by Justin Bell
“Mom,” Keeler pleaded. “If you don’t mind, let’s get me into the house first, okay? I feel like I’m gonna fall over.”
“It was a jaguar, plain as day,” Juarez said, shaking her head. “I knew they’d started migrating over the border, been seeing more and more of them in these parts, but never thought I’d see one personally. Crazy stuff.”
Marilyn choked back a sob and nodded, letting Keeler walk past. Scott stepped forward and the two slapped hands, then hugged gingerly, and the older brother helped guide the younger one toward the small house, supporting him with a hand at his back. Marilyn watched them go, then squeezed her daughter tight, looking up into the sky. As she looked, the white streaks cut gouges through the sky, slicing, ragged, open wounds in the atmosphere and she dropped her eyes again, content to watch her children and relish the swell of motherly pride at the people they were already turning out to be.
***
Now.
Tuesday, June 30th.
The Rocky Mountains, Colorado.
It had started as a weekend camping trip. The two busy family men with stressful full-time jobs and frenetic family lives had gotten to know each other at work and grew to be close friends.
They both liked biking, they both liked the outdoors and they’d taken to comparing their favorite craft beers at lunch, sitting in the office break room. It had been nearly a year since they’d started eating lunch together, and Tig had heard about a timeshare in the Colorado Rockies, a chance for the two of them to come up into the mountains for a weekend and hang out. Buy a bunch of those craft beers they loved so much, talk about how much they hated their jobs, do some fishing and bike riding. A great guy’s weekend.
Tig’s wife had been excited for him, even if Paul’s was less enthusiastic. She was a full-time housewife and by the time the weekends came around, she was ready for a break from the kids, a break that Paul usually provided, helping to keep the kids busy and occupied throughout the weekend so his wife could have at least a little bit of time to decompress and be herself.
But she did understand. Working full time and being a full-time parent all weekend often ran Paul dangerously close to the breaking point, and she realized that he needed some away time just as much as she did. So they made a bargain, and in a few weeks, she’d be going to her sister’s for a girls’ weekend while he stayed with the kids. All was fair in love and war.
Tig and Paul had been fired up, renting an SUV and taking it up into the Colorado Rockies, navigating some strange dirt roads, locating the isolated cabin and setting up shop for the weekend. It came complete with a refrigerator and expensive grill, and they’d bought several different six packs of artsy beverages and several pounds of red meat. Tig’s wife had been vegan for two years, and he had a bestial craving for some raw steaks.
Cellular service wasn’t great there at the cabin, but it wasn’t terrible. Each man had spoken to their wives a few times since arriving without any real interruptions. Halfway through the second day, cell service just… stopped. Cable service just… stopped. Even the satellite internet and television would no longer work.
Was something wrong with the cabin? In case of emergencies, the cabin had come complete with a landline as well, and they’d called several different numbers the old fashioned way, but nobody was there to answer.
They spent the day wondering what was going on, trying many different ways to reach the outside world, and for a brief moment they considered driving the three hours back into town to see what was up. But the sun set, and they figured they’d spend one more night before deciding to head back in the morning.
That night they saw the streaks in the sky. Far more than a typical meteor shower or shooting stars, the sky was nearly lit up entirely with surging celestial events, a crossing lattice work of cascading, blossoming collisions. At one point they thought they’d even heard something fall down to Earth.
They woke up early the next day and packed up the SUV, loading their bikes and kayaks on it, making sure it was loaded with fuel before starting it up and beginning the long trek down to the bottom of the mountain. But as they pulled out, a pickup truck screamed in from the right and twisted to a halt, blocking their path. Just behind the truck a small motorbike whined and scraped to its own shuddering halt, throwing dirt and dust up into the air.
“Is there a problem?” Tig asked, stepping from the driver’s seat and jerking his head toward the truck’s driver.
“Morning!” the truck driver barked back. “Where y’all headed?”
Tig and Paul tossed each other a somewhat confused look, then Tig looked back at the truck’s driver.
“Heading back down the mountain. Some weird crap is going on up here, we need to get home to our families.”
“That so?” asked the driver.
“Yeah,” Tig replied, getting a little more angry. “Could you please move your truck?”
The driver of the truck took a few steps toward them, admiring the SUV, reaching out and touching the smooth surface of the kayaks.
“You guys have some nice gear,” he said. “Really nice.”
“Thanks,” Paul replied in a clipped tongue, not disguising his overall annoyance with the conversation. “Really, though, we need to get going.”
“We could use some of this stuff, you know what?” the driver asked.
Tig glowered at him. “Look, Mister… uhh… mister….”
