by Angela White
Age: 36
Height: 6’1”
Weight: 240lbs
5/30/76
Decorated Marine, Wide shoulders, Short tempered, Party clown, Beefy hands.
So why wasn’t Kenn banished for his abuse of Angela before the war?
Because of Adrian’s rules, he can’t be. He has to do something while in Safe Haven and Adrian tried very hard to remind him of all he’s risking.
In book 4, Adrian’s Eagles, Kenn snaps, grabbing Angela by the throat in front of not only a tent of Eagles, but also Adrian. You’d think that would be the end of it, but Kenn is once again saved by fate.
Interrupted by Mother Nature, Kenn’s next action earns him a pass and a possible way to earn his place back.
If he can let Angela go…and sanction her as an Eagle…and Marc’s legal mate. It’s a lot to ask and may not have been possible without the attempts on Adrian’s life–attempts that Kenn suspected Tonya of.
Kendle Roberts
Age: 26
Height: 5'6
Weight: 120lbs
5/20/86
Very reddish skin, Grayish Blue Eyes, Short Black Spikes.
FBI Notes
DNA Marker confirmed. Due to public view, careful termination is being considered. Location: California, Beverly Hills.
Backstory
Kendle was an actress before the war came, as were her parents. Star of Survival Challenge, the reality artist wasn’t afraid of anything. Before, when she was supported by her crew, and her father's endless money. After the War, Kendle is alone, everything familiar gone. Adrift on the ocean, and then held captive by Ethan Kraft, the survivalist discovered terror and it was life-changing. She's no longer sure who she is.
Upon meeting Luke, she regained some of her self-confidence, but it's clear she'll never be who she once was. Before the war, Kendle's only goal was to be noticed for being as good as her parents. Now, only survival matters. Because of Ethan Kraft and the mysterious illness now circling the island, she may not get the chance to recover. Even though she somehow wasn’t infected, the rest of the island, including Luke, is in grave danger.
Marcus Brady
Age: 35
Height: 6’
Weight: 225 lbs.
12/13/77
Broad shoulders, Loner/slightly bitter, Full, pouty lips.
Quote: “It’s okay to be scared, but you have to think, too.”
Strengths
There are few problems he can’t handle if given the time or materials.
Once his loyalty is given, it is unshakable.
Weaknesses
Knows how to be a team player, but his misery often makes him a loner.
Beyond having another chance with Angie and his son, Marc has no other goals, no vision for his future.
FBI notes
DNA marker is inconclusive. Subject shows no signs of mental abilities; however, termination has been recommended due to above average strategy skills. Considered Dangerous.
Location: New Mexico–Contact case manager for map.
Adrian Mitchel
Age: 48
Hair: Blond
Eyes: Blue
Height: 6’
Weight: 230 lbs.
Birthday: 7/4/64
Holsters on both hips, Sun streaked brows, Goatee.
Adrian has never known love beyond his bond with his mother. He instinctively knows how to be in a relationship, but has never felt the need to try. Until now. From the instant their eyes met, he knew Angela as a kindred and the attraction has only grown. He tries hard not to let it show, though, because the feelings he has for Marc’s woman are a surprise to him, as well.
Adrian’s bonding with Angela is both sweet and brutal. Through total freedom and trust, he shows her a life she has never dreamed of, a way of living that fulfils her need to atone as much as her sense of duty. He made her more than she’s ever been and their time together will not be easy to forget. Adrian wants to fight for her, but knows she needs to figure it out for herself and lets her.
Determined to do the right thing, Adrian concentrates on getting his people toward Arkansas, where a dangerous personal reunion waits for him. Have the choices he’s made cost him a son? Even Angela can’t be sure.
Rebecca Ann Kelly
Age: 15
Height: 5’4’
Weight: 115lbs
Green eyes, Cute, flirty, Dimples, Set on being Neil’s mate, Likes danger, thrills, Shoots well for only being 15.
Becky is just starting to explore her femininity and the hormones encourage her reckless streak. She’s not a bad kid, but her lack of direction makes her dangerous to herself.
That’s where Rick came in. He can sense it, that few months before she’s a woman, and he knows Neil can, too. Rick likes her, who wouldn’t? But he wants her only because the state trooper does.
So what does the future hold for Miss Kelly?
Danger and more angst until she grows up, though, that road may be rough. Becky isn’t sure of her place in Safe Haven. Before the War, she was a cheerleader, popular and flirty, much sought-after. Now, she’s another survivor and she isn’t old enough yet to know how miraculous that is just by itself. I hope she only needs time to grow up, but I’m worried for her…Rick is one of fate’s wildcards.
Richard T. Boone
Age: 35
Height: 6'1
Weight: 190lb
6/1/77
Shifty green eyes, Always has dirty fingernails
Quote: “I gave him this camp for our freedom.”
