Wednesday, July 22, 2015

IMPACT: A Post-Apocalyptic Tale (Book 1 of the IMPACT series) by Matthew Eliot

Release date: June 28, 2015
Subgenre: Post-apocalyptic

About IMPACT:

 

IT'S BEEN NINE MONTHS SINCE THE METEORITES HIT.

They brought both destruction and disease, carrying a mysterious pathogen that has killed untold millions, while turning others into Meteorwraiths -- zombie-like human relics.

Now, the tattered remnants of humanity do their best to survive.

Alice and Adrian

have lost everything except each other. Both barely twelve-years-old, they fight their way across the ruins of Europe, in a desperate search for their family.

James Walscombe

is senior safety specialist trapped inside top-secret US nuclear facility Atlantis with two colleagues. They survived the impact, unscathed. But now, one of them has turned into a psychotic murderer.

Father Paul

struggles to keep his faith in a world resentful towards its gods. His life isn't the one he thought he'd chosen when he entered the seminary, and now new, dark deities are creeping out from the shadows.

Earth's survivors are trying to adapt to the harsh realities of the post-impact world.

But the worst is yet to come.

IMPACT is a post-apocalyptic serial novel. This is book one.


Excerpt:

 

Adrian and Alice

Twelve-year-old Adrian stood shivering in the dark.
With one hand, he held the trembling wrist belonging to the love of his brief, unfortunate life. In the other, a butcher’s knife.
The creature, the meteorwraith, was somewhere close. Too close.
Alice, one year his junior, buried her face in his shoulder.
“Adrian… I’m scared,” she whispered. Her body was shaking. Despite his own fear, he couldn’t help notice the cold tip of her nose against his thin neck. She was so young, so vulnerable. They both were.
“I know. It’s okay. We need to be quiet.” He hoped he sounded brave and confident, capable of defending her. They were words he thought a grown-up might utter – one willing to protect them, perhaps. There had been very few of those since their journey began. Other than Maurice of course, but no help would come from him ever again.
Adrian freed her wrist, and passed an arm around her shoulder, embracing her. She snuggled up against him. How odd his life had become. How unfair. Love, in the form of this delicate, trembling girl with its unfocused promise of happiness, and the shy intimacy that constantly sent waves of indecipherable warmth through his chest, contrasted bleakly with the world of constant threats, horror, and pain which he was currently trying to fight back with the butcher’s knife in his right hand. The opposite worlds of love and death, balanced on his brave, but oh-so-narrow shoulders.
They had entered the cave two days ago. It had seemed safe. Thick woods surrounding it, and a small entrance partly concealed by thorny shrubbery. Its deep, dark recesses would provide some degree of safety. Secrecy and concealment – these were the grim, necessary requirements of survival on post-impact Earth.
“Do you like it here?” he had asked.
Alice had shrugged with a smile. A sad smile. It’ll have to do.
Now, as he tried his best to keep himself and his friend alive, Adrian bitterly considered the ruthlessness with which fate had brought an end to their childhood. What they had received in return was neither the innocence of youth, nor the experience of adulthood.
Something was moving in the shadow ahead. Although meteorwraiths generally travelled in packs, Adrian believed there was only one of them in the cave. He desperately hoped so. His eyes darted from left to right, scanning the dark cave, trying to spot a movement, trying to catch a glimpse of their hunter. Then, the creature spoke.
Vous etes ici. Je sais,” it hissed. “Viens. Viens ici, mes cheris…”
It was a male. They were the worst. Alice tightened her embrace around him. He tightened his grip around the knife.
The thing moved. They heard the faint crackling of stones and pebbles beneath its feet.
Viens ici, mes amis…”
Then he saw it. A skinny, hunched silhouette crawling towards them.
Adrian had to think fast."

 

Amazon

 

About Matthew Eliot: 

Hello, I'm Matthew Eliot. I'm British, and live in a somewhat surreal Italian town featuring both a medieval castle and a beautiful lake, just north of Rome, with my wife and baby daughter.  

IMPACT, A Post-Apocalyptic Tale, is my first book. I hope you enjoy it. 

Mailing List | Facebook

No comments:

Post a Comment