Elder Sign End Times Trilogy Book One: Arkham

By Jennifer Stanfield

This book was edited by Dr. M. Ficaj Editing, http://www.drmficajacademicediting.com/Pages/contactus.aspx. Many thanks to Margaret Ficaj for her invaluable editing skills.

Five years ago the monstrous god Cthulhu awoke from his slumber under the sea, sending most of the world into madness. In the aftermath, terrifying creatures entered into our world, a cult of human-sacrificing Cthulhu worshippers emerged, and humanity has struggled desperately to survive. Saeko, Dell, and Kelsea are three such survivors, young adults who have lived in the underground bunker of Arkham since they were fourteen. As a new threat closes in on Arkham, these three must race to combat it and save their home and families.
This horror story features no love triangles and no brooding monster men drawn to frail damsels in distress. The protagonists are in a fight for their lives against monsters that kill and sometimes eat people. If you enjoy an adventure with monsters and ethical dilemmas, this book is for you. It is the first in a trilogy inspired by the works of classic horror author H.P. Lovecraft, but you don't have to be familiar with his works to enjoy it. If you are, however, you may enjoy finding elements of The Shadow Over Innsmouth, The Lurking Fear, The Unnameable, and more in this book.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Jennifer Stanfield
• Release date: Nov 29, 2014
• ISBN: 9781311100764

Jennifer Stanfield

Jennifer Stanfield has been a voracious reader since she was a child and enjoys reading any and everything, but most especially fantasy, horror, and post apocalyptic stories. She loves immersive worlds and in addition to reading loses herself in video games (particularly role playing games) and table top role playing games, miniatures, and collectible card games. After years of devouring books she is finally ready to contribute her own stories to the world. Her first book is Arkham, Book One of the Elder Sign End Times Trilogy, and she is busily working on Book Two, with a bevy of other stories lined up behind it. She is indebted to her editor and her family, who have supported her foray into authorship, and especially to H.P. Lovecraft, who has been a major source of inspiration. His works are in the public domain and thus easy to find on the internet and she recommends anyone who enjoy tales of the weird and fantastic to give him a try.

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Elder Sign End Times Trilogy

Book One: Arkham

By Jennifer Stanfield

Copyright 2014 Jennifer Stanfield

Smashwords Edition

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Table of Contents

Prologue

Chapter One-Dell

Chapter Two- Kelsea

Chapter Three-Saeko

Chapter Four-Dell

Chapter Five-Kelsea

Chapter Six-Saeko

Chapter Seven-Dell

Chapter Eight-Kelsea

Chapter Nine-Saeko

Chapter Ten-Dell

Chapter Eleven-Kelsea

Chapter Twelve-Saeko

Chapter Thirteen -Dell

Chapter Fourteen- Kelsea

Chapter Fifteen- Saeko

Chapter Sixteen-Dell

Chapter Seventeen- Kelsea

Chapter Eighteen-Saeko

About the Author

Contact the Author

Prologue

Odd, uncomfortable colors blossomed across the sky at irregular intervals, as though strange, unknown dimensions briefly pushed on this one and then gradually retreated. Other than that, the forest appeared no more ominous than anything else since the ancient monstrosity dreaming under the ocean had awoken. There was menace radiating from the woods and the trees grew in protuberant masses that blocked much of the inconstant light and shrouded the forest depths in shadow, but their topmost branches swayed slightly in the light breeze, the ground was covered by a blanket of smooth snow, and a flock of geese slowly winged their way over the woods. It was a relatively pleasant day, all things considered. The snowmobile gliding along the path winding its way through the woods coasted to a stop when the trail ended in a piecemeal wall surrounding a small village filled with ramshackle houses and faded storefronts. ‘Welcome to Bennett’ declared a large wooden sign in flaking blue paint. The sign was supported on either side by posts set into a small decorative mound edged with carefully landscaped bricks and was flanked by empty flower planters. It sat a short distance in front of the hastily erected and fortified wall, which looked uglier and cruder by comparison. The wall ramparts were empty and no movement could be seen in what was visible of the streets through the gaps between its boards.

Hello! called one of the two riders as she dismounted the snowmobile and took off her helmet, revealing a bold young woman, half Japanese with the dark hair and eyes of her mother’s people. Both riders wore winter camouflage snowsuits with tactical vests strapped overtop as well as sturdy boots and gloves, and only the height difference indicated which was the male and which the female of the two; the woman was slightly over five feet and her male companion towered over her at nearly six. Her greeting remained unanswered but for the wind ruffling her raven black hair. She turned to her companion, a young man with shaggy brown hair and warm chocolate eyes to match, her brow furrowed in concern.

He shrugged. Maybe they're having a town meeting, he suggested, steam wafting from his breath in the chill air.

