by Angela White
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, becoming 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/
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.
Angela 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.
“Get inside!” Adrian ordered.
“Help the others!” Jeremy added.
Remembering the birds in Utah, Neil hit the air horn on his belt, and the closest bugs immediately recoiled.
“Use the horns!” Neil shouted, his keeping the cicadas away from Adrian. That man didn’t look up, or stop what he was doing.
The other Eagles blew their air horns, and it began to overpower the chaos. The cicadas reluctantly retreated under the combined noise, but only as far as the treetops and low sky above them.
“We need to go!” Seth shouted, dragging dazed men toward the door.
“Not done yet!” Kyle answered, hand starting to go numb from holding pressure on the pulsing wound. Closing the hole required shoving the glowing metal over only a small portion of her skin at a time, until it burnt it closed. The reek of flesh cooking grew stronger, and Angela’s teeth sank into Kyle’s arm and broke the skin.
“How long, Boss?” he asked, barely feeling the pain of her clamped jaw.
“Three more on this side.”
Angela shuddered under Adrian’s merciless hands.
“I’m out!” Neil tossed the empty air horn away.
“Same here!” Zack called.
Without enough noise to repel them, the insects immediately began swarming back down.
Angela’s fingers dug into Jeremy’s wrist. “The…Caller. Aahhh!”
Her body went rigid, and fresh blood pulsed from under Kyle’s hand. He tightened his hold and began to pray, something he hadn’t done since he was a child.
Jeremy cut the Caller from Angela’s belt and thrust it into Neil’s grip.
“Get her bag!” Adrian ordered.
Neil handled the caller like he’d seen her do during the wolf mission, and it lunged to life, trembling eagerly. He swung it hard and high.
“Buu-buu-buu-buu…”
Absorbing Angela’s pain, the Caller sent out a low base of thundering vibrations instead of the high-pitched howl they were expecting.
“Duu-duu-duu…duu!”
The deeper noise rolled upward and slammed into the oncoming cicadas like a tornado. It blew the neat formation apart, and the cicadas began to fall, pelting the Eagles. When they hit the ground, they didn’t fly back up, but lay there–stunned.
“Pressure!” Adrian snapped, reaching for the next lighter. He didn’t care about the bugs, only the woman dying in Kyle’s arms.
The Caller went dark as Neil stopped swinging, and he looked down in time to watch Adrian shove the next glowing lighter against Angela’s back.
Her teeth snapped together, body arching. Tears spilled over her cheeks in small rivulets, and the knuckles on Jeremy’s wrist turned white from her grip. Her breath hissed out in a low groan that wanted to be a scream as Adrian finally pulled back, and Neil knew he would never forget this moment. Her pain was his.
Angela’s body sagged, and Adrian threw the gory lighter away in fury. He tore another patch from his shirt and helped lean her against his knee this time. He nodded at Kyle, cloth ready. “Lift.”
Kyle raised his hand and blanched as fresh blood poured over her chest in crimson ripples.
Adrian shoved the material into the hole and put Kyle’s palm over it. “I need more heat!”
Billy dropped the black bag at Adrian’s feet, and then opened it. “Boss.”
Adrian saw the carefully packaged pouches of blood and allowed himself a small measure of hope. Each was labeled with a name.
“Neil has Point!” Adrian passed the duty to the trooper without considering–he needed his mind on Angela. If she slipped, he would break the rules and offer his life for hers. He was already lending his strength, but there was little else he could do right now. His gifts weren’t like hers.
Jeremy motioned half a dozen men forward for perimeter duty, and then went to help Neil, who was grimly gathering more lighters.
Adrian slapped the blood bag into Kyle’s free hand. “Hold it up.”
The liquid began rushing into Angela seconds later, and Kyle squeezed the middle of the bag to move it faster. His harsh breathing mirrored hers as they waited in frustration for the lighters, batting away dying cicadas still dropping from the drizzling sky.
3
“We need John,” Seth stated the obvious, gun still in hand.
“Can we roll?” Neil asked
, bringing the glowing, sizzling lighters in a charred hubcap.
“No.” Adrian grabbed one. “Check-in.”
Angela’s whimper faded to unconsciousness.
“All clear.”
“Daniel’s dead. Frank, too,” Billy reported in a carefully controlled timbre. Both men had been near him when they started moving in, but not when they reached the street.
Sure he had been heard, Billy went to cover a gap in their perimeter.
“Bag’s almost empty, Boss.” Kyle felt her start to shiver. “Someone give us cover!”
Zack and a few others hurried to help, stripping their jackets.
Glad that she wasn’t feeling anything now, Adrian dumped half of a pack of white powder into the small corner of the wound that he’d left unburnt. He quickly shoved the gauze back in and placed Kyle’s hand over the wound. “Five minutes for the clotting agent to work.”
Kyle shifted against the brick wall. “Slide her over.”
They carefully placed her in his arms, and the closest Eagles covered them with their jackets.
Adrian dug through the doctors’ bag and found more labeled bottles. He gave Angela a generous dose of antibiotics and switched to the last pouch of blood with her name on it.
“Boss…” Kyle’s fear was heavy.
“Stand your ground,” Adrian replied, but it was more to himself than the mobster. She wasn’t dead yet. He wouldn’t give her up.
Neil and Jeremy finished moving through the wreckage–using suppressors on survivors to keep from triggering the remaining cicadas clicking unhappily above them–then joined Adrian.
Adrian made a curt motion. How many?
It was returned with the same worried expression. Not enough. Short by fifty.