The countdown is on. June 8 is the release date for Welcome to the Apocalypse Book 2 - CyberNexis. This is my first series. Prior to this, my books have been snapshots of a moment in a character's life, all standalone novels or short stories. When I started writing the story of three characters, Kelly Lawrence, Jack Minnow, and Reis Anderson, who become trapped in a virtual reality game battling a new apocalypse every day, I knew it would take much longer to tell this story than one book. I'm planning to write 4 or 5 novels to tell this entire story. Because there was a reason the computer failed...
Synopsis
Getting out of the game used to be all that mattered. Now
all that matters is getting back in.
In
book one players were trapped in a virtual game. Finally rescued, they're taken
to an offsite facility where they'll spend a few weeks
recovering from muscle dystrophy and cyber sickness. But not everyone
survived.
Not
only do Kelly, Jack, and Reis have to cope with the deaths of players
they've come to respect and love, they'll have to cope with the reason
behind the computer malfunction. All the fingers are pointing at
the game's creator, CyberNexis.
If
you like exciting twists and complex characters, and if fun and entertaining
reads are what you're after, then you'll enjoy this second instalment in the
Welcome to the Apocalypse series.
pRE-ORDER YOUR COPY NOW.
Why pre-order?
save $1 when you pre-order, special price $2.99 usd (normally $3.99
you get the ebook delivered on the day of release. So it's set and forget.
it helps with the rankings on amazon.
book one was top 5 hot new releases for 2 weeks.
read an extract
CHAPTER 1
The internet always crashed at home. Without fail, a quick search for a
recipe turned into an epic battle, lasting longer than the Napoleonic War. However
long that was; Kelly Lawrence didn't actually know because the computer had
crashed the day she'd tried to find out.
The cause of her aggravation was not the plastic box and silicone chips
that housed the data. The culprit was a non-sentient thing, capable of wreaking more havoc than a sugared-up toddler in
a china shop. The culprit was cyber space. Littered with viruses, worms,
malwares, and Trojans.
Why had she placed her life in the hands of a something prone to
collapse?
Because it was meant to be a game.
It was also meant to be fail proof.
Someone was whispering in her ear. "It's over. You're safe."
No such thing as safe, she told herself, tuning out the voice floating to her from a corridor
that could only lead to her darkest nightmares. She'd had enough of nightmares
that charged towards her with blind fury, sending fiery sparks that stung like
ant bites and always heralded another battle with monsters that wanted her
dead.
"She's slipping away," the faraway voice said. "Come on,
Kelly. Fight it."
Some people were born fighters. Others learned the skill. But always,
even when you won you lost something.
"Stay with me," the voice beckoned. "I'm not gonna lose
you."
What was the point of fighting? Pandora was never going to let her go.
Yes, they'd given their cybernetic nemesis a name. Over one hundred people had
entered simulation pods to escape reality. When it'd gone horribly wrong, it'd
made sense to name their enemy after a goddess who'd unleashed hell upon
mankind. All they'd had left was hope.
Even that was gone now.
Kelly let the darkness drag her away.
***
Kelly opened her eyes and was taken aback for a second. Seated opposite
her was her late husband, Matt. Her heart lifted a little. He'd found her. Or
had she found him? It seemed she recalled, hazily as if under the influence of
a drug, that she'd gone in search of him inside the game, and here he was. He
looked exactly as she remembered, with his dirty-blond hair that refused to
stay out of his eyes, wearing a green shirt that melded to his body with
adoration. He'd be almost thirty-one if he was alive. She was on the downhill
side of twenty-six. These details should have mattered.
Instead, something akin to fear grew inside her, building the way a
tornado does until she knew that whatever was heading her way could only be
dangerous. Like a shipwreck survivor adrift in the ocean, Kelly slapped at the
surging darkness to grab hold of the faraway voice. It was gone. She was alone
with the ghost of her dead husband.
"The pursuit of happiness is a sink," Matt said, stabbing a
slice of toast into the runny yoke of a boiled egg. "You fill the bowl
with things that make you happy; shopping, drinking, smoking, eating. Whatever.
Then you wake up the next morning to discover that the sink has a hole in it
and the bowl is empty. What do you do?"
Too tired to take the bait to an argument so old it could only be
interpreted with a hieroglyphics manual, she let her shoulders slump. She cast
her gaze around the cafe where she and Matt had spent most Sunday mornings. The
rustic decor of copper pipes converted into bookshelves, wine barrels made into
tables, old jam jars used as drink glasses...these decorative items had once
fascinated her. Now they terrified her. Only Matt could have replicated this
virtual world. A world that both touched and saddened her heart at the same
time, for this world was a glimpse through a window. Memories were all that
were on offer in this cafe.
And yet, the past could only haunt a person if they let it, so why was
she?
"Kelly?" Matt was scowling at her with a furious look in his
eyes. The real Matt only ever scowled
in fierce concentration, never in anger. "What do you do?"
"My addled brain sports neither concern nor clue," she said, quoting
her dead husband who'd once spent a month talking like a Shakespearean actor
while working on a Mediaeval cosplay website. This version stared at her blankly. Proof that he wasn't real.
"I just want to go home," she said.
The moment the words left her mouth she felt the air shift. The cafe
faded and in its place was a war zone. Buildings were on fire, guns were being fired,
smoke filled her nostrils.
The window beside her smashed, glass flew into the plate of eggs, and
someone - no something - jumped
through the opening.
There wasn't anything human about this creature. It had matted hair that
was encrusted with dirt and blood. It carried knives in both hands and the hide
of a deer was wrapped around its back. Bones hung around its neck and when it
caught Kelly's gaze, it growled. The spell was broken. Her reflexes sprang into
action. She ran out of the cafe.
Whatever happens next, she told herself, just keep
running.
The beast matched her pace, running beside her with its wild hair
trailing like a horse's mane. It turned its head and smiled, revealing yellow
teeth. In her head she heard a voice yelling at her to go left, and so she did.
But she ran straight into another creature.
It held a knife above its head. Staring at it, she noticed it was too
small to be knife. A syringe! The beast swung the syringe down into her neck.
Except it wasn't a syringe, it was a computer cable.
Enjoyed this extract? Why not buy the book? You can buy it here.
Haven't read Book 1 yet? No worries, you can buy it here.
