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If you like what you have been reading, leave feedback. Its not inspiring for me to look at the page views and seen no subscribers, no comments and almost no traffic. I don't write for myself, I write for others to enjoy it, to critique it, to better it. perhaps one day you will walk into barns and noble and see one of my writing sitting there on the shelf and say to yourself " man I really should have supported that guy and maybe I would own a signed copy of his best sellers"

first post part three

I awoke from my nightmare with a start, the last of the daylight crept through the gaps between the haggard dwelling where perhaps a family once dwelt. I shook off the last of the realism of that nightmare i so commonly found myself in. were it truly a dream i would have easily passed through it without any sense of emotion. this nightmare left me aghast at all the things i knew to be real and true but yet so lost in the tangle of so many years as a nomad that even i could hardly remember. just glimpses of the past, wide windows of insight through the lost days of a once great civilization. I decided that i would continue through the last of my journey in the falling sunlight, after all it was cooler in the evening. I gathered my belonging and stepped out the door, back into the red sands still warmed from the sun. I knew the general direction of where i was going but i would rather have a more precise manner to find it. if only i had a wristwatch, i would rather have a compass but in these hard time we can only hope for the bare basics. I began to move through the terrain that in a lost life i would have known well. the sun was setting in the east and i needed to go north, i set my path off the sun and made my way through the red wastes toward my destination. i walked till the sun fell low over the horizon, just as i considered bedding down for the night i saw the shadow of the low walls of the town. it was small in the distance but i figured i could make it to it before the darkness of night swallowed the last rays of the sun. the tail end of my journey was slow and uneventful.

I neared the city walls and saw the braziers out from lighting the way into the village. I knew of this town, a small hole where the bare ness-cities could be found. I thought to myself what i had to trade for room and board. my last venture proved to be less fruitful then promised and my informant had taken the last of my previous salvage. I made my way towards the gate, a port collus had been set in place to repel any bandits that dared try the guard of this township. at the gate was a single sentry, he stood leaning on a large spear and looked rather haggard from the heat of the desert.

"who goes there" the sentry bellowed into the twilight.

" a wary traveler looking only for room and board good sir" I replied

"come forward and let yourself be known" he replied and i followed his instructions. the man was old and wearing leather that had seen too many hot desert days. He eyed me with suspicion and finally asked " do you know of our town?"

"No", I Replied " but i have journeyed long and hard through the desert and would much like to rest with a full roof and a full belly"

"if you come to start trouble stranger the y'best be off" he bellowed

" i have no need for more troubled times, as i have seen many over the years I've been alive" i replied. He nodded and waved his hand to the wall and the gate lifted. " down the road on the left is a tavern, they'll have what you seek be it room, drink or whore" he said in a haggard voice only a dweller of the desert could posses. " i thank you sir and have long days and pleasant nights" I replied as i started forward. I cleared the gate and worked my way down the main road. I heard the chatter and clatter of the tavern before i even neared it, a fiddle played a lively tune and every voice seem clad in cheer and drink. I neared the batwing doors, a peered in. It was a full house with drink in every hand. candles and a fire in set the place dancing the glow of the flames. the way the light flickered across the floor boards sent a shiver down my spine. Too much like home or the last memories i had of it. I pushed my way into the barroom and in and instant the world stopped and stared. I did not blame them as i was a stranger who came in the depths of the darkness into their quiet and cozy home. they did not know the blood on my hands and the sorrow in my heart by then felt it in my presence.

I made my way though the tangle of tables to the barkeeper, the room remained silent as death. somewhere in my subconscious i heard the fabled pin drop. " good evening sir" I said as I looked to the barkeep. a large man dressed in a rough shirt and dirty apron leaned over the bar with one hand beneath the counter and the other posted on the heavy bar.

