by J. Rock
EVERSUMMER:
THE FORERUNNER ARCHIVES
BOOK 1
☯
a novel by
J. Rock
This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.
Copyright 2015 by J. Rock
All art/graphics by J. Rock
This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be resold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to amazon.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.
Other works by J. Rock, available at all online ebook retailers:
Dinosauria Part I: A Memory of Time (Free)
Dinosauria Volume I (also available in serial format)
Dinosauria Volume II (also available in serial format)
Dinosauria Volume III (also available in serial format)
The Death Clock (Free)
Ex Machina (Free)
This one’s for Jude.
Contents
Prologue: The Box
Part I: Eversummer
Part II: The South
About the Author
PROLOGUE: THE BOX
I often dream that I’m the last human alive.
The dream seems to come when the winds are blowing from the north, where it is said the Great Poison took root, making natural things unnatural and a mockery of creation. I don’t know if I believe it; I’ve seen one of the very few maps of this side of the world in my Father’s study, and to the north there is nothing but water. A vast black ocean. The south is much the same. How could the Poison come from the sea?
We live in the province of Eversummer on the world’s only continent–a craggy strip of land that circles the globe at the equator. Eversummer is on a northern sea bound peninsula and our city, Krakelyn, is at its tip. My Father’s map shows all the known cities on this side of the world–there aren’t many–and all the zones that are habitable.
There aren’t many of those either.
In my dream, I’m traversing the barren streets of some unnamable city. It’s not Krakelyn, but it always looks the same: two-story, wood framed buildings, thatched roofs, stucco walls. I’m searching for somebody. Anybody. I call out and I scream and I yell, but no one comes. I know it shouldn't be possible, but it is.
The world is empty and I’m the only one left.
I'm the last human.
It’s then that I see the footprints, starting out of nowhere in the middle of the street and defining a path through blizzarding snow that goes on forever. Funny, I almost forgot to mention the snow. You’d think I wouldn’t let something as important as that slip my mind. After all, I’ve never seen snow before. In real life, I mean. There’s a reason they call our province Eversummer; it's the same reason we call the other side of the world Everwinter.
It doesn’t snow here. Ever.
I don’t even know what snow is really. My Father says it’s a form of solid water, but I can’t wrap my head around the concept. We don't get snow in Eversummer because the sun never leaves the sky, making the land and air too warm. But my Father, he says that as you get closer to the other side of the world, the sun begins to slip below the horizon then disappears altogether, taking the light of the world with it, leaving only dark, and cold, and snow.
And mutants.
I know it sounds crazy, but it’s been documented. Verified.
But I'm getting off track here.
In the dream, I follow the footprints through the snow and they terminate at a house at the end of an alley. I step up and knock on the door but, as I do, I hear all the other doors in the alley opening at once. Suddenly, I’m no longer alone in the world, and the twisted, frightening people that shamble out of the houses all tell me the same thing.
They whisper it.
Summer is ending...
