Nomad Unleashed

by Craig Martelle

  Terry pulled his magazine. He had started with twenty rounds in four different magazines and had changed once, swapping out during a lull in the action, not when he ran out. There were three rounds left in the first magazine and thirteen in the second. “Twenty-four shots fired,” he told James, then turned and walked off.

  He found Char sewing up Kiwi’s arm. The young girl’s mouth was set as each stitch was put in place. There was no anesthesia of any type. This was the new world where pain was a constant reminder of what it took to survive.

  Terry looked at her closely and she squinted at him, pursing her lips. “What are you looking at?” she asked with a curled lip as Char plunged the needle into her skin.

  Terry smiled. “I’m looking at a warrior.”

  ***

  Timmons walked through the plant, using his wrench to tap on things. There was some damage, even a little coal remained, and a nearly endless amount of work to bring it back online.

  Ted called from below, and Timmons yelled back from a catwalk. The wolves were running free where nature was trying to reclaim its own. North of the plant was heavily overgrown, having found ways to cross roads and spread farther to the west. It was an oasis within the urban sprawl. There were deer, but they were small. The wolf pack would clear them out in a matter of days, then they would have to find a new hunting ground.

  Ted joined Timmons on the catwalk and the two men continued their tour of the plant. It was a massive beast.

  “We’ll isolate a single system, cut off the right pipes within that spaghetti mess, and bring one of these turbines online. We’ll have to control the grid. Yes, so much to do, and frankly, I need a hand,” Timmons said.

  Ted cocked his head. “Timmons, did you just make a joke?” Timmons winked at his friend.

  “We’ll get it back online, however long it takes,” Ted replied.

  ***

  Terry watched the greasy black smoke from the burning bodies. He stayed downwind as the smell of burning humans wasn’t something he wanted in his clothes. Char stood at his side, holding his hand and watching.

  Gerry and Kiwi were brushing the horses while they grazed the heavy grass of the road’s ditches.

  James and Lacy had gathered tools which the dead seemed to like carrying on their person, putting them onto an old tarp and dragging the mass toward the power plant.

  “What next, TH?” Char asked.

  “We need to make sure of our food source here, that the water is good, and that the power plant is salvageable. If those things are good, then we return to New Boulder. Get our people.”

  That had been the plan all along.

  “Well then, we better get to it, don’t you think?” Char’s purple eyes sparkled as she smiled at her husband. She caressed his face. He ran a finger down the almost invisible scar on her cheek.

  “I don’t know what I did to deserve you, but I thank God every day, or Bethany Anne, whoever has kept me alive to be here.”

  “Will she like me?” Char asked.

  “Bethany Anne? I don’t see why not…”

  ***

  After three days, the group came together to report what they’d found.

  “This is a total fucking abomination! It’s like they shut it off and walked away, not bothering to bleed the systems or do anything in case they needed to bring it back up. We’ll be scraping scale and crust for the rest of our lives!” Timmons complained.

  “But you can bring it back up, right? Focus on the boilers because coal is a non-starter. We’ll need a tie-in since our future is nuclear,” Terry told him. Ted’s ears perked up. “I think I know where there’s at least one Mini Cooper nuke. I hope I know, but then all we’d need is the boiler, condensers, and turbine, right?”

  “That’s all we need?” Timmons exclaimed, shaking his head in disbelief. “That’s ninety percent of a power plant!”

  “But we don’t have to go work a coal mine, so we eliminate one link in the logistics chain. You can bring it back to life, can’t you?”

  “We’ll cannibalize a few parts and pieces, then yes. We can give you electricity,” Timmons admitted, confidence in his voice.

  The future of mankind was based on the engineering ability of a one-handed Werewolf.

  “Sounds good,” Terry said, answering Timmons as well as his own thoughts.

  “North from here is some pretty fertile territory. I think we have farmers up there, but they never let us get close. They have hidey holes everywhere,” James reported.

  “They’ll be fine once they realize that the crazies aren’t around. Maybe we can post fliers that civilization is coming and we’d love to trade with them, meat for vegetables, that kind of thing.” Terry looked at James, who was holding Lacy’s hand.

  His units were always tight, but he never expected that married couples would be the foundation of his Force de Guerre. If it worked, don’t mess with it. He surrendered himself to the situation, not trying to control what he couldn’t.

  “Maybe take a trip up there every couple days to desensitize them to your presence and convince them you’re not a threat. Take them a gift to get the talks started. Good. How about water?”

  “Plenty of streams in the area. A couple look nasty, too much trash rotting and rusting upstream, but there are others which seem fine. The horses drink from them. The big lake’s waters are okay, but I don’t think I’d drink it unless we boiled it first,” James suggested.

  “Food?” Terry asked.

  “Plenty of small game throughout the area,” Ted said. The wolf pack was with them inside an area of the power plant, but close to the large door that stood open. They wouldn’t tolerate being closed in. “We went west maybe twenty miles and found signs of bigger game, deer, and maybe even wild cattle.”