"so who you be, coming into our town in the dark of the night" he said with an thick accent i could not identify. his light blue eyes flashed with suspicion and intrigue. " only a traveler who is looking for a full roof and a full belly" i replied in an un interested tone. from somewhere in the back of the tavern someone yelled " we don't take kindly to outlanders such as yourself". I turned to see a group of angry locals moving across the bar. I hadn't intended trouble when I found myself here in the far reaches of my journey, but yet that black cloud of trouble found me yet again.

" y'best defend yourself" the barkeep grunted over my shoulder. " i ha vent the people minds and heart while they be on the drink" I weighed my options carefully, I had a large knife and my long time partner, my pistol. I had no desire to shed anyone s blood, only to shock them back to a docile mood. this left my options slim to none, I secure my pistol and raised to towards the leader of the mob. His eyes grew wide and he shrank like a cold cock. the mob reacted the same and began to disperse. I pointed my pistol skyward and said a silent prayer, Today was not your day to leave earth, be be warned you may never see such a day again. the last of the drink addled mob dispersed from the tavern and the lead settled back into his beer. i turned to the barkeeper and restarted our conversation

" i fear i ha vent much to offer, as i said i am a traveler, a nomad more likely" i took in a breath of the yeasty air and began again " but what i have in my pack may well be all the payment i could offer."

"Id take no payment from a man with such a dandy piece o' the past as that" he said eye wide and shimmering in their cool iced tone. " y'may board for the night free o' charge, the drink and meal m'haps will be bargained for" He pause for a moment "what trade d'ya hold good sir?" he asked with a curious but cautious glint in his eyes

"I am a man of many trades and trials, I make way in the world rooting out the lost things of the world" I replied, the taste of the sentences in my mouth was still as unpleasant as ever, but a man with no honor or pride left could taste any manner of word without a second thought.

"so a man of the artificer disposition, what bring y' to our far off town" he asked pleasantly." I was told tales of many lost things in this region and out sought to recover them" i replied, the bitterness of my own words tasting like bile in my own mouth.

"t'would seem y'are to late for such a venture, Near a month ago some religious sech gathered all the lost things they could find and took then far towards the mountains, Into the depths of the red narrow" i said with a calm tone " i wouldn't be trifling with that lot of zealots, they still hold many ways of the old world and know many things that have been lost to most"

" i suppose i owe you at least a thank you for the information and a bigger thanks for the room" i said with all the false cheer i could muster. " i think i should be off to sleep, i have yet to rest under a full roof in many a day and the sleep could do me a bit of good" " tis only the best for one who still holds the old ways to heart, many a man has forgot the old ways existed and still many more fear then as the devil himself." the bar keep put a key on the counter, "tis the first door on the right, up the stairs" he gestured to a rough set of stairs on the other side of the bar. " i would fear the townfolk, they were full of piss and vinegar, and m'haps one too many beers, they'll be right as rain in the m'ornin"

" again, you have my thanks, pleasant days and pleasant nights good sir" I said through the best smile i could muster. i turned away from the bar and made my way up the creaking wood stairs and into the plain room. the bed was composed of a hammock hanging from the rafters and a few frayed wool blankets. i would be more than enough for me. I seated myself on the floor. i drew out the pistol i had held onto for so many years and dropped the cylinder open. only a single bullet remained, the only bullet this weapon had seen in many years. i removed it from the chamber and studies the words scrawled on the side, they read" when my true judgment comes, let me pass by my own way." I was glad i didn't have to waste this round, twas the last of the rounds from the old days, hollow at the point, the copper head and brass case still bright as the day it was made. it was a solution to a problem in its own right, perhaps a problem i have yet to face or perhaps a long lingering problem long overdue in payment. This notion always occurred to me, every night i would think of all the problems, mine and that of this once great world, and wonder if i was really a part of it any longer. i rolled the cartridge through my fingers, feeling every wayward adventure i had found myself in since the days of old and even before that time battling with the demons inside my head, i was my own worst enemy as i had found. you best be off to bed, i thought to myself, the mood find you again and you know what you truly desire and what you must do to attain it. i climb into the hammock and was dead to the world, i dreamed deeply of the shimmering darkness and the shadow of flame dancing across the ruins of a city, after that i was dark and silent.

