Sample Sunday – 24 July 2011

I expect to get the editor’s comments on Masters of the Sun tomorrow.  Assuming that happens as planned, and assuming there are no huge boogers that need extensive fixes, I’ll probably have it up live on the various ebook sites before the month is out.

With that in mind, and in honor of #SampleSunday, here’s an excerpt from one of the many exciting scenes in Masters of the Sun, to wet your whistle for more.

“No more cover between here and the riverbank.”

“So?  No one else has been through here but us.”

“Unless they crossed before the snowstorms.”

Wasn’t he just a ray of sunshine?

“You don’t want to go back do you?  Fuck that!”

Ortiz shook his head.

“Then let’s go.”

Ortiz hesitated for another moment, then began moving again.  As he went, he lowered into a crouch and kept close to the guard rail.  Jack mimicked him.

They were almost across when disaster struck.

One moment, they were moving at a steady pace under cover of darkness.  The next, the darkness was shattered by a globe of light that rose from the bridge span at their feet.  The globe streaked up into the sky then, a couple hundred feet up, it expanded and increased in luminosity until the entire bridge and riverbank was illuminated as plainly as if it were noon.  At the same time, a loud siren, almost like a car alarm, issued from the globe.

They both froze.  Ahead, Jack could see a number of figures moving down the road toward them.  It was an ambush, after all.

“MOVE!”

Barely had the words left Ortiz’s lips before he was running as fast as he could through the snow toward the end of the bridge.  He began firing his M-14 as he ran.  Jack hesitated for a few seconds, frozen by the shock of being discovered.  Then a bullet whizzed by his head, and he roused himself from his stupor.

Jack raced after Ortiz and began to fire as well.  He was limited by the five round capacity of his rifle, though, and he was soon empty.  The rest of his ammo was in his pack, and besides, loading a bolt action wasn’t something to be done while running, so Jack focused on just running.

Ortiz continued firing: a twenty round magazine sure came in handy.  One of the figures ahead on the road went down, blood spraying from a wound in his chest.  But there were three more that Jack could see.  He looked back over his shoulder, and his heart sank even further.  Half a dozen men, one in black robes, were rushing across the bridge from the south.

They were screwed.

Ok, so it’s just a little taste.  There’s more to come, though, I promise.  Have a great Sunday, everyone!