Eden's Children (Earth Exiles Book 2)

By Mark Harritt

Targeted by a hostile world, CW3 Mike Duggins and his Spec Ops team brawled the monstrous denizens of their new world to build a safe haven for the exiles. A new threat from the dragons, the Ancient, cunning and diabolical, threatens their precarious existence. Their new enemy continues to test them and their defenses. Driven to find shelter in the high mountains, Mike begins to realize that the threat to their survival in this future time is greater than he ever imagined.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Mark Harritt
• Release date: Jan 12, 2020
• ISBN: 9780463358689

Mark Harritt

Mark Harritt is currently an over the road Truck Driver who is frequently found at the end of a 400 to 500 mile day trying to peck out one to two thousand words on a new book. He’s an Army paratrooper with a background in intelligence operations. He spent six years in Iraq and Afghanistan, in uniform and out. Currently, his greatest challenges are black ice, lake effect snow, and uploading word documents to E-reader format, all equally treacherous endeavors. His greatest hope is to write stories that his readers enjoy.

Book preview

Eden’s Children

This book is the second in the series, Earth Exiles. The first book is

‘On Distant Shores.’

Copyright 2015 Mark Harritt

Table of Contents

Title

Table of Contents

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Epilog

Chapter One

Mike stood at the top of a great stone structure, built to keep the predators of this new world at bay, the height and mass of the stone wall the only thing between him and the beast below. He leaned forward, looking down at the ancient monster, his hands resting against a shelf of stone, four feet high, in place to keep people from falling over the side. The cool stone felt good against his skin in the humidity and heat of this new world. Macabre skulls stared in mute testimony to horrific combat, marking the destruction of dragons and other predators that had tested the old Earth survivors, exiles from an earlier epoch in Earth’s history. Gigantic bones, crushed, shattered, broken, lay scattered across the clearing, yellowing against the dirt and vegetation. Those victories brought a short-lived respite for the interlopers in this distant future. Now, there was a new challenger, one that claimed the valley as its own, upset that there was competition that didn’t acknowledge its supremacy with deference and fear.

The nightmarish, ancient dragon bellowed and thundered. The monster’s attention was fixed on Mike, upset that its prey was only yards away but still out of reach. Tentacles framed the beast’s great head, lashing in a frenzy, pulsating from pink to red, tip to base, evoking an impression of the mythical Medusa. The massive skull, striped with bulked muscle, was built to mangle and kill dinosaur sized prey. The heavy jaw and ripping teeth were augmented by poisonous fangs that flexed in and out. The chest was broad and deep, the arms capable of grabbing onto and dragging its colossal victims to the ground.

The huge body of the predator massed the equivalent of six elephants. The hide was muted greys, greens, and browns, the camouflage of an ambush predator. Jagged scars mapped across its head and body, some inflicted by the gigantic, dangerous prey that the great beast hunted, others acquired during its competition for mates and territory. The Medusa dragons were brutal, antagonistic, and extremely cunning, hunting each other with as much zeal as they hunted the herds of gigantic herbivores beyond the mouth of the valley. They’d been dubbed dragon by the old Earth survivors because of their resemblance to the mythical predators.

Mike, tall with lean muscle, broad shouldered, sported a sandy beard, razor blades and shaving cream long since used up. In another life, a billion years past, Mike, along with Everett, Mickey, Rob and Tom were part of a special operations team that targeted terrorists who used chemical, biological, or radiological weapons. Chance and the necessary security clearances had seen them assigned to a Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA, research facility to test revolutionary Mech Armor.

The sensation of the cool stone against his hands vaguely registered at the back of his mind. Even the agitation of the great beast was barely noted. Instead, his thoughts were worlds away, wandering across the research he had conducted over the past six months. His thoughts drifted among the different theories and mathematical proofs he’d been exploring. Time was the question that Mike contemplated.

Approximately a year ago, he and the other survivors had transitioned to an unrecognizable future, everything they’d known destroyed by the ravages of time. A nuclear war started by a madman caused a chain of events that led to a hiccup in equipment installed in the research facility. The equipment, a null generator, had accidentally transported his spec ops team and the DARPA engineering team to the future.

