Bonds

By Grant. D. Tomson

The world as we know it, has changed. A global cataclysmic event has wiped out 95% of the population resulting in the total ruin of our infrastructures.
A group of six friends struggle for day to day survival until the eventful day they stumble across an ancient Pagan tome during one of their raids; but they are not the only ones with such a book.
Telepathy, telekinesis and the likes, once believed to be fictitious, are now a reality. Two other clans, larger in number, step forward in an attempt to annihilate our heroes for the ultimate quest of power. The fast paced, action packed events that follow cause Daeron, the leader of Kvartz, to put aside his love and adoration for Sky and focus on getting them through this saga.
Can Daeron do what needs to be done, to destroy his opponents, or will he instead sacrifice his life for theirs?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu.com
• Release date: Nov 16, 2014
• ISBN: 9781312676268

Book preview

Bonds

Bonds

Copyright

Copyright © 2014 by Grant.D.Tomsom

All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review or scholarly journal.

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

Images used within the cover image belong to their respective owners. Listed below are the addresses for their respective work. These image have been modified from their original artwork.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/revenantremnant/8260486318/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/revenantremnant/9484731808/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/fullyreclined/3441958164

http://www.publicdomainpictures.net/view-image.php?image=21035

All rights are reserved for the design and style of the cover image.

First Printing 2014

ISBN 978-1-312-67626-8

Acknowledgements

Special thanks goes out to my dearest friends Cindy, Nicky, Micah and James for all their support during this process. Without your guidance, love and patience, this wouldn't have been possible.

This book is dedicated to my late Grandfather - a father figure and immortalized role model.

Prologue

So you want to be normal? You want everything to be like it was? Don’t we all? After the last global extinction at the end of 2015 nothing has been normal.

Growing up with the latest gadgets, technology racing by and modern science taking huge leaps, one would have thought they’d have been able to prepare for one of the worst extinctions this planet has ever seen. We are to blame though, we severed out bond with nature for greed and power.

Now, many youngsters are left without parents, food is scarce, people fight for their survival and kill for it too. The world as we knew it, had changed. Those that remained must fend for themselves or perish.

Not all is doomed, hope remains in the lives of six very special friends. Practically alone in the world, their group fights for day to day survival. Their bonds towards each other will become the catalyst of a new era but will they survive…

Chapter 1

House of Secrets

It’s not been easy since the Fall. That’s what we’ve labelled the cataclysmic event that nearly destroyed all of humanity. Sky’s parents are the only family any of us have, all our parents having died in the mass extinction two years back.

The supply of food has decreased and we’re not sure if we’ll survive before the crops we grew ‘bare fruit’. With six young adults to look after, Sky’s parents were under enormous strain but that didn’t stop them from trying. In their eye’s we were all their children now.

The six of us, Sky, Michael, Gareth, Jessica, Storm and myself were lucky. We’ve been friends for as long as I can remember. We escaped the extinction by chance, having been camping up in the mountains when disaster struck. We don’t know much about what happened other than what we saw. We had been on the mountain for about three days when Michael overhead the reports from his radio. The news reporter said how the sun had just released the biggest solar flare in recorded history and it would hit us by the next day.

The next day arrived. It was global. Earthquakes, flash flooding, volcanic eruptions, tsunamis, and even polar vortexes which created an instant freeze effect. By some miracle or curse, I’m still undecided, our immediate area faced only earth quakes and flash flooding with minor frost bite. Most of us were badly injured. Rocks from the mountain had dislodged during the quakes and threatened our lives, but we survived, just barely. Sky’s parents refused to talk about it, all we knew was when we came back home after having the earth shake violently beneath us, houses had caved in, our mobile phones no longer worked, bodies floated down the flooded streets and all of our families, except Sky’s were dead. It was the most crippling moment any of us experienced.

Getting to everyone’s house proved problematic. Most places were submerged under water. I remember Storm had nearly drowned trying to look for her parents in their house. It was horrible. It took weeks for the waters to recede so we spent most of our time on the mountain hunting for what little food we could find. Eventually we returned to our small town, and along with Sky’s parents, we found an abandoned house which was structurally sound. Sky’s dad began with the repairs, his mom setup inside the house while the six of us scouted for supplies.

