Saga of the Scout: A New Age Rises, #1

By Cliff Hamrick

On a family trip on a bright spring day, the world goes insane. A psychotic rage drives average people to attack anyone near them.  Violence spares no one.

 

A teenage Boy Scout survives alone in a world filled with inhuman dangers. He sets out on a journey across Texas to reunite with his mother.

 

Can he reach her in time?

 

A standalone novel, Saga of the Scout introduces a new kind of hero in an old kind of world. If you love coming of age stories of survival, grab Saga of the Scout now!

 

Reader Reviews

★★★★★ Wow! "The author does a very good job at making you want to keep reading to find out what is going to happen. It is full of suspense, and the imagery makes you feel like you are right there."

★★★★★ This is a great, easy read! "He hooks you into the story from the get go by giving you enough information to care about what's going on, but not so much that the detail of the elements of the story turns the reader off to the story itself."

★★★★★ Could not put this book down! "This was a great read! I could not put this book down. Each time I would think, I'll just stop after this chapter - there was another cliff hanger and I had to keep going."

• Language: English
• Publisher: Fiery Blade Publishing
• Release date: Nov 10, 2019
• ISBN: 9781393801054

Book preview

Chapter One

Ethan sat in the backseat of his father’s Range Rover as they drove down I-35 from Austin to the Natural Bridge Caverns Wildlife Ranch. He wanted to sit in the front seat with his father. He argued that he would be taking his driving test soon, and he needed to watch his father as he drove. But his sister, Emily, got her way. She usually did.

She wasn’t going to take her driving test soon. She already had her license and even her own car. She was a senior in high school, and was close to graduation and college. But if she didn’t get her way, then she would spend the rest of the day making everyone miserable. She was already irritated that Ethan got to pick the family’s activity for their visitation with their father, and Ethan didn’t want to make it worse by insisting on riding in the front seat.

She had to relent on the day’s activity, though. Their father set the rule years ago when they were kids that they would alternate who got to choose what they did during their weekends with him. He was always fair. Ethan always played by the rules. Emily usually pushed things.

But today it was Ethan’s day to choose and he had seen the billboards for the wildlife ranch on the side of the highway for years as they made the trip back and forth between their mother’s house in Austin and San Antonio for their weekend visitations with their father, and a bright, warm spring day on the last weekend of Spring Break seemed like a good day to be outdoors. Emily wanted to go shopping and to a movie, probably a boring romantic comedy that girls liked. Ethan didn’t think she really liked those movies. She just knew that he didn’t.

Later, Ethan would think on how different his life would have been if the events of that day had unfolded while trapped inside a crowded movie theater rather than visiting the outskirts of town where he could escape easily.

He heard Emily and their father talking in the front seat. He didn’t pay attention. It had nothing to do with him. She was just talking about the gymnastics scholarship she got from a nearby university. He just looked out the window as the world went by, like he usually did on these hour-long trips. They were in-between cities, not quite the country, but also not quite a suburb. Ethan identified the trees in the distance by their size and shape. Live oak, mesquite, and lots of ash juniper.

Ethan was a patrol leader in the Boy Scouts with his Star Rank Badge. He loved the outdoors and always had since his father got him started in the Cub Scouts in elementary school. Ethan was grateful that his mother let him continue with scouting even after his parents got divorced. It was the one thing that gave him real happiness in life.

His love of the outdoors even influenced his style of clothing. He usually wore hiking shoes with blue jeans and a T-shirt. Today’s shirt had a Captain America shield on it. Because of the cooler mornings that a Texas spring can bring, he also wore a brown hoodie. His short, blonde hair was usually unkempt, unlike his sister’s bright blonde hair, which was neatly pulled back into a ponytail.

When they arrived at the wildlife ranch, Ethan led them on the tour of the various animals in large enclosures around the grounds.

They had just arrived at the gibbon enclosure, a large circular pavilion with a cage around it to prevent the gibbons from escaping. The pen had plenty of branches and perches above the ground where the gibbons could swing and climb. As Ethan and his family watched, the gibbons were quite active, swinging obsessively from one side of the pavilion to the other, never stopping or resting.

Ethan read an entry about gibbons from the ranch’s brochure to his family, A gibbon’s ability to swing through the trees is called brachiation. They spend almost all of their lives in the branches of trees where they eat a diet primarily of fruits and leaves.

When he looked up, he noticed Emily was glaring at one of the gibbons as it hooted loudly at her. She looked annoyed, but she wore that look most of the time. Ethan’s father seemed a bit bored, as well. That was strange as his father usually attempted to encourage Ethan’s interests, at least.

Fruits and leaves, huh? Emily smirked as she watched the gibbons.