second excerpt from the third novel

The next chapter of the third work in progress


I left myself staring at the empty plate, entwined of the thought that so often ran in my mind. The pines kept me perplexed, pondering why they stayed trapped in my fractured mind. I lived life as two people, one was what seemed to be real and the other trapped in some box lined with rain and pines. Was I who I seemed to be in the world that a touched and tasted every day or was their someone trapped inside who would be different. Was I just the bled through ink of two pages long left to take in the elements. I hadnt an idea of what was real, this all could be some nightmare I couldnt wake. In my mind I went back and forth battling with myself feeling every clash and crash of two steely sharp minds trying to strike down the other. I shouldnt have these worries as to weather I was who I am now or a completely other person. I was here physically, I could reach out and feel the soft linens on the bed, but where would I be if not here. Perhaps a butterfly within a cacoon dreaming hellish dreams of desecration. After a while I finally resolved the issue and decided come what may I would be simply who I was in the now til I found myself to be different. It was easier to have it be so then to battle on with two determine selves.

Time passed by, I knew I was free to roam but I wanted nothing to do with any of this. I leaned at the foot of the bed letting myself have a moment to enjoy the finery of my self imposed prison. I knew I would rather be here then cheating death in the wastelands. The thoughts of what game my hostess was playing at drifted through my thoughts like smoke. I would have her geniune nature to be true, but were it not then there was a motive behind it. How naturally I could become suspicious was disgusting to me but had become nesscary with the new breed of people who crept through the underground halls with there intent cloaked and blades covered until they met flesh. But yet in the star lit eyes I could see some truth to her persona. I went back and forth with myself until my mind felt weighed with the world. I hadnt an idea of how long had passed nor did I care to think of it. The ruins made it clear when it intended for you to leave as the darkend sun left the sky and whatever form of the moon peek beyond the horizon. In the station you slept when you were tired and the tightly coiled springs of the bodies clock let loose its tension leaving you to resting. I began to drift off into sleep, the rain began to tickle the earth in my mind and the whispers in what could be demons speaking began. The grove had changed little this time around, a sprinkle of rain shone silver in the suns light, the shadow stood there a blur but few details given. It was a women judging from what you could see of it. The whispers were broken up my laughter, I had wished to get a semblence of what was so funny about the conversation but it didnt matter. I was enveloped in the scenery and basked in the feeling it brought.

The errie feeling of being watched washed away the landscape, I opened my eyes to meet thoses starry skies. She had come back from whatever painful errand she was called away on and stood by the door watching me doze the day away. I was conflicted on weather I was glad to see her or if I would have rather spent my life in the pines. Perhaps now the pieces of the puzzle that were lost would return to the box and I would find out more of her intent.

“I never gave you my name” she said with darkness showing in her normally cheery voice “if my uncle were still around he would be apalled at how impolite that was, meeting a new person and not properly introducing myself” she finished as she walked around the room touching a few pieces of furniture longingly. “My name is helena, This is my uncles home” she said some of her cheer returning “He was one of the people who established the station” I wathed her as she spoke, gracfully floating through the room reaching out as if to collect her words from everything in the room. “He was much like you, delving into the ruins trying to find things and discovering new places” she had moved to the curtains that hung over the door to the balcony “ He was trying to expand the station into the tunnels when he disappeared, looking for the next stop is how he put it” I knew some of the lore behind the station and tunnels, it was a web of interconnecting tunnels with places similar to this spread out every so often. There were large machines that moved people from place to place and they could exit onto the surface when they reached there destinations. I had tryed to imagine this a few times but all I saw was unknown darkness and the noises of feral beasts or worse echoing through the tunnels. The idea of it struck fear into my being and left my body crying out for comfort. I hadnt a desire to delve into the dark and find the paths to the next place. Perhaps that puzzle had began to find itself and the picture was appearing. It would explain the care and tending that I had recieved so far, the new clothing made from quality materials. Perhaps my skills would benifit me in this transaction, I had disaproved of the changes as most changes never worked out for me. But in this instant I forsaw myself being compensated for the time It took me to aquire my skill set and if I returned I would be well outfitted to resume my usual activities. The biggest question is weather or not I would return at all, rumors circulated about the what lurked within the tunnels below and none of them were of daisies and danishes.