  “The horses?”

  Gerry turned to Kiwi and she nodded. “Better grazing here than back home. They are happy to have a few days of casual riding, I think.”

  “Thank you,” Terry started, standing because he thought better when pacing. “Here’s the plan. Char and I will take three horses and return to New Boulder. Then we’ll bring everyone here. I’d like to think we’ll be back in five months, but it could be a year. The rest of you will stay here, get the power plant operational, and prepare for the arrival of the townsfolk. Redundant food supplies in place, water sources established and clearly marked, and if possible, power. We’ll go after the nukes when we get back and have the engineer and the mechanic to keep the plant running while we’re scavenging. Warrant Officer Timmons will be in charge with Corporal James as his second. There’s more work than you can do in the time you have, so get as much as you can done without burning yourselves out. Pace yourselves and when next we meet, we’ll be bringing humanity back to civilization”

  The next morning at dawn, Terry and Char waved goodbye to the others as they rode away from the place they determined would spark the rise of a new world.

  The End of Nomad Unleashed

  Terry Henry Walton will return in Nomad Supreme,

  February 2017

  Author Notes - Craig Martelle

  Written January 28th, 2017

  I'm a lifelong daydreamer and student of human interaction. I have some degrees, but those don't matter when it comes to telling the story. Engaging characters within a believable narrative- that's what it’s all about. I live in the interior of Alaska, far away from an awful lot, but I love it here.

  It is natural beauty at its finest.

  A couple shout outs to people as I named some characters within the book. I accidentally copied over the acknowledgements in Nomad Redeemed, so here it is, one book late. For Sue Catherman in honor of her 39th birthday (ahem), I named one of the She-Wolves Sue. Sue plays a role in this book as well and should continue as we go forward.

  Micky Cocker did me a solid and gave me two names on short notice – Roman and Cassandra. As you see those characters, remember that Micky got to name them because she was so cordial as to buy a short-story anth
ology that I had put together – The Expanding Universe.

  Norman Meredith came up with a nice plot link for the next book. Will Terry Henry Walton find his white whale? We shall see and it will make sense.

  How many other people have helped me on this journey? Holy crap! The list is nearly endless – thanks to Diane & Dorene. They gave me a thumbs up just past the half way point. They have infinite patience in reading my unedited work to check character development and story symmetry. My editor, Mia Darien puts up with me. When she tells me it’ll take seven days, I always ask for six.

  Some reviews that were humbling and that I really liked.

  “I like the way Char just does what She needs to do, no messing around just do what you gotta do!!!!!! I gave a five star rating because I was impressed by the story!!!!!!This book is suitable for readers aged 15 to however old you get to!!!” – Thank you Doc for the very kind words.

  “Craig Martelle takes on from Michael Anderle's Kurtherian Gambit Series and continues with Terry (TH) about (25 - edited) years after Bethany Anne left. I can't say enough how good this new series is. The Author has a fantastic story line, great character development and I love where he took the Weres, especially the new love interest Char (Bethany Anne would love her). TH has some work to do before BA gets back, and I can't wait to see how he gets civilization back on track. Bravo Craig Martelle and Michael Anderle!” – Thank you, Jakeybg. Our intent was to fill the gap in time and space with material that stayed true to TKG and TQB, while being a little different. I am very happy with how these novels have turned out and more importantly, with how well they’ve been received by the readers.

  “Yeah, it's pulp fiction. But I grew up on one of the greatest pulp fiction writers, Louis L’amour. You're in good company Michael, keep up the good work and I'll keep reading the stories.” – Thank you, Van Powers! When I first started, I knew that my style was pulp. Michael and I mesh perfectly in that the stories are important and we give them to you at Edgar Rice Burroughs speed, a pulp author that I’m happy to follow. I’m good with being called a pulp author, and I know that we don’t have to trade quality for speed because we use a rigorous review and editing process to ensure that you get a technically sound story, as well as engaging characters within a compelling plot.

  “I'm amazed that the KG universe gets these amazing authors to bring new ideas and a fresh perspective to an already outstanding series. This was a great read from the beginning, and was one the best books I've read in awhile. This turning out to be a must read series. Highly recommend this one!” – Thank you, Dstars2797. TKG is a great series! I’m honored that Michael considered me to help tell TH’s story.

  “This series is really good. I really like how Char and Terry's relationship is slowly building into a romance. The characters in the book are well rounded and have well developed personalities! You won't regret buying this series!” – Thank you, Luvs2read. We love that you love to read. Every person that we can turn into a reader helps a great number of other authors. A rising tide floats all boats.

  “I liked both books but can't understand how TH manages to NOT bump uglies with Char... otherwise just your typical werewolf PA adventure story. I hope TH figures out what he's missing by the third book...” – Funny you mention that! I hope the third book didn’t disappoint.