Ethan’s eyes followed hers as painful shrieks replaced excited hoots. One of the large gibbons grabbed a smaller one and sunk its fangs into its back. The other gibbons panicked and leapt away from the vicious attack.

Then their panic changed into a mass assault as other gibbons grabbed the nearest one within reach. It didn’t matter the size or age of the ape. Young killed old, old killed young. The strong ripped into the weak. Those who weren’t caught up in the fight slammed their bodies against the cage in an attempt to escape. The loud clangs of muscle against steel mixed with cries of pain.

Ethan stood there in shock. He wasn’t bothered by the blood, and there was a lot of it. He had been hunting and fishing many times before, and the sight of blood didn’t affect him. What shocked him was the sudden and inexplicable violence in animals that were docile just moments ago. He felt he should do something to help the weaker ones escape, but all he could do was watch helplessly as the blood dripped to the concrete floor.

Ugh, his father said. Let’s go. I’m hungry. Ethan heard boredom in his father’s voice, and watched as he casually walked before away from the screams of dying primates and the roars of their assailants. Emily sighed and followed their father, her blonde ponytail bobbing behind her.

Ethan looked around. What…?

He noticed their family scene playing out around the enclosure. Some people seemed to be horrified at what they were watching, while others seemed annoyed and wandered away. A mother wandered away from her crying toddler. A child giggled as she hurled peanuts at the body of a dead gibbon. A young couple kissed passionately and groped at each other through their clothes, oblivious to the carnage right next to them.

Ethan turned and walked quickly to catch up to his father and sister as they walked back to the visitor center. All around him, Ethan could see the violence from the gibbon enclosure playing out again and again in the wildlife ranch. To the right, goats rammed their horns repeatedly into each other until one horn snapped off and blood streamed over their faces. Across the parking lot, a male rhino charged through the open field, threatening other animals with its long horn.

All around them were scenes of inexplicable carnage, and yet his family seemed not to notice or care about it.

They entered the visitor center and walked past the rows of cheap stuffed animals and even cheaper T-shirts with the ranch’s logo printed on them. Ethan’s father strode up to the counter where snacks were sold. Behind the counter was a college-aged man with his back to them. He stared up at a clock on the wall.

Even through the walls of the visitor center, Ethan could hear the screams of innocent animals and the cries of scared people. The sounds became more distinct as the doors of the visitor center were opened repeatedly as more and more people entered. Apparently, his family wasn’t the only ones who had become suddenly hungry.

Do you have any real food or just this crap? his father demanded from the man, tossing a bag of potato chips onto the counter.

Emily stood behind her father with her arms crossed against her chest and glared at the man. Her face tilted down slightly, and her blue eyes flickered over the man’s back. Ethan studied her face for a moment. She didn’t look like the entitled sister he tried to love despite their differences. She looked like a predator sizing up her prey.

He whispered to her, Emily, are you OK?

She didn’t respond, and soon there was a crowd forming around the counter. Some people demanded food, while others were confused or frightened. The angry shouts rose up until they eventually drowned out the sounds of shrieking animals and crying children outside.

His father yelled, I asked you a fucking question! Answer me!

The young man behind the counter finally turned to face the crowd. He had the same look of annoyed boredom Ethan saw on his father’s face a moment ago.

He said, We have what we have. What the Hell do you want me to do about it?

His indifferent response enraged one of the men standing near Ethan’s father, and he leaned over the counter to grab at the young man. He accidentally jostled Ethan’s father, which caused his father to go into a rage.

Watch what you’re doing, shit head!

The man then turned his attention to Ethan’s father and shoved him back into the other people. The momentary tussle caused a cascade of pushing in the crowd.

Dad! Ethan shouted. He just wanted all of this to stop.

A number of people were spurred on by the violence. In an instant, people grabbed and shoved others in the crowd. Ethan and a few others looked on in stunned fear as they saw their loved ones join in the fight. Mothers, fathers, children, and siblings attacked the nearest person to them though there didn’t seem to be any cause.

A chubby woman, not much older than Emily, with mousey brown hair and wearing a Dallas Cowboys T-shirt, grabbed Ethan by the shoulders. She shook him hard while shouting into his face.

"Do you know how long I have been waiting? I need me time! Me time!"

Ethan was so confused and frightened by the whole scene that all he could do was look into her red face as he tried to figure out what he did to make her so angry. Behind her, he could see his father, scratching and clawing at a pudgy, middle-aged woman’s face.

Dad! Ethan cried out. Stop it!

The woman shaking Ethan reared her head back and howled like a crazed animal. Her howl was interrupted by Emily’s fist as she punched the woman across the jaw.

