Revenant the fallen worl.., p.1
Revenant (The Fallen World Book 15), page 1
Revenant
Book 15 of The Fallen World
By
J.P. Chandler
PUBLISHED BY: Blood Moon Press
Copyright © 2022 J.P. Chandler
All Rights Reserved
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Get the free Four Horsemen prelude story “Shattered Crucible”
and discover other titles by Blood Moon Press 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 my parents, who I miss very much.
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Cover Design by Elartwyne Estole
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Acknowledgements:
This sophomore effort took much longer to write than I expected, thanks, in large part, due to the worldwide event that shall not be named. There were several points when I almost gave up but persevered because I needed to realize the potential for the story.
This story would not exist without my wife and first reader, Debbie, my biggest fan and champion.
I would like to thank all those who read and enjoyed “They Call Me Princess,” especially if you left a review on Amazon or Goodreads. The kind words and encouragement were deeply rewarding.
I am especially grateful for the other authors in This Fallen World series. Their rich storytelling helped inspire this continuation. I hope to see some closer collaborations next year as we uncover deeper mysteries of this exciting setting.
Finally, I express my special gratitude for the CKP community, a group of writers, editor, artists, and fans who support and encourage each in so much more than just shared entertainment.
Contents
Chapter 1: Etna Village
Chapter 2: Brewing Storm
Chapter 3: Ashes
Chapter 4: A Walk on the Beach
Chapter 5: Trouble in Paradise
Chapter 6: Hearth and Home
Chapter 7: Cover Story
Chapter 8: Meeting the Neighbors
Chapter 9: Sidelined
Chapter 10: On Mission
Chapter 11: Hunting
Chapter 12: Deeper Cover
Chapter 13: Posse
Chapter 14: The Futura Arrives
Chapter 15: Partners in Crime
Chapter 16: Status Quo
Chapter 17: Survivors
Chapter 18: Logistics
Chapter 19: A Light Dinner
Chapter 20: Executive Decisions
Chapter 21: Truce
Chapter 22: A Hardy Brunch
Chapter 23: Conspiracy Theory
Chapter 24: Teach a Man to Sail
Chapter 25: Revenant
Chapter 26: Negotiation
Chapter 27: Strategy
Chapter 28: Imprint
Chapter 29: Do No Harm
Chapter 30: Rendezvous
Chapter 31: Balance of Power
Chapter 32: Decisions and Dilemmas
Chapter 33: Better Living Through Science
Chapter 34: Playing Politics
Chapter 35: Bubbleheads and Bubblers
Chapter 36: A Horse of Another
Chapter 37: Another Happy Ending
About J.P. Chandler
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: Etna Village
Kelly
“Kelly, is that guy about to do what I think he is?”
I looked over to where Scott pointed. From the top of the new palisade, we had a good vantage over the city park near the north end of the little town of Etna. At the edge of the pond that dominated the near side of the park, Nicole, the girl I had adopted as a little sister, was treating our horses to a drink. A man stalking through the bushes behind her appeared intent on grabbing her. He didn’t seem to be holding a weapon, which spoke volumes about his intent.
“That’s a bad idea, son,” Scott muttered as if talking to the man.
“Who is it?” I asked. “I don’t recognize him. He must not be from around here.”
“Do you really think anyone here would try to sneak up on Nicole?”
Fair point, I conceded silently.
“Oh, shit, there’s more of them,” Scott warned, pointing. He jumped over the front of the palisade and dashed off, pulling his combat knife as he went. All around the park, men holding weapons moved among the trees and bushes.
I paused as the man targeting Nicole pounced from the bushes. She turned before he reached her and gracefully slid into the fighting stance Scott had drilled into her over the past few months, her movements too quick for a natural human to follow. The calm focus in her face was downright scary as she tensed her muscles in preparation. She sidestepped the charge and grabbed the man’s wrist. He screamed as the bone snapped under the power of her genetically enhanced strength and learned far too late she was no ordinary girl. Nicole tried to twist his arm behind his back, but his momentum carried him past her until her grip stopped him. She adjusted by adding her other hand to the broken wrist and spun the man in a wide arc before launching the stranger a hundred feet into the pond.
I could hear Nicole shout in triumph as I jumped to the ground to follow Scott. Since Scott was skirting the pond to the right, I went left. I pulled my knife, a match to Scott’s.
“Get the horses, they’re bolting,” I shouted to her as I ran. Charging into the trees and bushes, I found a man sneaking around a tree, crouching and holding a machete. He only saw me coming at the last second. I interrupted his shout, but not before he got out a warning. I didn’t intend to take his head off, but I was moving too fast to care.