They’d stumbled onto the truth when Roberto realized what had happened. The recognizable moon, and the longer duration of the day was the clue that revealed they had been transported to the future. The year was the same duration, approximately eight thousand, seven hundred and sixty hours long. The days were much longer though, due to the tidal forces between the moon and the earth slowing down the rotation of the earth. The days were now thirty-three hours and fifteen minutes long, giving the year two hundred and sixty-four point two five days.

Time travel was a problem that the greatest minds in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries had contemplated. Einstein, Ellis, Hawking, and scores of other physicists had many theories of the fundamental nature of space-time. Mike wasn’t a physicist, but he was a mathematician. Even so, he’d had problems understanding some of the more esoteric ideas that he’d been researching. As he mulled those theories over, he was so engrossed in his own thoughts that he didn’t hear Everett and Tom walk up behind him. The bellowing of the dragon didn’t help either.

I think he likes you, Everett said.

Mike turned his head. Everett was a handsome, fit man, thirty-nine, African American, with Cherokee blood on his mom’s side that gave a reddish cast to his dark skin. Tom was the sniper on the team, skinny compared to Mike and Everett, as tall as Mike, curly blond hair. Both men wore close cropped beards as well. Everett had grey hair salting the natural black of his beard. They were both dressed in charcoal grey pants and shirt, the only color available in this fabric, spun from monomolecular graphene fibers.

He may like me, but the feelings are definitely not returned, Mike replied to Everett.

Mike focused his attention back on the giant beast. What are your intentions, monster? he thought.

Everett and Tom stopped next to Mike, looking down at the great beast.

Those things look like a project that Giger and Lovecraft designed on an acid trip, Tom quipped.

Mike nodded, I can see that.

Damn. That bastard’s loud, Tom continued.

How are things going, Mike? Everett asked.

Mike looked at Everett. He knew that Everett was asking about more than his physical wellbeing. Everett was worried about him. Mike rarely came outside, spending his time looking through computer files and scribbling mathematical equations. Since the compound, their new home, had been secured and built, Mike had spent all his time looking for a way to get back to his wife Jo, pregnant with their first child.

At first, Mike had been eager to do the research, hoping that some DARPA project or study would hold the key to getting everybody back home. As time passed, Mike didn’t make any headway and became extremely frustrated he wasn’t having any success. Frustration turned to depression when the solution seemed to be further and further away, to the point that Everett or Jennifer had to pull him away from his research to eat.

After Bobby O’Neill killed himself, the team and Jennifer became pests until he assured them that he wasn’t suicidal. They still kept a close watch on him, though, to make sure he didn’t slip and head down the same road. Mike continued his research, but he was more resigned to the fact that they weren’t going home.

Mike shrugged his shoulders.

Any luck?

Mike shook his head, No, no luck.

Everett looked at Tom. Tom tilted his head to one side, non-committal, with a small shrug. Everett looked back at Mike.

Anything you want to talk about? Everett asked.

Mike shook his head, a smirk lifting the corner of his mouth, What, you my psych now?

The smirk was a good sign. Everett smiled back, No, not your psych. Just wondering if you want to talk about it.

Mike shook his head and looked back down at the angry monster. He took a deep breath, and began speaking, No, not unless you want me to enlighten you about Ellis’ quantum theory of time, fixed as soon as it is observed. This, of course, leads to questions about the nature of time before there were any living organisms to observe it.

Mike paused, and then, to the consternation of Everett and Tom, he continued, Plus there’s Einstein’s theory of the nature of space/time, where the past and future seem to be interrelated and fixed. The good thing about Einstein’s equations is that they seem to indicate that you can travel back in time, but you need an infinite amount of energy to fly faster than the speed of light.

Mike looked back at Everett, You want me to continue?

Everett shook his head, Oh hell no. You’re giving me a headache as it is.

