Halloween Week: Book Spotlight for Hub City Survival

Welcome to Day Six of my Halloween Week!

Today I'm spotlighting another book. This time we go zombie with Hub City Survival by K. M. Cooper. And I also have an Instafreebie Halloween Horror Group Giveaway at the end of the post, so enjoy.

Hub City Survival by K. M. Cooper

"Writing in journals isn't really my thing. I find it sort of juvenile. But I need to talk about what happened yesterday and none of my friends want to talk about it."

These are the first writings of Tracey's journal. One day, while shopping, she witnesses a traumatising event that haunts her for days. Then, all hell breaks loose. With the help of her friends, Tracey must escape her own hometown, Moncton, which has been overthrown by a mysterious illness that makes the dead walk. While escaping, she has vows to chronicle the events in her journal.

Hub City Survival is available in paperback here:

Amazon

Goodreads

Lulu.com

Author Bio: 

K. M. Cooper is a creative director and self-professed Jacqueline-of-all-trades who specializes in fiction writing and world building. Her first book, Hub City Survival, is a zombie horror novella based in her hometown of Moncton, NB. She currently resides there with her husband--actor Brad Butland--daughter Amelia, and two very distracting cats.

For more on the author, check out her Facebook Page

And now for the giveaway...

Over 30 Free Books and Stories in this horror giveaway!

Check it all out here!

Halloween Horror Giveaway!

And be sure to return tomorrow for a look at the book A Persistence of Geraniums and Other Worrying Tales by John Linwood Grant.

Book Spotlight: Conquest (The SciFan™ Universe Series Book 1)

Today I bring a delightful treat with a spotlight for the SciFan novel, Conquest (The SciFan™ Universe Series Book 1) by Aleric Elos. I have a look at the book and an excerpt, so enjoy!

 Conquest (The SciFan™ Universe Series Book 1)

by Aleric Elos

A primeval darkness threatens to destroy mankind...

The world's largest gaming platform in the entire industry is led by a man with many secrets. The popular game DarkForce features the World of Zion which has been plagued by the destructive will of the Leviathan for centuries. What gamers don't know is that the World of Zion actually exists, and the Leviathan has fed off of the souls of men and his fodder has become scarce. He now turns to Earth with an insatiable hunger. Only a woman from Earth who levels up to discover a divine inner power can challenge Earth's Apocalyptic Fate.

You can find Conquest on Amazon

Prologue

Shadows of Darkness

The voices in his mind were barely a whisper now, but they were always present. It had taken him hundreds of years to subdue them, and he feared that his true intentions would soon be discovered. Though Timur Demyan had long ago yielded up his soul unto the Leviathan, he still followed his own agenda while he fulfilled the will of his Master.

Timur hid in the shadows of the park, slipping through the darkness from one shadow to the next. His prey walked quickly with eyes darting to each side like a bird weary of predators. A frantic look of desperation was plastered over the other man’s unshaven face as he flipped open an antiquated cell phone.

“Come on…” he heard Jason Bridger murmur to the phone as he approached the fountain, “Answer already!”

“Allan, this is Jason. I know we haven’t spoken in a long time, but I need your help. I’ve stumbled across some disturbing information that involves one of your firm’s clients. I need to speak with you in private immediately. As soon as you get this, meet me on the east side of Buckingham Fountain. There’s little time.”

The instant Jason ended the call, Timur stepped out of the shadows, “Indeed, you have very little time.”

Jason spun around with his concealed pistol cocked and ready, “Back off, old man!”

“Ah,” Timur limped forward with his cane in his crippled right hand while he brandished a handgun with his left, “Not until you return what belongs to me.”

“I’m not letting you get away with this.” Jason shook his head adamantly.

“This scene is all too familiar.” Timur chuckled as he cocked his handgun and aimed, “This is exactly how your colleague died.”

Without a second’s hesitation, Jason pulled the trigger. Timur fell backwards with the sudden impact that hit him in the face. Seconds later a strange greenish glow surrounded his body, and then he disappeared. Jason’s eyes grew wide, and then a bullet ripped through his abdomen. And then another through his chest. Clutching the wounds, he absently dropped his pistol as he fell to his knees.

Timur reappeared from another shadow and the strange glow around his body began to dissipate. He approached with a silencer affixed to the tip of his handgun and picked up the old thumb drive that had fallen out of Jason’s hand.

“As I said earlier, you indeed have very little time.” Timur sneered as he placed the tip of his handgun against Jason’s forehead, “And I might add, your friend Allan has very little time as well.”

Author Bio:

Aleric Elos is the Award-Winning Author of The SciFan™ Universe series. He likes to play MMORPGs, and since he doesn't have the software engineering experience to develop his own games he decided to express his creativity in written form. 

You can find him on: 

Facebook   Twitter

Drabble Wednesday: Bitter Endings

Today on Drabble Wednesday all things must come to a end... sometimes permanently.

Turnabout and All is Fair

“Sorry my dear, we had fun, but a job is a job.” I raised my gun with a smile, an odd twitch in my hand.

She answered my smile. “I understand, and agree. So I hope you won’t mind what I slipped into your wine. It’s hard to pull a trigger with shaky fingers.”

