The man waved him in. “Want a bite to eat? We’re cooking rabbit. I picked it up on the California-Nevada border when the world went to shit, and I’ve been saving it for a special occasion.”
“Nevada, you say?” That was where Mom had gone missing.
Another weird coincidence.
“Yeah, shot it in the woods. Hell, I have a truck full of chili, but we can’t let anything go to waste now, can we?”
“No, I guess not. Thanks for the offer, but I can’t stay. I actually came up here for the dumbest reason you’ve ever heard. When you broke through the first fence, I saw a woman in your passenger seat who looked a lot like someone who went missing a few years back. I figured it was a long shot, but I had to know for sure.”
The man lit up with excitement. “I recognize you! The Army guy! That was some nice work you did at the fence line. Too bad you needed a Marine to come in and show you how to finish it.”
It had to be a devil dog.
Phil let his guard down a bit. “Next time, you drive the little truck, and I’ll take the big one. Good work yourself. You saved most of the people on this field.”
“It was a team effort,” Hawaiian Shirt said with real humility. Then, in a weird change of attitude, he backed up to the woman and put a hand on her shoulder. She still hadn’t turned around.
The Marine spoke in a low voice. “Talk about luck. We were about to search for you for the same reason.”
His pulse quickened as tumblers fell in the lock inside his heart.
“Is that your passenger?” Phil pointed to the woman.
“Can I tell her who’s asking?”
The lady pulled at the Marine’s hand to get his attention. Almost too low to hear, the woman spoke.
The Marine looked at her in surprise. “You can tell by his voice?” He peered at Phil like he’d just beamed down from an alien ship.
“Are you Phil Stanwick, by chance?”
There was no possible way anyone could know who he was. He still had Sargent on the name tape of his borrowed uniform. Phil bit his lip to control the turbulent emotions he’d been holding in for the past seventeen years.
He straightened. “I’m Lieutenant Colonel Philip Stanwick, 3rd Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment, United States Army.”
The Marine gave him a proper salute, then spoke to the woman. “Connie, you were right, of course. You can finally stop trying to call your boy.”
When the woman stood up and turned around, he saw his mom as she had been at the time of her disappearance. The exact style of long red hair. The same green eyes. Even the same style of clothing. It couldn’t be anyone else.
“I don’t believe it,” he said, shocked. “Mom?”
The Golden Retriever ran over to Phil and got up on his hind legs to unleash a massive canine hug. The big dog made him stumble a few steps back and he suffered a barrage of dog kisses, but he managed to hold his ground.
“Big Mac knows family,” his long-lost mother said through a sea of tears.
The Marine came forward with his hand out. “Welcome home. I’m Buck.”
To Be Continued in End Days, Book 5?
If you liked this book, please leave a review. This is a new series, so the only way I can decide whether to commit more time to it is by getting feedback from you, the readers. Your opinion matters to me. Continue or not? I have only so much time to craft new stories. Help me invest that time wisely. Plus, reviews buoy my spirits and stoke the fires of creativity.
Don’t stop now! Keep turning the pages as there’s a little more insight and such from the authors.
Copyright
This book 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. Sometimes both.
End Days (and what happens within / characters / situations / worlds)
are Copyright (c) 2019 by E.E. Isherwood & Craig Martelle
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of E.E. Isherwood & Craig Martelle
Version 1.0
Cover by Heather Senter
Editing by Lynne Stiegler
Formatting by Drew Avera
Author Notes – E.E. Isherwood
Written February 27, 2019
Is End Days over?
Craig and I set out to write exactly four novels in this series. Over the course of 1200 pages we’ve kicked apart the supports of civilization, ripped out all the wiring, and burned whatever was left. Except for a small, 300-square-mile circular parcel of land in what used to be Colorado, the world we know and love is completely gone.
So, what comes next for our heroes?
Buck and his friends cook rabbit while gazing out on a prehistoric world. They are surrounded by a few thousand survivors. Are there enough doctors? Enough plumbers? Enough soldiers? If they manage to survive and tame the new wilderness, are there even enough people to re-populate the world?
And don’t forget Dez. She got a late start on her way to SNAKE and fell short of her goal. However, she proves not everyone disappeared when the dark energy bubble popped. How many others are out there? And from what eras?
Didn’t Mr. Shinano hint there were two legitimate places on earth to get safe? What if someone is still toying with the dark energy inside the earth? Is it possible to make things even worse? Humans always find a way to mess things up, it seems…
If this sounds like a promotion for book five, well, maybe it is.
If you’ll indulge a degree of self-promotion, the surest way to ensure more books will be written in this series is to explore our other titles. That gives us a little scratch to buy more typewriter ink ribbons and also gives End Days time to build up a bigger audience, so book 5 becomes financially viable.
Buy Craig’s books first—he invited me into his house to write with him—but then I hope you’ll check out my back catalog, too. I’ll be creating new content this summer, though as of this writing I’m not sure what it will be called. Post-Apocalyptic goodness is all I can guarantee right now.
You can also check out my seven-book series, Since the Sirens. The first book is free, so there is no risk. Once you get in and learn about my teen hero and the grandma he saves from the plague, I hope you’ll find it as engaging of a journey as End Days.
I even put a few little Easter eggs in End Days, linking this world back to Since the Sirens. When you are dealing with a reality-twisting supercollider, perhaps things bleed over from one universe to the next?
Reviews help our series grow, so please leave a review for this one. Tell your friends about us. Ask your library to stock our titles. It is amazing to have your feedback and support, and it really does help our careers.
As the popularity of all our books grow, we are able to continue writing in universes like End Days. There is more story there, to be sure, so book five might one day get the green light.
