Storm Punchers

By Les W Kuzyk

Private jetting from old Hawaii to Uncle Davey’s Caribbean island mansion, Staz with his twin sister Larissa engage their cousin Kai on different terms. Larissa taunts the year older cousin with challenges to his commanding arrogance while Staz evaluates their styles as leaders and his potential as quiet advisor. Admiring Kai’s aeronautics skills, Staz turns talk to the family business of real estate deals in a climate changed world. Excitement builds as Kai brags how the wasp will get them to top-o-the-air in minutes. He grins at the storm punches he and his girlfriend Krithi have already done. The four teenagers and little Jodie set out on a thrill ride, taking off in the wasp up high above the hurricane eye of Zelda, the Stage 7 ocean storm. Stars at the edge of space blow Staz’s brain away, twinkling above a stunning view of their planet. In their wasp Kai’s passes out his drugs to all but Jodie, while Larissa takes on her protective role of the sad-eyed little cousin. Indifferent, Kai punches them through the inside wall of the storm on a wild ride tumble, veering in and out of hurricane wind tunnels. The parallel to Zee-on gaming adds a feel to the flight that flushes them out at the sea level rise high rises. Their families made millions investing in real estate based on risk analysis towards rising sea levels, before, after and because of the Antarctic slosh. They take in the scene of raggedy people living hard lives until Larissa speaks out. Climate change was their fault much more than others—wealth creating the planetary crisis. As a building degrades further before them in the storm, Kai pokes his head outside the wasp to engage the problem setting Larissa screaming her differences at him. On more drugs, Kai flies them on to the dangerous thrills of a degraded mainland city. With Larissa whispering messages into Jodie’s ear, motivations to act go wild when they watch Kai meet resistance on a dry city street.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Les W Kuzyk
• Release date: Jun 17, 2015
• ISBN: 9781310485015

Les W Kuzyk

Testing the waters of writing on a university thesis, Les learned of his passion for words and social justice. After publishing two academic papers followed by further non-fiction, he switched gears to focus passion and writing voice on fiction. His novels and short stories typically play out in a near future settings, all linked to his OurNearFuture site. The science researched speculative novel Pinatubo II set in the year 2027 begins a Climate Reality series, the second novel Krakatoa II will publishing in 2019, while the story of rebellious youth in The shela directive novel became available in 2016.

Book preview

Storm Punchers

by Les W Kuzyk

Thanks to the Salty Quills writers’ meetup for reviews and feedback including Justin Acton, T. Yukon Ng, Shane Heath, Lise Brassard, Daniel Wright and Elizabeth Grotkowski.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

***My speculative climate novel Pinatubo II published 4 November 2015.***

Published by Les W Kuzyk at Smashwords. All rights reserved.

Copyright 2014 Les W Kuzyk

Discover other Writings by Les W Kuzyk

Table of Contents

Storm Punchers

About Les W Kuzyk

Connect with Les W Kuzyk

Storm Punchers

Staz flicked his dark hair to get that islander ma’on look as he stepped off the family jet to greet his cousin. Hey Kai. Dozing on the early morning ocean crossing to Uncle Davey’s mountain-top Caribbean manor, he’d wondered how to play it cool on this trip. His twin sister Larissa was dragging butt de-boarding, to avoid Kai, no doubt. She’d be finding little Jodie quick enough.

Last time was that chopper ride. Kai gave him an up down fist bump. Wave top touchin’ over the Dead Barrier Reef.

Used to be Great, not Dead, Staz said.

Fuck that. Kai’s lip curled into a sneer. Remember the reef sharks?

Total fake. Staz added his scowl. They went swimming in the reef replica pool. Those sharks sourced Zee-on archive video like any His-Tory game.

His-Tory tells they actually flew those clunky choppers, not just on tours, Kai said. You know?

Staz looked up at his cousin. At seventeen, a year older than Staz, the guy had that intense red-freckled look under his curly blonde hair. Staz