Wearied and Condemned

By Richie Neville

Tommy had given the war as little thought as possible in the sixty years since he came home and his friends didn't. When he starts being targeted by a group of local thugs however, Tommy finds himself thinking about his friends and the man he was. When these thoughts suddenly take physical form, it sets in motion a terrifying chain of events. Once upon a time it was Tommy's friends that had to make the ultimate sacrifice - now it's Tommy's turn.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Richie Neville
• Release date: Jul 17, 2018
• ISBN: 9780463175996

Richie Neville

I am not now, nor have I EVER been, a professional athlete. I do not intend to run a marathon, for fun or any other reason, or suggest anyone else run one. I have never had the support of trainers, nutritionists, or any other exercise specialists. I am just a guy who likes working out at home! Home workouts with body-weight exercises are kind of my ‘thing.’ I don’t like gyms and I like being able to use my own shower. I set up Internal Force Fitness to search for the ultimate series of exercises you can do at home. The exercises need to fit certain criteria: they should not cost money, they should not require a stupidly high level of fitness already, they should not hurt, and finally – they should be ENJOYABLE! Join me – and enjoy the best body-weight only exercise programs history and the world have to offer! ~ Richie Neville Oh - and I also write Pirate books and stories about the Devil's Administrator when the mood takes me...

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Wearied and Condemned

By Richard Neville

Copyright 2018 Richard Neville

All characters and events in this publication are fictitious and any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

All rights reserved.

Extract from: For the Fallen. Poem by Robert Laurence Binyon

Retribution.

It would be wrong to say he’d never done anyone any harm, or that the harm had been anything but deliberate. But for retribution to come now, after all these years, and in the form it took; Tommy wondered if he shouldn't have been sorrier for what he’d done.

Tommy.

There was something feral about the children he thought. Screeching and hollering, about absolutely nothing as far as he could tell. It wasn't laughter, nor the sounds of young people having fun, enjoying the freedom of youth; just primal screams as if they were somehow not fully formed. Tommy had heard worse screams. Painful, agonizing, guttural screams from individuals who were enduring never-ending nightmares. Those poor souls had, he always believed, sped up his recovery in 1917. There were two places he would never again go in his life: France, and a hospital ward.

He considered it was those ancient screams he was hearing, in the same way he would still wake up shaking and bathed in the sweat of the trenches. Maybe these children were perfectly normal, and it was his mind that was going. Maybe it was just the past coming to get him.

Tommy's mind was jumping jarringly between two scenes; young Tommy waiting in a sodden trench breathing heavily and gripping his rifle tightly, and old Tommy, sitting in an armchair in the dark, breathing heavily and gripping its arms with gnarled fingers.

Young Tommy was paralyzed only by fear, and fear could be overcome by sheer brute strength and youthful ignorance of consequence. Old Tommy was paralyzed completely by fear. The curtains in his bungalow were open because it was too late to close them. They would see him now if he dared to move, he was sure of that. His only hope was that by playing dead they would not notice him and eventually go away. Tommy had known people play dead before. Play dead, fake injury, even shoot themselves. It made sense to him now, what fear makes seem