Speaking of stories, I’m always fascinated by coincidences when I write my books. Begin Again had a big one.
About forty years ago, my father gave me one of the glue-together models he made when he was a kid. Most of the planes are missing, and many of the tiny pieces broke off long ago, but I’ve kept it on my shelf all these years because it belonged to him.
That model was the USS Wasp, which is the ship Buck and Connie see on the side of the road. I could have chosen any named ship from the past five-hundred years, but I picked that one because of the model.
A day or two after I wrote that chapter this past March, I learned a research vessel found the wreck of the USS Wasp where it was sunk in World War II.
How many stars had to line up for that to work out with such symmetry?
As I look out my Missouri window today, I see the sunshine and warmth of springtime finally kicking into high g
ear. As the leaves begin to fill in on the trees, it signals a renewal of the world. I imagine Buck, Garth, Connie, and Lydia are feeling the same way as they Begin Again.
Thank you for spending your time in their universe.
And thank you Craig for giving me this wonderful opportunity.
Once you’ve signed up for Craig’s newsletter, I would be thrilled to have you also join mine.
That’s all the time I have. The next book calls to me!
Author Notes - Craig Martelle
Written April 16, 2019
You are still reading! Thank you so much. It doesn’t get much better than that.
At this point, the story completed its initial arc. This will probably be the end of the series unless the fan outcry is great enough. If you need more Buck, Connie, Garth, and Lydia, what would the future look like? So much potential for a next phase, how would they survive and knowing them as you do, how would they help the world come back to itself because you know there is no way they wouldn’t stretch out a helping hand?
Spring has come early to the Alaskan interior! While there are areas in the lower 48 that just got snow, we’ve had a mild and welcoming spring. Phyllis the Arctic Dog and I are getting plenty of time in the woods behind our house.
She found a ptarmigan underneath a fallen tree and chased it. She has little hope of ever catching one of our state birds. I used to yell at her not to chase them, but she gets some exercise and the ptarmigan never fly very far. They aren’t afraid of her. She’ll be 12 this year and has slowed down a bit.
We are always on the lookout for moose, though. Getting between a cow and a calf can be deadly. More people die in Alaska each year from moose attacks than from bears. A full-grown cow could be a thousand pounds. It doesn’t take much for them to hurt one of us fragile humans.
I have a major fishing trip coming in June. My dad will be here for his 83rd birthday. We’re going fishing down on the Kenai Peninsula – a couple charters on the ocean out of Homer and a couple days fishing the Kenai River. We’ll be driving my truck down – it’ll be time well spent with my dad. I only get to see him a couple times a year. He still has plenty of energy, but the years are passing. Don’t miss these chances.
That’s it, now. I’m off to keep writing and working with my co-authors to bring these incredible stories to you.
Peace, fellow humans.
If you liked the story, please write a short review for me on Amazon. I greatly appreciate any kind words, and even one or two sentences go a long way. The number of reviews an ebook receives greatly improves how well an ebook does on Amazon.
If you liked this story, you might like some of my other books. You can join my mailing list by dropping by my website www.craigmartelle.com where you’ll always be the first to hear when I put my books on sale. Or if you have any comments, shoot me a note at [email protected]. I am always happy to hear from people who’ve read my work. I try to answer every email I receive.
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My web page – www.craigmartelle.com
E.E. Isherwood’s other books
End Days (co-written with Craig Martelle) – a post-apocalyptic adventure
Sirens of the Zombie Apocalypse – What if the only people immune are those over 100? A teen boy must keep his great-grandma alive to find the cure for the zombie plague.
Eternal Apocalypse – Set seventy years after the zombies came, a group of survivors manipulates aging to endure their time in survival bunkers, but it all falls apart when a young girl feels sunlight for the first time.
Amazon – amazon.com/author/eeisherwood
Facebook – www.facebook.com/sincethesirens
My web page – www.sincethesirens.com
Craig Martelle’s other books
(listed by series) (# - available in audio, too)
Terry Henry Walton Chronicles (# co-written with Michael Anderle) – a post-apocalyptic paranormal adventure
Gateway to the Universe (# co-written with Justin Sloan & Michael Anderle) – this book transitions the characters from the Terry Henry Walton Chronicles to The Bad Company
The Bad Company (# co-written with Michael Anderle) – a military science fiction space opera
End Times Alaska (#) – a Permuted Press publication – a post-apocalyptic survivalist adventure
The Free Trader – a Young Adult Science Fiction Action Adventure
Cygnus Space Opera – # A Young Adult Space Opera (set in the Free Trader universe)
Darklanding (co-written with Scott Moon) – a Space Western
Judge, Jury, & Executioner – # a space opera adventure legal thriller
Rick Banik – # Spy & Terrorism Action Adventure
Become a Successful Indie Author – a non-fiction work
Metamorphosis Alpha – stories from the world’s first science fiction RPG
The Expanding Universe – science fiction anthologies
Shadow Vanguard – a Tom Dublin series
Enemy of my Enemy (co-written with Tim Marquitz) – A galactic alien military space opera
Superdreadnought (co-written with Tim Marquitz) – an AI military space opera
Metal Legion (co-written with Caleb Wachter) – a galactic military sci-fi with mechs
End Days (co-written with E.E. Isherwood) – a post-apocalyptic adventure
Mystically Engineered (co-written with Valerie Emerson) – dragons in space
Monster Case Files (co-written with Kathryn Hearst) – a young-adult cozy mystery series
Nightwalker (a Frank Roderus series) – a post-apocalyptic survival adventure
Begin Again: A Post-Apocalyptic Adventure (End Days Book 4) Page 21