Mike continued with a grin, So you don’t want to hear about Ahmed Farag Ali’s and Saurya Das’ use of Bohmian trajectories to quantum correct Amal Kumar Raychaudhuri’s equation, which indicates that there was no big bang, but rather that the universe is eternal?

Everett stared at him, Are those really names or are you just making that up?

Mike nodded, Yeah, they’re really names. I’m probably not pronouncing them correctly, but they’re real. One was a physicist in Canada, the other in Benha University, Egypt. And Amal Kumar Raychaudhuri was a physicist in Bangladesh.

Everett held up his hands, Dude, no, please stop, you’re making my head hurt. He pointed down at the dragon, I’d rather face that naked.

Mike looked at Tom, What about you?

Tom shook his head, I’m a country boy. I shoot things. I try not to clutter my life with anything more complicated than that.

Mike’s grin grew wider.

Tom looked down at the dragon, cleared his throat, hocked and spit down into the open maw, watching as it disappeared. Draco Medusa, Tom proclaimed. So, you think we ought to poke it with a stick?

Make sure you say, ‘Hey ya’ll, watch this,’ before you do. Draco Medusa? Mike asked.

Willow decided that’s the dragons’ new name, Tom explained. Willow was one of the chemists.

You guys call it that?

Tom shook his head, Naw. I just curse when I describe them.

Mike smiled, So, effing dragon?

Tom nodded.

What do you think he’s doing here? Everett asked.

Their attention fixed back on the dragon. It was livid. Ropes of saliva splattered against the stone of the wall.

Mike turned to Tom. Tom was the hunter/biologist on the team.

What do you think, Tom?"

Tom shook his head, I don’t know what the hell the damn thing is here for. Probably looking for a snack. He’s lucky we’re short on ammo, otherwise I’d put that head on a wall.

Mike turned his attention back to the dragon, He’s lucky we don’t want a giant, rotting carcass in our front yard, otherwise I’d help you.

At that moment, the dragon reared back onto its hind legs and launched forward against the stone of the wall. The movement caused all three of them to flinch. They felt the impact of the beast through the soles of their feet. Not a stone budged, but that much flesh hitting the stone wall couldn’t be ignored by men or the laws of physics.

The beast hissed at them, its tongue flicking in and out, tasting their scent on the air. The head was as wide as Mike was tall. He wouldn’t be more than a snack for the ancient monster.

Good thing Rob knew what he was doing when he built this, Tom said.

Everett nodded, Yeah, but don’t tell him that.

The comment drew smiles. When it came to egos, they were all just as guilty. Special operations attracted that type of personality.

Rage spent, the dragon sat back on its haunches and brought its front paws back down onto the ground. For a moment, Mike looked into its eye, and he saw . . . well, he didn’t know what he saw. Intellect, cunning, he wasn’t sure. Then the moment passed.

It was a standoff. The dragon sensed that there would be no fight today. Usually, when the great dragon hunted, prey smelled like fear, feces, and urine. There was no fear in these animals. There was no aggression or challenge either. It was confused by the small animals. The dragon didn’t know how to respond, which made it even more angry.

It was still agitated as it turned and walked back towards the trees of the forest. It stopped before it entered the tree line. The giant head arced towards the sky, a great, coughing roar venting its anger and confusion. It disappeared between the trees, the swaying branches of the low shrubs the only thing indicating its passage.

That was anticlimactic, Everett mused.

Better than the Chinese curse, I guess, Tom mused.

Mike and Everett turned to look at him, confusion on their faces.

Tom smiled, May you live in interesting times.

Everett thought about this, Yeah, I guess the times are interesting enough right now.

Too much so, Mike continued.

Ninety-nine percent boredom, and one percent terror, Tom reflected.

The life of a combat veteran, Everett finished.

What are you guys doing out here? Mike asked.

Tom pointed out towards the forest, Matki’s scouting. He should be back soon. He told us to be out here at noon.

