Spark of the Dead (Part 5)

About Two Hours Earlier…

Yang teleported all the way into the room he was staying in.

He sat down on his bed and felt his head.

I should have known better than to mix unknown chemicals with a cocktail of my own, he thought. If what Magnis says is true, than our compounds together have me overdosed on vitamins.

Yang itched his arm rapidly. “Dang bug bites,” he mutters. He pulled his sleeve up to scratch at it better and had to sit down from what he saw.

One of his mosquito bites had started swelling up at the same spot he had injected himself with Magnis’ needle. It was about a quarter in size and the skin was raised up only somewhat.

“What is happening to me?” he said stunned.

Spark of the Dead (Part 4)

The remaining six of them ran out of the cabin into the open. Being in the frantic state they were all in, they didn’t know where they were running to, only that they were getting the hell out of that cabin.

Magnis stupidly turned around to see if the worms were after them. As soon as a false sense of security was in his head one of the worms shot through the air and started digging its way into his head through his ear.

He yelled and flopped down on the ground. He gripped onto its long body the spines cut and slashed his hands as he tried in vain to pull it out of his head.

Laura ran over to him and put her shield up hoping that if another was near it would stop it. As she reached Magnis’ body she felt one crash into the side of her head. The shield kept it out of her for now.

Magnis screeched in pain as the tail end of the worm crept the rest of the way into his head.

“Magnis! Magnis!” Laura screamed at him.

Spark of the Dead (Part 3)

“Fish! Holy shit! Put some clothes on!” Magnis yelled at his friend leaning on the doorway completely naked.

Hillary of course was eyeing him up while the rest of them were covering their eyes or turned away.

“I heard noises, one can’t bother with clothes when his friends might be in trouble.”

“Fish… The noises you probably heard were over three minutes ago,” Magnis said.

“Oh…” He paused for a moment. “What’s Yang doing on the floor?”

Magnis lowered his hand to explain and quickly remembered why his hand was covering his eyes in the first place. “Can you put some clothes on? I really don’t want to talk to you right now.”

Everyone in the room laughed except Fish and Hillary who shot Magnis a mean glance.

“Fine.” He turned around and said, “Sorry if you’re too insecure to appreciate the human body.”

“That was odd,” Ken said.

“Look at this,” Laura said as she lifted Yang’s sleeve to show a large red bump.

“What the hell is that?” Ginger said appalled.

“It looks like that is where he injected himself,” said Magnis. “I don’t know why it’s so huge. I never had anything like that happen to me.”

Ginger leaned closer to look, “Is it moving?”

“The Ken doesn’t think that it could—Holy shit!”

Spark of the Dead (Part 2)

The seven of them sat around a campfire together at the front of their cabin. Fish had taken a short nap and was now officially cut off. He admitted that it had been too much and perhaps his ancestors had a bit more practice than he did.

The couples of Magnis and Laura along with Ginger and Ken were sitting close together by the fire. Fish was nursing some water to help with his hangover. Yang and Hillary sat by themselves enjoying the night with the company of their friends.

“Does anyone want to go swimming tomorrow?” Ginger asked cuddling closer to Ken as encouragement to answer the way she wanted him to.

“The Ken is up for it, anyone else?”

“Fish here is from a long line of champion swimmers, right bud?” Magnis said nudging Fish.

“If only your head was as smart as your mouth,” he said slouching badly and taking another sip from his bottle of water.

Magnis chuckled, “Glad to hear your back with us.”

“I’d rather be sleeping.”

“Go ahead and turn in if you want,” Laura said kindly. “I’d rather you feel better for tomorrow than sit here feeling like crap.”

Hillary jumped up from her seat. “I’ll help you inside. I was just about to go get one of those leftover burgers you grilled.”

Fish gagged at the mention of food. “Ugh, just don’t take it out till I’m in bed. Last time I saw it, it was outside of my stomach.”

Hillary giggled and jumped over to him. The two went inside together with Fish walking slowly, his arm over Hillary.

“You take your injection sweetie?” Laura asked Magnis. “You were going to this morning but I made you finish packing, I think you forgot to after.”

“Shoot. I did forget.”

“Injections?” Yang asked.

