Release date: March 20, 2015
Subgenre: Post-apocalyptic science fiction, Cyberpunk
About The Fires of Yesterday:
The Earth is in ruins. Cities and nations are destroyed.
Brant
is a synthetic, a machine made in the image of man who dreams of
bringing humans back into the world. Close to achieving his goal, his
tiny cradle of life is now threatened by ominous black clouds that roll
in from the north and bring darkness to the land.
In
the wasteland, the cannibalistic Marauders begin to escalate their war
with the resistance fighters of Ascension. As resources dwindle, both
sides become more ruthless, endangering all within the region.
Brant will be forced to once again return to the wasteland and into the midst of the battle to confront the source of the darkness in an attempt to save all that he has created.
This is book 3 of The Silent Earth series.
Excerpt:
I glanced to the west. Night was descending. Perhaps this was the best place to hole up until morning, when I could decide how I was going to approach the spire.
What if the Marauders were up there, hiding quietly in the darkness, waiting for intruders to bumble into their midst? There would be no way to detect them in this light.
That was when it occurred to me – the solution was to wait until the spire activated again. The entire area would appear like daylight when that happened, making my job of discovering any possible traps so much easier.
I heard something again, and this time I was more certain that I wasn’t imagining it. It sounded like muffled laughter, and there was a low boom, like the sound of an object tapping on hollow metal. I sat very still and listened intently, trying to pick up some kind of hint as to its nature. It had definitely originated from up the slope. Whether it was simply noises from the inner workings of the spire, twisted and altered by distance, I couldn’t be sure.
I heard something else, subtler and yet somehow more defined, a soft crunching and sliding sound like the wind blowing lightly across the sand. But right now, there was no wind, not even the faintest whiff. It was dead still.
A sense of dread began to assail me.
Then I understood. The noise was not coming from the direction of the spire. It was coming from much closer.
Footsteps.
I swivelled my head left and right, peering out into the murk to try to pinpoint the location. I considered climbing out of the wreck and heading back the way I had come, away from the spire, but dismissed the idea almost immediately. If I could hear them, they would most certainly hear me as I climbed out and tried to flee.
My hiding place now seemed more like a deathtrap than the safe refuge it had initially appeared.
Disconcertingly, I felt the earth move under me. My body seemed to lift and then sway backward ever so slightly. Alarmed, I feared that there was an assailant coming up right under my feet, somehow digging through the sand like a great carnivorous worm intent on devouring me. I gripped the crumbling plastic of the dash and prepared to vault out to safety, then heard the barest of scrapes, of something hard sliding across metal. I looked up.
Something was climbing on the roof of the car.
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About Mark R. Healy:
Mark R. Healy is an author and musician from Brisbane, Australia. From
an early age he loved to create, and often assembled his own illustrated
books with accompanying stories - and then forced his parents to buy
them.
Unfortunately this model was not scalable and Mark now seeks to promote his works to a wider audience.
Mark has also combined his storytelling prowess with music, creating a
project called ‘Hibernal’ through which he interweaves original sci-fi
stories with his own music to create an immersive theatrical experience
for the listener. Combined with a professional voice cast and sound
effects, these “audio movies” are available online through iTunes,
Bandcamp and Amazon under the name ‘Hibernal’.
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