Beyond the small clearing, tall trees towered to delineate the beginning of the valley where the old DARPA facility had been abandoned shortly after they arrived. With the medusa dragons and other large predators constantly attacking, the old facility had been an untenable location to defend. Canted at an angle, the DARPA facility had structural problems as well. Stress on the building that it wasn’t designed to support produced cracks in the walls. Rob, another member of the Spec Ops team, was their structural engineer, and he’d been worried that the facility would collapse. Rob and a small team were sent out to find a new location that was defensible, and they had chosen this site, only ten miles from the old facility. With a narrow opening between two cliffs leading to a small valley, Mike and the team were able to defend the location until Rob and the techs finished building the wall across the narrow opening, creating the compound they currently lived in.

Now they stood on top of a rock wall built from stone that had been pulled from the cliff face in the back of the valley. The top of the wall, what they called the landing, stretched across the mouth of the small valley. The wall was about eighty feet wide, anchored directly against the cliff faces on the north and south. The landing was sixty feet deep. On the south side of the wall, to his left, adjacent to the landing, they’d carved out a new home, the rock cut back to create an overhang with a ledge underneath it. A single opening led to tunnels that had been carved into the cliff face to create secure living quarters. Large pillars supported the weight of the overhang. Anchors had been drilled back into the cliff face with nets woven from indestructible monomolecular carbon fiber attached and stretched across the rock face to stabilize it.

Life hadn’t gotten much easier with the move, though. It was a lean time for everyone. The licky-chewies were long gone. Razor blades and other toiletries were gone. Office scissors were used to keep hair short. Some things could be made by the tech team, but others were definitely in the rear-view mirror.

Food was the big problem. The dragons owned the valley floor, so it was hard to forage. They could lure predators to them, but vegetables and fruits weren’t easy to come by. Diets had changed considerably. Mike could only dream about the days he could walk into a grocery store and buy as much food as he wanted. Everyone in the compound was a lot slimmer than they had been when they arrived in this time. Some of the older engineers and techs had mixed feelings about that, happy to see their toes again but concerned about the rumbles in their bellies.

Of course, life would have been a lot harder if they hadn’t had Matki Awrani to help them in the new world. They’d saved Matki when they first arrived on new Earth, and his advice had saved them in return. Since their first meeting, Matki had been their native guide. Matki was able to point out the different plants that his people used, and the plants that were dangerous to eat. With his knowledge, they’d been able to find plants to supplement their diet. He also acted as scout to find out what the dragons were doing out on the valley floor. The dragons were dangerous adversaries, and it was good to keep an eye on what was happening out there. They had a drone that helped, but wind shear through the valley discouraged them from pushing it too far out.

Everett shielded his eyes and looked out into the forest, I think I see him.

Tom looked at Everett, shaking his head, No you don’t. Not if you’re looking in that direction.

On the other side of the clearing, bushes shook and a short man, reddish brown skin, long, braided hair and beard streaming behind him, broke into the open. He sprinted across the clearing. Matki’s speed was amazing. No human from old Earth would be able to keep the pace he was sprinting at. He would easily beat any Olympic runner from the twenty-first century. He was carrying an atlatl in his hand, with darts across his back. There was only one entrance through the wall, and he was headed directly towards it.

The opening was in the middle of the wall. It was just wide enough that two people could walk through side by side, built so the larger predators couldn’t get into the tunnel. At the back of the tunnel, the pathway was blocked by a rebar portcullis, to keep dragon spawn and other, smaller carnivores out. Right now, the portcullis was raised so that Matki could get inside quickly.

Tom turned towards the back of the landing and whistled. Murphy and Joseph were standing on the back of the landing, close to the portcullis. Murph waved and watched, waiting for Matki to clear the tunnel. Murph and Joseph were Air Force security police that had worked in the DARPA facility on old Earth.

Mike kept watch, looking for the ancient dragon to reappear. Matki cleared the entrance, and Mike relaxed. It was a dangerous world out there. Mike heard Murph’s size fourteen boots kick the latch, and the portcullis rattled down. The portcullis slammed against the ground with a loud clang. Murph locked the portcullis closed. The trio turned and walked to the back of the wall.