“Y’all can call me Jeremiah,” the man replied. “Live right up the road here. We could use some of this stuff, you know?”
“Yeah, so you said. We could use to get back home, so why don’t you get the hell out of our way and just let us—”
Jeremiah lifted his hand, a pistol clenched within his knuckled fingers. He pulled the trigger once, the sharp bang echoing throughout the trees and rocks of the mountains, and Tig’s head snapped back, his body falling as if puppet strings were suddenly cut.
“What the hell—” Paul started to reply, but Jeremiah Engell shifted and fired again, another single shot, another punch in the forehead, and another corpse slumping to the dirt.
“Well, now, that’s unfortunate,” Jeremiah said. “We could have used the manpower as well as the stuff. But I suppose they made their choice.” He turned toward one of the other men in the truck. “Tell my brother we’ve got some more supplies. Fuel, kayaks, bikes, and a pretty sweet new vehicle. Also, we’re gonna need a cleanup crew.”
The other man nodded and stepped onto the small dirt bike, revving the engine, then spinning the bike around and heading back up the winding trail toward the massive complex buried deep in the Rocky Mountains where their group was preparing for war.
Heaven’s Fist Book 3
Now Available!
Author’s Notes
September 10, 2018
Dear Readers,
Welcome to Book Two of the Heaven’s Fist episodic series! As you’ve hopefully noticed by now, the main goal with this series is to keep up a quick pace with a crisp “episodic” feel. Keeping the writing tight and the length pretty consistent enables us to release much more frequent updates while maintaining the quality that Mike and I insist on.
We’re two books deep and already having a great time with this new series. Diving a few years into the future has created some very intriguing twists and turns, both with the global structure and potential new technology, while also trying to keep things familiar. The idea to not tell specifically what year this takes place in is a conscience one, and I think it works. It’s a “ten minutes in the future” kind of idea which could happen a decade from now, or it could happen next year. That helps things remain very grounded in reality.
But really, the timeline is secondary to the characters, and I personally have fallen in love with them already. Darla, the introverted astrophysicist is already a favorite of mine (and several of our awesome beta readers as well) and of course, exploring Marilyn’s military background and her conflicted family life has been a real pleasure.
Hold on tight, we’re just getting rolling.
Justin Bell
Other Post-Apocalyptic Books from Mike Kraus
Final Dawn: The Complete Original Series Box Set
Clocking in at nearly 300,000 words with over 250,000 copies sold, this is the complete collection of the original bestselling post-apocalyptic Final Dawn series. If you enjoy gripping, thrilling post-apocalyptic action with compelling and well-written characters you’ll love Final Dawn.
Final Dawn: Arkhangelsk: The Complete Trilogy Box Set
The Arkhangelsk Trilogy is the first follow-up series set in the bestselling Final Dawn universe and delivers more thrills, fun and just a few scares. The crew of the Russian Typhoon submarine Arkhangelsk travel to a foreign shore in search of survivors, but what the find threatens their fragile rebuilding efforts in the post-apocalyptic world.
No Sanctuary
A nationwide terrorist attack has left the country in shambles and the country's transportation capabilities are crippled beyond repair. Frank Richards barely escapes with his life when he watches his truck explode in front of his eyes. As chaos descends across the country, Frank's home-grown survival and preparedness training and the help of a mysterious stranger he meets are the only things he can rely on to see him safely across the thousand miles separating him and his loved ones.
Surviving the Fall
Surviving the Fall is an episodic post-apocalyptic series that follows Rick and Dianne Waters as they struggle to survive after a devastating and mysterious worldwide attack. Trapped on the opposite side of the country from his family, Rick must fight to get home while his wife and children struggle to survive as danger lurks around every corner.
Prip’Yat: The Beast of Chernobyl
Two teens and two Spetsnaz officers travel to the town of Prip’Yat set just outside the remains of the Chernobyl power plant. The teens are there for a night of exploration. The special forces are there to pursue a creature that shouldn’t exist. This short thriller set around the site of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster will keep your heart racing right through to the very end.
Other Fantasy Books from Mike Kraus
The Makeshift Wizard: Death Magic
The Makeshift Wizard series is a new action-packed urban fantasy series from bestselling post-apocalyptic author Mike Kraus writing as MJ Kraus.
My job was supposed to be easy. Investigate a bleed farm, find the a-hole vamps who've been kidnapping Normals and bring down some street justice. Now I've got a relic in my hands that was created with the blood and death magic of an elder Vampire and a whole lot more questions than answers.
FALLEN
STEEL
The Heaven’s Fist Series
Book 2
By
Justin Bell
Mike Kraus
© 2018 Muonic Press Inc
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