Children of the fall the.., p.1
Children of the Fall (The Fallen World Book 19), page 1
Children of the Fall
Book 19 of The Fallen World
by
J.P. Chandler
PUBLISHED BY: Blood Moon Press
Copyright © 2023 J.P. Chandler
All Rights Reserved
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Get the free Four Horsemen prelude story “Shattered Crucible”
and discover other Blood Moon Press titles at:
http://chriskennedypublishing.com/
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License Notes
This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only and may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.
This book is a work of fiction, and any resemblance to persons, living or dead, or places, events, or locales is purely coincidental. The characters are productions of the author’s imagination and used fictitiously.
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To Christina, Caroline, and Richard, my siblings and friends for life and beyond.
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Cover Design by Elartwyne Estole
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Contents
Chapter 1: Chasing Ghosts
Chapter 2: Family Business
Chapter 3: Fool’s Errand
Chapter 4: Devil and the Deep Blue
Chapter 5: Adrift
Chapter 6: Through the Keyhole
Chapter 7: Lost at Sea
Chapter 8: Voyage of the Sea Fox
Chapter 9: Island Paradise
Chapter 10: Vigil
Chapter 11: Interior Security
Chapter 12: Pinch
Chapter 13: Plan of Attack
Chapter 14: No Way Out
Chapter 15: Dead of Night
Chapter 16: A Grand Entrance
Chapter 17: Showdown
Chapter 18: Home Again
Chapter 19: What Price Loyalty
Chapter 20: Storm Clouds
Chapter 21: The Sheriff
Chapter 22: Ambition
Chapter 23: Barn Dance
Chapter 24: Lunch with Monsters
Chapter 25: Shelter
Chapter 26: Happy Birthday
Chapter 27: Raccoons
Chapter 28: Attitude Adjustment
Chapter 29: Are and Are
Chapter 30: Power
Chapter 31: Change of Command
Chapter 32: Making Her Story
Chapter 33: Scheming Horror
Chapter 34: Setting the Stage
Chapter 35: Lights in the Mist
Chapter 36: Failsafe
Chapter 37: Family and Favors
Character Notes
About the Author
Excerpt from Book One of Hit World:
Excerpt from Book One of The Shadow Lands:
Excerpt from Book One of The Fallen World:
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Chapter 1: Chasing Ghosts
Kelly
Ladycat stopped at the edge of the dune and shuffled her feet as if preparing to attack. Her entire body trembled. She filled her lungs then howled across the water—not a roar, more a heartbroken scream.
Scott stopped next to my shoulder and growled deep in his throat, sounding more a beast than the lioness.
A hundred yards out to sea, the Teledyne-marked cutter bobbed on the gentle swells of low tide. Ansen Pringle looked up at Lady’s cry. Too far to see his expression, even for me, but he straightened his shoulders.
The rain came light but gloomy, turning the boats to muted gray shapes. Ladycat paced, alternating between growling and whining, scooping out big chunks of sand every few steps, as if swatting her enemy. I fought to take deliberate breaths and slow my mind, suppressing the rage tightening my chest. How could I be such a fool? I should have known his political maneuvers were just one facet of his plans. Even so, I couldn’t beat myself up for not predicting that he intended a kidnapping.
“What do we do?” Scott asked.
I didn’t have an immediate answer. The cutter under Captain Kirkpatrick’s command was either back in Eureka or on patrol. Pringle’s cutter was bigger, so maybe ours was faster? I needed to ask. I didn’t know if there were any other boats that could catch the TD ship. Try as I might, I couldn’t think of a way to get to Pringle or his hostages.
“We wait.” A sense of dread crawled along my skin. “It’s his move.”
“He won’t hurt them,” Scott said.
“He doesn’t have to,” I replied. “He knows it.” I looked at my brother and waited for him to look back. “He’s going to find Mom, and he is forcing us to join him. We don’t have a choice.”
Ansen Pringle had come back into our lives as if risen from the dead only a few weeks before. Pringle had worked for Teledyne Industries, one of the largest Corporations in the world. The Corporations had grown into vastly powerful entities that had supplanted all civil authorities in the territories they controlled. The drive to seek advantage as the wars among the Corporations escalated led to discoveries in genetic manipulation and nano-machine integration and, ultimately, to human augmentation.
Using genetically modified humans as weapons changed the landscape of the conflicts. Natural humans became little more than pawns and cannon fodder when Obsidian Agents and Teledyne Specialists were unleashed. The former had a distinct advantage that spelled almost certain defeat for TD. In desperation, Pringle concocted a plan to give Specialist modifications to some of the most violent and dangerous prison inmates in the world, then release them into Obsidian territory with no controls whatsoever. I had nicknamed them Con Mods. Worst of all, the scientists working for Pringle’s Operation Chaos had changed the protocols to allow these Con Mods to pass their enhancements to their offspring. The potential consequences of the multi-generation danger might have been worse than the Fall itself. Teledyne resorted to a nuclear attack before Pringle’s operation could be completed.