The woman frowned and started climbing over the wall. I guess it’s possible, she allowed doubtfully. She dropped onto the rampart and surveyed the silent buildings. Let’s check the town hall. Keep your eyes open. I don’t like this quiet.

It’s a little too quiet, he intoned dramatically, waggling his eyebrows and climbing past her down to the street.

Actually, Wen, it is. Especially considering what happened to Tobey.

He scowled at her, irritated. Don't call me that, I've told you I hate that. It’s Dell. And this doesn’t look anything like Tobey, the wall is still standing.

She smirked at his pique. Wenny, until I saw Tobey I’d never seen anything that looked like Tobey. Keep your guard up.

He stuck out his tongue. Screw you, Psycho. See, I can be a dick about names, too.

Grinning, she retorted, Like I’ve never heard that before. Not even always as an insult, either, Americans just have this inability to pronounce foreign words correctly. Anyway, Wendell, it's not my fault your mom gave you an old, weird name. What is this, 1920?

They’d walked the length of William Bennett Boulevard, Bennett’s main street, and the claustrophobic storefronts crowding one after the other had all proven to be empty. Dell rolled his eyes as they approached the crossroad that branched off towards the residential area. For your information, Saeko, my dad picked it out, and it's not some old weird name, it's a family name. I'm the fourth Wendell Eustace Johnson, thank you,- Shit! SHIT!! There they are!!!

They stopped dead in the middle of the intersection, stricken silent by the devastation to their left. The earth had opened up under Bennett’s houses, swallowing them into a staggeringly large pit. Worse than the destruction wrought by this sinkhole, however, was the evidence of some more sinister threat; blood and limbs were liberally strewn the length and breadth of the sinkhole. There were no full bodies, just a multitude of bloody pieces. Bennett had been a hamlet of about seventy-five people and something had ripped apart, chewed on, and tossed all of them onto the ground.

Saeko paled. Wen-Wendell- Dell, sorry, she spoke quietly and quickly, tense but controlling her fear. We have to get back to Arkham. We have to tell Frank.

The silence stretched and Saeko cast a questioning gaze at her partner. Silent and trembling, Dell was fixated on the bloody tableau before them. Saeko reached over to him and gently shook his shoulder.

Dell, we've gotta tell Frank.

Dell started, then turned to her, blinking quickly. Yeah, he breathed. Yeah, let's go. He shook his head, trying to clear it, and gulped the crisp air. As they walked grimly back to their snowmobile he voiced the thought troubling both of them. You were right. It’s just like Tobey.

Chapter One-Dell

The snowmobile flew over the frozen landscape under Saeko's skillful guidance while Dell, seated behind her, kept an eye out for hazards, both environmental and other. He bit his lip as he scanned their surroundings. There wasn’t much of interest between Bennett and Arkham; just miles of farmland interrupted by the occasional copse of trees, but experience had taught Dell to remain vigilant regardless. Anything could be out there, waiting to spring on the unsuspecting.

The world had become a dangerous place since that day five years ago when an ancient, sprawling city arose dripping from the depths of the ocean, its vast borders brushing America’s eastern coastline at the unremarkable town of Innsmouth. Cyclopean and utterly alien, the city’s unnatural geometry and grotesque monoliths captivated the world, igniting imaginations and fueling wild speculation about Atlantis, Mu, and Lyonesse.

As first one day, then another, passed and the city remained silent, sepulchral and still, it was decided to send a team of experts in to investigate. This venture dominated news cycles and united the world, which watched, breathless, as the explorers ventured in to this mysterious jewel their planet had cast up for them, livestreaming their findings.

The explorers wandered through lofty halls, their initial excited chatter muted and finally abandoned completely as a growing sense of inhuman menace exuded more and more thickly the deeper they crept. The city was ornate, carved bas-relief motifs of a sort of anthropoid tentacled dragon decorating its walls and everywhere elaborate scrollwork and flourishes, but it was covered with slime and debris from its long submersion and it felt like tiptoeing through a necropolis. As their footsteps echoed through the vast, empty halls, viewers leaned closer to their televisions, confused and unnerved as they tried to puzzle out what mechanism could have raised a city so clearly dead.

In the city’s heart they came upon an immense slab emblazoned with the monstrous dragon creature. After a hushed debate, the explorers determined it must be a door as it had both lintel and threshold, though by this point the strange geometry of the place had so twisted the investigators senses that they were unsure which side of it was the top. One brave soul, William Briden, strode up to the door and knocked. He immediately regretted this foolhardy move, and winced along with the rest of the team at the unexpected reverberating boom his crisp rapping generated. The team held still, cringing, for a tense minute, waiting, and the livestream watchers of the world waited with them while the moment stretched and nothing happened.

Then slowly, slowly the door slid partway down into the ground, revealing a slice of tangible, hostile darkness. Briden turned to his teammates and whispered, Perhaps we will save further investigation for another day. Then the darkness exploded. With a liquid squelch something impossibly large blasted out of the space and snatched up Briden and another explorer.