Backstory
Raised as a ward of the state, Rick never knew his parents. Eighteen years in an orphanage turned him into a solitary creature with cruel tendencies. Was he abused there? I think that’s a safe assumption.
At nineteen, he was fired from a local store for theft and at twenty, committed his first felony. The car he stole was never found. Neither was the bank’s money and he wasn’t convicted.
At twenty-three, Rick was picked up for flashing young girls from his car, but again, the system failed. Just a year later, he tried to rape a teenager in the theater he worked at. She was hurt in the process and he finally went to jail.
When the war came, he was serving eight years and laboring as a prison janitor due to good behavior. Rick opened the cell doors of the prison, allowing the other dangerous inmates freedom. When Cesar arrived to free his family, Rick was rewarded with slavery instead of death. Rick is the only white male Cesar and his slaves have left alive.
Tonya Lynn Murphy
Age: 28
Height: 5'7
Weight: 135lb
1/7/85
Green Eyes, Loves short, red dresses, Topless dancer on the Nevada Strip, Save Haven Refugee Camp Whore.
Quote: “Maybe we can find out who he really is while everyone’s distracted by Barbie and her wolfman.”
Strengths
She can adapt to almost anything.
She's more aware of herself than most women, not afraid to go after what she wants.
Weaknesses
Selfish. Almost to the point of being dangerous.
Uses people to get what she wants.
FBI Notes
The FBI has no file for Tonya Lynn Murphy. Local NV records show a statistical arrest record, indicative of early childhood abuse and poverty.
Todd O’Neil
Age: 28
Height: 6'
Eyes: Green
Weight: 175 lb.
Birthday: 12/15/84
Before the war: Arizona State Trooper.
After the war: Level Four Eagle in Adrian's Army.
Quote: “I'm more Adrian's than I ever was my mother's.”
Backstory
Unlike most of the others at Safe Haven, Neil had a decent childhood. His mom was a prostitute who died in the jailhouse during the birth. His father, a sheriff, did a good job raising his unexpected offspring.
Neil followed in his father's footsteps, becomin
g a cop and then an Arizona State Trooper, but he has always worried about how much like his mother he is. It makes him very straight-laced.
When the war came, he and his dad tried to defend the jail. Neil was the only one to survive. He found Kyle a week later, rescuing the mobster from a car accident, and the unlikely pair became fast friends. Neil has never let his hair down and refuses to go anywhere without his Trooper’s hat. Everyone assumes to be his. It belonged to his father, and he wears it to honor a hero who fell in the line of duty.
Jeremy
Level Five Eagle
XO of his Team
Not much is known about Jeremy, by readers, members, or the Eagles. Even I only have a vague, shadowy picture from the first four books.
He worked in an office, he had extra money lying around, and he knows how to manipulate things…like Adrian.
I suspect there’s a lot more to him. (I honestly thought Billy, the pony-tailed blond Eagle on Kyle’s team, would play this role.). I also assumed it was all a setup to get Neil and Samantha together. As soon as I started writing it, I found out how quickly he fell for her. Maybe he was on the rebound from the death of a mate who looked like Sam... I think that’s very likely.
Life After War
Nuclear Ashes
Book 3
by
Angela White
Title: Nuclear Ashes
Book 3 of the Life After War series
New Edition: 2017
Length: 840 pages
Author: ©Angela White
Publisher: C9 Publications
ISBN#: 978-1-9459-2705-8
Copyright © 1991 by Angela White.
All rights reserved worldwide. No part of this publication may be replicated, redistributed, or given away in any form without the prior written consent of Angela White or C9 Publications. Made in the USA.
C9 Publications
[email protected]
http://www.c9publications.com/
All Angela White Books
Life After War Series
The Survivors
Adrian’s Eagles
Nuclear Ashes
Dystopian Stand
Fight for Survival
Carved in Stone
Shattered Dreams
Dearly Departed
LAW Backstories
Marc and Angie
Marc and Dog
Related to Life After War
The Alexa’s Travels series
Other Books by Angela White
The Bachelor Battles Trilogy
HOP-17: Human Origins Program
Table of Contents
One of Them
Rockin’ Rough
Welcome Back
In the Garden
Settling Down
The Younger Generation
Lines in the Sand
That Sinking Feeling
Honor and Confusion
Tiger by the Tail
Twice the Men
Fighting For It
Give Me Your Line
Chosen, Not Used
The Wire Coming Down
Rookie Rule: Six D
All That Buzzing
This is Safe Haven
Required Blood
Those Late Nights
Deeper and Deeper
A Major Pain
The Right Bait
Just Keep Moving
Your Ship
Mergers & Mayhem
Closing
Extras Section
Are You Strong Enough?
Are you strong enough?
Can you hold your doubt?
