Caves of Ice: Part 1

By Todd McLeod and Eric Meyer

America is shrouded in ice. The outside temperature has dropped below Arctic levels, and people have no choice but to tunnel into the ice to create living spaces. In one of these communities, former Army Ranger Brad Jensen battles to keep his wife and young son alive. Attacks from predatory groups are a constant danger, and life in the tunnels means always keeping one eye open for attacks, and one hand holding the butt of a gun. Struggling to cling to life, and nothing could be worse. Until it gets worse.

An outbreak of a life-threatening disease strikes, and early on his son falls sick. Brad’s wife Scarlett, the community doctor, predicts he will die soon unless she can administer a vaccine to fight the disease. A drug only available in a distant city, buried deep beneath the ice. A city already occupied by feral men and women sworn kill anyone who enters.

Time is running out, and Brad Jensen faces his toughest challenge. To hack a new tunnel through the ice to reach the city, secure the drug and fight his way back in time to save his son. Caves of Ice is the first in an ongoing Beyond the Apocalypse series of short novels that chronicle the vicious aftermath of a climate disaster that threatens to destroy the world.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Swordworks Books
• Release date: Jul 23, 2019
• ISBN: 9780463738160

Book preview

CAVES OF ICE

PART 1

By Todd McLeod & Eric Meyer

Copyright © 2018 Swordworks Books

All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, brands, media, and incidents are either the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. The author acknowledges the trademarked status and trademark owners of various products referenced in this work of fiction, which have been used without permission. The publication/use of these trademarks is not authorized, associated with, or sponsored by the trademark owners.

CHAPTER 1

They said it was going to be the heat to do us in. What did they know?

Army Ranger training prepared you for quite a lot of things, but no one could have predicted just how fast everything went to hell. Ice was our nemesis, as if God himself was punishing us with a massive warming that raised sea levels to unprecedented levels. They flooded the lands, followed by a deep freeze to make sure the water didn’t go anywhere. The result was a frozen tundra like I used to watch with my son Robert in those Ice Age movies. The coasts of East Virginia were hit the hardest. Although it was impossible to gauge how badly the rest of the country, or the world for that matter, was affected by any of this. We saw nothing, for we were forced underground to survive in the tunnels we’d cut by hand. Even if we made it back up through one hundred feet of ice, the minus 50-degree and lower temperatures would kill us in a matter of minutes. Our old life had gone forever. The caves of ice were our new home.

Anything, Jensen? Roy Grant, former miner and now part-time cave patroller shouted down the cavern he and I were checking out.

Yeah, a lot of ice.

I began kicking a collection of protruding ice spikes to flatten them. Each time I kicked it made a satisfying noise.

Smash.

That’s crazy.

Hey, I have to keep myself entertained somehow, huh? Come on, Roy, what’s not fun about having to spend your days down here…

Smash.

…covered head to toe,

Smash.

in wet snow gear,

Smash.

with hardly any food to eat,

Smash.

or medicine for my wife to use in her clinic,

Smash.

and the ever-present stink of kerosene in the air while we patrol these tunnels.

He put on a serious expression. We have to patrol. We don’t know who could attempt to rob us.

"Sure, as if there’s an abundance of people