Read Off the Wagon (Users #2) Online
Authors: Stacy,Jennifer Buck
Off the Wagon (Users #2) (17 page)
“This is all your fault,” Jack said as he passed Barber on his way toward the front gate.
“You’re a crazy old man. No wonder Carter doesn’t want to have anything to do with you,” Barber said.
His face going red with rage, Jack lunged at Barber’s throat. Fire burst from Jack’s palms as they closed around Barber’s neck. Barber howled in pain as the flames coming from Jack’s hands bit at his neck and face. Barber was already badly burned. Seeing Barber’s face extorted in agony, was more than Carter could take.
“I should have finished you when I had the chance!” Jack’s face trembled with exertion as he squeezed the life from Barber.
Barber’s eyes bulged out of his head and he made sickly choking sounds as Jack tightened the vice like grip around his neck.
“No!” Carter put one hand on the side of his father’s face and the other on the opposite side of his head and with all the strength he could muster, he jerked violently to the side. A gut wrenching pop erupted from Jack’s neck and his father dropped dead. Carter had snapped his father’s neck like a chiropractor on steroids, severing bone from tendon and twisting Jack’s head around so far that he was almost looking to his back.
Carter dropped to his knees in front of his father’s lifeless body. The next few minutes were a blur. Lucy, and a handful of the others rushed to Barber’s aid, but they left Carter alone. He stayed down on his knees, unsure of what to do and possibly in a little bit of shock, for what felt like an eternity. Finally, Carter bent over and closed the lids on his father’s eyes. After many moments had passed, a hand gripped Carter’s shoulder, startling him back to his surroundings. It was the last person’s hand Carter had expected to see.
“I’m sorry,” Ryker said sincerely.
“Don’t be. The man was an asshole,” Carter responded.
“He was still your father.”
“That should matter,” Carter said. “But I don’t feel anything. No sorrow, no remorse, nothing.”
“That may change with time.”
“Yeah, it may.”
Epilogue 2
They sat around the fire pit with the other Users, celebrating life and their sobriety. Sober parties were strange. With no alcohol and no drugs, their parties were more like a weird family reunion minus the creepy uncle. Most of the conversations around the fire were quiet and calm.
Only Evan and a bandaged up Barber, who was sitting far away from the flames, had raised their voices in a battle to out do one another. No doubt in an attempt to impress the girls, they were jabbering back and forth about whose powers were better than whose. But Barber was wasting his breath, he had already caught the attention of a blond girl named Amber who was just about his same age, who had been fussing over him and his condition all day. Barber jumped up and mock punched Evan in the face and laughed.
“Stop it Barber,” she said. “You’re going to rip your bandages open again.”
“Seems Barber has got an admirer,” Ryker said.
“Seems so,” Carter said. “Although I’m not entirely sure he knows what to do with her.”
“He’s a good kid,” Ryker said. “He’ll figure it out.”
“I was wrong about you,” Carter admitted.
“How so?” Ryker asked.
“I thought you were a pompous jerk,” Carter said. “I was wrong. You’re pompous, but not a jerk.”
Ryker chuckled and slapped Carter on the back.
“Ouch,” Carter said.
His back was still sore from his crash into the earth in the wee hours of that same morning.
“Oh, sorry.”
“It’s all right.” In truth it wasn’t. At least he wasn’t. Carter had buried his father’s body next to Walt and the other Users earlier that day, and he had felt next to nothing. Even when he had shoveled the dirt back into his father’s grave, he felt no remorse for killing the man.
“You did the right thing,” Ryker said as if he was reading Carter’s mind. “He gave you little choice.”
“It was him or Barber, and I chose Barber,” Carter said. “I chose a friend over my own father. What does that say about my family?”
“The Users at the Compound are your family now.” Ryker leaned forward to warm his hands by the fire.
“A dysfunctional family maybe,” Carter said with a wry smile, still staring into the flames.
“Would you have it any other way?” Ryker asked, beaming with the same sardonic grin spreading across his face.
The End
Thank you for reading. If you enjoyed this book please leave a review. If you didn’t enjoy it, you can also leave a review, but if you’re just a hateful bastard, drink a nice cool glass of hateraide and simmer the fuck down. It’s just a book.