Spark of the Dead (Part 1)

In the spirit of Halloween I'm writing another short story involving many characters from Spark: Evolution together on a vacation to a lakeside cabin deep in the woods of northern Oregon. This is a great excuse for me to put several people together that would otherwise be at each others throats.
The actual story in this first part is going to be a bit shorter because I take time to give a few extra details before the story starts that are key to understanding things. I'll be putting up new parts each day until I finish the story. As always, I hope you enjoy!

Char Notes: (Some things to be clear on that I don't want to go into extensive detail mid story.)

Magnis and Laura are married here and in the series. Magnis and Fish (James, but most everyone calls him his random nickname.) are part of the group named Nowhere. On the other side of the war is The Institution. It's members include Laura, Ken, Yang, Hillary, and Ginger. These organizations don't mean anything in this short story, but it is a background to those who don't yet know that info.

Nowhere = S.O.U.L = Engineered strength and agility multipliers installed in the arm(s) and/or legs.

• Magnis has them in both his arms and legs. He is very strong and buff. (The way he starts in Evolution is not this description, but something that he becomes over time.)
• Fish has S.O.U.L only in his dominate arm (left). Almost equally as strong as Magnis but still really buff as well.

The Institution = Spark = Evolved part of the brain that gives the privileged individuals access to amazing powers.

• Laura has strong telekinetic abilities she unleashes in a frontal cone. She can use her spark to encase her body in a protective shield. She also has the ability to manipulate small parts of matter, at the cost of a percent of her own spark, to appear as things such as animals.
• Yang is an skilled fighter and his spark makes him very deadly by allowing him to have short range teleportation and cold-fire. The visual of cold-fire is a blue glow around a peson's hands as a burst of artificial adrenaline surges through their body. It grants them increased agility and reaction times without the after effects of real adrenaline.
• Ken is strong and built like those from Nowhere. His spark allows him to channel electricity through his body electrically charging his unarmed attacks and those who touch him can also be electrocuted.
• Hillary is able to teleport and use an ability called tethering. Using that ability she can move objects to or away from herself.
• Ginger has a stronger spark than her twin sister and is also in control of the tethering ability as well as telekinetic abilities similar to Laura.

Spark of the Dead

 Part 1

 

“Oh God, they are surrounding us! Can’t you do something heroic?” Hillary yelled frantically at Laura.

In a panic driven tone she yelled back, “What do you expect me to do, they already got everyone else! What can I possibly do against them?”

Both girls closed their eyes and screamed loudly as the zombie horde closed in on them.

Six Hours Earlier...

Heavy breathing persists in the soft darkness of night. The stars and moon lit the area only enough to see.

A flash of blue cuts through the trees and disappears with a rustling of leaves and brush.

“Show yourself! You coward!” Magnis yelled while holding his left arm, blood running down it and dripping steadily onto the ground.

Spark: Evoution Chapter 33 Excerpt

I'm very pleased to post a selection from Spark: Evolution. I'm not a professional editor so even though I've read went over this part many many times some errors may still exist.

 

The Scene: Laura, Yang (one of The Five, the leaders of The Institution) and her good friend Ginger (yes, from Step One Two) are on a mission to Laura's hometown. I'm sure that what is happening might not be 100% understood due to it being at the end'ish part of the book. Either way, enjoy!

 

Yang leaned into the front seat and pointed. “Right here. Pull into that driveway.” Ginger did as she was told and parked.

Laura looked at the house and at the area they were in. It was sort of familiar, but she wasn’t sure. It had been a long time since she had been here. The house was just like all the others in Lastville. Wind beaten and old looking on the outside.

Someone pushed aside the curtain and peaked out at them. When they noticed they were seen, they quickly moved away from the window.

Spark: Sins of Grievance (Part 2)

 Spark: Sins of Grievance

Part 2

Carlton opens up the door into his office and sighs. Same everything as always day in and day out. Some days he wished that there would be a slave or another guard hiding somewhere in his office waiting to kill him.

It wasn’t that he wanted to really die, as far as he could tell based on all the death he had inflicted on those unfortunate slaves throughout the years that dying hurt. At least in the manner Enforcers extracted it. He summed up his feelings as just plain tired.

