My post-apocalyptic novel has been published and made available from JMS Books!
Blurb:
In the
twenty-second century, Earth has been ‘harvested’ by a race of aliens known as
the Xini. In the aftermath, all of the
planet’s resources have been stripped.
Dakota sets out from Dallas in search of his lover, Grayson who vanished
on his way to St. Louis after the invading fleet departed.
Dakota faces
unknown dangers in the devastated plains of northern Texas and southern
Oklahoma as scavengers, human beings reduced to shells after the Harvesting
roam the earth attacking anything that moves in a base effort to survive.
He finds a
group of survivors struggling to survive in what little remains of Oklahoma
City, led by the tough, handsome Colonel Welch.
While Mother Nature unleashes a fury of natural disasters to purge
herself of the Xini rape, Dakota must decide whether to stay with the colonel
and help him make the colony viable, or continue on to St. Louis to find
Grayson.
Excerpt:
Dakota
increased his pace, reaching the column of smoke in just over an hour. He
circled the hilltop where the fire burned, giving it a wide berth and keeping
aware of his surroundings. Fortunately, none of the other rises were high
enough to conceal any threat.
As
he had approached the inferno from a distance, he couldn't identify the twisted
metal on fire. But on closer inspection, he recognized enough components to
tell it was a Xinian contraption.
A scout ship maybe? It's too small to be one of those fucking
Harvesters.
He
could see no indication of what started the fire. It couldn't have been burning
since the aliens left. It would’ve long since burned out by now.
Best not stick around to
figure it out. I need to keep moving, get to Oklahoma City if it's still there.
And then onto St. Louis to find Grayson, if he's even alive.
He turned and
continued on his previous heading. The weight of his backpack slowed his
progress and breathing through the filter made his situation worse but he
persevered, pressing through the brown haze that sometimes obstructed his view,
limiting it to under a mile. Such conditions could be hazardous not only for
the possible poison in the fog, but it could also conceal scavengers.
Darkness
fell just as he reached a ridge on the southern edge of the Arbuckles. In the
fading light, he found an outcropping to serve as shelter for the night. With
no signs of pursuit, he made himself as comfortable on the ground beneath the
rock as he could. He had enough range of vision that he could prepare to defend
himself if necessary.
The
wind stirred up foul odors, permeating his air filter with a pungent sulfurous
odor but it didn’t dampen his mood. He
shoved the mask tighter to his face and squeezed his stinging eyes closed. The
breeze lasted only a few minutes and Dakota relaxed.
He
jerked back from semi-consciousness. How long he'd been asleep he wasn't sure
but something must've disturbed his slumber. He could see nothing in the
complete darkness.
A scavenger?
He heard a soft scuffle, a scattering of pebbles in
the distance. He realized that the location of the clean water source may not
be a secret.