Pringle survived because he had taken liberties with his position to augment himself. When Pringle recognized the war between Teledyne and Obsidian Corporation had advanced to the stage of possible nuclear exchange, he took the precaution of modifying my brother Scott and me, his children, in hopes the changes would give us the tools to survive whatever came next.
Six of Pringle’s eight Specialist bodyguards and fifteen Con Mods had survived with Pringle. Scott and I, along with my special friend Morgan Campbell, had been grappling for weeks with mitigating the impact of their arrival in the Eureka Bubble.
Just when I thought I had outmaneuvered Pringle, he changed the rules.
The rain obscured activity on the ship, but the smaller craft stayed next to the cutter.
“What are they doing?” Scott asked, echoing my thoughts.
“Deciding?” I guessed. “Hostages only work if you tell the people you’re targeting. I don’t think this went the way he planned.”
We had waited in the increasing rain for about twenty minutes when the sound of the motorboat revving its engine came muffled through the rain. The boat cut through the water coming back to us. Three people occupied the craft, including the driver, who steered the craft up the river toward us and then brought it to a stop with its bow set into the sand, still about a yard before the water’s edge.
Ladycat launched into a charge from her prone position but stopped at the waterline. Scott and I followed closely.
One of the men came to the open bow.
“Stay in the boat,” I warned. “She’ll kill you.”
The man froze and stared at the seven-hundred-pound lioness, who stood poised to leap, growling deep.
“Can’t you control her?” His tone was condescending.
“She’s friendly, not tame,” I countered.
Terrance Miles, one of Pringle’s bodyguards, had been deathly ill when he arrived in the Bubble from Tillamook. He and the other Specialist in the boat, Greg McGinty, had only started working for Pringle a few months before the Fall, which meant Scott hadn’t known them well.
“What do you want?” I asked, far colder than the rain.
“Your dad wants you to come with us.” There was no compromise in his tone.
I exchanged a guarded look with Scott.
“We’re not packed for a trip,” Scott responded.
“Not you. He just wants Kelly.” Miles swallowed as Scott tensed.
“Why just me?” I asked, genuinely confused.
“Daddy’s orders,” Miles said.
McGinty yelled from the back, “Come on, Princess, get in the boat. Bobbing around in this thing isn’t fun for us, and I want to get out of the damn rain.”
I bristled and stepped forward, but Scott grabbed my arm to stop me.
“You can’t just—”
“I don’t see where I have much choice,” I told Scott. “I need to take care of Nicole and Chelsea. I don’t trust Pringle not to hurt them, grandchild or not.”
Scott nodded and released my arm. My feet sank into the sand as I sloshed over. Miles held out a hand to steady me. I stepped up on the inflated side, then down into the boat. I squeezed by him in the narrow bow and edged around the driver’s control stand. The driver gave me an apologetic look as I passed him. I found two seats in file behind the driver and two m ore side by side behind those. I picked a stern seat.
McGinty handed me a life jacket with a scowl that didn’t appear to be directed at me. I hesitated but accepted the puffy orange vest. I had never been a strong swimmer. Learning my fortified bones and muscles made me less buoyant than natural humans had both assuaged my ego a little and made me acutely aware of the danger posed by deep water. I secured the vest and settled in.
I looked up into the rain, embracing the misery. I hadn’t brought a hat or any clothes appropriate for the rain when I rushed from home the day before. My thick hemp pants and flannel shirt clung heavily. Underneath, the smell was probably epic, especially after all the exertion earlier in the day.
The driver backed us off the sand and spun the boat, then we rumbled out the river mouth and toward the waiting cutter. I was wet, angry, and scared. Only hours before, I had feared Ansen Pringle was going to take complete control over the Eureka Bubble, backed by the threat of extreme violence. I thought I had derailed his plans. Now, I wondered if Pringle was truly in control of his own actions.
The driver didn’t bring us alongside the cutter as he had when they delivered the hostages. Instead, he circled around to the rear. To my surprise, the stern opened to reveal a ramp that took up at least a third of the rear deck. With little hesitation, the driver revved the engines and drove us right up into the boat cradle. The bottom scraped, and the boat rocked back and forth until a mechanism locked it into place.
Pringle waited for me on deck. His resemblance to Scott struck me yet again, but I had never seen my brother as angry as Pringle appeared. Nobody came near him, and even the two Specialists looked close to terrified.
He looked at me but didn’t speak, just shook his head before motioning me to follow. He led me through a door and down a tight staircase. We found two more Specialists in a hall, Ken Bauman and Sam Kreuger. Both leaned against the wall next to a door and breathed heavily. I only had a few months’ experience with modified people, but I’d never seen one fully winded before. Both sported patches of blood, and one held his hand against his freely bleeding throat dangerously close to his carotid artery. He looked like he had seen a ghost.
“Sorry, boss,” Kreuger said. “We didn’t know what else to do.”
Pringle rushed into the room.
“Oh, shit,” Pringle said, with feeling. “Kelly?”