Continuation of the first post

This Is the next chapter of the first posting on this blog.


 It was still early, I stood in the sullen glow of the street lamps with the last remnant of a cigarette burning dangerously close to my fingers. I still had a solid half hour before i was due to report in for morning formation. it was still plenty of time to sleep off the last of the nights festivities but i had no want to rest anymore.  I lit the next cigarette of the dieing carcass of the first and flicked it aside. i inhaled eagerly at the fresh tobacco, the rich leaves bathed me in their aroma. the morning was surprisingly warm for the time of year. they always said up here in the mountains, if you don't like the weather wait five minutes and check again. I checked my watch, the neon glow on the face of the digital watch that had seen most of my military career showed i had twenty minutes before i had to be in formation. slowly the parking lot populated, people shut their headlights off and began to mingle in the parking lot. i stood off to the side and pondered what redundant and useless tasking they had for us this week.  i flicked the cherry off of my cigarette with trained precision, pondering to myself if it was really time to quit or is the notion of cancer remained so appealing. I was a corporal, not quite to the point where i got to put on my big boy pants and start slinging chevrons around like they were cool, but sufficiently high enough to get shit done. i was a maintenance guru and a acceptable soldier in the ranks of my peers.
    I found myself making my way to the motor pool with my moral dragging so far down in the dirt my dog tag should have been dragging. it was definitely a Monday, Monday run days, all day every day. I couldn't help reciting the same bits and pieces of old cadences i hadn't heard in a hot minute, i guess when you spend time in the army thing like that tend to stick with you. i pulled at the glass door, i didn't budge to my surprise.
"you do that every morning Corporal" a cocky black specialist jeered at me
"and my sheets still smell like your mothers ass" i replied with a grin.
Joesph D Johnson, or as we called him most days J.J. his parents must of had a bible on the bed and a sick sense of humor to put to names like that together, but i tend not to judge others like that.
"so whats on the agenda for today" J.J asked with a raised eyebrow and a smart-assed grin.
"probably the same shit as every week, Fix shit and do some stupid  detail later in the day" i replied with a sigh.
"don't sound so ecstatic over it, I think you might fall over dead of a stroke" he replied.
We entered in to the main hall and made our way through the ready room and into the motor pool where  the company colors had already been posted. the ranks had already began to converge from chaos to some semblance of order. J.J and myself posted up in the first rank with our rag tag band of the dumbest smart people you'll ever meet. Our squad was composed of one staff Sargent, who wasn't the sharpest crayon in the wood chipper, two Sargents that were so far apart in age it was ridiculous, one other corporal, a shit talking kid from California, myself  and three lower enlisted to include J.J and a couple green as grass privates who just put boots on ground in this area.
    the company commander walked to his post at the back of the formation. he was a young dark haired Irishman who often bordered on coming to work drunk on a daily basis. our first Sargent burst through the door gibbering with our young platoon leader in broken English. He posted up front, pushing out every inch his four foot seven frame could hold. he cleared his through and called the company to attention and then put us a parade rest to await the flag to go up. the horns sounded a few seconds later and we made with all the military formalities that were deemed necessary before anything could happen ever.
    First Sargent made an about face to look at the company and cleared his throat again.
"alright, all joo terds out d'heir know dat da prepping for da deployment is underway, This means dat you must start getting all of your shit packed up and inventoried, I want all da paperwork on my desk before Friday, Section leaders take charge and conduct Physical training" he finished and waddled his way back to his office, like the outstanding non-commissioned officer he was.  our staff Sargent strolled up to the front of the squad. he packed his can of dip and put a fat pinch in his mouth.
"Right face!" he bellowed and like clockwork the formation reacted "File from the right column left"  the squad leaders yelled in unison their parts and the formation began to train its way out to the parking lot and reassemble as squads in the empty section where we always formed up for prep drills. the next five minute was spent doing useless exercises that all in all did nothing to help you to run any better or train any harder. after the ridiculous display of gyrating and wobbling ceased we broke down by squads and began the multi mile run of the day. the first mile made my stomach turn and i pondered the reasons why i chose to drink so dammed much so often. the next mile we began to lose the privates, the altitude was a bitch of a mistress your first few months, as predicted our fearless leader fell back to pick up the stragglers and attempt to coax them back up to the formation to no avail.  we finished out with a half assed sprint back to the formation area and finished up with yet another ridiculous display of bend and flexing to and fro. I went back to my car and retrieved a beat up pack of cigarettes and lit one. another pleasant day in the army, i mused to myself.