A word from the author- Hey guys! Thanks for reading my crazy little tale about an addict with super powers. I wanted to take a moment and talk about all the drugs in this book. As a recovering addict myself, I think I am in a unique position to bring a realism to Carter and this story in general that most authors would simply not be able to. I’ve got over six years sober and going strong.
Recovery is no joke and my intention with this book was not to make light of the subject. Heroin abuse nearly ruined my life, but I was able to bounce back with a strong support system and lots of therapy. So please don’t think I’m making fun of NA or AA or any of the great organizations out there that help recovering addicts. My intention was to write a story about what its like for a real recovering addict. All the normal human emotions you see Carter go through are real life emotions I have personally felt. I really poured my heart and soul into this book. I’m pretty sure that’s what all authors do, but this book was almost like therapy for me. If you’re an addict or a recovering addict or have been affected by an addict, know that it/you/they can get better.
That’s it. I just wanted to say a little something before I go.
Thanks,
Stacy Buck 2015
You can email me at [email protected] to sign up for our emailing list. If you sign up for our emailing list I will be sending out free copies of Users Book 3 for review before the book is released.
Come on you know you loved this book and want to read more of Carter’s adventures. Just email me already!
Oh, and for those of you that enjoyed this first installment of Users, get ready for lots more to come. Users is going to be the premier Prime Evil Publishing series with many sequels, spin off books for characters like Barber, Alaric, and a super hero team book featuring the All Americans. First I’ve got to finish Clockwork Wings Book 2, look for it in early 2015.
You can check out more books from Stacy and Jenn like our alternate history horror series Squanto Undead: Wake the Undead the Collected Edition available now from all major book retailers.
Or our steampunk Greek Mythology series Clockwork Wings: the Chronicles of Icarus the Collected Edition available now!
Also follow me on twitter at @stacybuckwritin or check out our website
http://primeevilpublishing.squarespace.com/
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Author Bio- Stacy & Jennifer Buck are a husband and wife writing duo born and raised just outside Seattle, Washington. Having known one another since they were just kids, they have the ability to play of the others strengths and weaknesses to write beyond what they could alone. Shortly after marrying they began writing their first series Squanto Undead, and have since finished multiple projects together. They live outside Seattle with their five kids, two cats, and one dog.
The following is an excerpt from Clockwork Wings Book 1-
Icarus soared. Higher and higher he went until the pit of his stomach sank to his feet. The air blasting past his ears was deafening, but he didn't slow. The gears were a chorus of ticks and clanks as hundreds of metal teeth spun in an interlocking web of torque and rotation.
A saw buzzed overhead, its serrated edges narrowly shaving the hair from his skull. They were almost upon him. The turbine strapped to his chest vibrated violently as he pushed the wings to their limit. Wisps of steam turned into a billowing stream of cotton white exhaust that poured from his brassy tailpipes.
A thin layer of glass in his goggles was all that protected his eyes from the blinding wind as he climbed to the sky, thinking he could disappear in the haze of thick clouds. The steam from the wing pack blended with the mist of the clouds to surround him in a brew of dense fog as he hovered in midair. Waiting, he hoped they would continue on, that by some will of the Gods they would pass by him, that somehow he had slipped past their pursuit. It was quiet up here. No sound but the hum of the water pressure on his back and the beating of his wings.
He almost convinced himself they had given up when a gust of air slapped him in the face followed by the whirl of a huge propeller spinning so fast the blades appeared an unbroken spiral wall. The wind moved in one unending wave, sending his cover floating away on the breeze, and revealing his presence to all aboard the air ship’s deck. Another saw blade whizzed his way. He tucked and dove head first to keep his wings from being clipped as the saw buzzed past. A draft of warm air filled his wings as he spread wide catching the current to soar above the ship's long balloon. More saws chased his trail of fluffy steam as he came across the bow and out into open air.
He went higher to escape the buzzing saws, past Olympus, realm of the Gods, and through the dispersed clouds. Up and up he went, until he passed even their reach. An endless sea of blue lay before him. The only destination above him was a great glowing ball of light, the home of Apollo. The Sun. Its heat overwhelmed him. The intense glare shimmered off the glass of his goggles, blinding him. The turbine on his chest sputtered the gears on his back grinding to a halt. His wings flapped one last time. He fell.