The creature was vast and horrific, a howling demon of corpulent grotesqueness, a quality much like a waterlogged corpse, with a head like an octopus, a profusion of tentacles dripping from where its mouth should be, and long thin wings that brushed the ground as it squatted on immense curving claws, claws which also sliced into the explorers it gripped in its otherwise human shaped hands. It threw its head back and howled, a sound so fundamentally alien and wrong that none doubted the creature did not belong in this world. This demon, god, whatever it was, flung the explorers into the distance and turned its gaze to the cameras, then uttered guttural sounds that despite belonging to no known language were unquestionably words. The broadcast ended shortly after.

Unlike most of the world’s viewers, the sight and sound of this creature with its horribly sentient gaze and discordant phlegmatic rumbles did not drive Dell immediately insane. For the vast majority of people, however, the creature was too much to comprehend and it broke them when they tried. As humanity struggled to deal with a world gone largely mad, a previously secretive and unknown cult stepped forward and declared the monster to be the Great God Cthulhu, and the monstrous city to be R’lyeh, his tomb and throne. These cultists stalked the streets of the world, sacrificing people with impunity, performing demonic rites to fuel mysterious devices that ripped the fabric between dimensions and opened Gates through which all manner of horrors slipped into the world. Although Dell had never seen Cthulhu in person, he had seen all other manner of horrors, both human and monster, and knew danger could strike at any time.

The uneventful hours stretched by, Dell watching carefully, until they broke for lunch. He found his gaze constantly drifting to the empty bags on the snowmobile; they had a trade system in place with Bennett and after last week’s drop off, he and Saeko had been sent to pick up needed supplies for Arkham. He hated returning empty handed. In addition to the supplies, there was an old man in Bennett who carved toys for children and always sent something back for the little ones. Got to have some spots of brightness in the world, else what’s the point, right lad? the old man would ask. Dell was inclined to agree, and tried his best to shelter the children from the constant worry and fear that clung to everyone old enough to realize they could never return to the illusion of safety they’d all enjoyed before Cthulhu’s Awakening. It disheartened Dell to disappoint them.

He smiled inwardly thinking about the kids; there were not only the children the Arkhamites had brought with them to Arkham, but also some born after the Awakening. The youngest was about six months old now. Dell was proud his people weren’t just surviving, but thriving pretty well under the circumstances.

He felt like a big brother to all the little ones and loved seeing their faces light up when he brought them new toys. He hurt for them, imagining their faces dropping when he brought back nothing this time. He’d also disappoint Kelsea, whom he’d promised to pick up some items for as well. She wasn’t a child, being nineteen like Saeko and himself, but Dell still thought of her as a little sister regardless.

He and Saeko had survivalists for parents, people who had long been prepared for most sorts of apocalypse and who had made sure their children learned survival skills as well. They hadn't expected Cthulhu to appear of course. No one had expected a monster from the ocean’s depths to end the world, but after that fateful broadcast and the resulting riots and rampant mayhem, the members of the survivalist website Saeko and Dell's parents belonged to quickly amended their plans and made their way to the bunker they had all helped build and maintain. They’d named it Arkham, since with a population of roughly sixty it felt like a town and towns should be named, and it had been a safe haven for them since. Although the Awakening quickly transformed the world into a frightening and deadly place, Dell had the comfort of having a plan and a safe place for him and his family to escape to.

Kelsea, on the other hand, had been just an ordinary girl in an ordinary family that was in no way prepared for disaster. Dell's family found her starving, wounded, and alone on their way to Arkham and brought her into their group without a second thought. This was humanity's darkest hour, and people had to look out for each other. She couldn't be coaxed into talking about what had happened to her in any detail, but from what he could piece together Dell knew her sister had been killed in front of her along with her mom. She had refused to say anything about her dad.

Kelsea was an oddity in Arkham. Although average height and weight, she had no muscle definition at all, instead possessing a sort of feminine softness, Dell mused. Arkham’s women were all muscular. They weren’t bulky, but they never shied away from physically demanding tasks and it showed. Kelsea was pale where Arkham’s women were tanned almost leathery, and where Arkham women had sharp eagle eyes that missed nothing, Kelsea had large brown doe eyes that made her look young and vulnerable. Arkham’s women also dressed practically in durable clothing that tended to be drab and functional instead of fashionable, but Kelsea eschewed Arkhamite clothing and instead wore bright outfits that flattered her figure, outfits which were mostly supplied by Dell, as he usually tried to bring something back for her when he went on a run. Most Arkham ladies kept their hair short, like Saeko, or pulled it back out of the way in sensible ponytails or buns, but Kelsea’s long blonde locks were always carefully styled and she never went around without makeup, something else Dell had scavenged for her at her request. She wasn’t always practical, she wasn’t even often practical, but she still made Dell smile. She was a spot of brightness in the grim bunker that reminded him of better times, and there was something about her that made him want to protect her, despite how prickly she could be. She was also a funny person when you got to know her, though few in Arkham had bothered to.

