The Dying Planet
by
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Natalie was getting drowsy at her self-assigned duty as look out. But when she spotted the muscular man named Paulson coming up the hill she woke up in a hurry. She was glad she had given Lottie and the children more supplies the night before. “Quick,” she said to Hope, “someone’s coming up the hill and it’s not the Captain. Let’s put Jonathan in the closet.” Jonathan was still unconscious and the two women found him hard to lift so they couldn’t move him as they had planned. Paulson arrived sooner than expected. As he entered the clinic Hope and Natalie covered Jonathan up as though he were a corpse. While Paulson moved around the clinic Hope watched him closely with apprehensive eyes. “Hello, ladies,” Paulson said with exaggerated politeness. “Don’t be alarmed. I’ve come to visit your clinic.” Natalie and Hope didn’t react. They just stared at him coldly. “Did the Captain send you?” Natalie asked. “Yes he did.” Paulson looked around the room. Natalie knew that the deal, if there had ever been a deal, was done. Dinner had been her temporary salvation and her sweet revenge. Their fate was sealed. She and Hope were now at the mercy of merciless men. “What’s in those boxes?” he asked jerking his head in the direction of the containers stacked on top of the secret entrance to the basement. “Just medical supplies. Nothing you’d be interested in.” Natalie tried to be casual, but she spoke in a loud voice as she was walked toward the stranger, hoping Lottie and the children could hear her and stay quiet. “That’s what I’m looking for. I’ll put ‘em near the door ‘til I get some help to haul ‘em out.” Fearful that the man might uncover the secret door and guess its purpose, Natalie followed Paulson closely as he approached the boxes. As he leaned over to pick up the first one Natalie drew a knife from under her shirt. Raising it high she stabbed him deep in his back and twisted it around several times. The man gasped in surprise, dropped the box, and collapsed over it face down. Natalie withdrew her bloody knife and discarded it. Hope watched in disbelief. She had never thought of Natalie as an assassin, ‘but this was war and it turns good people into murders’ she thought. “Help me carry him to the closet. We’ll have to find somewhere else to hide Jonathan.” Although Hope hated the idea of touching a dead body, she joined Natalie in disposing of the corpse. They had just shut the closet door when two more alien fighters walked into the clinic. One man, a red haired giant, spoke in the same friendly manner as Paulson had. His companion, a dark haired man as big as his cohort but more taciturn, looked at Hope with greedy eyes. She ducked her head and didn’t return his stare. Still smiling, Red Hair moved to Jonathan’s bed and stood next to Natalie. “What have we here?” he asked raising the blanket over Craig’s face. “A noble warrior. Well, he looks pretty dead, but not quite. We can’t have that can we?” He suddenly drew his knife and stabbed Jonathan in the heart before Natalie or Hope could act to protect him. Hope screamed. The dark haired man came from behind her and grabbed her around the neck with one arm. Red Hair took hold of Natalie in like manner. He put his face against hers. “You can scream all you want, but no one’s coming to rescue you. My buddies ‘ll think I’m just having a little fun and they’d be right.” He shoved Natalie over to a bed and pushed her down on it. “Speaking of fun--- well, I can’t let you have all the pleasure,” the red haired man said as he grabbed Hope and threw her down on the adjacent bed. It knocked the wind out of her and she struggled to get her breath. The dark haired man had climbed on Natalie and started to pull her skirt up, but Clayton’s wife wasn’t as docile as the rapist thought. She raised her arms before he could pin her down and with one hand grabbed him by the hair. She turned her other hand sideways and hit him so hard a blow that it broke his windpipe and he died. Red Hair put his hands around Hope’s throat. “You’re not going to do the same thing to me,” he said tightening his grip around her neck. Hope clawed at his hands, but she couldn’t loosen them. Natalie pushed the body off with difficulty and jumped on the red haired man’s back. She grabbed a handful of hair and pulled his head back to deliver the same deathblow that had killed the first man. But he pried her fingers open, bending her little finger back until it broke and she let go. He tuned quickly and hit Natalie hard enough to knock her out cold and then stabbed her in the heart just as he had Jonathan. When he turned around he finished throttling Hope.
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About the Book
Twenty-five years ago the causes and consequences of global warming began to concern Science Fiction author J. Chandler Nash. He never imagined that he would live to see the catastrophic results beginning to play out in his lifetime: radical weather, devastating fires of global consequence, food shortages, rapid planetary deforestation, and accelerating rates of extinctions. Far greater than any science fiction scenario, it is this unimaginable threat largely unaddressed by world governments that prompted him to write The Dying Planet. Set in the not too distant future, a monumental catastrophe looms over planet Earth unknown to its few surviving inhabitants. All technology and social order has long since vanished in a world devastated by severe drought and unpredictable killer storms. Three isolated groups, remnants of a tattered humanity, try to make a life for themselves while struggling against lawless predators and a fiercely hostile climate. Scout Clayton Smith, settles his tiny wandering band by a shrinking lake in the Sierras. Tensions mount as they build a new order for themselves, until they are suddenly confronted by a threat that would rob them of their resources, their freedom, and their lives. Little by little they pull together to persevere, but they are never entirely free of the evil that stalks them. A young drifter, Vince Corning, finally finds his place in a small river community, and meets the love of his life, the beautiful Carmen. Held together by the iron fist of Carmen’s stepfather, Skeeter Jones, the community persists in a quest for resources that spares no one. Jones, who holds a bitter grudge against Corning, goes head to head with him in a struggle that lands Vince on the wrong side of the law. After losing a horrific battle to defend the last of their black gold, two ex-roughnecks, Gardner Wells and Carter Singleton, are reduced to a miserable life as sneak thieves in order to fend off starvation on the parched tundra of the far north. Only their wits can save them. Against the background of a life and death struggle facing the survivors, a saga of love, loss, and life renewed plays out beyond all odds. Will they survive what a global system, long forgotten and drastically out of balance, has in store for them?
About the Author
Science Fiction author J. Chandler Nash (The Astra Empire Trilogy, Racing Against Time) holds an advanced degree in History from the University of Torcuato Tella, Argentina. A world traveler and lecturer on Polynesian Culture, and Maya Civilization of the Eastern Central Pacific coast, Nash has received recognition for his advanced theory of early linguistic cross-cultural influences among indigenous peoples of the Pacific Rim. Twenty-five years ago the causes and consequences of global warming began to concern Nash, who has since made it the focus of his research. He never imagined that he would live to see the catastrophic results beginning to play out in his lifetime: radical weather, devastating fires of global consequence, food shortages, rapid planetary deforestation, and accelerating rates of extinctions. Far greater than any science fiction scenario, it is this unimaginable threat largely unaddressed by world governments that prompted him to write The Dying Planet. Nash, age 72, lives alone in Hawi, Hawaii, the big island, with his two cats, Annie and Biskit, and his “little mutt of a dog”, Nipper. Nash has two adult daughters who live on the mainland, two grandchildren and two great grandchildren. When he isn’t writing, he paints landscapes of the north coast of Hawaii, which has held a fascination for him since his first visit in 1948. Nash is currently writing a nonfiction book on Polynesian Culture.