    The day turned out to be uneventful, i returned to my small apartment where my cat greeted my at the door and wined for food in a tiny voice. I settled in on the couch after sating my cats needs and poured a glass out of the many bottles neatly lined up on the remaining cushions. to be free of the self made bonds that i have set upon myself and not once again fly like a bird on high winds. Only strokes of such genius hit me in those annoying sober points of the evening and never remained long. I sipped carefully from my glass, savoring each fiery drop of whatever i was drinking, i didn't know nor did i care much what it was, so long as it served true to the purpose. a few hours rolled by and the blur and warmth turned in to a restless sleep. this cycled continued up until one day the routine finally broke.
    It was early, not in the morning but rather in the evening. I hadn't much felt like drinking, in fact i did much feel like doing anything. I sat and contemplated weather or not i should even exist on this earth.  these thoughts ran deep within every fiber of my being, was i truly serving my purpose in this life, was it worth all the trouble it brought. thoughts like this brought out wreck less actions. I walked solemnly to my bedroom and pulled the chrome revolver that had so often had been the judge of my path in this world. I spun open the chamber and removed all but one round.  so many paths to be walked in this life, i mused to myself, and all of them wrought with perils. i spun the chamber and cocked the hammer, the final verdict was left up to fate itself. I stared at the weapon in my hand and admired the beauty of such a cruel implement, but perhaps all things filled to the brim with such hazards should be wrapped in a lovely shell.
"let god decide tonight " i murmured and put the pistol to my temple " let him be true in judgment" i proclaimed to the emptiness and pulled the trigger. Click, the hammer fell to nothing but dead air and the decision was prolonged yet another day perhaps, or perhaps another few months. The phone rang and startled me, the revolver fell from my hand and landed on the carpet.
"Better there then any other place" i mused to the darkness. I made my way through the apartment back to the couch where my cell phone nearly lived besides within my pocket.
"corporal dans" I croaked,
"Dans, Get your ass down here, were mobilizing" It was staff Sargent Runsetter
"bring my bags?" i questioned out of habit
"No, just your ruck and kit" he responded
"Roger" I hung up confused, If we are mobilizing then why don't i need my bags. i let the idea drift out of my head and put my game face on. with my gear secured I tore down the street on the way to post.  It was dammed near three in the morning and the traffic at the gate was stacked deep. MP's roamed car to car with flashlights and turned some cars away. finally after what seemed hours they checked my ID and pushed me through the exit only route. I was confused and lost at this notion.  I made my way up the street about a hundred meters and ran right into another road block of ten up armored bulldogs. they checked my ID again and told me to hurry to my motor pool. before i even thought to ask questions i was moving again.
    I arrived to find mass chaos, Weapons being loaded onto their mounts, trucks being staged, small arms being carried out to the gun trucks. I wheeled into the parking lot and slammed my car into a parking space. i grabbed my gear and ran for the ready room, i came in to find it stacked to the rafters with the whole company and their equipment. the arms room was open and everyone was drawing weapons.
"Dans! Get up here and draw your weapon!"  Staff Sargent Runsetter yelled over the drone of the crowd. I dropped my gear in an empty space and made my way through the tangle of bodies and gear. I met staff Sargent Runsetter at the arms room
"Dans, Some big shit is going down all along the east coast." He began " we gotta have the bulldogs up and moving before dawn, full support with each convoy." he paused to spit "fuel, ammo and food on the trucks and down the road"
"Sarge, how the fuck are we going to dispatch that many trucks in this amount of time" I asked
"fuck the dispatches" he said spitting again "we got to get moving time yesterday"
"roger" I secured my M-7 and ammo was shoved in every pocket I had. I made my way over and secured my gear hap-hazardously and made my way out into the motor pool. private Sanchez and private Gunther were loading cans of 20mm case less in the ammo racks in the bulldog. Sargent bonzer and Sargent redding were mounting the M-977 onto the truck and putting a full case into the feeder.
"think we need to link up another case to this" Sargent redding asked Sargent bonzer.
"nah, i don't think shits gonna get that real out there" Sargent bonzer replied.

