Come along on the
WILDEST SCIENCE FICTION ACTION RIDE EVER!
Long Haul
This trucker's haul takes him to the end of time and space,
and beyond...
Blurb:
In the near future, physicists have stumbled on a way to
open rifts into other universes, making it possible to transport goods and
people anywhere in the world in nothing flat.
The unscrupulous corporation that owns the new technology uses it to
monopolize shipping worldwide
Thrill-seeking, death-defying truckers like veteran army
driver Garth Jenkins and his gun-toting trucking partner Sally Drake earn
hazardous duty pay by hauling rigs through perilous alien universes often
infested with deadly alien monsters and many other dangers besides.
Garth and Sally accept a shady corporate contract to deliver
some unknown cargo to an alien universe, no questions asked. It looks like an easy way to score big
money. But, things go south fast when
their truck is hijacked by the beautiful and mysterious Keira Takahashi, and
they find themselves pursued by hideous alien parasites in undead human bodies.
On the run and in danger, Garth and Sally find themselves on
a crooked cosmic road leading to bizarre other worlds and exotic time
periods. They have one chance to unravel
the company's twisted plot and save themselves.
Whether they succeed or fail may decide the fate of a universe...
***
Garth Jenkins is quite a guy. A certified screw-up and a train-wreck waiting to happen, but he's the one you want on your side when the chips are down. During his tour as a driver in the Gulf War, there was no risk he wouldn't take. Including beating the crap out of an officer who was forcing himself on a local girl. For that, Garth narrowly avoided a military firing squad. But no, the experience hasn't made him any more cautious. Quite the opposite.
A dishonorable discharge, two ex-wives and two kids later, Garth is still risking his life pushing a rig, and in places that make the Persian Gulf look like a walk in the park. He's a simple kind of guy who likes his gambling high stakes, his liquor strong, his women fast. And, he doesn't like to be tied down. But, in his heart, there's more than he's willing to admit. When push comes to shove, he'll always do the right thing. Once he figures out what that is.
Some say he has a death wish. Maybe he does. He lost his dad when he was a kid, and he's been trying to make sense of life ever since, his foot to the floor board all the way. Now, the world has changed around him, and the road he follows leads through the whole of the multiverse, to some very strange worlds.
He's looking for truth, and he'll find it if it kills him. And, it might.
***
Excerpt:
Three suns burned brightly in the sky, the Earth was
breaking apart, and giant moths were attacking us. For most guys, that would
describe a bad dream after a bender, but when you’re trucking a load on the
long haul, that’s business as usual.
A big mama moth was comin’ straight at me, and she looked
pretty damn pissed. Wing spread of about fifteen feet, jaws bigger than my
head. Yeah, that’s how big they grow in the crazy gravity in this parallel
’verse.
I squeezed the trigger of my flamethrower. A long, twisting
stream of fire snaked out and nailed that sucker right between its foot-wide
sparklin’ silver eyes. The shrieking noise those mothers make when they burst
into flames cuts to the marrow and curdles the blood. Kinda like my ex-wife
when I’m late with a payment.
It was still coming straight for me. I felt the fire on my
face as it swooped in. Those things go up like freakin’ gas balloons, y’know.
As it passed over, I held onto the rearview side mirror, crouched down on the
running board, and nudged that big flaming bug with the muzzle of the
flamethrower. It passed on over, stinking, singed pieces of it falling onto my
hair and coveralls.
“Damn!” I yelled at the top of my lungs as the truck hit the
guard rail, sparks flying, metal screeching. My feet slipped off the running
board, and the rearview started coming loose in my hand. I looked down. My feet
dangled over a damn long drop into a kind of island floating in mid-air, a
jungle landscape splitting apart, volcanoes erupting and lava bubbling up.
There was nothing but sky all around, filled with other
floating islands, and swarms of those moth things were taking off from them.
Behind that, the moon filled half the sky. It looked close enough to touch. I
held on for dear life as the rubber screeched over the tar. My trucking
partner, Sally Drake, was spinning that wheel blind, trying to keep the damn
rig on the highway. A highway that was built in mid-air, stretching out from
one floating island to the next. Don’t ask me how. Our road crews just paved
over old highways that were already there. Built by aliens from another ’verse,
maybe. Or by humans from our future. I just drive. I don’t ask questions.
***
When:
Friday, Aug 1, 2014
Where:
