The Movement:: Tales of Valor and Villainy

By Robert N. Cheek

A nearly empty spit of sand, dotted with the neon lights of an age past, calling out for tourists that may never come - but certainly wouldn’t this time of year. The empty boulevards are filled only with the happier memories of a lifetime spent here with family and friends - memories from a lifetime ago.

The empty mountain roads, forest paths, and wide valleys - memorized as well as the back of a hand. Control and domination of every nook and cranny, given not by right of choice as much as the right of birth - handed down from father to son for generations. Each taking up the mantle of Lord Protector.
The Movement Universe has, thus far, been the stories of a few. But that universe, like our own, is full of other people – characters whose stories are interesting and unique. They may be heroes or rogues – but they deserve to be told. What follows may not be happy stories. They may not be stories of the best of someone. Whether these stories were written in the stars, the inevitability of an omniscient power; or the random happenstance of the chaos of the universe – in either event, the stories stand on their own.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Variant Publishing
• Release date: Apr 19, 2019
• ISBN: 9781092673204

Book preview

The Movement: Tales of Valor and Villainy

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical,

including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the author, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in reviews.

Cover Art Design:

Cory Baker

Cover image: Copyright © 2019 William CP Baker

Publisher’s Note:

This is a work of fiction. All names, characters, places, and events are the work of the author’s imagination.

Any resemblance to real persons, places, or events is coincidental.

Copyright 2019 - Robert N. Cheek

Foreword

Sonder, as defined by the Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows, is the realization that each random passerby is living a life as vivid and complex as your own—populated with their own ambitions, friends, routines, worries and inherited craziness.

One could picture the concept as a long and epic story that continues invisibly around you. A story of which you are only aware of a few chapters. Like an anthill sprawling deep underground, with elaborate passageways and rooms. Sonder makes one aware of the thousands of other lives that one never knew existed, in which one might appear, not as a main character; but only once, as an extra sipping coffee in the background, as a blur of traffic passing on the highway, or as a lighted window at dusk.

In each moment of our lives, there are backgrounds characters who, for us, do little more than fill in the world with detail. What we forget – is that for each of those people, we are a background character offering color to their story.

Preface

What follows are two separate and unique stories. They are the stories of two men who you’ve met before, if you’ve read the other tomes of The Movement Universe – though you may not recognize it at first, or at all.

The Movement Universe has, thus far, been the stories of Teddy, Chris, Emma, and Daniel – and, secondarily, the circle of people around them. But that universe, like our own, is full of other people – characters whose stories are interesting and unique. They may be heroes or rogues – but they deserve to be told.

The Tales of Valor and Villainy are their stories.

You’ve met the leading men in these tales before, when their stories intertwined with the sagas of our protagonists – but finally, they get to speak for themselves even if it is at the very end of their stories.

It has been said that death is perfectly punctual, never late and never early for both the sinner and the saint. In the eastern religions, the random occurrences through which people lose their lives like car crashes and plane crashes are fated, according to their past karma. These aside, death by disease and ailment are determined to occur after a set period. Many believe that each human's span is allotted in breaths, not in days or years or seconds. Other’s believe that there is no predestination; that our choices – each and every seemingly minuscule one – changes the date of the end of our lives. While our births are a fixed point, our deaths fluctuate. What’s the truth? Who’s to say.

When the time was there, this realization did not come and when the realization came, there is no time. By this the human being undergoes silent suffering, which is the agony

What follows are not happy stories. They are not stories of the best of someone. We are meeting our protagonists at the end of their lives. Whether these endings were written in the stars, the inevitability of a omniscient power; or the random happenstance of the chaos of the universe – in either event, the stories stand on their own.

FREDERICK YANCEY ‘BISHOP’

Ch. 1

A bell above the door jangled as Fred entered. It startled him, and he dropped the messenger bag he was holding by the shoulder strap. He turned back towards the door.

Sorry about that, the attendant chuckled, popping up from a kneeling position behind the desk.

Fred turned back towards the desk suddenly, startled again by her appearance.

Oops! the attendant exclaimed, and that too I guess.

Fred laughed and clutched jokingly at his chest, What a welcome!

The bell is supposed to invoke a historic feeling, the attendant explained gesturing up towards the top of the door. It's as old as the hotel, so from the 1950s.

Wow, Fred responded, picking up his bag and crossing to the counter, not much around here has survived that long.

We’re one of three of the last, original hotels on the strip. Heading towards our 70th anniversary, the attendant said smartly before asking, Well, can I help you?

Yes… Fred noticed the attendant's nametag, Dani, I'd like a room.

Well you came to the right place, Dani joked with him, plenty of those.

I thought so based on the Vacancy sign, Fred joked back with her.

Were you looking for a single, a double... she began.

Fred interrupted, What's your biggest room?

We have the Ocean Suite, Dani answered with some suspicion. "It's on the top floor, sleeps eight, and has views of both the ocean and the bay; although somewhat