    Within the crack of dawn we were on our way down route 5 heading for Maryland,  the bulldogs Rotary engine was dam near at the red line and all the other trucks followed suit. fourteen hours in we hit the first bit of devastation
    It was burning , all of it was wrought with devastation, there were no signs of foreign troops. no sign of brass nor bullet, just fire and crumbling, smoldering ruins. we pushed farther into the city and the building seemed to have just turned to dust at the foundation and collapsed. still there was no enemies in sight or sign. I was aghast at the sight of it, the city had began to unmake itself seemingly over night and we knew nothing of why or how.
"what the hell happened" Sargent bonzer turned and asked Sargent redding.
"don't know but it looks like the whole place got nuked"  Sargent redding pondered as he wheeled the truck through the rubble" looks like a nuke went off but the radiation alarm hasn't gone off yet so whose to say."  I wish i had known what i now know about the happening in that small suburb of Maryland. i would have never gone on that mission.

Reader input

Now that I have posted small excerpts from most of the stories  have written. Which do you want to see more of. Leave it in the comments section below and I will post another section of the winner.

the third novel in the works

I have yet again another novel that fell to the wayside, this one stretched for a couple of chapters before it was lost. It was yet another long night in the army. I was on command of quarters and needed something to do.

The pines needles crunch softly under foot. The damp earth left in the wake of the storm fill my nostrils. Was this what peace felt like? I wasn't for sure on the matter myself, But it was what I imagined when my mind retreated into itself to shut out the horrors of world. My mind snapped back to reality and I tasted what the true world was once again. The thick and dark with the slow death and decay of the world. I sat atop the skeletal heap of rubble taking in what one would only think hell would look like. Below the horizon the dim globe of what once was the radiant sun sank slowly below the scabbed scenery. A great city reduced to ruins, whose names long forgotten, spread before me. Tiny specks in the distance moved through the wreckage, a pack of feral dogs looking for less fortunate prey.

I had nothing,no one to call mine, no home within the shell of the civilized world that everyday consumed itself. But yet in my mind images of the grove of pines,the sweet aroma of rain and earth haunting me, chasing away the horrors from every moment I take to rest my eyes and draining the infection of reality from my body. I unfurled my crude map from my bag, populated with the symbols of the hazardous land. I was fortunate enough to find it on a fallen man who found himself prey to the feral packs. I began scrawling to show where I was and what I saw, there was only destruction and decay recorded. No signs of rebirth were found in the lines I drew, only what was know but not seen. My day was done and with the falling of the sun I would have to retreat to safer grounds. I had picked up tattered gear and trinkets in my days travel but not enough to amount to dinner for my weary body. It was no matter though, the hunger inside me would not my filled by food. Only the pristine illusion of the pines and smell of the earth would sate me in the slightest. The aura of something special within the thought, so familiar to me but so buried in the dark of my mind, It was maddening. My head began to throb, the scars on my scalp sizzled with pin pricks of pain. I focused too hard on the things that had been ripped from my mind leaving the maddening pines behind and all other thing dark inside.