He couldn’t let her and the kids down. This situation was salvageable, he was sure of it. Hey, Saeko, I know we really need to tell Frank about Bennett. There’s no question about that, but he expected us to be gone for over a week and it’s only been three days. Instead of going straight back, we could make a short detour to Castro and still be back in four days. It would only add one more day, it would still get the info to Frank quickly, and we wouldn’t be coming back totally empty handed.

Saeko stopped eating and stared at him, her dark eyes incredulous. We’re not returning empty handed; we have urgent information Arkham needs to know about. Castro is just asking for trouble, Dell. We aren’t prepared for a raiding mission, we were just doing a standard pick up. Besides, Castro is too big. You know cities are too dangerous.

Yeah, he countered, but we don’t have the time to drive out to a little village now and Castro is just a short detour away. It will only take a tiny bit longer. And we don’t have to go to downtown, we can just stop somewhere on the outskirts.

She frowned. I don’t think so. There could be cultists, crazies, monsters, or who knows what, and everything will probably already be picked clean anyhow. We should just go straight home.

C’mon Saeko, please? he pleaded. Bennett is crappy news that’s gonna make everyone all depressed. If we pick up some useful stuff, it’ll balance out some, and you know Castro won’t be picked over; nowhere is totally picked over. The insanity had hit too many people too fast for them to properly hoard and raid supplies. Cities were treasure troves of goods. He made his best puppy dog eyes at her.

She scowled. Fine, but just a quick in-and-out at the first likely place we see, and if there’s any hint of danger we are out of there, empty handed or not. Got it?

He smiled triumphantly and mock saluted her. Yes, ma’am. You’re the best, Saeko.

You’re just lucky you’re my friend, she grumbled, or I wouldn’t even have considered such a stupid idea. Let’s get going, we’re need to find some shelter for the night. And wipe that goofy grin off your face, Wenny.

He laughed and stuck his tongue out at her. He’d been confident he could convince her to go along with his plan. Saeko would usually indulge him, even if she did complain the whole time. She was right to worry about going to a city, since they would be more likely to run into danger there. Those driven insane by Cthulhu’s Awakening, cultists seeking to curry favor with Him, and the horrors that woke with Him and now roamed the world were present anywhere, really, but they tended to congregate in cities. Cultists, especially, lurked in cities, lying in wait for passing survivors to capture and use as sacrifices to open their unnatural Gates. Dell wasn’t worried, though. He and Saeko were capable and experienced and it was just a quick run. They could handle anything that came up.

They climbed back onto the snowmobile, Saeko once again driving. She always insisted on driving when they went on runs. She’d made some disparaging comment about his driving once and since had flatly refused to climb aboard if he was driving. It was a little irritating but he didn’t mind playing lookout and it was a small concession that kept her happy so he sat behind her without complaint and watched their surroundings. It was a depressing view.

There was less farmland and more houses as they changed course to Castro and although only five years of abandonment shouldn't have made too much difference in their appearance, this was clearly not the world Dell had been raised in. A darkness clung to each building and large, unnatural shadows spread out from them in contrary angles to the weak light filtering through the roiling clouds, as though they were cast by some other sun. The dense shadows seemed to have mass and strained out from the houses, threatening to spill out from the doors and windows at any moment.

Dell had ventured inside many such homes on scavenge runs and was haunted by the sorrow and fear they contained. Sometimes whole families were strewn about the house, cut down as they’d tried to run, and partially devoured by monsters and the insane. Other times the precise positioning of the dead revealed the work of cultists. Dell was particularly disturbed by the remains of human sacrifice. That monsters would kill people wasn’t surprising, and those whose sanity was broken by Cthulhu’s Awakening couldn’t be held responsible for their actions, dangerous though they were, but sane people turning their backs on humanity and allying with monsters was inexcusable. It disgusted and confused him. He usually liked trying to see things from other people’s points of view, but he couldn’t even begin to understand what motivated cultists.

He was still brooding on this when they stopped for the night at a small roadside diner. After approaching it cautiously and exploring it thoroughly they found it to be vacant, as they'd hoped. It wasn't the best choice of shelter as it would occur to any other human to check the restaurant in hope of scavenge. Nowhere was really safe from nonhuman attackers, so it was hard to find anyplace that felt truly secure. The diner was dry, had few rooms where anyone or anything could be lurking, was surrounded by wide open parking lot so it would be hard to approach them unaware, and it didn't

Reviews for Elder Sign End Times Trilogy Book One

[Steven Smith · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

What's more powerful than Great Old Ones and the Cthulhu Apocalypse? Teen Angst!