Fear's Drive

Cameron A. Person

Description

face of the both the world's and the antagonist group's belief that they in fact are not, one believing them freakish mutates, and the other believing them and their own group the planet's superior race.
After a devastating eruption of enigmatic white energy, three estranged high school acquaintances; Dylan, Sam, and Victor, each of which have taken vastly different paths in their individual lives, find themselves abruptly reunited in an unfamilair place.
They soon discover their bodies have been evolved to a higher evolutionary state by a growing organization of superhuman zealots, leaving them each with a uniquely dangerous ability.
Now changed and on the wrong side of humanity in a coming war for the title of the planet's dominant species, the three reunited friends must learn to work together to traverse their budding abilities and slowly uncover the plot they've found themselves thrust into.

Sujets

• Science Fiction
• Superpower (disambiguation)
• Evolution
• Fiction

Informations

• Publié par: Archway Publishing
• Date de parution: 29 mars 2023
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781665741057
• Langue: English

Extrait

FEAR’S DRIVE
DECLARATION OF WAR
CAMERON A. PERSON


Copyright © 2023 Cameron A. Person.
 
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
 
This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, names, incidents, organizations, and dialogue in this novel are either the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.
 
 
Archway Publishing
1663 Liberty Drive
Bloomington, IN 47403
www.archwaypublishing.com
844-669-3957
 
Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.
 
Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.
Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.
 
ISBN: 978-1-6657-4104-0 (sc)
ISBN: 978-1-6657-4105-7 (e)
 
Library of Congress Control Number: 2023905396
 
 
 
 
Archway Publishing rev. date: 03/29/2023
CONTENTS
Prologue
 
1Just Out of View
2Raging Light
3Calamity’s Aftermath
4Glimpse of the New World
5Out of the Loop
6Seeing Red
7Reflexive Inferno
8Tip of a Blade
9Just the Beginning
10Anybody Would Be Better Than Me
11Temper Tantrum
12Gathering of Elites
13Memories and Limitations
14Gut Feeling
15Performing under Pressure
16What Would You Think Now?
17Insubordination
18The Right to Judge Another
19Can’t Compare Pain
20Not What, Who
21Not a Comic Book
22How Many Deaths?
23Still Adapting
24Too Close For Comfort
25Countdown
26A Place to Direct the Rage
27Make Me Fight for It
28Blackout
29Surrounded
30We Fight
 
