Parched
Subtitle: The Days Before Exile
Series: The Wastelands
Publisher: Joyce Dragon Publications
Published: 4/13/2022
Format: paperback
Number of pages: 136
ISBN-13: 9798416445751; 979-8802014448
First sentence: “Hey. Can you spare some change?” A thin, middle-aged man approached Joshua.
Description: It's the 2040's and the world has become a more terrifying place than anyone could’ve foreseen. The country is recovering from a devastating nuclear war that has left much of the earth scourged and uninhabitable.  Some billion-dollar corporations took advantage of the destruction by purchasing the rights to water and selling it back to the public at ridiculous prices.
Joshua Wyman and Maria Perez struggle to adapt to this new violent world where muggings and murder over water are a common occurrence.  The new water barons assign an army of brutes called "Purifiers" to instill order, but when people start mysteriously vanishing, Joshua and Maria begin to wonder if the Purifiers are behind their disappearance.
When Maria receives a frantic email from a friend in danger, she learns of the water barons’ plans for the “indigents” who can’t afford water. She desperately searches for someone to share her dark secret with who might be able to help. When her information falls into the hands of a violent anarchist group, their beaten down, oppressed city must confront what its inhabitants have long since hinted about, but never dared to whisper. Uprising.