Get your fucking hands off my brother! Emily’s tone was imperious. She wasn’t concerned for her kid brother. She was insulted that a lesser being would dare touch a member of her family.

The chubby woman pushed Ethan away from her, and then turned to attack Emily. She grabbed at Emily’s hair and twisted her around. Ethan stumbled back and tripped over a purse, toppling backward and falling on his butt.

The sounds of people screaming and cursing, pleading for the violence to stop, reverberated off the walls of the small visitor center. Ethan rolled onto his hands and knees and crawled out of the center towards the open door. Others fled the center, clutching purses and small children, trying to save what they could from the rabid crowd of strangers and loved ones.

Loud cracks of gunfire, which made Ethan’s ears ring, broke over the cacophony of the riot. A gray-haired man had drawn a pistol and fired into the ceiling. The cries rose higher into a full-blown panic. But for the violent ones, the gunshots only seemed to spur them on.

Ethan reached the door and pulled himself to his feet but was pushed out by a giggling, overweight man carrying an armful of candy bars. Once clear of the door, Ethan looked back to see if his father or sister were following him.

People bled and writhed on the floor, either from gunshots or injuries from the angry mob. Emily straddled the clerk’s waist, pinning him on the floor. Her blond hair hung wildly around her face as she pounded the back of his skull into the tile floor. A thin stream of blood ran in the grout between the tiles as his feet twitched uncontrollably.

The man with the pistol fired indiscriminately into the crowd. Ethan saw his father just as a bullet went through the back of his skull and blew his forehead all over the face of the middle-aged woman he was trying to strangle.

Ethan turned to run, but was knocked off-balance. Not by a panicked victim trying to escape, but by a sudden lurch of the earth. The asphalt below him suddenly rose up and fell down, throwing him to his hands and knees. A loud explosion behind him followed the earthquake. Soil and rocks rained down around the parking lot. Car alarms added their noise to the cacophony of screams, shouts, shots, and pleas.

Ethan looked behind him at the source of the explosion and saw that a hole large enough to drive a big rig truck through had opened up just a football field’s distance away in the middle of the park across the parking lot. People ran in a blind panic, desperately trying to start their cars and get away. He huddled against the wall and peered around the corner to see what was happening at that pit.

Though his animal instincts told him to run away towards safety, if anywhere was safe, his innate curiosity held him in place. Through the sight of people running and a swirling cloud of dust, he could see something moving out of the pit.

As the dust settled, he saw the silhouette of a man clamber up to stand on top of a large chunk of asphalt, which had been thrust into the air from the explosion. The man reached behind his back and pulled out an old war horn, just like Ethan had seen in documentaries on Vikings.

The man raised the warhorse to his lips, tilted his head back, and blew. A loud blast overwhelmed the sounds of the chaos which only began to die down.

Chapter Two

The signal carried out across the parking lot. The piercing howl reverberated among the emptied cars and shook the glass of the visitor center. The sound hadn’t died down before it was quickly followed by even more men out of the pit, dozens of them, climbing over the broken rocks and running between the cars.

Ethan was frozen in place. Large and powerful men, wearing little more than loincloths made of dirty leather and wielding wicked, curved weapons of metal and bone, charged towards the panicked people who discovered a new horror to flee.

Ethan watched as one of the men from the pit drew closer. He wore a black leather armor and a mask which only left his mouth and jaw exposed. The man from the pit grabbed a fleeing woman and ran her through the back. The tip of his sharpened spike emerged from her chest and created a scarlet tent in her blouse. Her screams cut off abruptly as blood bubbled up from her mouth.

Ethan turned and darted under a car. His thin frame barely fit in the space between the undercarriage and the rough asphalt. His fear overcame the sharp pain in his knees as broken glass cut through his jeans and into his skin. His nostrils filled with the smell of motor oil, and he could see little. But shouts and screams were all around him.

He laid there and watched feet race around his hiding spot. The tennis-shoed feet of a man ran by only to be caught by the leather sandaled feet of a raider from the pit. Lifted up and then thrown down, the body of the man fell next to the car. Ethan saw his slashed throat and wide eyes which stared at Ethan in terror. The vehicle rocked above him as another raider slammed the head of a child against the front bumper, blood forming a puddle under the car.

Ethan looked away and saw another woman hiding under an SUV. Her desperate eyes met his, and for a moment they had a survivor’s bond. But she was too exposed. One of the raiders found her. Ethan closed his eyes so he didn’t see what happened to her after she was pulled screaming from under her hiding spot.

Once he opened his eyes again, she was gone, and only a yellow high heel remained to mark her existence. He moved only enough to make sure that his hands and feet well-hidden so he could avoid a similar fate.