A cold seizure gripped my gut. A whisper of panic fled my throat. “No.” The gun felt heavy... I couldn’t... “Why?”

“To clear my debt. I kill you, my last employer forgives my botching the previous job. It seems he didn’t like you killing his son.”

~*~

Last Piece

I feel the pain dig into my palm from the broken edges, and the sticky flow of my blood. I don’t let go. I can’t let go. It’s all I have left. A damaged picture frame and torn photo under half-shattered glass.

Unless you count their bodies. Buried in the rubble of our house.

I don’t know why I survived. One person in the carnage. Left in the wreckage of our life, our street, maybe the city. Hell, maybe the world.

I don’t know how far the war extends.

But I’m staying here, where my life ended.

Waiting to die.

~*~

Finite

When the clock winds down, the space between ticks seems infinite. Yet, it’s simply a wish, a hope for more time. We want a cheat, a reprieve, a stay on our execution. One more breath, one more kiss, one more chance at life. We want a another shot at all those regrets, things left undone.

In those last moments, it all seems so precious. We cling to it in desperation, knowing our fate is beyond our control. No one wants to die. No one wants the end of everything.

Now it too late. 

The death of the universe has begun.

© A. F. Stewart 2017 All Rights Reserved

Drabble Wednesday: Unexpected Apocalypse

It’s the end of the world again on Drabble Wednesday...

Snowmageddon

Apparently it snowed when I wasn't looking.

Everywhere.

Literally everywhere in the  world.

The entire planet’s covered in a blanket of white, and temperatures have dropped below freezing. It happened here overnight. The sun set on a beautiful summer day and the next morning I opened the curtains to winter. Other places saw it coming. The news is full of speculation and people are freaking.

Me, I dug my parka and snow boots out of the closet, and checked the generator. The storm cellar’s full of provisions and I’m all set.

Guess being a survivalist ain’t so crazy after all.

~*~

Split Second

One small second.

Infinitesimal.

Until it is slowed, broken down into eternity.

Then it lasts a lifetime. A thousand lifetimes.

Spun out like cotton candy unraveled.

I am glad of that.

This moment should last, as long as possible.

It is a fleeting monument to hubris, guilt and regrets. It is my duty to value this transitory instant, to hold it, walk through it, study it, as the universe unspools.

The consequence is mine. I knew the risks when I threw the switch.

I knew the world, the universe could burn, that time itself could cease.

And now it has.

~*~

Wave Goodbye

We never listened.

We had warnings. We had so many warnings. But we ignored all of them. Took everything for granted. Thought we were so superior.

But we’re not.

We never were.

Now we pay for our arrogance.

Now we wait.

The end will come differently, depending where you lived on this earth. Some areas are in drought, some experienced earthquakes, volcanic activity hit other places.

Me, I’m waiting to drown. The already high water levels are about to experience a super tsunami. No way to outrun it in time.

So I wait to die.

No one gets out alive.

© A. F. Stewart 2016 All Rights Reserved

Drabble Wednesday: Years

Welcome to the New Year’s Edition of Drabble Wednesday, where I ring in the season from apocalypse to space, and beyond…

From Ashes

Dearest daughter,

Things have not changed much since you left. The protests have stopped, and the funeral pyres in the square increase daily. None of our neighbours and friends have succumbed to the plague yet.

The plague, that dreaded cloud hanging over this planet. It defines us now, it’s the clock by which we measure our existence. It will come for us all soon. All but you and your fellows.

You cannot imagine my heart’s joy when the government took you away, conscripted you for the space exodus. Live for me, for everyone, carry our new future to the stars.

~*~

  

Rising Horizon

We’ve kept Earth’s twenty-four hour time cycles on our ship, though it matters little in the depths of black void space. Our latest captain calls it an homage to the original crew, but it’s probably more a habit. Or acclimation. Our studies show this new planet has a similar orbital cycle to old Earth.

I wonder what it will be like, living planetside. For four generations the citizens of this ship have known nothing but metal bulkheads and confined communal existence. Strangely, by the old Earth calendar, planetary landfall coincides with a holiday. Humanity’s revival begins on New Year’s Day.

~*~

Brave New World

It is year sixteen After Planetfall, in this new world.

Life was not as we expected.

Adjustment from the ship to Nova Terra did not go… smoothly.

Adapting  to planetary gravity, weather, farming was problematic; even the novelty of open spaces created unforeseen difficulties. Many crew members grew fearful, even phobic, of our new life here.

Which led to the rebellion.

I still remember the day. Half our numbers seized the ship and abandoned us to our fate on Nova Terra.

If they could only see the thriving colony we’ve built, our paradise. I pity them, lost among the stars.

© A. F. Stewart 2015 All Rights Reserved

Drabble Wednesday: Abandoned

Today on Drabble Wednesday, I showcase the horror in the things we leave behind…

Secrets Behind the Shutters

Flapping in the wind of the oncoming storm, the shutters of the abandoned house rattled and thumped. Bang! Bang! The loud and violent cracks shattered the interminable silence that surrounded it, and something inside the house shuddered. This thing shifted, a black void coiling around itself.