  Peace to all – time to get back to work on Nomad Supreme. TH & Char have nation-states to dismantle and rebuild. So much work to do, but with the power of a bullwhip and keen minds, they have a plan…

  ***

  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 or if you have any comments, shoot me a note at craig@craigmartelle.com. I am always happy to hear from people who’ve read my work. I try to answer every email I receive.

  If you liked the story, please write a short review for me on Amazon. I greatly appreciate any kind words, 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.

  Amazon – www.amazon.com/author/craigmartelle

  Facebook – www.facebook.com/authorcraigmartelle

  My web page – www.craigmartelle.com

  Twitter – www.twitter.com/rick_banik

  Thank you for reading the Terry Henry Walton Chronicles!

  Author Notes - Michael Anderle

  Written February 5th, 2017

  As always, can I say with a HUGE amount of appreciation how much it means to me that you not only read this book, but you are reading these notes as well?

  This book, Nomad Unleashed, is the third book in the series that was first introduced and released with Nomad Found on December 20th, 2016. It is (or will be) February 6th when this book is published, and the fourth is part-way written and is scheduled to drop around February 27th. Should Craig hit that date, then he will have dropped four books in a total of just shy of ten weeks (about 69 days) or one every 2.5 weeks.

  DaaaAAAAAAuuuumnn!

  He really makes me feel slow.

  We use Slack for my publishing company, LMBPN - (The company is kinda small, but there isn’t a name for “company” that equals “Indie Publishing Outlaw that is taking no prisoners…”) I’m building something new I would like to think. A company that takes the best out of what I’ve done with my fans, and elevates it. Trying to bring MORE for the fans.

  Not less.

  Anyway, we use Slack for communications between all of the collaborators (authors), artists, editors and audio talent. At last count, there is something like thirty-plus people in the LMBPN group and even more in the sister JIT group. Think of Slack as a website devoted to texts/chatting where you can create little channels for specific topics and keep things organized and see the history of the conversation for anyone involved.

  In my group, Steve Campbell is the conductor working in the background with the artists, authors, editors, JIT team(s), beta readers and myself to get the pieces together to push out each book, audiobook and paperback. Those of you who are on some of the JIT teams, will have already met him. Anyway, one day Craig and I are yacking in Slack (technical term for chatting about shit un-related to probably what we needed to be discussing) and Craig (like he normally does) was flexing his proverbial writing muscles (looking in the mirror, I’m sure) and explaining how many damned words he had already accomplished before, like, the cock crowed or something (probably 7,000 words).

  Anywhoo, Steve happened to read our conversation in the channel and called Craig “Awesome Craig”. Now, I don’t remember if Steve actually meant something like, “that’s awesome, Craig” or meant to name him “Awesome Craig.” But for me, the name stuck. Now, I have a hard time not saying shit like “Good morning, Awesome Craig!” or “Good idea, Awesome Craig,” It’s a longer name to type out, but I can’t help myself.

  In our Slack conversation a couple of hours ago, Craig mentioned he is already at 20,000 words on book 04 and will probably have Book 05 of The Terry Henry Walton Chronicles written (not yet edited) by end of February.

  Way to make me feel like a total wimp writer there, Co-lab buddy! Here people were saying I was dropping books fast, but I can’t hold a candle to this Marine.

  OORAH!

  Ok, I guess I’ve said enough nice things about my collaborator, even if he DOES make me feel insignificant when I only drop a book every 5 weeks.

  On to something that we did that was FUN in this book, Nomad Unleashed.

  Another Indie Author that I met in the 20Books group, and I’ve spent hours on the phone discussing publishing ideas is Michael-Scott Earle. I have (perhaps) mentioned in other notes, or on Facebook or somewhere, that Michael-Scott (or just M-S E) has multiple books under his belt and is someone I’m SURE is going to get me in trouble some day because of his…uh…cavalier way of sending a “how are you” text. (Read - shit you don’t want your wife to read without knowing it’s a guy…)

  I don’t want to go more into it,
as it might encourage him to continue this behaviour. The Author’s wife is Latin, I’ll be dead before she realizes M-S E is joking…and is a guy.

  I try to explain this to M-S E, but for some reason he has zero pity for me.

  So, Craig thought it would be fun to have M-S E write a scene related to the Werewolves in this book and since we are Indie’s …Well, we can.

  It’s good to be the King ;-)

  So Craig reached out and M-S E was like…Hell Yeah! (Ok, that’s my interpretation of the conversation. Considering how M-S E will chat, his side might have been a little more colorful.)

  Anyway, Craig took care of the integration of about 500 words (490) that M-S E wrote for a scene with the Werewolf pack. I’ve copied it out of the book and dropped them below. Now, M-S E sells his books ‘wide’. That means that he is on all EBook retailers, but he isn’t in Kindle Unlimited for his Destroyer series. That ISN’T a problem, as his first in the series (a HUGE book, by the way) is FREE.

  As in… you know… Free? Doesn’t cost anything? Nada…Zilch…Zippo? Ok, I type these things because I can’t freaking remember if the term “Free as in Free Beer” applies here. So, yeah, doesn’t cost anything.