Shadow in the City

By Dean Wesley Smith

Carey went back into the dead city of Portland, Oregon four years after something killed just about everyone. She mostly wanted to see if anyone still lived.

Instead, in the dead city Carey found a life and a future.

“Shadow in the City” is based on the song lyrics of “Here in the City” by Janis Ian, written with permission for “Stars Anthology” edited by Janis Ian and Mike Resnick.

Bestselling author Dean Wesley Smith has written more than one hundred popular novels and well over two hundred published short stories.

His novels include the science fiction novel Laying the Music to Rest and the thriller The Hunted as D.W. Smith. With Kristine Kathryn Rusch, he is the coauthor of The Tenth Planet trilogy and The 10th Kingdom. He writes under many pen names and has also ghosted for a number of top bestselling writers.

Dean has also written books and comics for all three major comic book companies, Marvel, DC, and Dark Horse, and has done scripts for Hollywood. One movie was actually made.

Over his career he has also been an editor and publisher, first at Pulphouse Publishing, then for VB Tech Journal, then for Pocket Books. Soon he will be again editing for Fiction River.

Currently, he is writing thrillers and mystery novels under another name and having great fun as an indie writer as well.

• Language: English
• Publisher: WMG Publishing
• Release date: Sep 28, 2010
• ISBN: 9781452357539

Dean Wesley Smith

Considered one of the most prolific writers working in modern fiction, USA Today bestselling writer Dean Wesley Smith published far more than a hundred novels in forty years, and hundreds of short stories across many genres. At the moment he produces novels in several major series, including the time travel Thunder Mountain novels set in the Old West, the galaxy-spanning Seeders Universe series, the urban fantasy Ghost of a Chance series, a superhero series starring Poker Boy, and a mystery series featuring the retired detectives of the Cold Poker Gang. His monthly magazine, Smith’s Monthly, which consists of only his own fiction, premiered in October 2013 and offers readers more than 70,000 words per issue, including a new and original novel every month. During his career, Dean also wrote a couple dozen Star Trek novels, the only two original Men in Black novels, Spider-Man and X-Men novels, plus novels set in gaming and television worlds. Writing with his wife Kristine Kathryn Rusch under the name Kathryn Wesley, he wrote the novel for the NBC miniseries The Tenth Kingdom and other books for Hallmark Hall of Fame movies. He wrote novels under dozens of pen names in the worlds of comic books and movies, including novelizations of almost a dozen films, from The Final Fantasy to Steel to Rundown. Dean also worked as a fiction editor off and on, starting at Pulphouse Publishing, then at VB Tech Journal, then Pocket Books, and now at WMG Publishing, where he and Kristine Kathryn Rusch serve as series editors for the acclaimed Fiction River anthology series. For more information about Dean’s books and ongoing projects, please visit his website at www.deanwesleysmith.com and sign up for his newsletter.

Book preview

Shadow in the City

Dean Wesley Smith

Shadow in the City

Copyright © 2013 by Dean Wesley Smith

Published by WMG Publishing

Cover Design copyright © 2013 WMG Publishing

Cover art copyright © Peter Kim/Dreamstime

First published in Stars anthology edited by Janis Ian and Mike Resnick.

Excerpt from Here in the City by Janis Ian. Used by permission.

Here in the City words and music by Janis Ian.

Copyright Rude Girl Publishing Inc. (BMI)

All rights reserved. Used by Permission

Smashwords Edition

This book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. All rights reserved.

This is a work of fiction. All characters and events portrayed in this book are fictional, and any resemblance to real people or incidents is purely coincidental.

This book, or parts thereof, may not be reproduced in any form without permission.

"You don’t see many shadows here in the city

Only picturesque windows, all covered and dirty

Black and grey that once was new

Yesterday that once was you

No, I can’t find my shadow in the city"

"Here in the City"

Janis Ian

Chapter One

She stood on the abandoned freeway overpass and stared at the gray of the dead city of Portland, Oregon, and the deep blue of the gently flowing river below her. Four years ago the city below her had died along with the rest of the world. So why had she picked today, of all days, to finally go back?

Carey Noack was five foot two and didn’t have an extra ounce of fat on her body. Over the last four years she had kept her light-brown hair cut short and out of the way. Today, for the final hike into the center of the big buildings, she wore a black sleeveless tee shirt, jeans, and her favorite tennis shoes.

Man, Carey, how stupid is this? she asked herself as she used a small towel from her pack to wipe the sweat from her face and arms. The weather had turned out to be one of those typical Oregon summer days, where the bright sun and clear skies made the air feel warmer than it actually was. It seldom got above seventy degrees where she lived, overlooking the sandy beach and the pounding waves of the Pacific Ocean, making today feel even worse.

She finished wiping off her arms, put the towel back in her pack, and grabbed the water bottle.

Better keep drinking this, she said out loud