trainwreck. After the Handler gives Blaire a pep talk, she carries on with her mission but goes to her house first to retrieve an item before blowing the dome. After retrieving the item, she proceeds to the location to blow the dome but is then tacked by a member of the Guard. Seth then releases her because his heart still believes in the Resistance. While her father, Jonathan is re-elected as Prime Minister, the Handler and the Resistance go and publicly make themselves known. This does not go well; the Handler is shot down and the agents flee into the wilderness.

While in the forest, Blaire, Dulcinea, Kai, and a few others search for the other members of the Resistance. When they regroup, they shortly discover that they are not alone. Mutants attack the area the Resistance regrouped at and then they are shortly saved by the people who live in the woods. The survivors bring the agents to a village where their leader, Elana speaks with Blaire. They purpose to make a peace treaty, protecting the Resistance members. Blaire sneaks into Eden and goes home, her father is there waiting for her. Jonathan injects Blaire with a serum to kill her over a long period then she passes out. After regaining consciousness, Blaire returns to the Resistance Camp. Elana stops by and takes Blaire, Dulcinea, and Blaire's brother, Kade to the same village to speak with the other tribe leaders about the peace treaty. As they discuss the peace treaty, Blaire begins to the effects of the serum and passes out. They bring her back to the camp, after diagnosing her with a deadly disease that should have killed her instantly, Dulcinea suggests that Blaire may not be entirely human. Blaire slips into a comatose-like state.

The Resistance realizes that the planet hasn't fully healed from the radiation from the bombs, people begin to fall ill from Acute Radiation sickness. SKYE, Blaire and Kade's cousin, had been exploring the woods since they got there and then she suggests a solution. An old doomsday bunker survived the bombs, a group sets to find the bunker to see if they have medicine that will help the sick. To pass the time and have fun, people organize a softball game during a lightning storm. After a fatal hit to the hut that Blaire is resting, Dulcinea, worried about Blaire's safety calls off the game. They hunker down in the bunker until the storm passes. Blaire finally wakes up after a week in a coma, the Guard finds the Resistance campsite and attacks. Blaire figures out that they've been tracking them through implants.

Elana comes by the camp and invites her people to the capital for the Day of the Dead celebration. They witness a beautiful ceremony meant to tell the Gorgers in the world that they aren't afraid of them. Following the ceremony's break, everyone goes to the Throne Room where one of Elana's less devoted subjects, VIESSA throws a knife into Blaire's shoulder. Her black blood is revealed, Blaire then pulls out the knife and flees the Throne Room. Dulcinea chases after Blaire, stopping her from running back to the camp at night because she thinks it's dangerous and wishes to keep Blaire from doing something dumb. Blaire sleeps in but is rudely awoken by Kade. Before they depart, Blaire goes to confront Viessa but ends up getting kidnapped by her. Viessa brings Blaire to her jungle capital and chains her up. She drains Blaire of her blood; she believes that her blood will cure the Gorger disease and it does when Viessa brings in someone who has the disease. Meanwhile, everyone else realizes that Blaire didn't return to camp so they go into the jungle to try to rescue Blaire. The rescue team breaks into where Blaire is being held, Kai shoots Viessa's cured boyfriend. Almost immediately, they flee the jungle and return to the Camp.

Tensions increase as the number of dead agents begins to increase, they realize someone is killing people from inside the camp and that it's one of them. Skye attempts to kill Dulcinea due to her jealousy for her, and how close she and Blaire are. They lock her up, Blaire and her friends discuss what to do with Skye. Kai shoots Skye, nearly killing her, Blaire goes to be by her side, she forced to mercy kill Skye because it's the humane thing to do. Engulfed by grief, Blaire goes to bury her cousin.

Gorgers attack the camp, Dulcinea is separated from the group and Kai stirs up a riot, making everyone believe that everything bad that has happened is because of Blaire, she decides to go to the survivor's village to speak with their tribe leader. On the way, Blaire is kidnapped again, but it was ordered by Elana. She discusses the nature of how important the black blood flows through Blaire's, and Elana's veins, and how it's tried to the tradition of choosing the next ruler of the country. Elana arranges for Blaire to stay in the Capitol Building until the acid rainstorm passes. Dulcinea wakes up in a cave, a survivor from the nearby village saved from being Gorger chow. Due to the storm, she and Uhtred get to know each other, sparking a romance. Back in the capital, ambassadors from the Tribes try to assassinate Blaire. Elana stops the ambassadors by killing them and saves Blaire. They start to bond and learn about each other.

After the storm passes, they ride to the Resistance camp to stop Viessa's father from marching his army to kill Blaire's people. Uhtred brings Dulcinea back to camp where Blaire notices that she's not as humble and cowardly as she way when Blaire left. Sebastian suggests a plan to stop Jonathan. They need to sneak into Eden and extract an important mechanic, as he feels that she is important to the cause. They sneak into Eden and find Harmony, who also happens to be Sebastian's fiancée as well. On the walk back to the camp, Harmony shares Jonathan's true mission, he wants to achieve immortality through memory uploading and cloning. Blaire becomes more determined to stop him before she dies. To truly stop Jonathan’s plans, they must go into Eden through the abandoned underground tunnels, shut down the central powerplants and blow the memory storage building full of uploaded minds. Blaire demands that she’d be the one to blow the DNA chamber and assassinate Jonathan. The mission to Eden is successful, everyone makes it to their mission locations, Jonathan and Blaire meet in the DNA chamber, he attempts to tell her that he was being manipulated. Before he could finish, he’s shot in the heart. She blows the chamber and nearly doesn’t make out alive. As she walks back to the meeting point for the Resistance, she watches as her city fall and how all of it was because of her. She makes a difficult choice that heavily affects herself, her friends and what's left of her family.

Characters

 * Blaire Houston
 * Kade Houston
 * Dulcinea Garcia
 * Skye Sinnett
 * Kai Kendall
 * Seth Kingsly
 * Sebastian Godfrey
 * Harmony Salvatore
 * Jonathan Houston
 * Kellan Houston
 * Bianca Sinnett
 * Elana Terrick
 * Uhtred Nuranda
 * Winn Lawrence
 * Jake Beauregard
 * Alex Valk