Excursions from the Citadel- Excerpt from Atop a Pine-covered Moutain

Cecil was filled with that flavor of arrogance that people use to deny terror.  The maw of his mind drowned his reflexive thoughts of panic by spitting out phrases of assurance and certainty.  As he fled up a mountainside in the southern Rocky Mountains he spat out phrases such as, “Didn’t know what YOU were doing tangling with Cecil Roth. I survived the attack at Cantigny, I beat the Spanish Flu, I don’t die. I just do not die.”   As he ran, all he could hear was the sound of his own labored breathing and the half-believed boasts he muttered through sweat-soaked lips.

Despite these contrived assurances the animal part of his brain knew he was being hunted. It didn’t understand what being hunted meant. Cecil’s instinctive brain didn’t truly understand the realities of the human condition and death as clearly as the intellectual brain of Cecil Roth PhD.  It was just afraid.

In the light of the setting full moon, that instinctive part of Cecil glimpsed a large fast moving shadow to his right. His impulses reacted before his mind could, turning and raising both his Colt M1917 revolvers towards the offending shape. The revolvers kicked in his hands and released a report loud enough to leave a ringing in his ears.  There was a brief gurgling screech and a crash. Cecil watched the shadow covered creature stumble.  He should have kept running up the mountain.  Even without taking his watch from his waistcoat, he knew there was still another hour till sunrise.  But it would take even longer for those redeeming rays of light to touch him if he stayed on the west side of the mountain.  He needed to reach the peak soon.

Above is the excerpt from a piece written by the third collaborator to this epub venture, who is also the leader of this our enterprise of ours and who put together everything. It’s the chase by shape-shifters story I alluded to in a previous post.

Regarding the actual publication itself, we have submitted to Amazon already but there is a 12-72 review period until it goes alive. I will put up a purchase link when it actually does so watch out for it!