Nomad Found Read online

  CONTENTS

  Dedication

  Legal

  Series List

  Social Links

  Prologue

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Nomad Redeemed

  Author Notes - Craig Martelle

  Author Notes - Michael Anderle

  The Queen Bitch Is Back

  DEDICATION

  To Family, Friends and

  Those Who Love

  To Read.

  May We All Enjoy Grace

  To Live The Life We Are

  Called.

  Nomad Found

  The Terry Henry Walton Chronicles

  Team Includes

  BETA / EDITOR BOOK Acknowledgements in Back!

  JIT Beta Readers - From both of us, our deepest gratitude!

  Brent Bakken

  Mickey Cocker

  Simon Hovat

  Peter Johnsen

  Blk Mrkt

  Thomas Ogden

  Melissa Ratcliffe

  Harry Rothsteni

  If I missed anyone, please let me know!

  Nomad Found (this book) is a work of fiction.

  All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Sometimes both.

  The Kurtherian Gambit (and what happens within / characters / situations / worlds)

  are Copyright (c) 2016 by Michael T. Anderle

  Complete Book is Copyright (c) 2016 by Michael T. Anderle / Craig Martelle

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of Michael T. Anderle.

  Version 1.0

  The Terry Henry Walton Chronicles

  A Kurtherian Gambit Series

  Book 1 – Nomad Found (Out)

  Book 2 – Nomad Redeemed (Jan 2017)

  Book 3 - Nomad Unleashed (2017)

  Book 4 - Nomad Supreme(2017)

  Free Trader Series

  Book 1 – The Free Trader of Warren Deep

  Book 2 – The Free Trader of Planet Vii

  Book 3 – Adventures on RV Traveler

  Book 4 – Battle for the Amazon

  Book 5 – Free the North!

  Book 6 – Free Trader on the High Seas

  Book 7 – Southern Discontent (January 2017)

  Book 8 – The Great ‘Cat Rebellion (2017)

  Book 9 – Return to the Traveler (2017)

  Cygnus Space Opera – Set in the Free Trader Universe

  Book 1 – Cygnus Rising

  Book 2 – Cygnus Expanding (2017)

  Book 3 – Cygnus Arrives (2017)

  End Times Alaska Series, a Winlock Press publication

  Book 1: Endure

  Book 2: Run

  Book 3: Return

  Book 4: Fury

  Rick Banik Thrillers

  People Raged and the Sky Was on Fire

  The Heart Raged (2017)

  Short Story Contributions to Anthologies

  Earth Prime Anthology, Volume 1 (Stephen Lee & James M. Ward)

  Apocalyptic Space Short Story Collection (Stephen Lee & James M. Ward)

  Lunar Resorts Anthology, Volume 2 (Stephen Lee & James M. Ward)

  Just One More Fight (published as a novella standalone)

  The Expanding Universe, Volume 1 (edited by Craig Martelle)

  The Misadventures of Jacob Wild McKilljoy (with Michael-Scott Earle)

  Michael Anderle

  Kurtherian Gambit Series Titles Include:

  First Arc

  Death Becomes Her (01) - Queen Bitch (02) - Love Lost (03) - Bite This (04)

  Never Forsaken (05) - Under My Heel (06) Kneel Or Die (07)

  Second Arc

  We Will Build (08) - It’s Hell To Choose (09) - Release The Dogs of War (10)

  Sued For Peace (11) - We Have Contact (12) - My Ride is a Bitch (13)

  Don’t Cross This Line (14)

  Third Arc (Due 2017)

  Never Submit (15) - Never Surrender (16) - Forever Defend (17)

  Might Makes Right (18) - Ahead Full (19) - Capture Death (20)

  Life Goes On (21)

  **New Series**

  The Second Dark Ages

  The Dark Messiah (01)

  (Michael’s Return)

  12.25.2016

  The Boris Chronicles

  * With Paul C. Middleton *

  Evacuation

  Retaliation

  Revelation Dec 2016

  Restitution 2017

  Reclaiming Honor

  * With JUSTIN SLOAN *

  Justice Is Calling (01)

  Claimed By Honor (02)

  Jan 2017

  The Etheric Academy

  * With TS PAUL *

  ALPHA CLASS (01) Dec 2016/Jan 2017

  ALPHA CLASS (02) Feb/Mar 2017

  ALPHA CLASS (03) May/June 2017

  Terry Henry “TH” Walton Chronicles

  * With CRAIG MARTELLE *

  SEE ABOVE!

