Welcome! Book 2 is set to be released January 29th! As soon as the cover art is available it will be available for pre-order on Amazon!

Enjoy a sneak peek at Book 2:

Chapter 2: The Compound

The cabin has provided sanctuary for the past six months. Ever since the aliens destroyed much of the earth, we have remained hidden in the mountain top retreat. Don and I have made many runs down the mountain for supplies, we’ve had a few spots of trouble, but we’ve never run into the shifters – until now. I know my brother Ethan saw the whole thing from his vantage point in the lookout tower; everyone in the cabin will soon know I am not coming home. As for Don, I do not know his fate since we split up; we always thought separating the alien shapeshifters was our best hope. But I doubt he would survive a direct encounter with the aliens, if they caught up to him.

The feeling of dread is overwhelming; I think I might vomit. I have a general sense of where they are taking me. We have never been there exactly but have observed the shifters enough to know essentially where this compound is located.  It is odd, no matter how hard we looked from the tower, we have been unable to see a camp of any sort. 

I walk slowly; my ankle is really hurting after traversing the rough terrain. I can feel the eyes upon me from all sides as we walk. The unknown has me so terrified I am shaking violently. Tears are burning in my eyes, but I manage to fight them off. The hair that has fallen from my braid is wet against my face with sweat, I desperately want to wipe it away, but I don’t dare move other than one foot in front of the other to follow along.

In the distance, far off across the valley, I hear a commotion; my only thought then is of Don.  I notice many shifters glance in that direction, looking a bit smug, if you can call their expression that; they are so unlike us. They seem like they know what is happening.  I am sure they’ve caught up to him. Will he fight? Will they kill him because he poses a threat? Will I ever see my friend, my lover, again? I’ve already lost so many of my family and friends I can’t bear to lose another. Though, I have no idea at this point what is going to happen to me, now that I’ve been caught.

I am lost in my worry for Don so I’m not paying attention to what is happening in front of me, I run into the back of the leader who stopped abruptly. It spins around, pointing a weapon at me. Shakily, I raise both of my hands in the air, “sorry,” I mutter in a hoarse whisper, “I wasn’t paying attention to where I was walking.”

Coming back to the situation in front of me, I notice an opening in the ground. I could have sworn it was not here a few minutes ago, but then again, I wasn’t really paying attention, so I am not totally sure. I was too distracted by the noise coming from across the valley, which has now ceased leaving nothing but eerie silence in its place.

I see a stairway into an underground cavern ahead, it steps aside and motions for me to proceed down the steps. I hesitate, one pushes me hard from behind, I nearly fall headfirst into the hole. I turn around by instinct to glare. The shifter who shoved me has not bothered to change from their natural gremlin-like alien form. Man, he, or maybe she I suppose, is strong for a short little alien. I take a deep, steadying breath and proceed hesitantly down the tunnel into the unknown. It is a difficult trek, the staircase tunnel is steep, long, dark, and my ankle is killing me. How far down into the earth does this go?

At the bottom of the stairs, there is a large rectangular cavern well-lit by torches. The marks on the walls gives the appearance this cavern was recently dug or constructed with small tools.  Throughout the room there are many doors that look to be constructed hastily from a mishmash of lumber. There isn’t much activity here in this main room. Humans are gathered in groups around the edges of the large room; I can feel many eyes upon me. I hear a gasp from a distance, but I don’t turn around to see where it came from.

These humans don’t appear to interact the way you would expect when there is excitement in the room. The groups seem confined to specific areas, though I see no walls or anything keeping them there. I can’t help but wonder, why aren’t they running? Being located so close to the entrance, they should leave. Or, why aren’t they revolting or fighting? It seems like there is more than enough to take on this group of shifters. But given what I’ve learned about these vile creatures so far, I am quite certain the simple reason is, they can’t.

Moving toward the far end of the cavern, the entourage begins to slow; I finally look up and see a wall lined with black doors. I swear in the back of my mind I hear Connor whisper my name, saddened by my predicament. I briefly wonder if he made it to Texas, upset by the thought he may not have and I will never know. It is odd to think of him now, after all this time being with Don. When the group leader opens the door, inside is a small room, about three-feet-long and three-foot-wide. It shoves me through the opening and slams the door behind me. Great, now what. The room is completely black; there is no light coming in what-so-ever, buried here under the earth; I hear muffled sounds from outside, but no words reach me.

Standing dumbfounded in the corner, staring where I believe the door to be, I begin to wonder what is going to happen to me. Within what has to be only minutes, one of them returns; I have to shield my eyes from the brightness that floods the cell. Though only soft torchlight, my eyes had adjusted to total blackness, and now just this simple light hurts. The shifter takes advantage of my distraction, slamming me hard against the dirt wall, spins me around, binding my hands behind my back with what feels like ordinary rope. Trembling in uncontrollable fear, I wonder if they are going to kill me after all.  I know they keep some humans down here. Most we have seen look battered and defeated; tears pique at my eyes as I start to imagine what torture lies ahead. 

After binding my hands, it simply leaves, slamming the door behind it.  I move forward until I feel the wall with my shoulder, then slide down the wall to a sitting position. In my mind, I start counting; what else can I do to pass time here. I need something to keep my mind from wondering to what lies ahead for me.