Since then our friendship circle has become even tighter, fighting for our survival together and doing our best to get by each day. Even though things were tough, we had a well-rounded group of people. Michael was always hard at work, an abundant source of energy. Whether this was because he was the youngest or it was natural, we never knew. Some of us even thought he had ADHD. He had more of a preppy boys look with shortly cropped black hair and hazel green eyes, so he needed all that energy back in high school for his numerous female companions. Now though, he often worked with Sky’s mom in the vegetable garden we made at the back of the family house, doing all the laborious work.

Jessica was the one to come up with the idea. She’d always been the smart one, and I mean smart. With all the science and chemistry awards she'd won, and her parent’s being doctors, it’s hard to believe she was also extremely attractive, a so called blond bomb shell with emerald green eyes. That didn’t stop her from adding her ‘2 cents’ in every conversation, but we never complained, it was always useful information.

Then there was Gareth, the ever faithful, loyal Gareth. He had always been mature for his age and some would say even humble. Don’t get me wrong, he didn’t look like a hermit. He was built like a rugby player, with shaggy brown hair and light brown eyes. On first glance most people would avoid him due to his manly appearance but once you got to know him, he was one of the gentlest souls you’d have ever met.

The person who was Gareth’s complete antithesis was Storm. A wild child and rebel by nature, always getting into fights. Her sharp tongue often got her into trouble back in high school and her appearance never helped her reputation either. She had that typical Goth girl look, with pitch black hair. The one redeeming feature she had was her blue eyes. The stark contrast of the hair and eyes made her appear dark yet beautiful at the same time. Her real name was always kept secret, to this day neither of us know for sure what it is.

Another member of our group also had a rather peculiar name, except his was real. To most people, Sky was thought to be Jessica’s brother. He too shared the good looks and blond hair she had, except his hair was spiky and his eyes were crystal blue. Sky’s strong point however, was his mathematical brain and unbeatable logic. He always managed to come up with full proof plans; I suppose it helps when you were a master chess player. He was probably the shyest of us all, a true introvert, though we never understood why.

As for myself, well I’m sure everyone else would say I’m the leader of the group. Being the eldest, that responsibility seemed to naturally fall on my shoulders.

Daeron! Hurry up, we need to get going! Said Storm yanking me away from the rather comfortable corner I found myself sitting in, contemplating our group.

I’m up, I’m up. Has Jessica decided where the best place to get supplies is? I asked, gingerly lifting myself off the rugged old mat I’d been sitting on.

You do realise that we may have to barter that old piece of shit you’re sitting on eventually.

Leave my rug alone. I replied.

Storm always had a way of giving one a rude awakening which sometimes felt more like a slap in the face.

Jess found a place. Everyone is out front geared up and ready to go.

Hunting down supplies had always been dangerous. Not knowing if someone is occupying that house or if it had already been raided, not to mention the potential of running across other looters. All the houses within the immediate town area had already been raided, anything we could get our hands on had been taken. Most people in the neighbourhood had died and those that survived, left to one of the few safe villages that had popped up after the Fall. Sky’s parents refused to go, knowing full well that our freedom would be taken away, never mind the politics that went on behind the scenes but we often travelled to them to trade items for food if the tradesman hasn't been around

Daeron, I’ve studied the maps we’ve got, we’ve already raided all the immediate area and a bit beyond that too. There is one mansion we’ve avoided. It’s still standing but we all know the rumours of that place. It’s our last bet otherwise we’ll have to resort to camping a day away in order to made it to the next town and back.

Since we first started raiding, Jessica has always avoided the Blake Mansion. Its dark exterior and over grown foliage made for the perfect local haunted house story. After the floods it looked even more gruesome. There was never any proof that it was haunted, but that didn't deter Jess. We eventually agreed that it’s better to avoid camping away. We couldn’t risk leaving Sky’s parents to fend for themselves, should raiders attack.