I began picking my way through the shards of the city down into its depths. I scanned the street where rusted husks of machines and twisted steely vines had landed leaving a labyrinth. I picked my path through the steely snags and found the lightly lit landing of the underground. This was the rough refuge of all the dwellers of the ruins. The stone stair slowly descended into deep bowels of one of the few trading stations left in the world. I was back again to what would be a home were I to claim it. The stations tiers were divided up into quarters, Near the entrance was the merchants markets where you could trade your wares. The next was the tavern district where you could buy your belly full as well as you bed. The next was the labor guilds who took care of the whole place and issued out jobs. The final quarter was the slave quarter where bodies could be bought and sold. That quarter I dared not go. There were three tiers in total the first was merchants and tradesmen, the second was the wealthy and the third was machine works. The lower two I had never visited myself but heard tales of the extravagance of the hedonist lifestyle of the wealthy and the grandeur of the machine works. All things in the station had their price and all things could be bought and sold. The rich would buy bodies for their twisted pleasures, the guilds would buy parts and pieces to manufacture wares and to repair the machine works and everyone else would banter and barter to stay alive. Then there was me, coming and going as I pleased, deciding weather the world inside was more dangerous then outside. Bringing bits back to fill my pocket and let me lay my head.

I came into the crush of the station at the high point of bartering. People dancing around each other to make it to the next stall. I knew the pulse of the area, the electricity of its people and how they moved. I knew where to take trinkets and where to take gear. I made my way through the crowds with my head down and ignoring everyone but who I was looking for. The hair on my neck pricked up as I felt thousands of body move and thousands of voices stop at once. I raised my head to see what had caused the pin drop silence, at first it was soft in the distance and then I heard it. The perfect rhythm drumming across the silence. Left, one, two, left, foot fall of boots so close to sounding like one it made it all the more frightening with the silence. Polished black with brass buttons, moving like lines on paper, the black guard moved through the parted crowds. It wasn’t the polished black that caught my eye but rather a blooming flower sprouting from the center moving within the cold darkness around her. She floated along with the mechanical movements of the ranks. Frocked in fine fabrics and glittering jewels with waterfalls of dark hair framing her smooth and soft features sculpted from creamy flesh. MY head split wide open in a thunderclap of pain. Memories began to flash through my head, ripping ragged ravines in their wake. I weakened and fell into darkness.

Another iron in the fire

Here is one that was started but didn't progress past the short blurb of words


I Was sore, my hand was probably broken and Her pleas swam through my head like ducks. I had thought I was the cure to a plague, but I was wrong in my assumption. I had been watching her,studying her as an actor to the scenes of a play. Every small and trifling thing she did right down to how she nervously wiped her nose. Now in the wake of what I had seen, my intervention had been a godsend. The world was filled with cobras and spiders, nether of which you would like to acquaint yourself with until the day you find yourself cornered by them. I hadn't seen my entrapment until it was far too late and now the life would be slowly sucked from me. She knew what this all meant, her tiny fingers so well placed on the pulse that nothing would slip by. Me on the other hand I was wrapped up in my world. When your vision is so narrow that all you can see is the prize, the gremlins decide to throw a wrench in the works and send you off kilter spinning into the sun. Now I would have to learn a new game without any rules, I game played since the dawning of man, survive.

As with any story there is a beginning and a end,Hero and villains and a final scene where things are rolled up into neat little balls and put in a box. Only some parts of this story follow the arch to the tee the rest is a bog filled with trying to meet the romantic standard of good story telling and more then likely failing at it. I was born screaming into the world. I grew and was instilled with the teachings of my family and soon grew into a man whose predisposition was to help anyone who looked like they needed it. I’m not talking about giving a bum a quarter but genuine help. I became something of a vigilante as the year progressed, roughing up abusive husbands, robbing pimps who didn't treat his women right. I tried to do it with limited aggression and a cool head, I was mostly successful in this endeavor. Until that night when she caught my eye and made the very stars dance around me.

