Day Zero (Sea of Rust, #0)

by C. Robert Cargill

They were pining for an era that had died several generations before, both dependent on the social safety net and angry at it for not allowing them to be dirt poor on their own terms.

The truth is, you’ll never know what you’ll really do until you’re forced to make a choice.

There are few things more dangerous in the world than unemployed young men. There’s a reason that un- and underemployed young men have long been the primary source of manpower for every extremist and terrorist group in modern history. A young man without a job doesn’t have prospects. He doesn’t have luxuries. Odds are that means he doesn’t have a significant other. This leaves him frustrated, horny, and, most of all, angry. And that anger can be focused as a laser-sharp tool.

I was cute. I was fluffy. And I knew how to kill every other person in this room with every available implement.