We geared up and began walking, weapons in hand. We would always follow a similar path way through the open fields. The roads were not safe to travel on because of the fissures and large chunks of tar which had broken away after the quakes, some of them were several meters in diameter either raising a few meters above the ground, so sinking just a low creating pot holes the size of swimming pools.

Most of the surrounding area was swamp land now, and many houses were nothing but rubble. Our once bustling municipality was nothing more than a deserted ghost town. One would have thought that after such a huge global event we would’ve expected dark, grey, gloomy skies, but in actual fact it looked like any other day. It took about a year for the seasons to correct itself, but nature prevailed. During that period however, it was literally four seasons in a day. Eventually everything was as before, except for the modern day luxuries we were all used to. The world around us was barren. Grass was only beginning to grow again. Trees that did not survive the Fall laid on their sides, rotting. Those that did provided the only contrast in colour from the empty lands and demolished homes. Eventually after about two hours of walking the mansion came into view.

Finally! I knew this day would come. I told you we couldn’t avoid the old mansion for much longer.

Much to everyone’s dismay, Storm was ecstatic about the upcoming raid. She’d been waiting to raid that spook house for months.

Bloody hell Storm, do you have to be so obviously creepy?

At least I’m not a scared sissy boy Sky. She retorted.

Okay, that’s enough, we’re supposed to remain silent. Besides, we’re almost there. I couldn’t help but come to Sky’s defence, and lately Storm had been making quite an issue about it.

I received a rather annoyed look from her, her eyes darting between Sky and myself. We had walked for almost 6 hours when we finally reached the grey stoned walls of the Blake Mansion. Huge trees hung on their side, half uprooted, surrounded the property. Their long dead grey branches cast the mansion in constant shadow while the broken glass and dark interior added to its menacing appearance.

We knew our tactics by now. Each member would take a wing of the house, while one entered from the rear, the other came in through the front. Usually Michael and I did that. As I entered through the front door, which was damp and rotted, I noticed that the house had never been touched. Clearly we were not the only ones who’d been avoiding this place. The air was thick and mouldy, making it difficult to breath. The dark interior, antiqued furniture, and large cobwebs that laced the walls, didn’t help to settle our nerves either.

All clear! I heard Michael shout from the rear of the mansion.

Same here! I responded.

The others guarding each wing made their way inside the house except Michael who returned outside to take up guard duty at the front door.

I get the feeling we’re not going to find much food in this place. Looks like it hasn’t been occupied in years. We all stared at Jessica as she stated the obvious.

Sky and Jess, sweep the upstairs, take anything of value we can carry. Gareth and Storm, raid the ground floor for any supplies and valuables. I’ll search the basement. They all stared at me in horror at the mention of searching the basement alone.

Well, would any of you prefer to do it? I paused, waiting for a reply.

Nothing.

I thought as much. Now get a move on, we need to get back before nightfall.

I got nods all around. In their respective teams they disappeared to complete their designated tasks.

The basement door was just beyond the kitchen. Slowly turning the knob, I opened the door and switched on my torch as I stepped down into the dusty dark pit. I searched my surroundings; old bottles were piled up against one corner while rubbish littered the remainder of the basement. Finding nothing of use or value I decided to head back but then I noticed something odd; an air outlet in the back wall. Stalking slowly towards it I could see the outline of a cleverly concealed door with no handle to open it. I grabbed my blade out of my backpack and wedged it between the very narrow gaps trying to lodge it open. Inching down the stone frame, my blade hit something metallic and suddenly the door burst open releasing a gush of stale air that overwhelmed my senses. I stepped into the hidden room with my torch in hand, illuminating the small area. In the middle laid an extremely old and dusty wood Kist engraved with elaborate symbols of some sort on the lid while the rest was plain and uninteresting.

Jess! I shouted.

I need you to take a look at something!

Moments later I heard the stomping of feet running down the stairs towards me.

What’s up? Jessica whispered as she inched towards me.

I’ve found something, but I’m not sure about the symbols. It looks very old, possibly quite valuable. I’m not sure whether to open it or not.

Jessica gently stepped next