He walked further into the room and sat down at his desk. He leaned forward and looked at a scribbled on sheet of paper containing recent numbers of both slaves and Enforcers Grievance had to how much energy they were producing that week.

“Numbers are getting a little low. I better crack some skulls… literally, if I don’t want Victoria breathing down my neck,” he said quietly enough for his helm to actually keep his voice normal.

He leaned back in his chair and put his feet up on his desk. What to do, what to do, he thought.

There were the two girls he got yesterday and he would need to babysit them until he was sure they could both handle being an Enforcer while handling the slaves properly. He guessed that he could set them up in the east wing with the more experienced slaves. They were less likely to be unruly and would do the work they were told to. It would be a good place to start.

The two girl’s shifts would start two hours from now, it was 6 AM. Carlton himself didn’t need to be awake for another hour. As of late he found it very difficult to sleep for long periods of time. After tossing and turning during the broken six or seven hours of sleep, he would wash up and throw on his armor.

Suddenly his door burst open and he dropped his feet to the floor quickly and stood up. His chair spun around as a result of him getting out of it so hastily.

Spark: Step One Two (Part 1)

This short story was written as another secondary character's point of view. This time it is to show the spark retrieval process. The situation is unique and the characters that are the main focus act differently based on the situation than they normally do through the rest of Spark: Evolution. I uh, had a drink or two while writing half of this. So as always, I hope you can get past the grammatical errors and enjoy the story. I think this will be the last short story I will start for a while, and get into the next parts of the short stories I've already written. Also, these are basically rough drafts, unpolished stories, those who will check my blog often may see one of them transform into a polished form. Regardless, enjoy!

Spark: Step One Two

Part 1

“Nina, come on. Drive on the right side of the road!” Ginger yelled at her colleague.

Nina threw her head back and laughed loudly as she recklessly drove The Institution’s SUV down the empty highway during the middle of the night.

Ginger never liked being teamed up with Nina. She always treated every aspect of what they did as agents as a joke. Ginger being a serious individual that treated each mission very professionally always clashed with Nina’s careless mindset.

While the girls fought over if it mattered if people were on the road or not Luther sat in the backseat silently listening to the two girls. He never said too much and when he did speak it was always simple and to the point. His straightforwardness was only matched by his physical presence. Luther is a large dark man to start with and if that wasn’t enough, he has extraordinary strength behind all his seemingly fat limbs. Most people that he came in contact with for the first time were instantly afraid of him. Those who got to know him a little better learned to properly fear him as one of The Five.

Ginger eventually gave up at telling Nina to drive in the lines and at reasonable speeds. She crossed her arms and angrily glared at the dashboard until they got to their location. They were on a recovery mission to get someone in Ginger’s home town.

Spark: Cam and Get It! (Part 1)

Another quick short story. Yes, this one actually has a pinch of action, but not too much right now. This time it deals with a scene that happened before I opened up with chapter with a car chase followed by fighting. This is only the first part, and I intend to write another part so these posts don't get too long. Don't think that the other short story was all I'm writing about that either. Enjoy!

 Spark: Cam and Get It!

Part 1

 

Cam looked at an address scribbled onto a piece of paper that some random bartender had given him.

“This is the place, right?” his muscular friend Magnis asked.

“The guy said it was a mansion and that we couldn’t miss it. What do you think?” he said in a sarcastic tone while gesturing wildly at the large exquisite house outside of their car.

They had traveled far away from base in search of new recruits for their cause. Going to a local bar if a town had one was the first things Cam always did. Usually those who considered themselves to be tough hung out there with others like them. Upon visiting a bar in Roseburg they didn’t see anyone even possibly promising. He had asked the bartender where he would look if he wanted to find someone to fight. The bartender looked at him oddly and Cam lied and said he had a complex about himself, just wanted to test out his skills. The bartender wasn’t the wiser and said that if he was looking for anyone in these parts that he would have to go to the Crest mansion. There was a gang that held up there and he was certain to find someone to knock his teeth out there.

