Dawn Rises In Purgatory: Chapter 1

Greg didn’t really believe it was the end of the world until he stopped at the gas station.

He was willing to concede that it was the end of him, Sgt. Gregory Torvald. Maybe not today, but soon. His body ached all over, his eyes itched and went fuzzy at the most inconvenient moments, and the fever made him feel detached and as if time was passing far too slowly.

It was fortunate that the shivers and coughing fits only hit him once in a while. He probably would never forget that one guy, the corpsman, who started coughing one afternoon and didn’t stop for a day, not even when the blood came up and he’d torn muscles in his back and stomach.

For a dead man he was doing better than he could expect. Heck, there were times he felt pretty much okay, like now. Not healthy, really, but not like he was going to keel over right then and there.

Payment In Crimson: Chapter 1

Dawn was heralded only by a slight brightness in the heavy overcast. That was only the latest in a series of things that had gone wrong this morning, but it was the most important miscalculation of Adam’s life.

The gloom should have at least been accompanied by a dramatic thunderstorm, lightning crashing and winds driving the rain sideways in recognition of what Anthony felt sure would be an epic battle inside Parker’s tasteful Edwardian house.

Anthony waited outside, half a block away. He was supposed to be the backup if something went wrong, or the getaway driver if Adam’s half-baked plan worked. He had his doubts, but either way, the boss would get what he wanted.

Oldshoe: Chapter 1

I was tired of walking. That’s how it started.

I hated to admit it, but there it was. I, whose primary means of travel earned me the name “John Oldshoe”—a name known to some—didn’t want to walk any more.

The heat was partly to blame. By the end of May, Mississippi was sweltering. It was nearly impossible to tell where sweat ended and the heavy air began. My clothes were really just an arbitrary border between the two, soaked from both directions.

We should also consider how long I’d been walking and how hard I was traveling.