One mech was always on guard. It was currently walking across the landing, Daughtry in the driver’s seat. Four mechs were in the linebacker position under the overhang, techs working to make sure they were in top shape. Behind them, the tunnel mouth stood dark, framed by the rock. A rebar cage was set into the opening, a door of rebar in the center, ready to be closed and locked if a predator made it to the landing.

Past that there were stairs on the north and south of the landing leading down to the ground. The ones on the north, furthest away from the tunnel, were notable because they looked like they had been built for giants, and in fact, had been built for the mechs to have access to the valley behind the compound wall. Between the two sets of stairs, a cobblestone courtyard had been laid.

Matki walked back and forth, his hands on his waist, skin glistening with sweat. Michelle Trevino stood there with Matki, rifle at low ready, just in case anything followed Matki into the tunnel.

Mike slapped hands with Murph as he walked by, You fellas up for some combatives after your shift?

Combatives, as the Army called the mixed martial arts style of fighting and grappling, was a popular way to exercise since they didn’t have a gym. Plus, with danger everywhere, people wanted to develop their capabilities and develop the warrior mentality. A lot of the techs were even taking lessons. There was usually a group somewhere teaching each other different techniques. There were a lot of different styles involved, from Aikido to Krav Maga.

Murph replied, smiling, Oh yeah, bring it. I need a good workout. Joseph grunted, non-committal. Joseph wasn’t much of a talker.

Murph was Staff Sergeant Patrick Murphy in his previous life, a big man when he had been lifting weights, but a lot of that mass had disappeared in the intervening months. He was dark as mahogany, and his previously shaved head had hair cropped short. Murphy was a college linebacker and Joseph was a bouncer in Arkansas before they joined the Air Force. Murphy was from Detroit, and Joseph was a big, blond, corn fed southern boy. They used to be big men, with large, muscled chests and arms, though a bit soft around the middle. They were a lot thinner now, lean muscle replacing the bulky muscle they’d once had.

Mike, Everett and Tom started down the steps. Murph and Joseph stayed on the wall. Once they arrived at the bottom, Michelle walked past them. Michelle had been a Senior Airman in the security police.

Hey Michelle, where’s Rob at? Mike asked.

Don’t know, not my day to watch him, she answered.

Trevino was athletic, attractive, with long dark hair, Hispanic. She and Rob were an item at the moment. Mike wasn’t sure how long that would last. Michelle didn’t take any crap from Rob, and he was notorious for his roving eye. In the compound, that could be bad, since men outnumbered women. Michelle kept Rob on a short leash, though. A combination of indifference and passion kept him off balance. It seemed to work. Rob wasn’t used to women being indifferent to him. The team put pressure on Rob to curb his roving eye as well, knowing that things could go bad quickly.

Mike walked over to Matki, Hey Matki, how are you doing?

Matki grinned, I am doing well, my friend.

You timed that one kind of close. The Ancient was here a few minutes before you came back.

You should watch that. One slip, and it’s all over, Tom pointed out.

Matki waved off Tom’s concern, I am too fast and too smart for that.

Everett walked up, I’m pretty sure that’s what you thought when we first met. Those grasnigs had other ideas though.

Matki’s face grew grim as he thought about their first meeting. Matki made his appearance to the team with two ugly beasts called grasnigs chasing him. The grasnigs were fur covered lizards, with hard, curved parrot-like beaks. They were fast runners and would have chased him down if Mickey hadn’t jumped in between them in the mech, killing them and saving Matki.

Matki replied, That was a tough time, my friend. There was danger everywhere. Matki gestured to include them all, You had stirred up the entire forest. There was so much noise it was very hard to hear them.

Mike grinned, So you’re saying it was our fault.

Matki grinned back. Then his expression turned serious, Of course it was. It certainly wasn’t mine.

The team’s unique sense of humor had rubbed off on Matki. Sarcasm had been hard for him to understand at first, but with his grasp of English and the year he had spent with them, he was quickly beginning to