Cross & Flag: Awakenings: A Novel of Alternate History

Living in small-town America can be boring, rough or both. It's often not much easier when you're the mayor's daughter. But it's even harder when your town--and the country--have gone through a Second American Civil War, and must now get through each day without drawing too much attention from the theocratic regime that has replaced democracy.

18-year-old Amelia Weir is going through all three of these trials. Hard times, conflict and fear aren't new to her; she's lived through them as long as she can remember, from 9/11 to further, worse attacks and political turmoil that raised tensions so high they exploded into civil war after the 2008 Presidential election. Since a tense peace was agreed in 2012, she and her parents have tried to rebuild something like normal lives in their hometown of New Antioch, Iowa. For Amelia, that means finishing high school; for her father Ben, it's running the town; and for her mother Diane, it's helping treat and heal at the local hospital. They're far from blind to the hypocrisy, abuses and dangers from the New American Path dictatorship, but aren't ready to give all, including their lives, to resist them.

Until Amelia finds a strange message, leading her to an even stranger man named Richard Henley, who has covert technology, supplies and skills like she's never seen. With the regime's abuses growing by the day, threatening to crush even a small place like New Antioch, she takes a gamble that Henley can help her and her parents survive. But doing so sets her on a path that could put the three of them in even greater jeopardy--and perhaps the last chance to restore a truly free America.