I am left alone, my hands bound behind my back in complete darkness.  Based on my mental counting, I am thinking I’ve been here maybe an hour when a different one opens the cell. I stand when I hear the door opening, though this is difficult without the use of my hands. This one is in human form; I know it is not actually a human from the lines behind its ears. Are these all men, or the alien equivalent of a man? It reaches out and once again spins me to face the other direction, placing a hood over my head; I can see nothing but my feet in the dull light filtering in from the main room.

It puts one hand on my shoulder and pushes me forward into the main cavern. I stumble along, not knowing what direction we are headed. I often stumble, each time receiving the lash of a whip across my back. I do my best, but without seeing where I am going, not having my arms for balance, and the pain in my ankle, this is not going well. I feel tears pricking at my eyes in response to the pain. A door opens in front of us, and when I step forward, I sense I am in a large room; I can hear the sounds of many things shuffling about.  With this hood on, I can only see feet, some human-looking, some gremlin-like, moving about the room. After fifteen steps, we stop and appear to be facing a table or desk. The thing standing behind me speaks in their native language, then another voice, full of authority, comes from in front of me, “remove the hood,” it commands.

I am standing in front of a makeshift desk, which appears to be a sheet of plywood stretched across two columns made from packed dirt. Across this crude desk, sitting in an office-style chair, I can only assume they’ve stolen from a nearby house or office complex, is a shifter.

It appears to be a man in his late twenties. The appearance it reflects has dark hair, a strong jawline, dark piercing eyes, and a well-muscled body. Not only is it incredibly appealing in appearance, but something I find concerning is the lines behind the ears are so faint they are almost completely invisible.

As it stares at me, its expression is that of surprise. It looks me up and down, stands up, and walks a circle around me like it is inspecting a purchase.  Then it finally speaks. “So, how is it that you came to be in this area today?” it asks. I am immediately frightened by how well it speaks English compared to what we’ve observed in the past.  I stand there in terrified silence for a moment, which was apparently too long. The shifter in front nods, and I feel a sharp pain across my back. The shifter behind me has hit me with something hard, a bat? I fall forward.

“I shall ask you one time more, how did you come to be here, in this area today?” it asks again.

“M, m, my friend and I have been traveling south on foot from Ohio. We were hoping to make it farther south before winter,” I stammer out.

“And you managed to avoid my warriors all this time?” it questions suspiciously. From what we have heard and observed, usually the shifters are not this smart or suspicious. Overall, they seem to only say a few words, repeating what they have heard. This one being so well informed and suspicious turns my stomach; we are in more trouble than we ever realized. This must be the ‘damn king’ the scavenger we saw over the summer was referring to. Another clue is it keeps referring to the others as ‘its warriors’.

“Yes, we’ve kept to the woods; we traveled slowly by night to avoid detection,” I easily spin this lie; the lives of my dearest friends, family, depend on it.

“You are quite clean for traveling such as you say,” it pushes further.

“We, we’ve washed in creeks and lakes, we had an extra set of clothes with us, so we’ve kept one set clean while wearing the other,” I stammer out; I have got to lie better.

It seems to question the shifter behind me in their native language. They carry on a conversation for quite some time, so long, I am getting nervous. It smirks a bit, the turns its attention back to me.

“Where did you leave this change of clothes you mention?” it asks, questioning my lie.

Crap, where do I tell it? Then I remember the abandoned campsite, we saw the girl taken from a few weeks ago, and it is miles away from the cabin. There were certainly some duffle bags and things there if they go check it out. “At our last campsite. We were out scouting the area when we saw your kind, we ran without a thought to our belongings. I can’t tell you exactly where it was, but it was farther east of the place we first saw the shifter,” I say with more confidence.

“Shifter?” he questions.

“That is the only name we have for you,” I say.

“Hmm, your friend, it seems, will not be joining us here,” it says smugly. I am not sure what that means, but I am assuming that Don did not survive. I crumple inside, the wind is completely knocked out of me, and I find it hard to breathe. I want to cry, I want to mourn the loss of yet another companion, but I cannot, not here in this room full of enemies. I know it sees the pain in my eyes; the hint of a smile on its face tells me he is enjoying the pain; these creatures are cruel.

It is still standing directly in front of me, and I do not like it this close. It eyes me a bit more then says, “you will stay.” Nodding to the shifter behind it, it speaks a few more commands in their native humming language before returning to the chair behind the desk. 

Once it is done speaking, the shifter behind me spins me around, placing the hood back over my face. When we move towards the door, the leader speaks again, “give this one the full welcome treatment; she seems like trouble. Let’s make sure she knows who is in charge here.” It then finishes off the sentence with more of their weird humming language. The shifter responds in English, “Tadako, yes.” I am not sure what this means, but I am terrified; I am quite certain whatever is about to happen to me will be unbearable, how will I survive?

I stumble along, only able to see my feet. The light in the main room has dimmed even more, signaling night has fallen in earnest; I think I hear someone snoring. I wish Don was here to comfort me, no, I do not wish that, I am glad he is not in this awful place. 

We reach the wall lined with black doors; I am once again shoved into the tiny room. I stand in this room with my hands still bound behind my back and the damn hood over my head. It is pitch black, not like I can see anything anyway; why the hood too, I question internally. I walk forward slowly and carefully, pushing my shoulder out in front of me until I find a wall, turn and slump down into a sitting position. My back burns as the lash marks rub against the wall while I slide down. I lean my head forward, attempting to rub off the hood; it takes many attempts, but I am finally successful. I still can’t see anything in this darkness; I can, at least, breathe a little better.