The attackers were spaced predictably, and I snaked through the trees from one target to the next faster than they could react. Less than a minute later, I watched Scott cut down the last of the creepers near the road opposite the pond. His Christmas morning grin was incongruous under the blood spatter but not unexpected.
“Did you see it? Did you see it?” Nicole gushed as she led the three horses over to us, oblivious to their nervous shuffling.
“I saw enough,” Scott said, grinning even wider. “Looks like the pond wasn’t deep enough to save the guy. We’ve got a floater.”
“Ew,” Nicole said.
“Yeah, gross,” I added. “Dude, take the horses back to the compound and tell Rob what happened. Scott and I will see what we can find out about these guys.”
I counted fifteen attackers, including the floater. They were armed with hand weapons of various designs. Some carried bows of respectable workmanship. Hygiene was lacking, but they otherwise appeared healthy, if a little underweight. I examined a few of the bodies and collected some of the weapons, including a bow of exceptional quality.
I fought back a surge of anger as I avoided a body on my way back to Scott. These people had come to take what they couldn’t produce themselves. There were almost as many as there were adult-aged residents of Etna. I argued with myself that the residents could have handled the attack without us, but it couldn’t ease the biting fear that some of them probably would have been hurt or killed.
“Lighten up, Princess,” Scott said. “They could have asked for help or tried to trade. It was their choice to attack. It’s not our fault they were bad at it.”
I wasn’t sure quite what to make of having Scott trying to cheer me up. His chipper tone was about to earn him a very nasty glare. I resisted the urge. I knew exactly why he was behaving so weird, and my glare would only fuel his obnoxious cheer.
“What did you find?”
“Not much, it’s not like they—”
A scream tore my attention away. Across the street and south of us, a young woman ran out of the trees, shrieking. A group of children followed close behind, with two men bringing up the rear. I had my knife out again and ready, conscious of the Kimber safely nestled at the small of my back. These people clearly weren’t attacking, they were terrified, but I held little trust of strangers.
Ladycat rounded the tree behind the fleeing people and sauntered across the road, boredom affected in every line of her massive, tawny body.
The woman leading the group halted sharply at Scott’s laughter. She looked at the scattered bodies, then back at us, holding out her hands to signal the children to stop behind her. She shivered in fear. At least she stopped screaming.
“She sniffed them out for us,” Scott said, still chuckling. “Kitty knows how to make an entrance.”
“She won’t hurt you,” I told the group. I noticed another woman among the children and was happy to see there were more adults with them. “Put any weapons on the ground.” The two men laid down the crude spears they held.
“It’s not loyalty,” Scott interjected, “she just doesn’t like the taste of people.” His cheery ton e did not reassure the strangers.
“Why are you here?” I demanded, trying to ignore Scott’s grin.
“No reason,” one of the men said as he moved to the front of the group. He waved to indicate the dead attackers. “They were chasing us. They were part of a larger group that attacked our farm a couple days ago. We’ve been running and hiding ever since. We didn’t know anyone was here.”
“So, you led them here,” I accused to keep them off-balance.
“Not on purpose, I swear. We really didn’t know anyone was here,” one of the women protested.
“Where are you from?” I asked.
“Over near Grenada,” the man answered, “east of here, between Yreka and Weed.”
“Weed?” Scott asked, amused.
“It’s a real town,” the man said.
“I saw the name on a map,” I added.
“Hey, who are you guys?” Nicole asked, jogging over to stand by Ladycat, who sat down and leaned her head against the girl. Nicole weighed twice as much as she appeared to, but the lioness still moved her a step. Nicole scratched the cat between the ears.
Close behind Nicole, Rob Nielsen arrived with a small group of Etna residents. He held a rifle cradled in his arms. At a little over six feet tall, he was big enough to intimidate most people.
“Thanks, Princess,” Rob said with genuine relief. “Again, you arrived in time, and you saved us a lot of ammo. That was the biggest party so far.”
“They didn’t have guns,” Scott said. “Some good steel, though.”
“You have guns?” the man with the refugees asked.
Scott smirked in response.
A young woman walked over and stood next to and slightly behind Rob. She smiled uncertainly and nodded.
“I haven’t seen you before,” I said.
I hadn’t expected to see a new face. A few months ago, Scott and I, along with Morgan Campbell, had helped resettle the little town of Etna by leading a small community from their compound near the town of Lakeview farther inland. Lakeview had been taken over by a dozen “Con Mods,” escaped prisoners who had received genetic modifications like mine. They had divided the city among them and used the people as their subjects and worse. They had also renamed the town “Pringle City” after my father. That decision was unpopular and widely ignored. This new girl had not come from there.
“This is Mallory,” Rob said. “She’s from up in Yreka. We’ve been in contact.”
“We saw the fire damage when we passed through last summer,” Scott said.