Do you care enough?
To take the untamed route?
Is your heart beating faster?
Are your muscles tensed for flight?
Did you bring your gun?
That’s the only defense against the night
Have you locked up your loved ones?
Seen to your things and self?
Have you begun to understand, yet?
There is no such thing as wealth
Are you tired of the lies?
Are you ready to show your skill?
Do you have what it takes…?
Can you kill?
The battle is nearly here
Our road is fraught with danger
And in each apocalyptic strip of street
Lurks a desperate stranger
Are they a threat?
Maybe, a friend.
Someone’s new start
Yet always, the same old end
Are you strong enough?
Can you control your fear?
Are you ready to feel alive?
‘Cause Mother Nature’s here
…and she’s pissed.
Part One
Aftermath:
The consequences of an event.
Chapter One
One of Them
May 12th, 2013
Ellsworth County Rest Stop
Glendale, Kansas
1
The windshield shattered as Adrian tilted the gun up and the driver swerved too late. Blood sprayed across the cracked glass.
Now out of control, the truck continued its run and the Eagles dove out of the way as it smashed into the big gun, hit Cesar’s Corvette and jack-knifed.
Squealing and scraping, the truck crashed violently into the piles of burning wreckage and then burst into a huge orange fireball that raced over the scene like a heat wave.
Adrian’s Eagles screamed in triumph…and then in warning.
“Look out!”
Standing outside the rest stop doors, Angela felt someone behind her and realized at the last minute she wasn’t picking up anything but blackness from their thoughts.
Fear shoved into her brain and she followed her training, drawing as she spun.
“If I cannot have you, bruja, neither will they!”
“Kill him!” Adrian shouted, unable to get a clear shot with Angela in his line of fire.
Bang!
“No!”
Bang!
Cesar pulled the trigger with an elated sneer of happiness.
The bullet slammed into Angela’s chest, knocking her backward as she fired. She saw it plunge into his stomach as she hit the mud, and realized he would get a second shot.
Bang!
Bang!
Cesar’s face twisted and the pistol fell from his grip. Around them, the cicadas fell silent.
Cynthia lowered her new gun as the evil man sank to his knees, blood streaming from his wounds. She had still been inside, forgotten in the chaos. Her bullet had gotten him from the rear, while Adrian hit him from the front.
I’m one of them now. The reporter didn’t stop the surprised tears as Cesar’s body fell forward and smacked onto the concrete.
2
I’ve gotten her killed.
Adrian’s first thought flew through the Eagles, as well. The sound of running feet echoed like the ominous hoot of an owl.
Angela fought for breath as blood ran down her shirt, and she slumped backwards, hitting the wet ground. Hands and feet surrounded her, voices raised in panic.
She gasped as the vest was roughly ripped away, and then shouted hoarsely as strong hands touched her shoulder. She clenched her teeth against the next cry as the agony increased.
“It went through!”
“Put pressure on it!”
Angela wanted to help, but the pain was overwhelming. It lashed brutally across her torso in breathtaking waves.
“Other side’s pourin’, Boss!”
“At least it went through there, too,” Adrian grunted at the sight of the ugly injury. “I need heat…lighters! Get the car lighters!”
Angela knew what the heat was for. She groped out blindly for a hand and found one.
“It’s okay, baby. You’re okay,” Jeremy tried to comfort, horrified.
“Harder! Make it seal against your palm,” Adrian told Kyle.
Ange
la managed to open her mouth without screaming. “Don’t...let them…leave.”
“Now.”
Adrian’s order stopped her from saying more, but they all understood. If she died, Charlie and Marc were to be kept at Safe Haven.
Kyle rolled her onto his knee, wrapping her up tight. “Hang on, Eagle.”
Adrian grabbed the first glowing lighter and shoved it against her bloody skin.
Angela’s chilling shriek hurt the Eagles. Knowing how strong she was, how proud, told them she was in agony to allow them to hear it. One of their own was making that awful sound, and there was nothing they could do except listen.
Her gasping screams also drew the next threat.
Before the war, cicadas feasted on the liquid in plants. The males sang, the females clicked their wings, and their weeks of life were spent in a mating frenzy. Harmless for the most part, they were ignored. When the bombs fell, it changed the weather patterns for the entire planet, and the cicadas’ food sources began drying up. The lack of rain in the plains forced millions of these emerging insects to consume what was readily available after the war–blood. In an amazingly short amount of time, the bugs had learned that screams meant food.
“Get down!” Neil shouted.
Standing in a tight circle around their injured member, the first horde of cicadas hit the distracted Eagles on the farthest edges and enveloped them in a thick cloud. The insects attacked relentlessly, sharp wings and prickly feet slicing into exposed skin as men batted at them and spun out of line. Above them, another wave circled hungrily.