Cam didn’t like the idea that they would be going to a gang for recruiting purposes. Usually the results of something like that only yielded delinquents, not fighters. Mentally he agreed to himself that he would go to this mansion anyways just to tell Dan that they scouted the area properly. If they did find a group of people who weren’t strait up criminals than perhaps they could get an alliance out of them. It would be up to Dan to ultimately decide what to do when they got back to Nowhere.

The two men got out of Magnis’ vehicle and walked up the pathway together.

“Not going to grab one of your swords?” Magnis asked.

Spark: Sins of Grievance (Part 1)

This is a short story set at a location that I absolutely love within my Spark world. The short story itself has in it a secondary character from my 1st book, Melanie. The events in the story happen to her many years before she comes in contact with Magnis in Spark: Evolution. I hope that those who have read my book in it's rough state enjoy this tidbit, and those who have yet to learn about the world of Spark will find it rather interesting. I did not spend a large amount of time refining or editing this story, nor will I do the same on any other short stories, as my novel has my real focus.

Spark: Sins of Grievance
Part 1

 

A gruff crackled voice spoke through an armored helm that covered the head of a man fully clad in maroon and black armor. “Two thousand is my best offer Sampson. They are girls and there is no guarantee that they will even last as Enforcers.”

An older man’s voice answered back. “So be it then.”

“Would you like to say goodbye to your daughters?” the armored guard asked.

“What for? I think I’d rather avoid the waterworks.”

The guard sighed, a sound that his helm didn’t modify. “Your call I guess.” He took a pad of paper out of his desk and scribbled something onto it. He looked up at Sampson who waited eagerly for his payment. He returned his glance back to the paper and finished writing his note. “Two thousand clicks. Bring it to the bank in town and they will give you your money.”

Sampson took the piece of paper and stared at it to be sure he was guaranteed the amount they agreed upon. He looked up from the paper and smiled from one side of his mouth to the other. “It was nice doing business with you. Carlton was it?”

“Yes.”

“Well, I won’t be seeing you around,” he cackled as he strolled out of the room.

Carlton looked down in disgust at the carbon copy of his clerical note. He didn’t like being an Enforcer at Grievance. From under his helm of dark eyes and long black mouth slits he thought about the nature of Grievance.

Grievance, he thought, a slave city inside a mountain that produces geothermal energy. The concept itself was good enough minus the slaves. It didn’t always used to be that way. It wasn’t until their leader, an insane woman named Victoria, took control when her father died, that the place changed so much. Grievance made enough money as it was, but she saw the place as more profitable when she turned the workers into slaves. Those with families that tried to resist the decision ended up being enslaved themselves.

Spark: Evolution

This is the old blurb, but I'm still leaving it up. To see the new one click here.

Magnis meets the morning sun on the floor of his bedroom with a mysterious gash on his back. Subtle clues cause him to fear for the life of his wife Laura. Injured, but determined to find out what has happened to her, he makes his way downstairs only to discover an unidentifiable body. Mistaking the body for his wife he is devastated by her supposed death.

What really happened to Laura is that she has been assimilated into a group of people that have been able to tap into hidden powers of the brain they call a spark. They have reasons to believe that she is also like them and can help them on their mission to evolve humanity.

After a short amount of time Magnis leaves his home and through a unique situation ends up accidentally joining a group of underground fighters. Using raw strength and engineered enhancements they have their own plans for the world’s future.

Simple Spark Q&A

So what is a Spark?
A spark is the name I've given to an evolved part of the brain that allows those who possess it to do supernatural things. As described by a character in my book, it has both a physical representation and it doesn't at the same time. Unlike other parts of your human body, those in control of their spark are able to concentrate on their spark to use their abilities or store power prior to using an ability.

What makes a Spark believable?

The logical explanation I give for a spark existing is: after all the nations of the world dropped all their nuclear bombs, the resulting radiation wasn't as harmful to the world as expected, but the reaction to the elements where the bombs went off mixed and created an invisible haze around the world. This haze reacted to a small number of individual's brains in a way that gave them the ability to have a spark. The spark itself isn't actually active, it has to undergo an "unlocking" process.

So...

Think of the spark as a dormant organ you don't know you have in your body. No it is not like a soul or spiritual essence.

Spark Discovery and Detection