He didn’t know how long he laid there. He saw fewer and fewer feet running by, and the sounds of screams became fewer and more distant. The massacre was moving farther away from the visitor center. His heart pounded in his chest. Ethan held his breath and watched in the direction of the pit, wondering what else might emerge. Instead, he saw something that should have been a welcome sight.

Emily.

His sister emerged from the entrance of the visitor center. Her blonde hair hung loosely around her face. Her over-sized T-shirt had been ripped off, and she only wore a black sports bra, which revealed her athletic shoulders and arms. Her black yoga pants clung tightly to her long, muscular legs. Blood splattered across her chest. It covered her hands from fingertips to elbows as if she had been dipping her hands into it.

At first, Ethan was relieved that his sister survived the attack and the brutality of the raiders. He wondered if she hid as well and was now looking for him. She stood outside the entrance and scanned the parking lot like a warlord surveying the aftermath of a bloody battle. When she looked towards the direction the men of the pit had run, Ethan could see her face. It was then he knew he couldn’t go to his sister for safety.

Rather than the panicked or dazed look of a survivor of some horror, she had a satisfied smile. She brought both of her hands up to her face and closed her eyes as she smeared the blood over her cheeks and jaw, down to her throat. Then she strode towards the receding sounds of chaos with disturbing confidence.

Ethan dared to move, but just a little so he could see out from under the car. He watched his sister walk towards the raiders as they raced after fleeing victims. She walked with a purpose Ethan did not understand. And it frightened him.

He glanced around and saw that none of the raiders remained. He didn’t even see any of the people who had become violent in the visitor center. Maybe they were killed, too. Maybe they ran away. Maybe they joined the raiders. Ethan didn’t like any of the answers or what they implied.But seeing a chance to get away, he quietly inched from under the car and knelt between them.

He peeked over the hood and saw cars parked in the road, which led out of the park. Opened doors and smashed windows told him those cars weren’t going to be moving again soon. It didn’t matter. He still hadn’t started driver’s ed, something his sister teased him about whenever their mother had to drive him to school.

His mother!

He realized she was at home alone. She needed to know what happened. She needed to know that he was alright. If she heard about this on the news and couldn’t reach him, then she would worry herself to death.

A low rumble from the pit reminded him that he was not entirely out of danger. He ducked down again and crawled between the cars to the edge of the parking lot. Ethan kept his eyes down onto the asphalt in front him to avoid seeing the bodies or put his hands in blood. He was successful most of the time.

When he reached the edge of the parking lot, he was next to a small hill. The only cover he would have to hide his escape were patches of tall grass and juniper bushes. He looked behind him and saw the parking lot was still empty save for abandoned cars and the corpses of the people who belonged to them.

He turned back and ran to the first bush that looked big enough to hide behind. He paused again to see if anyone noticed him. Still nothing. So, he started off again, up the hill and behind another bush.

He stopped again to search back again. Seeing no one, Ethan ran up the hill past the next bush and towards the one after. This time, when he stopped to look back, he was high enough that he could see more of the carnage below him.

He panted hard from running fast up the hill as he hid behind the bush to get a bird’s eye view of the parking lot. Dozens of bodies laid in the cars, on the hoods, and the ground next to them. Bloody smears stained everything. Over it all, he saw the Texas flag wave lazily in the spring breeze.

Among all the ruin, though, he didn’t see a single raider body. None of them were killed. He looked in the direction the raiders chased after the survivors. They were so far away he could only see small figures moving, and was unable to tell raider from survivor. If Emily was with them, then he could not see her.

Another rumble from the pit told him he wasn’t far enough away yet. He turned back up the hill and ran towards the next bush and then the next. At this point, the junipers were much larger, and their needles more densely packed, finally giving Ethan some real cover.

He knelt behind a bush and took out his cell phone. Perhaps he could call someone for help or at least let his mother know he was alright. But it was dead. No charge. This didn’t make sense as his phone had at least half a battery life when they got to the park.

His attempt to restart his phone was interrupted by the strangest sound he had heard that day. Singing. He looked up and discovered what the rumblings from the pit meant. He saw a line of raiders coming out of the massive hole and filing down the road in the direction the others had gone. But rather than running as they had before, they were walking.

The singing, a loud baritone glossolalia, came from a raider, a bare-chested, pot-bellied man wearing black leather pants and a horned helmet. He sat high in the saddle of a massive woolly rhinoceros. His singing rocked back and forth with the rhythms of the prehistoric beast he rode.

Chapter Three

Though most were on foot, the woolly rhinoceros was not the only mount the raiders were riding. Some were riding black shaggy horses with no saddles or bridles. Footmen and cavalry walked casually from the pit and down the road, weaving between wrecked cars. They ignored the bodies on the ground as nothing more than garbage