Escape From

26 April 1986 01:18 Alina & Lev are two siblings living in Pripyat, one of the Soviet Union's proud nuclear cities. Both are asleep in their beds. Their cousin, Yuri, is a custodian at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, where he's fiercely attacking a spill in the hallway with a mop. Alina's best friend, Sofiya, sleeps just a few doors down. Her father is an engineer at the plant, a fact that has always filled her with pride. In five minutes, Reactor No. 4 will explode in a ball of fire. It will expel radiation across their town for nine days before it's finally contained. For the people of Pripyat, it will be far too late. Two young siblings flee the Chernobyl disaster with their parents, but the Communist party is on their heels. Meanwhile, the friends and family they were forced to leave behind must contend with a disinformation campaign that's determined to pretend nothing is wrong-even as deadly radiation spills into the air.

December, 1961 Marta is a young girl who saw thirty miles of barbed wire appear across her city overnight, separating Berlin into West and East-with Marta's home on the Communist Bloc-controlled eastern side. January, 1989 Now a spray-painted concrete monolith, the Berlin Wall bisects the city. Kurt, a young East Berliner, often wonders what those living on the other side must think of their unseen neighbors. Do they hate the people of East Germany as completely as Kurt has been instructed to hate them? Inspired by real events, Escape from East Berlin tells two stories of daring bids for freedom from the Eastern Bloc, set decades apart and relayed in alternating perspectives. Triumph and tragedy intertwine in this examination of both the earliest and final days of the Berlin Wall.

Artem lives in the sleepy city of Stalingrad, which has mostly been cut off from war with Nazi Germany-until the summer of 1942. That July, martial law is declared as the Nazis begin their unprecedented march toward the city. Artem's older brother is a soldier in Stalin's Red Army, so Artem is worried for his brother's safety once he and his family have evacuated the city. Then the announcement comes. Stalin has ordered that no civilians be allowed to leave Stalingrad. The city which bears his name is an important symbol, and the Red Army believe that the soldiers defending it will fight all the harder if their families' lives are at stake. Artem and his new friend Yuna are put to work shoring up the city's defenses, digging trenches and building fortifications. Then, on August 23rd, the bombing begins. A massive German air raid reduces most of the city to rubble. With Stalingrad blockaded by both the Germans and their own government, escape from the coming battle seems all but impossible . . .

May 1962 In the middle of San Francisco Bay looms Alcatraz, home to America's most infamous prisoners. Also home to Chip Carter and his dad, who works at the high security prison. Their neighbors are former mobsters, gangsters, and murderers, but Chip finds it to be a pretty boring place to live. After all, the inmates can't hurt him-they're locked up in an impenetrable fortress, surrounded by unforgiving waters. Or are they? Inmate AZ1441, aka the Watcher, has a plan to break out of Alcatraz. It's a genius plan he's concocted along with three other inmates. Foolproof. Or so he thought until one of the guard's kids stumbles into the middle of it. Chip is stunned. No one can break out of the Rock. Not unless they have an inside guy. Which it seems like they do . . . Chip's dad. They know Chip's onto them, so if he wants to survive, he's going to have to make sure these men stay locked up. But first he has to figure out who is planning the prison break and just how deep into this deadly scheme his dad is. Because given what these men have done to end up in Alcatraz, there's no telling what they'll do to get out.