The newcomer’s proximity to Rob told me the rest of the story, one as common after the Fall as it had been on the western frontier two hundred years ago. Old enough to have fought in the Corporate Wars, Rob was a quiet man of hard work and brutal violence. He had proved invaluable in escaping the old compound and resettling Etna. Unbalanced in his new leadership role, but too stubborn to back down from the challenge, he had stepped up admirably. Widowed before we met, he made a high-value catch for a young woman.
I smiled and nodded at the girl to put her at ease. It didn’t seem to work; she still looked ready to bolt, uncertain whether it would be safer to be near Rob’s protection or to create as much distance from us as possible. Her reaction was common for people seeing Teledyne Specialists at work for the first time.
“How many raids have you had?” I asked Rob. I wrinkled my nose as the odor from the ex-raiders hit us. I shut down my sense of smell with a thought. The naturals around us weren’t so lucky.
“Three,” Rob answered, also wrinkling his nose, “but they weren’t really raids, just a handful of thieves each time. Nothing like this. The winter chill is setting in, and harvest feels like a long time ago.”
“No longer their problem,” Scott quipped with a chuckle.
Rob looked askance at Scott’s inappropriate amusement.
“This may not work,” I said, thinking out loud. “There aren’t enough people here, and it’s too late in the year to move them.” My mind raced to filter through possible options.
“They’ll be able to handle it,” Scott said.
“I didn’t expect raiding parties this big.” I waved at the bodies. “The few guns you have here might not have been enough. They could have wiped you out. I won’t allow it.”
“What do you want us to do?” Rob asked, standing closer.
“We need to improve our defenses.” I looked up to meet his eyes. “Etna can’t guard the Bubble’s back door if it can’t protect itself.”
“The palisade is almost finished,” Rob explained. “Next year, we’ll start a better wall. I’d feel better if we had more people to watch the roads. None of us knew these guys had entered the valley.”
“Good thing we cleaned out Fort Cannibal,” Scott said with a smile, nodding at the gathered refugees. “They’d be dinner by now.”
“Cannibals?” one of the huddled women asked.
“Is he okay?” Rob asked pointing at Scott. I rolled my eyes in response.
“There are no more cannibals; they killed them all,” Nicole scolded Scott and reassured the woman. “Princess, is he gonna be like this the whole time?”
“Get used to it, sweetie.”
“Hey, look,” Scott said, pointing at the group, “more people. If they’re telling the truth.”
“We’ll consider it,” Rob said. “We can’t accept just anyone.”
“You don’t really need a night watch,” mused Scott, his tone bright. “Most people will stick to the roads. Set checkpoints there for now. Set daytime watches only. Anyone coming at night or overland shouldn’t be a concern.”
“Or there’ll be too many for us to stop,” Rob finished the thought. “We can probably do that—set a checkpoint up on Route 3, lookouts at least.”
“I’ll leave that to you,” I said. “Will it be enough?”
“More guns?” Rob shrugged. “Something with good range?”
“I will do what I can,” I said, nodding to myself.
Ladycat let out a growl, a kind of muted roar, expressing her impatience. Some of the refugees watched her, stiff with fear of the hybrid lioness and, possibly, the pale-haired adolescent who showed no fear of her and ran much too fast.
“Ladycat,” I replied, “you’re scaring the new folks. Go find Hope, she’ll want to see you.”
Ladycat raised her head, her eyes wide and bright, likely just remembering why we had come. She stood to leave and shook herself vigorously. As she turned to run off, Nicole jumped on her back, grasped the fur of her neck, and wrapped her legs around her ribs. Ladycat bolted and wiggled her back in a sinuous movement at the same time. Nicole slid right off the other side and landed awkwardly on the ground. She sat up laughing.
“She never lets me ride her,” Nicole said.
Several of the children giggled at her antics.
Scott guffawed at Nicole and even pointed.
“What’s wrong with him?” Rob asked. “Did you break Scott?”
I looked at Scott expectantly.
“Chelsea is pregnant,” he announced, grinning like an idiot.
The congratulations came loud and physical. I stepped out of the way and let my brother take the attention. If you couldn’t embrace the fleeting joys, there was little point to surviving in this Fallen World.
* * * * *
Chapter 2: Brewing Storm
Morgan
I was wondering how it worked. Did being imprinted as an Agent for Obsidian Corporation mean my mind and personality would remain fixed, or would the base personality change with time and experience the same as anyone else? Did the imprint technology prevent alteration or growth at the physical level? Imprints were never intended to last more than the length of a mission, and the imprint was updated after every assignment. More than a handful of missions was exceptional. I had been imprinted as Morgan Campbell for more than eighteen years, and I would probably continue as him to the end of my unnaturally long life.
