Dust Land #1:We Shall Return

By Jeremy Dickson

To Dust We Shall Return
In the near post apocalyptic future, the balance of nature tips the wrong way. No one thinks about how much we depend on being able to grow food for ourselves. Until we can't anymore. A disease has infected every growing plant on Earth. Fruits trees and vegetables alike are dying in every corner of the globe. The few plants that survive have proven poisonous. As the plants we depend on die, they are also killing off all animal life.

Before we can come to terms with what is happening, the world's population dies off from six billion to just over one million, give or take. No one knows for sure because people don't seek each other out. Most people hide and scrounge for the necessities of life. The people who still gather together in groups are either gangs, or cannibals searching for other people to feed their bellies.

Allison Mason walks the streets of what was once New York City. On the run from the Nibblers--the Cannibals--and trying to survive one more day, she stumbles on a secret that might save humanity.

Or usher in its final days.

Check out the other parts of this explosive series ---Dust Land #2: Rising From The Ashes and Dust Land #3: The Way We Were.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Davlan Press
• Release date: Jul 15, 2013

Book preview

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More Books From Jeremy Dickson

Dust Land #2: Rising From The Ashes

Dust Land #3: The Way We Were

Chapter One

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Walking down the dusty and cracked streets brought back a lot of memories for Allison. She remembered a better time when the world was green and growing. When there was enough food to fill supermarkets.  She could almost remember what an apple tasted like, fresh from the supermarket shelf.

Almost.

The wind blew hot and heavy. She had a scarf wrapped around her head and face, her long auburn hair tucked away inside. Her hazel eyes were narrowed down to slits as she plodded onward. These boots she had found in the last place she’d stopped would last her another few weeks, she guessed, but she wouldn’t mind finding some decent sneakers, either. Just like she wouldn’t mind replacing the jeans she wore with a pair that didn’t have slits ripped into both knees.

Finding clothes and stuff like that wasn’t hard. With the world’s population reduced to about a million people, there was an abundance of things to choose from. Material things. Clothes.  Books. She’d found a whole backpack full of rings and necklaces once. She still wore a few of the rings. The rest of it she’d tossed away so she could keep the pack. It was slung over her one shoulder now, filled with things that were a lot more useful than diamond necklaces. Nobody cared about gold or jewels anymore. The only things that had any real value were the things that helped you survive one more day.

At the end of the street a tall fence made of gray stone loomed out of the swirl of dust and papers and debris. Allison saw a sign. The closer she got the more certain she was that she knew this place. Central Park Zoo, the sign read. Artisan’s Gate.

Central Park Zoo. Wow. She hadn’t been here since she was a little girl. She remembered a place full of trees and grass and walkways that led between amazing sights like statues of famous people and miniature castles and that monument to Balto the sled dog. She looked up and down the street. It was empty. No one was around. Taking a chance, she walked through the gate and down the first path she came to.

It was a shock to see it as it was now. The patches of grass that remained under foot were brown and dry and crumbled when she stepped on them. The earth was dry and cracked. Trees that had once stood tall and proud were now barren –a few scraggly limbs still with yellowish-green leaves on them, rattling in the wind. A few tears fell