The walls of the house imprisoned it, existence bound by rotting wood and broken glass, and its own fear. It swallowed the interior within impenetrable darkness, no light passed beyond the windows; not in, nor out. It lived only as a consequence, birthed by hate and blood, doomed to haunt this spot for eternity.

~*~

  

Leftovers

The rusted old truck, a relic even before the Fall, waited on the broken asphalt as the night closed in around it. A light dusting of snow gathered over its metal frame, as the first flakes of winter tumbled from the sky.

Its owner parked in a hurry, motor still running, rushed to pack up and leave before the calamitous world and its horrors caught up with him. The old faithful truck waited through the night and the next day, waited until its motor sputtered and its gas tank bled dry.

And there it remained.

No one was coming back.

~*~

Dolly Dear

The doll sat on a trunk in the attic, her porcelain face cracked, moth holes and stains marring the fabric of her dress and its lace yellowed with age. No one played with her anymore. She was forgotten. What she witnessed was forgotten.

Yet, she remembered.

Her memories burned with images, the horror her unblinking glass eyes saw that day.  Her beloved child killed. Slashed and savaged, cast off blood soaking into the doll’s dress.  Those memories made her tremble.

That’s why she liked the attic, so quiet and peaceful. Here the doll could remember good times, not the horror…

© A. F. Stewart 2015 All Rights Reserved 

Drabble Wednesday: Storms

Today on Drabble Wednesday look to the horizon, there are storms coming…

Ruins

Only the tower remains to greet the lightning.

Charred, broken, but still standing. A lingering monument to a decimated civilization.

A monument to the storms.

It was not always so, the skies did not always seethe with the bite of electricity. Once they shone with a soft warm sun, coloured a pale blue and white. Not the bleeding amethyst and white anger now reflected in the clouds.

Why and how the storms came is lost to time. Stories passed on from survivors told of different reasons, perhaps none, perhaps all, the truth.

Now only the tower remains. Only the storms.

~*~

Inescapable

I stare at the burning sky.

Waiting.

I am alone, surrounded by millions of people. We are all alone as we wait for death. Wait for our planet to die.

I wonder how long it will take?

Will the atmosphere consume itself, leaving inhabitants to slowly asphyxiate from lack of breathable air? Or will it rain poison down upon us? Will we burn as well? Will it hurt? Or will we close our eyes and gently fall into the arms of death?

All these thoughts rush through my mind.

I stare at the burning sky and wait for the inevitable.

~*~

Summer Storm

“The sunset sure makes those storms clouds look pretty. All shadows and pink, with a little glow underneath. Funny how that is. That something fixing to be ornery can be so pretty when it starts.” I smile at Jeb. “Sort of how our marriage commenced. It was agreeable in the beginning. All pretty like those clouds. Sorry how things turned out.”

Jeb didn’t answer. ‘Cept for his moaning. I don’t blame him none. On account of my shooting him and all. Yep, having a hole in your gut kills the conversating. ‘Tis annoying, though, his lingering. Hope he dies soon.

© A. F. Stewart 2015 All Rights Reserved

Drabble Wednesday: Macabre Musings

Today, on this Canada Day edition of Drabble Wednesday, I bring you some ghosts, some trains, and a tiny touch of the apocalypse…

Endings

I sit on the damp park bench, careful not to slip on the wet pavement. It’s a foggy morning full of drizzle, not any different from yesterday or the day before. The days seem to blend now, with rain and faded colours.

Still, the park is beautiful. It’s quiet, no one is here yet. The fog diffuses the morning light, giving the trees a soft, velvet look. Almost a sepia tone, like pictures my grandmother showed me.

It won’t stay this way. The scavengers, the abandoned survivors of the plague will come soon. Nevertheless…

It’s a nice place to die.

The Bridge

Why am I here?

I am standing on a bridge?

In the fog?

I am so cold…

Why am I here?

I am still on the bridge?

It is so cold.

I thought it was summer.

Why am I here?

Why is it so foggy?

Why is my dress sodden?

It is cold... so cold.

Why am I here?

I am cold… so cold… so wet…

I cannot see in this fog… wait, I believe… there are people?

Help me… oh, please, help me…

And folks, this turn of the century bridge is the next stop on our ghost tour…

Old Photos

Look at the photo.

Can you hear the train?

There’s no train in the photo you say.

I know. But it’s there, a ghost at my shoulder. I can hear it.

I can hear its forlorn whistle, the clackety clack of its wheels against the tracks, sense its rumble under my feet. I even smell its belching smoke.

I see that smile. The ramblings of an old man. I’m not crazy. The train is real. It’s haunting me.

It’s John’s old train you see. He’s never forgiven me, and now he’s coming back. Each day the train gets closer, closer…

~*~

And for an extra Canada Day treat, here’s the link to my free flash fiction short, Even the Paranormal Play Sports: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/113780

Even the Paranormal Play Sports

Things have taken a turn for the paranormal in a small corner of Canada. Set against the backdrop of a hockey game, teenager Deidre Dawson tells her strange story to a reporter.

Happy Canada Day!