Showing results by author "N.C. Reed" in All Categories

Billy Todd has always been different. Most people called him odd, and those were the nice people. Though he was born with a learning disability, Billy's parents never allowed him to consider himself disabled. Raised to be self-sufficient, Billy might not be as smart as some, but he was a lot smarter than people realized.

A group of people evacuating ahead of civil unrest amid a societal collapse find themselves lost, alone, and on the run, deep in the woods of rural West Tennessee. With snow on the ground, no skills, and not much more than the clothes on their backs, the group is in dire straits and probably won't last the coming night. Until out of the falling snow, a lone figure approaches. Over the next few days their silent benefactor will keep them safe, fed, and warm while helping them acquire the know-how to care for themselves. The thing is, he's just a kid....

By the most ludicrous of means, special ops soldier Clayton Sanders had a warning that something was going to happen to the world. Clay prepared for the worst, but just because you're well prepared doesn't mean everything is going to be okay. Clay has faced some of the worst humanity has to offer in all parts of the world, but now he is faced with something much worse than terrorists. His family.

Roland Stang never intended to become the caretaker of 30 abandoned children. He was just looking for a place to get out of the rain. His plan was to lay low and allow the world to reset itself after a worldwide economic collapse. But things do change. An orphan himself from an early age, the former soldier can't simply walk away and leave the children he finds. Leading a handful of teens and a busload of orphaned children, Roland sets out to find a safe haven for them. Along the way, he'll make friends, enemies, and the odd mistake or two. Or more.

When Tammy Gleason received a frantic phone call from her father, that was all it took to put her on the road home to Fort Bragg from Memphis, Tennessee, trying to outrun a disaster. On her way out of town, she befriends a young man whose only name is Ringo and who just might be a little bit more than he seems.

This is ridiculous. I mean seriously. I work for years, since I was in high school for crap’s sake, to be prepared for any emergency, anytime. I study, I train, I keep up with the news. I look for new products, I scour the web for suggestions about things I should always have on hand. I took training courses.

Having ended the threat of his father's oldest enemy and the group he controlled, Clayton Sanders believes he can finally put his feet up a bit and relax. Figuratively of course, since there is no relaxing on a farm and ranch. But some peace and quiet will be greatly appreciated and welcome. Too bad he won't get it. With the remainder of his old team on their way, Clay starts to think he might be able to breathe easier. Sure, they did say they were running from a big problem out west, but that's out west, right?

The tide of battle has turned. In a magnificent feat of maneuvering, Parno McLeod has lured his enemy into an ambush that has left the Imperial Army with half its strength dead or dying and all of its material support destroyed. And yet, the remaining Imperial Army on Soulan soil still numbers over 150,000 men. Men who are now angry and hungry, which is a dangerous combination.

Doom. Devastation. Death. Destruction. It seems that no matter what direction he looks, Clay Sanders can see little else. He has tried to maintain at least a small oasis of safety for the people closest to him, but that bubble is constantly threatened by those who want it for themselves, or else want to deny it to Clay and his family and friends, even though it belongs to them.

Clayton Sanders left home the minute he had his high school diploma in hand. He waited that long only because the army wouldn't accept him without one. Now, 10 years later, he's home. Home with no warning, no advance notice, no anything after being gone 10 years with almost no contact with his family. Home carrying a secret that is burning him up from the inside. A secret that has pushed him to the brink, forcing him to become a criminal in order to be where his family needs him to be, even though they don't realize it yet. Because Clayton knows something they don't.

Parno Mcleod has enough problems for three people. A brother trying to steal the throne. A former fiance who has ripped him apart emotionally, and an enemy army twice the size of his own camped out on millions of acres of prime farm land he needs to feed his people.

Assuming command of the entire Soulan military in place of his deposed brother, Therron, Parno must turn Soulan's fortunes around before his home is completely overrun and his people destroyed or enslaved. His ailing father has placed a great burden on his youngest son, because he simply doesn't have anyone else that can do the things that Parno can get done.

Captain Meredith Simmons and her pilot husband Lincoln were formerly officers for the Commonwealth, but each of them have now traded their commissions for civilian life and now make a living running cargo on their space freighter Celia. Everything is business as usual until a customer makes the unusual request for the Celia to take a young girl home with them as a passenger back to her people on the outer rim. As time passes, the crew begins to notice that there is more than meets the eye to their young passenger.

Bandits. Forest fires. Cannibals. Material shortages. Family problems. Why had Clayton Sanders expected these issues and others like them to be absent from life at the end of the modern world? It had sounded good anyway. His plan had been simple: dig in, hunker down, and wait it out. And then his family had gotten involved. Now he has to defend his family farm from an old enemy of his father and prevent him and his army of miscreants from taking the very things Clay and the others need to survive.

The world died long ago, leaving only a few here and there to rebuild. Their world had once been grand and magnificent, but too much was lost in the years after the time known as the Dying. Knowledge that had been gained over centuries disappeared from the world, lost when those who carried that knowledge died with it.

Clayton Sanders left home the minute he had his high school diploma in hand. He waited that long only because the Army wouldn't accept him without one. Now, 10 years later, he's home. Home with no warning, no advance notice, no anything after being gone 10 years with almost no contact with his family.

So far, the Apocalypse has not gone according to plan. At least, not according to the plan Clay Sanders and his friends had laid out. Things are finally changing, though for better or worse remains to be seen. Clay has agreed to offer what assistance the farm can spare to aid Captain Adcock and his National Guard contingent, hoping their presence will help bring order to the area.

Clayton Sanders left home the minute he had his high school diploma in hand. He waited that long only because the Army wouldn't accept him without one. Now, 10 years later, he's home. Home with no warning, no advance notice, no anything after being gone 10 years with almost no contact with his family. Home carrying a secret that is burning him up from the inside. A secret that has pushed him to the brink, forcing him to become a criminal in order to be where his family needs him to be, even though they don't realize it yet. Because Clayton knows something they don't.

“No plan survives contact with the enemy.” An age-old idiom that Clay Sanders knows very well. In this case however, it's surviving contact with the people who are supposed to be on his side. Plus, the "Citizen's Committee" is still out there somewhere, there's a nutty "Reverend" working the airwaves into a frenzy, there are disgruntled members of the community sowing discord and strife, apparent rogue nomadic elements of some kind, cannibals still active in their area, and more....

Its Thanksgiving on the Sanders Farm. Clayton Sanders and his collection of friends, family, and even a few strangers have managed to keep themselves moderately safe in a vicious new world, brought about by the most massive Coronal Mass Ejection ever seen or recorded. Anything electrical and not protected from the surge of power has been completely fried. Most cars won’t start, the electrical grid has crashed, people with pacemakers in their chests have dropped dead in their tracks, the list goes on and on of things and lives destroyed by an electrical storm.