The Release
The Release is the thrilling YA conclusion to Tom Isbell’s suspenseful post-apocalyptic Prey series. Perfect for fans of the MAZE RUNNER!Two months have passed since Book, Cat, Hope, and the two others rescued the remaining Less Thans, but no one is safe yet. The group must leave Liberty for good and escape the wolves, the Brown Shirts and the Hunters. Most important, they need to stop Chancellor Maddox before she executes her Final Solution and grows even more powerful.But for Hope, the battle has become personal; she must seek her revenge, no matter what the cost.The PREY trilogy comes to a thrilling conclusion in THE RELEASE, as the group must risk everything – including their lives – in order to defeat their enemies.
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HarperVoyager an imprint of
HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd
1 London Bridge Street
London SE1 9GF
First published in Great Britain by HarperVoyager 2017
Copyright © Tom Isbell 2017
Cover design © HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd 2017
Cover photographs © Shutterstock.com
Tom Isbell asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.
A catalogue copy of this book is available from the British Library.
This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the authorâs imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins.
Source ISBN: 9780007528264
Ebook Edition © February 2017 ISBN: 9780007528257
Version: 2016-12-21
To Paul and Mary Isbell, who loved unconditionally.And to Pat, always.
Contents
Copyright
Dedication
Part One: Enemies
Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Part Two: Allies
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Part Three: Release
Chapter 41
Chapter 42
Chapter 43
Chapter 44
Chapter 45
Chapter 46
Chapter 47
Chapter 48
Chapter 49
Chapter 50
Chapter 51
Chapter 52
Chapter 53
Chapter 54
Chapter 55
Chapter 56
Chapter 57
Chapter 58
Chapter 59
Chapter 60
Chapter 61
Chapter 62
Epilogue
Acknowledgments
Also By Tom Isbell
About the Publisher
I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones.
âALBERT EINSTEIN
FROZEN SLOPES STRETCH THEIR icy fingers to leaden skies, and winter gales sweep clean the vast, white prairies. Though captured, he escapes. Though beaten down, he rises, even as the mountains rumble and the waters rush and roar.
But enemies persist. The dead and dying litter the long road to freedom, and many more must perish.
My beloved â¦
THE NIGHT WAS COLD, and each time I breathed out, my mouth released a haze of frost. I squinted past the cloud of white, peering into the dark. They were out there. It was just a matter of time before they showed themselves.
A tap on the shoulder made me jump. Diana, come to relieve me.
âMy turn,â she said.
âAlready?â
âUnless you want to stay longer.â
âNope, Iâm good.â
I pushed myself up from the snow and stretched. My toes and fingers were numb. My joints creaked. Argos uncurled from my side and also stretched, extending his back legs.
âAnything?â Diana asked.
âSome yellow earlier. Nothing recent.â
âHow many?â
âA dozen. Maybe more.â
She nodded grimly. âThey do anything?â
âJust circled.â Then I added, âThey came closer than last night.â
We shared a look. Diana knew what I was talking about without having to say the words. Yellow meant wolves, the color referring to their eyes. The more yellow, the more wolves. Lately, the numbers were increasing, and the packs had started coming closer. The only thing that kept them at bay was an enormous ring of fire weâd built around our camp. We stoked it day and night like some primitive tribe from centuries past. So far, no wolves had dared go through it.
We intended to keep it that way.
The avalanche had wiped out all of Camp Liberty, flattening buildings, vehicles ⦠and several dozen Brown Shirts. Their decomposing bodies released a sickening aroma of rotting, putrefying flesh. Just the thing to attract roaming wolf packs. Each night the wolves materialized from the mountains, alternately ripping at the corpses with their razor teeth and sending piercing cries to the starry sky.