I rushed over, spurred by the alarm in his voice. The room appeared to be a small meeting room or dining hall, possibly both. It held a single table with chairs placed at regular intervals and bolted to the floor.
Nicole sat in one of the chairs across the table from the door. She had been tied down, her arms bound tightly to her sides, and a thick rope set between her teeth.
“Wha—” Words couldn’t convey the flare of pure hatred I felt. “Oh, sweetie.” I softened my voice for her sake.
I paused. Nicole didn’t react. She stared with wide eyes, crazed. The sound from her throat was a mix of growling and crying.
“Nicole?” I circled the table and put my hand on her head.
She still didn’t react. I waved my hand in front of her eyes. She continued to stare and growl; she’d almost chewed through the rope. Pringle stood at the door, the anger from earlier even more intense, joined by pain and concern.
“Nic?” I said as gently as I could and stroked her hair. She trembled all over. Blood on her shocked me, but I couldn’t find any wounds. Her clothes weren’t torn. “Not her blood,” I whispered, deeply relieved.
“What happened?” Pringle demanded.
“Sorry, boss,” Bauman said, appearing in the doorway. “It was all we could think of. She went crazy, completely freaked. She broke a handrail and ripped one of the chairs right out of the deck. Two of the Coasties are in the sick bay, at least two others have minor injuries. Never seen anything like it.”
“Why is she even here?” I asked, keeping my voice gentle. I continued to stroke her hair. She didn’t seem to know I was there.
Pringle looked over his shoulder at Bauman expectantly. The man hesitated.
“Tell her,” Pringle ordered. “You don’t get to hide behind me on this one.”
“We thought she was you,” the guard said, fully abashed.
It was weak but believable. Since Biggs and Willis typically stayed close to Pringle during my visits to the Carson Mansion, I had only minimal contact with the Specs. The same was true for the two Specialists who had been in the boat.
“What do we do?” Pringle asked.
“We wait.” I was getting tired of saying that. “She’ll burn herself out eventually, maybe fall asleep. If nothing else, she’ll get hungry.”
“Make yourselves useful,” Pringle said to the Specialists. “Find Princess some dry clothes.”
“Sure thing,” the one I could see said, then left.
“My turn to ask, now what?” I asked, giving Pringle a hard look.
“We go find your mother.” His tone held no compromise.
“I want to see Chelsea,” I said.
“I’ll have someone take you to her as soon as we’re underway.”
Pringle left me alone, knowing I could do little more than try to help Nicole. I hated to think Pringle would hurt Chelsea to force my compliance, but I honestly couldn’t discount the possibility, either.
I spoke softly into Nicole’s ear, stroked her hair, and rubbed her neck, hoping the touch would get through. She continued to growl and strain. Considering her state, the guards had probably been right to tie her down, despite how horrible it looked.
Eventually, the engines rumbled, and the ship began to move. I tried to focus on Nicole. When we first left the Bubble six months before, I knew I would no longer be restricted to the region, as large as it was, but I never expected to see so much of this Fallen World.
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Chapter 2: Family Business
Scott
I grabbed Ladycat by the neck with both hands in time to stop her from pouncing. Thankfully, she settled for a disappointed growl and sat, since I doubt I could have restrained her. Kelly didn’t notice.
“It’s okay, girl. We’ll get them back.”
I watched the boat pull away, paralyzed by indecision and soaked to the skin. An eerie silence settled within me, utterly hollow and devoid of emotion. My sanity clung to the odor of wet lioness and the murmur of the surf.
“We’ll get them back, but we can’t get there from here. We’ll get some dry clothes from home, then go find Morgan.”
We watched until the cutter moved out of sight. The afternoon was growing late and dark. I turned and walked back home the same way we had come. Lady caught up a minute later and plodded next to me with her head down, breathing heavier than normal. She was not built for endurance and had run more than a mile when she had tracked the girls to the river.
Hunger gnawed at me, but I couldn’t find the desire to move any faster. I had a vague plan to tell Morgan and my circle of allies. Convincing Captain Kirkpatrick to pursue Dad’s ship fit somewhere into the picture, but the details eluded me.
The sun had set by the time we arrived home, but neither of us had trouble seeing through the gloom. Part way up our driveway, the glow of a light muted by the misty rain warned us someone else was there first. Ladycat raised her head, her eyes more alert, and sped up to a trot. I knew she was smart enough not to hurt anyone she shouldn’t. Granted, the list of people I would protect from her was pretty short; I only hoped she wouldn’t get too much blood on the carpet.
Morgan Campbell came out on the porch and waved in minimal fashion as I rounded the last curve. I didn’t see the lioness and assumed she had gone in to escape the rain.
“What happened?” Morgan’s tone was restrained.
“Dad took the girls,” I replied. Morgan stiffened. I explained about the boat in as few words as possible as we went inside.
Lynn Guthrie hadn’t exaggerated when she brought Princess and me the news about Chelsea and Nicole missing; the house was a mess. Not as bad as I feared, just upended furniture and scattered objects, no new holes in the walls or broken windows.
