by Jack Castle
What kind of bear could drag a human being up the side of a building? Holden decided he didn’t want to find out. He suddenly became painfully aware that he had left his satellite phone and his own little addition to the expedition, a .44 Taurus, back on the dogsled.
Damn, rookie mistake. Ex-Ranger my butt.
He spun on his heel to trek back to his sled to retrieve both weapon and phone when he heard a woman cry out, “Please help me.” The voice was followed by a desperate shriek that came from inside the Hardware Store.
Staggering out of the darkness of the slanted doorway was a young woman who couldn’t have been much older than Shannon. Half the woman’s clothes had been torn away and she was missing one boot. Her hand was outstretched towards him while the other held onto her stomach. Holden had seen enough combat wounds to know what the blue squishy tentacles leaking out of her abdomen were. Something had eviscerated this poor girl and left her to die.
“Oh thank God, please help me,” she cried, taking two steps towards him.
Every fiber in his being told him to run for the phone and gun, but he also knew he could never leave this young girl behind to die.
Hesitating only seconds, he started towards her. She managed another step before falling to her knees and then collapsing onto her face.
When he reached her, Holden dropped down onto his knees beside her. “Don’t worry. I’ve got you. You’re going to be okay.” It was a lie, but he had to say something.
The young woman lost consciousness. Realizing time was a luxury he did not have, he quickly began removing the small first aid kit he kept on his belt. In the few seconds he turned away to unzip the kit, something in the Hardware Store reached out of the shadows, grabbed the young woman by her ankles, and dragged her back inside with such tremendous force that Holden fell backwards.
“Holy crap!” He hadn’t seen what had snatched the young woman for it happened in seconds. He contemplated going into the darkened interior after her, but then he heard a loud rumble emanating from deep within the chest of something very large, and very pissed off.
The girl must’ve woken up because Holden heard a loud scream. This was cut off almost immediately by a menacing growl and sickening CRUNCH. Experience taught Holden that the silence that followed was a sure sign he needed to get the hell out of there.
Holden ran. He passed the Buick with the blinking tail light, skidded around the now smoldering buildings and bolted for his dog sled.
When he arrived at his sled the dogs were going nuts. They weren’t barking; they were whining. The majority pulled sharply against the snow hook, but some were trying to bite right through the tethers.
Holden was only a few feet from the dog sled when he saw his dropped anchor wiggling loose from the ice. The dogs pulled in unison and it was clear that with the next tug they would be free. Not only was the phone and gun in the sled, but they’d strand him here with whatever killed the town, and the girl.
Holden increased what little speed he could and dove for the sled. Desperate, he flung himself forward and slid the remainder of the distance across the ice. He managed to grab the anchor’s rope. At that exact moment the dogs pulled the anchor free and bolted for the trail. The rope burned quickly through his hands, and he cried out as the anchor split open his palm.
Gripping his bloody hand Holden managed to stumble to his feet. He could only watch as his dog team, along with his gun and phone vanished quickly down the trail.
WHUMP.
Something the size of small car landed in the snow behind him. Holden had never been the type to freeze in combat, but he wasn’t entirely sure he wanted to see what had snatched the poor girl at the Hardware Store.
He heard a loud crunch of snow underfoot as whatever it was took a step behind him. Instinctively he knew if he ran he wouldn’t get more than a few feet.
Summoning his courage he spun around.
Holden didn’t see the animal in its entirety. He only glimpsed the clawed hand that struck him so hard that his upper torso snapped around to face the woods behind him, splitting his spinal cord in half in an instant.
Tom Holden’s broken body crumpled to the snow. As his ruined face lay upon a patch of ice, he tasted the acrid blood in his mouth.
His last thoughts were of his daughter and how soon he would be seeing her again.
‘White Death’ – coming soon from Jack Castle and EDGE-Lite
About the Author:
Jack Castle loves adventure. He has traveled the globe as a professional stuntman for stage, film, and television. While working for Universal Studios, he met Cinderella at Walt Disney World and they were soon married. After moving to Alaska, he worked as a tour guide, police officer, Criminal Justice professor, and certified weapons instructor. He has been stationed on a remote island in the Aleutians as a Response Team Commander and his last job in the Arctic Circle was protecting engineers from ravenous polar bears. He has had several Alaska adventure stories published along with articles in international security periodicals. His first science fiction novel, ‘Europa Journal’, was released in 2015. ‘Bedlam Lost’ is his second novel.
If you enjoyed this read, please leave a review.
For more EDGE-Lite titles and information about upcoming releases please visit us at:
www.edgewebsite.com
Available now from EDGE-Lite
Europa Journal
By Jack Castle
Bermuda Triangle. Jupiter Ice Moon.
Missing World War II Pilot.
The history of humanity is about to change forever…
On 5 December 1945, five TBM Avenger bombers embarked on a training mission off the coast of Florida and mysteriously vanish without a trace in the Bermuda Triangle.A PBY search and rescue plane with thirteen crewmen aboard sets out to find the Avengers . . . and never returns.
In 2168, a mysterious five-sided pyramid is discovered on the ocean floor of Jupiter’s icy moon, Europa.
Commander Mac O’Bryant and her team of astronauts are among the first to enter the pyramid’s central chamber. They find the body of a missing World War II pilot, whose hands clutch a journal detailing what happened to him after he and his crew were abducted by aliens and taken to a place with no recognizable stars. As the pyramid walls begin to collapse around Mac and her team, their names mysteriously appear within its pages and they find themselves lost on an alien world.
Stranded with no way home, Mac decides to retrace the pilot’s steps. She never expects to find the man alive. And if the man has yet to die, what does that mean for her and the rest of her crew?
Details
BEDLAM LOST
by Jack Castle
Copyright © 2015 by Chris Tortora
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Published by
EDGE-Lite
An Imprint of
HADES PUBLICATIONS, INC.
P.O. Box 1714,
Calgary, Alberta, T2P 2L7,
Canada
The EDGE-Lite Team:
Producer: Brian Hades
Editor: Ella Beaumont
Cover Artist: Ben Goode
e-Book Design: Mark Steele
Publicist: Janice Shoults
e-Book ISBN: 978-1-77053-105-5
* * * * *
All rights reserved. Under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-Book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or intr
oduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of the publisher.
* * * * *
EDGE Science Fiction and Fantasy Publishing and Hades Publications, Inc. acknowledges the ongoing support of the Alberta Foundation for the Arts and the Canada Council for the Arts.
(EBK-20160108)
www.edgewebsite.com