Proof That I Really Am Writing The Impostor #2
Back in 2011, I self-published The Impostor #1: Half a Hero. It was the first installment of a post-apocalyptic superhero saga.
Various contractual obligations kept me from turning out The Impostor #2 as quickly as intended. But to prove that I really am working on it and it will be along presently, here's a little taste of the next story in the sequence. As you may recall, at the end of #1, Matt Brown, our hero, was just about to put on the magic wristbands that gave the deceased hero Red Bear his astonishing strength. Here he is doing it while Solomon, his AI ally, kibitzes:
Matt jerked a claw-studded leather band onto his left wrist. The feeling of awe and dread that came over him whenever he handled the talismans exploded into outright terror. The room with its rust-colored sketches of animals drawn on the walls seemed to tilt and spin. He staggered backward, caught his heel on the piece of wood Red Bear had supposedly used for a drum, and fell on his butt.
“What is wrong?” Solomon asked, his calm, intellectual voice sounding from some inconspicuous speaker.
Shaking, his heart pounding, Matt struggled to control himself. Damn it, he’d stood up to aliens, supervillains, and killer robots. He was not going to fall apart just because he’d slipped on a glorified tennis accessory!
Once he stopped hyperventilating, he managed to respond to Solomon’s question, though his voice came out high and thready. “It’s nothing. It’s just that the vibe the bands give off is a little stronger.”
“It is reasonable to infer the ‘vibe’ is a warning. I recommend removing the wrist brace.”
“I can’t. I need Red Bear’s strength to fight the wasps.” And his unblemished reputation, so he could associate with somebody besides criminals and sociopaths.
He’d dropped the second wristband when he was flailing around. His hand still shaking, fumbling, he retrieved it and jerked it on like he was yanking off a Band-Aid.
The fear stopped. The relief was so profound that it took him a moment to realize everything else had changed, too.
Except for the wristbands, he was naked, and the air was cool enough to make him shiver. He wasn’t sitting on a smooth tile floor anymore but an irregular surface of dirt and rock.
A little light leaked in from a horseshoe-shaped opening where the doorway to the corridor had been. It was just sufficient to illuminate the same drawings he’d seen before, or others like them. But the walls had turned stony and rough, like the walls of a cave.
Something thumped. After a moment, the beat and rhythm became apparent. On the other side of the opening, people were drumming. From the slapping sound of it, maybe on sections of log like the one Red Bear had used.
Matt guessed he was supposed to go out and join the party.
Wishing he had clothes, he rose and walked out into the warmth of a leaping, crackling fire. Trees made a black wall at the edge of the clearing, and more stars than he’d ever seen burned in the night sky.
Then, suddenly, he caught sight of the inhabitants of this place. It made him jump, like other people did when he switched off Dr. Umbra’s invisibility and popped out of nowhere.
The men and women had thick, muscular bodies and low skulls with brow ridges, big noses, and receding chins. A little apelike. A number were as bare as Matt, while others wore fur tunics and wraps, although not necessarily in ways that covered their privates. Some carried spears and hatchets with heads made of flint.
Yet they didn’t seem primitive but primal. The sight of them filled Matt with the same awe as handling the wristbands.
And if they were wonderful, the animals in their company were more so. As high at the shoulder as Matt was tall, its pelt gleaming bronze in the firelight, a saber-toothed cat stared at him with yellow eyes. So did a snake so big and long that the back end of it twisted away into the forest and out of sight. A shaggy elephant with dramatically curved tusks barely fit between two trees, and the weight of an enormous eagle bowed the branch on which it perched.
Various contractual obligations kept me from turning out The Impostor #2 as quickly as intended. But to prove that I really am working on it and it will be along presently, here's a little taste of the next story in the sequence. As you may recall, at the end of #1, Matt Brown, our hero, was just about to put on the magic wristbands that gave the deceased hero Red Bear his astonishing strength. Here he is doing it while Solomon, his AI ally, kibitzes:
Matt jerked a claw-studded leather band onto his left wrist. The feeling of awe and dread that came over him whenever he handled the talismans exploded into outright terror. The room with its rust-colored sketches of animals drawn on the walls seemed to tilt and spin. He staggered backward, caught his heel on the piece of wood Red Bear had supposedly used for a drum, and fell on his butt.
“What is wrong?” Solomon asked, his calm, intellectual voice sounding from some inconspicuous speaker.
Shaking, his heart pounding, Matt struggled to control himself. Damn it, he’d stood up to aliens, supervillains, and killer robots. He was not going to fall apart just because he’d slipped on a glorified tennis accessory!
Once he stopped hyperventilating, he managed to respond to Solomon’s question, though his voice came out high and thready. “It’s nothing. It’s just that the vibe the bands give off is a little stronger.”
“It is reasonable to infer the ‘vibe’ is a warning. I recommend removing the wrist brace.”
“I can’t. I need Red Bear’s strength to fight the wasps.” And his unblemished reputation, so he could associate with somebody besides criminals and sociopaths.
He’d dropped the second wristband when he was flailing around. His hand still shaking, fumbling, he retrieved it and jerked it on like he was yanking off a Band-Aid.
The fear stopped. The relief was so profound that it took him a moment to realize everything else had changed, too.
Except for the wristbands, he was naked, and the air was cool enough to make him shiver. He wasn’t sitting on a smooth tile floor anymore but an irregular surface of dirt and rock.
A little light leaked in from a horseshoe-shaped opening where the doorway to the corridor had been. It was just sufficient to illuminate the same drawings he’d seen before, or others like them. But the walls had turned stony and rough, like the walls of a cave.
Something thumped. After a moment, the beat and rhythm became apparent. On the other side of the opening, people were drumming. From the slapping sound of it, maybe on sections of log like the one Red Bear had used.
Matt guessed he was supposed to go out and join the party.
Wishing he had clothes, he rose and walked out into the warmth of a leaping, crackling fire. Trees made a black wall at the edge of the clearing, and more stars than he’d ever seen burned in the night sky.
Then, suddenly, he caught sight of the inhabitants of this place. It made him jump, like other people did when he switched off Dr. Umbra’s invisibility and popped out of nowhere.
The men and women had thick, muscular bodies and low skulls with brow ridges, big noses, and receding chins. A little apelike. A number were as bare as Matt, while others wore fur tunics and wraps, although not necessarily in ways that covered their privates. Some carried spears and hatchets with heads made of flint.
Yet they didn’t seem primitive but primal. The sight of them filled Matt with the same awe as handling the wristbands.
And if they were wonderful, the animals in their company were more so. As high at the shoulder as Matt was tall, its pelt gleaming bronze in the firelight, a saber-toothed cat stared at him with yellow eyes. So did a snake so big and long that the back end of it twisted away into the forest and out of sight. A shaggy elephant with dramatically curved tusks barely fit between two trees, and the weight of an enormous eagle bowed the branch on which it perched.
No comments have been added yet.
