Coming soon: Tomorrow’s Demise

This was the first book I wrote after leaving home. It has been a very long time in the making and has undergone numerous changes- so many in fact I find it difficult to recall the original story. That being said, I find it ironic that the first book I wrote is officially the last to get published before I begin working on new material. Tomorrow’s Demise is a fantasy/ science fiction hybrid that takes place on the planet Helscape. The human population is under assault from genetically created monsters called Berserkers. Take a quest to destroy the Berserkers, a corrupt interplanetary engine seeking to keep the Berserkers for themselves, and there is one heck of ride in between. Hope you all enjoy.

TOMORROW’S DEMISE: THE EXTINCTION CAMPAIGN

By

Christian Warren Freed

ONE

KANE

It had become death. The night sky, once so innocent and pure, cowered behind walls of black smoke. Fires pock-marked the landscape, raging to a tempered song both unholy and enchanting. The ground bubbled and blistered from the searing heat, and the land lay broken. Great tears in the mantle of the world widened with the fury, ripping across the desert into a series of lesions boiling fire and dust. The world had gone mad.

Aradias Kane sat atop his horse watching a scene he’d witnessed far too many times. His black hair danced on the wind. His fists, encased in worn leather gloves, clenched the reins furiously. Pain and hatred collided in his silver eyes. Another village. Another mindless raid by the inhuman Berserkers. Kane was convinced his enemy would not stop until every last human in the Wastelands was dead. His horse bucked impatiently as the ground continued to tremble. Kane pat it gently on the neck as if to say, “Soon.”

He gazed down at the flames and wondered how sand managed to burn so easily. An aged ion rifle slung over his shoulder, overused and faded silver, felt every bit its nine pounds. It was an older weapon, but he could easily fire off a few hundred shots with a full charge. The scene was always the same. People were dying. But no matter how many times this game unfolded, it always brought a tear to his eye. Kane felt helpless. A drop trickled down his weathered cheek as the flames continued to devour.

The clay brick homes of the village helped intensify the heat, baking those who were still alive. Kane smelled the burnt flesh on the winds and struggled to fight back the urge to vomit. He knew this town and many of the inhabitants. Indeed, there were few out here in the Wastes that the Slayers didn’t get to know. Most of the settlements west of the Angril River had either been destroyed or abandoned, leaving the sparse handful that remained easy targets for the Berserkers.

Kane hid in the shadows off the sparse rock clusters and dying cactus. If he made his presence known now, the Berserkers would tear him to pieces. The carnage was recent enough that he knew his hated foe still lurked. Kane’s silver eyes managed to catch fleeting glimpses of the monsters as they moved in and about the fires. His hands were sweating in his gloves, and he got that old feeling he got in the pit of his stomach right before he went into battle. He tied his long, dark hair in a tail behind him to keep it from getting in the way. His body was lean and lightly muscled, his skin a dark copper from years of exposure to Helscape’s twin suns.

Constant exposure to the harsh desert elements had made him appear much older than his years, and his constant battle against the Berserker horde took him beyond the limits of obsession. The Slayer checked his weapons as he prepared for the impending confrontation. His double barrel spear gun was loaded and resting c