Monday, May 29, 2017

Juggernaught: Chapter 23 - Boiler Room


The the following is the next exciting next chapter of the ongoing eBook:
Juggernaught: A Moast Unusual Bible Study

Misty sprang around the corner, swinging the knife fiercely for where she calculated the unwanted guest's head would be.

She was right about the target, but before she could make contact an iron grasp clamped around her wrist and forced it out and away from its intended target.  With a sound as loud as a landslide in the stillness, the knife clattered to the concrete floor.

Misty berated herself.  Between the wall and the hot boiler like she was, she didn't have the same freedom of movement she was used to.  And that miscalculation had done her in.

To her surprise, however, instead of a counterattack or a cry of alarm, the only retaliation was a, "Sssh.  It's us."

The whisper carried the slight undertone of Jack Savage's voice.

"We wondered when you were going to show up." whispered an equally unseen Wendell.

Misty was annoyed by the insinuation that she was slow in escaping.  She defended herself by saying, "Easy for you to say.  There were two of you guys."

"Exactly!  That makes it even harder!", said Wendell.

"Does not!"

"Sssh!", said Jack again.

Misty turned it down a notch.  "I am glad to see you guys.  I was worried that you'd eaten that zombie doughnut thing."

"No danger of that." laughed Wendell.

Jack and Misty rolled their eyes at the statement and who was making it.

Misty added, "Too bad Howell and his team didn't get the hint though."  There was a a deep sense of regret in her voice that they all felt.

Jack said, "Yeah, well, we'll get to the bottom of that when we're out of here.  Till then, we have to lie low and wait for the hubbub to die down.

"So in the mean time...  Keep quiet, think through our options, and try to get whatever sleep you can... in a sauna... standing up."

"Plus, don't snore or you'll get shot." added Wendell.

"Yeah, right.  Pleasant dreams." said Misty ironically.



The preceding has been a chapter from Juggernaught: A Moast Unusual Bible Study
(Copyright 2016, Edmund Lloyd Fletcher.)

For more on this story, please visit its main page.

Also, don't forget to subscribe to the email list so you never miss a thing!

Monday, May 22, 2017

Juggernaught: Chapter 22 - Mice in the Attic


The the following is the next exciting next chapter of the ongoing eBook:
Juggernaught: A Moast Unusual Bible Study

Misty carefully crept through the dusty ceiling like a spider.  Even with her small frame she had to make sure that her weight was fully supported by the flimsy metal cross-members as she went. 

Worse still, even as small as she was, she quickly learned that she had to settle her weight very slowly on each new support or it would creak and pop, potentially giving her position away.  Any noise, no matter how slight, was like a blaring car horn to her hyper-alert senses.

At the moment she didn't have any particular destination in mind.  She was only trying to put as much distance as possible between her and her last known whereabouts.

At length, her slow progress was checked by a concrete column.  Its size tipped her off that it must be an elevator shaft.  This was a good thing.  If she could find an access hatch, she'd have free reign of all the attics on all the floors.  Some might even have drop ceilings instead of solid ones that she could use to lower herself down through.

Misty quickly found the hatch she was hoping for and began unscrewing the cover with a butter knife she had palmed back at the barracks.  All the while she was trying to decide which direction to take.

If she went up, that would put her farther from her eventual escape route.  But on the other hand, that would also mean the guards would be less thorough in their search there.

She took a few deep breaths, trying to clear all of the competing thoughts and scenarios out of her head.  It wasn't that they were bad or wrong -- just loud.  She knew she had to focus.

By now she realized where her training had steered her wrong.  Dr Puttery's D&D wargames were too cut-and-dry.  Make the "right decision", and you'd find the exit.  Make the "wrong decision", and there'd be a monster behind the door and make a quick end of you.

In real life, there were many more kinds of decisions than that, and whether some, or all, or none of them would work out... that was dependent on a thousand other things that you couldn't possibly know or control.

Upon realizing this, the tendency is to freeze up and not do anything at all. 

No choice was pretty much always the worst choice though, so Misty shook herself from her mental stupor.

A good hideout was any place they weren't likely to search.  So up, then?

No, better still, down.  All the way down.  To the basement!

And so she went.

Going was fast and simple in that direction, and before long she found herself standing on solid ground among the elevator's emergency cushion springs.

The maintenance hatch here was even easier to use than the one above.  Instead of screws it had a half-turn metal bar on the outside connected to a tiny tab on this side.  She simply grabbed this between her thumb and forefinger and gave it a slow turn, pulling some slight pressure to prevent any metal-on-metal noise.

Peeping out from behind the hatch she surveyed the room.  She'd still need to take cover somewhere that would mask her infrared signature from any sweep teams and their FLIR goggles.

Then she saw it.  In one corner was a huge boiler tank.  The corner behind it would be tight but Misty figured it would be about the right size for one person.

Carefully she made her way across the darkened room and began to wedge herself around the scalding surface.  When she had just passed the halfway point, she heard something. 

It wasn't much.  In fact  nothing that she could even describe.  Still, it betrayed that she was not alone!

She withdrew the knife from her side pocket with her free arm.  She took several deep breaths.

"It'll have to be quick.", she thought to herself.  "One peep out of the person and the jig is up."

She gripped the knife tighter... and sprang.



The preceding has been a chapter from Juggernaught: A Moast Unusual Bible Study
(Copyright 2016, Edmund Lloyd Fletcher.)

For more on this story, please visit its main page.

Also, don't forget to subscribe to the email list so you never miss a thing!

Friday, May 19, 2017

Update: on the road to recovery

Hey all,

Just giving you a little update since I haven't been throwing down a lot of posts lately and you're probably wondering what gopher hole I fell down.

Well, I caught a spring cold, but unlike those around me, it kept getting worse and worse.  My ear, jaw, ... basically the whole side of my head was swollen up like a pumpkin.  Couldn't eat, couldn't sleep, couldn't even swallow.

Of course this all happens in the middle of a class final project.

So eventually DW drags me into the Dr.  (which says a lot about how bad it was for me to go willingly).  Turns out I had a severe case of "peritonsillar abscess", which is a nasty little thing.  In fact, up until recently they thought this is what George Washington died of!

Anyway, they vandalized me personally pretty good and sent me home whimpering in pain, saying there was a 60% chance it didn't work and I'd need a CAT scan and throat surgery on Monday.  This was NOT my finest moment!

Got a lot of my tribe on prayer and, mercifully, it did turn around!  Praise the LORD!

I'm taking it easy now and letting the antibiotics do their thing.  (They somehow they changed the balance of things and gave me thrush, but compared to the pain before... I'm sure not complaining!)

Coming up for you guys I'll be back on track with the Juggernaught story this week, as well as some more midweek articles.  I hope to figure out some video resources to go with those so you can use them in your own Bible study groups if you want.

Then I've got the Moast Unusual sequel and another book coming out, as well as Queen of Atlantis in more formats, so plenty to do.


What else can I say, but it's good to be back!
 - E.L. Fletcher