The Thousand Steps
by Helen Brain
Someday I'll see the sky. I'll climb the thousand steps. The gates will open and my family will be waiting, ready to take me home. Sixteen-year-old Ebba has never experienced life outside the underground bunker deep inside Table Mountain, known as the colony. But in a sudden twist of fate she is Elevated to join the elite living on the surface in a post-apocalyptic world. Was she saved because of the mysterious birthmark on her hand? The High Priest and his handsome son Hal are especially keen to keep her close, but can she trust them? When Ebba learns she has a sacred task to find three lost amulets to save the earth from a second and final Calamity, it is clear that her life will change forever.