  SHORT STORIES

  Frank Kurns Stories of the Unknownworld 01 (7.5)

  You Don’t Mess with John’s Cousin

  Frank Kurns Stories of the Unknownworld 02 (9.5)

  Bitch’s Night Out

  Anthologies

  Glimpse

  Honor in Death

  (Michael’s First Few Days)

  Beyond the Stars: At Galaxy's Edge

  Tabitha’s Vacation

  Craig Martelle Social

  For a chance to see ALL of Craig’s new Book Series

  Check out his website below!

  Website: http://www.craigmartelle.com

  Email List: http://www.craigmartelle.com (Go 1/2 way down his first page, the box is in the center!)

  Facebook Here: https://www.facebook.com/AuthorCraigMartelle/

  Michael Anderle Social

  Website: http://kurtherianbooks.com/

  Email List: http://kurtherianbooks.com/email-list/

  Facebook Here: https://www.facebook.com/TheKurtherianGambitBooks/

  PROLOGUE

  He came from the wasteland, broken and dying.

  All he wanted was a drink.

  But the old lady took him in, because he had kind eyes. She gave him water, food, and a bed.

  Within a day, he started helping around the house. Then he straightened her yard, made things the way they were before.

  Then the others came, not to ask but to take.

  They didn’t expect to find a man at her place.

  Four arrived. The man walked out into the yard standing tall, giving the others a chance to leave. They didn’t. With confidence, he walked into the middle of them and made them pay. He didn’t kill them, only beat them mercilessly.

  To send a message of “no more” to the other takers.

  The old lady watched it all.

  When it was over, she walked out to her porch and asked the man, “Why would you fight them like that?” She nodded to the rapidly disappearing group.

  He answered over his shoulder, never taking his eyes off the direction the men left. “Because you gave me water when I was thirsty, and you asked for nothin
g in return. As long as I live—” He turned to look her in the eye. “—I will be here for you.”

  “But I don’t even know your name,” she said.

  “Terry Henry Walton, ma’am, but my friends call me TH,” he replied.

  “How many friends call you TH?” she pried.

  “Counting you?” He reached up to wipe the sweat from his forehead. “That would be one.”

  CHAPTER ONE

  Margie Rose wanted to believe. She wanted to believe that people could be nice again. She couldn’t take her eyes off the dark stranger who’d fought for her. She watched him fight and knew that he was never in danger. The only risk was that they would come back and attack her when TH wasn’t there.

  Bullies worked that way. If they found someone who stood up to them, they’d get their revenge.

  “What if they come back?” Margie Rose asked the man, the stranger who had just put himself between her and danger.

  He stopped his surveillance of the area around her home and turned to her, his eyes blue…or were they green? “Don’t you worry about that. I’m going to pay them a visit long before they are in any shape to return,” he told her noncommittally.

  Margie remained skeptical. “And what are you going to do then?” she pressed.

  He snorted, as much to himself as to her. “I’m going to show them how unhealthy it would be to continue such a lifestyle, and not just for them, but for their families, too, if they have them.”

  His voice seemed to drop a little, go deeper, but more personal. “In my life, ma’am, I’ve dealt with bullies and there really are only two ways to get them to stop. The first is to just kill them, but that doesn’t necessarily stop the next guy. The second is to make them so afraid that they run screaming whenever they think about confronting you again. Bullies can sense each other, so they’ll know. All of them will know that they don’t want to come here. Good people will feel safe where bullies are afraid.”

  He paused and turned back to her. “I’m just going to go talk with them, that’s all.” Terry smiled, his teeth still straight and white, after all the years in the wastelands. His eyes sparkled as his smile lines wrinkled.

  “I feel safe just for having known you. Thank you, Mr. Terry Henry Walton. Dinner’s in a couple hours.” A small smile played at the corner of her lips. “If you could rustle a rabbit, then it will be that much better,” Margie Rose said, stabbing a finger toward a stand of shrub not far off.

  Terry breathed deeply of the cooling air off the Colorado foothills.

  When Chinese code, embedded in billions of net-connected devices, took down the internet by disabling most technology, the world fell quickly. Nukes were tossed about as a disconnected world heaved in its own death throes. Eighty-seven percent of the world’s population died from radiation, disease, famine.

  Terry disappeared into the mountains once everything he cared about was gone. He swore off the human race. For twenty years he stayed away, but then the Werewolves came and he ran. He only escaped them by leaping from a cliff into a river far below. They were unnaturally fast, unerring in their ability to hunt a human, and unmerciful in their attacks.

  As he ran from them, they killed deer and even a bear without hesitation, drank the creatures’ blood and resumed their casual hunt for him. Terry had never felt fear like that before. He’d battled with men, and sometimes he thought he would die at their hands, but he hadn’t been afraid. The paranormal made his skin crawl. He’d known the stories of the Unknown World from his contact with Dan Bosse of TQB, but really? Well, really deep down, he had hoped to never again have to deal with them in his life.