Epilogue

For everyone who helped me along the way.
PROLOGUE
“Fear.” The worn older man’s hoarse voice boomed out across the barren valley, its natural bass seeming to shake the debris around him. “Every species has experienced this natural instinct of self-preservation. Its origin dates back to even our earliest evolutionary ancestors, from the humans of our current era trailing backward through primates to the first tetrapod to make the revolutionary leap from water onto land, all the way back to the first single-celled organism that decided to seamlessly split down the middle to create an exact copy of itself in what can be considered the first fearful reaction of isolation. In all recorded history, very few beings have been exempted from this phenomenon, and those slim few are the great men and women who have shaped history so far.”
His voice paused as he let out a chuckle that could send shivers down the spines of even the mightiest opposition.
“Yes, every now and then there arise those among the mindless, fear-driven masses with the strength of will to rise above that unnecessary burden and evolve in ways no normal living being could ever imagine.”
As he spoke, he began toying with a black liquid-like substance secreting from the inside of his coat sleeve. “These incredible people arise far and few between. But when they do, they give the evolutionary process an unprecedented leap forward. Like the great strides that brought the age of the primitive Neanderthal to a close and dawned the age of the superior-minded Homo Sapiens .”
His tone shifted. “However, in the endless pursuit of dreaded perfection, one cannot just sit idly by and wait for those great people or great strides to come their way. Sometimes, one must take it into his or her own hands to rise and push the species forward, even if that means making the hardest of decisions.”
“This world is a garden, one that was meant to be inhabited only by ascended beings deserving of its radiance. Why should parasites who seek to do nothing but damage and pollute this beautiful planet that has done nothing but support and nourish us since the dawn of time be allowed to roam free and continue their rampant destruction?”
He clutched his hand tight as he continued on, the black substance worming its way back into his coat sleeve.
“To be a driving force in evolution, tampering with the creation of people’s so-called God … makes one close to a God himself, does it not? What use does a God have with the primitive concept of fear when he’s tasked with the purge of the parasitic scourge that’s killing this planet?”
He waved his arms out expressively and gestured to the desecrated landscape around him.
He cracked another chilling smile. “We created FEAR to be that driving force, separating the strong from the weak, the good from the evil, the remedies … from the parasites, and to attempt to start a new and better direction for the world around us.”
“My organization believes in my cause. They believe in me and the new age I will create. And who am I to betray that faith? I will admit, though, I’d never considered we’d face this level of opposition.”
1
JUST OUT OF VIEW
T he streets echoed with the buzzing of energetic city life; the car horns, diversified voices, and rumblings of construction, along with the handful of other screeches and screams, were the norm for the people calling New York home. The noise never ceased, for this was “the City That Never Sleeps.”
To some this may have been miserable, but for most, they couldn’t imagine anything else.
The city’s plethora of noises were more prominent this particular morning, specifically from the cars littering the streets, as their drivers repeatedly honked and exclaimed in irritation at the man gallivanting over the hoods of their stationary vehicles.
He raced down the gridlocked street, sliding across one car after another without even a glance in either direction.
His name was Sam Newman, a young man born and raised in the concrete jungle of New York and one of the few who didn’t mind all the racket. It drowned out all the static and invasive thoughts that paraded through his mind on a daily basis.
Coming to a halt a ways up the street, he took a quick look in the glass reflection of a nearby storefront, running his hand through the thick strands of auburn hair lying on his face. It was handsomely messy as usual, as if he had just rolled out of bed with a fully done head of hair.
With his backpack bobbing along with him as he weaved his way down the crowded sidewalk, he shivered, watching as his visible breath dissipated into the cold October air. He raced fluidly, knowing where he was heading and how to get there like the back of his hand.
Whipping around a corner onto West 37 th Street, he reached a certain alley that lay a bit outside his usual route. Stopping to light up his second-to-last smoke, he savored a couple quick puffs before continuing with his daily task. With the cigarette placed tightly between his lips, he knelt at the entrance of the alley, quickly pulling out a small piece of Tupperware from the front pocket of his backpack.
Taking the lid off the container and revealing the heaping portion of dog food, Sam called out to the figure he could see curled up underneath the makeshift shelter a distance into the alley. “Here, boy!” he called.
Out popped a fluffy, albeit slightly dirty, yet still otherwise beautiful golden retriever. The surprisingly well-fed pup came barreling out of the alley, tackling Sam as it proceeded to aggressively lick at his face and knock his cigarette to the ground.
“It hasn’t even been twelve hours yet, boy.” Sam laughed, propping himself up as he started to pet the ecstatic dog. “Ah, hell. I know. I missed you too, buddy.” He wrapped his arms around the dog as it dug its head into his shoulder to give him a hug.
Relighting his unfinished smoke, Sam sat with the dog as it chowed away at its fresh food and water. To that day, he still didn’t know the dog’s name, having gotten by so far with simple terms like “pup” or “buddy.” Though he’d tried to name him a few times, the dog never answered to anything he could come up with.
The closest he’d ever got was when the dog glanced his direction at the name Ruckus, but even then, he still wouldn’t respond to it.
He always figured it was because the dog’s previous owner had already named him.
And asking him was clearly out of the question.
Sam had never actually spoken to the dog’s owner, only seen him every few days as he passed by the very alley he now stood in, seemingly the old man’s home. He could always be found sitting out along the street with his cup placed in front of him, and the dog always sat close by. He usually held a sign that read, “I tried to take on the world. It won.”
It had been like that for at least a year or so, and Sam couldn’t help but feel sad every time he saw the old man. His sign, while simply put, held no lies, just the bare truth of a man who had plummeted down the economic ladder. Though he wasn’t exactly in any better position, given the threat of eviction he’d been facing in the last few months or so, he always tried to give the spare change or bills he had on him as he passed.
Then one day Sam had passed by the alleyway, and strangely enough, he hadn’t seen either the man or the dog anywhere in sight. He thought nothing of it, figuring they had finally moved to another area of the city and began to continue on.
Stopping in his tra