by JustinSloan | Jun 23, 2017 | Snippets
UNEDITED – This is a post-apoc / dystopian, available now for preorder – launching June 24!
Early the next morning, Marisol’s head still hurt from where the guy had sucker-punched her the night before, and it was made worse by the bumping of the biofuel-belching tactical vehicle as it made its way down the pot-hole covered street.
The Apes often hunted at dusk, or in the blue light of pre-dawn, though this time she had hoped for a bit of rest before being woken up and told to grab her gear. But like the good Ape she was, she had pulled herself together and here she was just like the rest of them, clad in molded Nomex gear, strike helmets, poly-fiber boots, and lugging their well-lubricated assault rifles.
She was at work and the operations always began the same way.
An alarm would sound overhead, a teeth-chattering howl from a metal box bolted to a spit of thick wood, and the Apes would be roused from their bunks and on the move, gathering up their equipment, rations and weapons, before heading out of what passed for barracks, to their rides.
Marisol was always on point, the team’s tracker. She was the one who’d been blessed with the power to smell, and to discern and to notice the small things that others missed. Nothing super-human, but a heightened awareness like many had found themselves with after the world had collapsed around them. Some found it affected their sight, others strength, but for Marisol, it was a keen sense of smell.
Sometimes, especially when stuck in a vehicle with the other Apes, she thought it was more a curse than a blessing. But when it helped her in the hunt, she wouldn’t trade her sense of smell for all the muscles or speed in the world. (more…)
by JustinSloan | Jun 19, 2017 | Snippets
UNEDITED – This is a post-apoc / dystopian, available now for preorder – launching June 24!
The Thresher.
The thought of the dead-eyed monsters was enough to send a chill up her spine, so she wrapped her arms around herself and hunkered down, eyes on the gravel path before her. That’s when she saw the purple glow of light reflecting on damp cement ahead. Marisol looked up and smiled.
“The Fallen Hero,” she said, reading the name of a local bar with a smile. “My only friend.”
As if in welcome, the bar’s sign blinked off for a moment before flashing back on with a spark, and she laughed. “It’s good to see you too. Now give me a goddamn damn drink, you asshole.”
Each step felt a little lighter now, excitement boiling up inside her. (more…)
by JustinSloan | Jun 17, 2017 | Snippets
UNEDITED – This is a post-apoc / dystopian, available now for preorder – launching June 24!
Marisol, or “Sling,” as some of the Olders called her, held her rifle at shoulder level to peer through the scope, searching, hunting. The dark blue skies of pre-dawn cast a blue hue across New Chicago, and then she saw him, saw the man in the window, always staring out from that skyrise, one of the few that remained, gazing in her direction.
Well, not her specifically, but to the barracks inhabited by the hunters, the area where she and the other so-called “Apes” lived.
Their predecessors, cops and national guardsmen and the like, had worked to restore law and order after First Light (the local euphemism for the Unraveling, the purported solar storm that ended the old ways) and the populace, upon seeing them arrive for the first time in their militarized, then-shimmering black gear and body armor, had nicknamed them Apes.
The name stuck and the youngest of the Apes, Marisol, took some small measure of satisfaction from seeing images in the basin of the long-dead creatures with their muscle-quilted bodies and silver backs and faces seemingly screwed up in perpetual disgust. They were strong and powerful, and so was she.
Even though she had no idea who the man watching her was, she wanted to pull the trigger and watch him fall. Anyone who peered in the direction of the Apes often had to have sins enough worth dying for. An infatuation with their trade meant a love of death. (more…)
by JustinSloan | Feb 8, 2017 | Snippets
UNEDITED
Post-Apocalyptic Attempt at a Dive Bar, Old Manhattan
Sandra glanced over her shoulder through a window, wondering if she’d really just seen Valerie running across a rooftop and then disappearing over its side.
No, she had to have imagined it.
“What is it?” Diego said, moving to the window beside her and gazing out. He shrugged and smiled back at her. “Looking to see shapes in the clouds? That one looks kind of like a snake, right?”
“Huh?” she glanced back out and saw what he was talking about. Though, if you considered the sunlight at its tip, she could almost see it as something more humorous, and laughed.
Then he saw it too, and rolled his eyes. “Let’s stick with snake.”
“Call them whatever you want,” she said. “That one’s pissing sunlight all over us.”
“You know, you’ve gotten weirder lately.” He made his move by sliding a little wooden play piece across the board, and smiled. “Usually I like it.”
“Just not when it involves clouds that look like man-parts?”
He laughed. “No, I guess even then, too. Your turn.” (more…)
by JustinSloan | Jan 31, 2017 | Snippets
As we prepare to release book 3, I thought I’d share some snippets! You might want to read Book 1 and 2, but when you’re ready, here goes!
UNEDITED
Chapter 1: Homecoming
Rohan’s drenched clothes clung to his body as he focused on the blazing city before him. Spirits and demons were flashing through the air in the distance, appearing as wisps of red and black light. Screams ripped through the night that was otherwise silent.
If he ever got ahold of the spirits of Altemus and Anne, they would pay for this.
He would make sure of that.
Altemus had somehow managed to outwit Rohan and Nora. He activated the tablet with the orb they called The Eye of Gilgamesh, and then, even though Rohan had been certain they’d won, he merged Hell and Earth. On a plane back to the United States Rohan had to use his powers to stop the plane from crashing when the spirits were unleashed.
Now, he wasn’t sure where he was, but he knew they couldn’t have been too far from Washington, D.C. when the plane landed.
He took the lead, Nora directly behind him, then Tess and Beverly. They ran across a warehouse parking lot next to the river the plane had landed in, searching for a way out of this mess.
“Keep up,” he shouted over his shoulder as he ducked behind the warehouse. He ran toward a wire fence, but his legs gave out on him just as he reached it, causing him to slam into the fence, hard. He barely caught himself at the last second, legs wobbling and nerves on edge.
Nora helped him up, her hand lingering on his shoulder.
“You’re the one we should be worried about,” she said. (more…)