  When he had finally crawled from the river, exhausted from fighting the currents and bashing against rocks, the Werewolves were a long ways away. Terry had staggered to a cabin on the outskirts of a small town. What drew him there were the lights. The town had power, something he hadn’t seen in twenty years.

  To him, that meant civilization, if only on a limited scale.

  Terry would find who was in charge of the town and help that person, even if he or she didn’t want help.

  That would be Terry’s challenge.

  But twenty years prior, before the fall, he was smooth, professional. He only had to dig deep and find that person, pull him past the years when he had been barely more than an animal.

  Terry looked at the brush, considering his musings before he walked up to this little cabin. Maybe the new Terry Henry Walton could be both professional and a bit animal.

  He felt good fighting those men. It had been too long since he sparred, too long since he led men into combat, too long since he’d made a difference for others.

  Then the shame washed over him in a wave of grief, from being selfish, running away to survive on his own, letting all the others fend for themselves. He’d started to hate himself. Now he had a shot at redemption. It began with Margie Rose, then one at a time, he’d show people that if they wanted a better world, they had to help each other create it themselves. The town had power, but were they using it to help everyone?

  Tomorrow would be a big day. First, he had a rabbit to kill. He pulled a well-used throwing knife, released the hunter within, and stalked upwind toward the brush. With barely a whisper of the wind, he waited. With the rabbit’s movement, Terry twisted and flicked. The knife spun through the air, driving through the rabbit’s neck for an instant kill.

  Terry waited.

  Sometimes he wasn’t the only predator, so he watched and listened, sniffing the air carefully for any sign. Certain there was nothing, he quickly cleaned his kill, leaving the guts within a snare just in case a coyote appeared. He didn’t want to waste good bait and tomorrow’s meal.

  He hadn’t survived in the wild all that time by not shifting the odds in his favor. He believed in making his own luck. He suspected he’d have to change a few attitudes.

  Just like he’d do with the trash that had stopped by earlier. Tomorrow, he’d take care of business and put this town on a new track.

  * * *

  Billy Spires had been the son of a nobody in a uniquely crappy trailer park full of nobodies. He was average, in both height and looks, and would never stand out in a crowd. His claim to fame was that he was street smart.

  For all the good it did him growing up.

  He hated that park. He stayed away as much as he could, learned to hunt and kill on his own. Some called him trailer trash, but after the fall, they begged him for help. He was the only one eating. He told them no, except for the women.

  He helped them, but they paid a steep price.

  Then he found that he could control people by controlling the food. He gathered followers and soon he had a small town beholden to him. Then he discovered an engineer and a mechanic.

  The two of those promised him a return to technology, starting with electricity. A freezer to store his venison, his other prizes, and make the food last longer.

  So he secreted the two men away, sending women to them on occasion as rewards for their successes, and started to build a real town on the outskirts of what used to be Boulder, Colorado. The mountainous backdrop kept Billy humble.

  Well, in his own mind, that was.

  From the hills to the west came game and from the fields to the east came grain and vegetables. Billy had evolved from being a street tough to the city planner, the mayor, and the chief justice. There were no elections, nor would there ever be. To Billy, his idea of a benevolent dictator was the best these people could hope for.

  Billy sat in the great room of his mansion, looking at the boards he’d set up to track his logistics. He shook his head and laughed, looking around to catch the twinkle in Felicity’s eye. She was his southern belle. A new addition to the town. She’d come willingly to him, which made him suspicious. His only allure was power. A chance encounter with a bobcat left a scar across his left cheek, giving him a personal sneer.

  The older he got, the more wary of people he became. He figured he should have killed h
er because she made him feel funny. He knew he was being manipulated, but found himself agreeing with her recommendations, always to see the sparkle in her eye.

  “Get over here, bitch,” Billy growled, trying his best to maintain his dominance. She raised an eyebrow at him and continued to stand there, looking at him. “I said get over here!” he screamed, standing to punctuate his anger.

  “Now, Billy dear,” she said slowly, letting her southern accent drag the words out as she slowly stood up. “It’s really okay to let your nice man out every once in a while. He’s such a handsome devil. Before you know it, the people will appreciate you like I do, because they’ll get to know you. Not quite like I do, though, will they, Billy dear?” She smiled shyly and walked casually, sideways in front of him, highlighting her profile. Her curves were perfect, unlike anything he’d seen since before the fall. The way she filled out her jeans made for a perfect fit in his hand. He looked down, confused, looking at his hand and wondering why it wasn’t cupping her butt at that moment.