The first of many excerpts

This bit of writing was done while I was deployed to the middle east. when sun and sand is all you look at it tends to make for the least distracting place for writing.




the world we once knew was lost in sands and time. where once wars were fought with a rain of fire, now they found themselves fought with sweat and steel.  though the relics of the old world still exist, nobody dares brave the hazards to retrieve them and find the lost knowledge to use them.  I, myself still remember those day of old but they are fading into the abyss of the new world . I am a nomad in these wastes, braving sand and heat to spark the dawning of a new age that bares the sweet nectar's of the old world without the bitter wines of what it brought out of the peoples. perhaps this holy mission is simply a folly, a thirsting for what was a normal life, an easy life or perhaps it is greed for all the things worth fighting for so that i cant find myself in a cocoon of comforts and pleasures.
   
    the date is lost to me, the time is irrelevant when you have to do nothing but survive the day to day. I am a days walk outside of the major city and another days walk from the next village. this is the time i use to reflect on what I remember from the old days, I used to think that times were hard then.  I began to make shelter in the small grove a bushes, it was the closest thing to greenery that you would see in the wastes. I haven't had a good haul of old world artifacts in months and my rations were dangerously low.  i spent my evenings eating small meals and maintaining the only piece of my past i had left, the heavy revolver that had been with me for years. It had seen better days, the chrome body had lost most of its luster from the travel.
    the dawn came flowing through the brush, i woke to find myself thinking what would the day bring me. at worst a band of cutthroats who would kill me and rob me of everything past my underwear and perhaps cook and eat me as well, at best i would wander from the path to the next village and have to spend time in the wastes. i opened my compass, though nearly useless without accurate maps of the wastes that used to be Utah, it would at least tell me which way i needed to journey. i began plodding my way through the red sands. the dust lay like blood over the Remanence of my tan boots and darkened my tattered jeans. I continued until the sun hung at the peak of the sky and found myself a shelter in an abandoned home. it was little more then sand beaten walls and a partial door, the interior was gutted of everything that could be carried away and was little more then a barren and tattered wooden box. i walked through the doorway carefully, you never know when bandits would try to catch an unsuspecting traveler off his guard and make a meal of him.  all i found was a few insects without the good sense to die and a few scraps of wood left over from the inevitable pillaging that went on. i set by backpack down, it was still usable but  had more then seen better days. were there once were zippers and Velcro there were now straps and laces. a faded camouflage pattern was barely visible through the years of hard travel and grime. its strong but lite frame was held together with wrapping of whatever i found in my journey. i took off my load bearing vest, yet another relic of the past that seemed to stick with me through all hazards and hardships. i folded it up and set it next to my pack. my scarf came off next, stained with sweat and travel and patched in many places. at last i finally settle myself leaning against my pack. I took this time to ponder everything that had happened up till this point. the last of the great mechanical wonders had ceased to exist but a handful of years ago. there were few survivors of that great battle and even few sane enough to even think to recount it by the fireside. I had left all parts of who i once was that day, i had no honor or sense of glory from any of the event leading up to the now. I began to drift off and finally gave up the battle to stay awake

I have always been told my writing os unique and "good". But yet I never see it as such. So rather then sitting in the kiddy pool of self doubt and watching the other kids deficate into a box of ceral, I figure I can start doing some short stories on thos fancy(and free) piece of internet real estate and let the audience give me the real deal not bullshiza evaluation of my litetary wet dreams, where the romantic side of me over looks the painful processes endured ending with my written world proceeding to be published into The  mass media market or sent gaggong from tops of gallows into a grisly grave.

Whichever way the wind blows, my objective is to dig into the back logs and put up a page or two here or there from review and you, the reader to review and critique them at your leasure.