Bone Dust & Beginnings (Alexa's Travels Book 1) (23 page)

The Bachelor Battles

512AW (After War)

1

What if… the male population was going extinct, and behind them, women, the world?

That was the reason the Network had given for the laws that decreed all men must have an owner, someone to be responsible for their care. Enslavement was the only way to protect our species, they’d insisted… and we listened.

After the nuclear war, when the population fell below seven million world-wide, the birth rate slowly recovered to half of the pre-war averages, but less than 5% of those were male. The fallout damaged reproductive systems, making girls by the hundreds for every boy born, and those rare few were weaker, more susceptible to the toxins still in the air and ground. In small, scattered clans of survivors, this was more proof that by ‘
the meek shall inherit the earth’
, God had meant women.

 
Within decades, the number of men had dropped drastically, and there were new wars, where whole towns of survivors killed each other for their sons. Huge groups decimated the smaller clans, absorbing the useful and disposing of the rest. Cities that had begun to rebuild, fell again to unchecked violence as the remaining scientists confirmed the fears. Unless something was done, the human population was likely to die out within just two centuries.

That’s when the Network took over.

It must have been horrifying at first, for all those who’d gone without contact for so long, to suddenly hear life coming from the devices that still worked. Had they thought maybe it was all over, and for good this time? When the radio station blared to life on July 4
^th
, 085 AW, it was with anthems for all the nations. Played over and over, it was a call that people answered. When the words finally came, the first signs of a civilization about to try again… they were spoken by a woman.

Within ten years, the radio station had drawn nearly five thousand refugees from all corners of the planet and returned New York to some of its former glory. Renamed New Network City in 099AW, it became the first beacon of light in the darkness that hung over the new world. In 114AW, the United States was renamed New America, but there was little new about a world cursed by ghosts of the past.

Now, five hundred years after the nuclear sabotage that had destroyed our planet, the country had been split into three parts. Directly in the middle was an unknown area called the Borderlands, where the Wild West had returned in a new version of
hell.
The sides of New America were each controlled by a division of the Network, though the West Coast outpost was as foreign to most as those mysterious Borderlands. People from the west preferred to stay there, but it was hard to imagine them attempting the four-month trek anyway, considering the odds of death along the way. Few places beyond New Network City were livable… and those in charge liked it that way.

The Network hid from their subjects, ruling through cameras and audio devices. No one really knew who was on the Council, only that it had ten members. There are no records or photos. From our history books, it seems no one cared. Rules, laws, and the foundations of a society that had existed solely inside the debris-laden walls of the Network City districts, had spread around the globe and been duplicated by other lands, other leaders. It was easy to see why it succeeded.

The Network was strict. More so than any of the previous democracies on American soil… but really, it wasn’t that, even from the beginning. They imposed the bans and the punishments, and we obeyed, even though the War of 2012 had been caused by the very same indifference. Why would we consent to it starting again? Didn’t the death of billions teach us anything? There could have been a world of hope, remade from the ashes of the pain. Instead… we got the Games.

The Survivors

Like most days now, the sound of the ocean haunts me.

My name is Angela. I'm a mother, doctor, soldier, and now, in the year 2017, I've become a leader of men. Thanks to the end of our world to nuclear war, I'm the Guardian of an American refugee camp named Safe Haven.

Surrounded by carefully watching guards, I sit beside the immense Pacific Ocean as my people work and play nearby, confident my Army will look after them while I tell you about the War of 2012…and how we were forced to leave our beloved Country. It was a nightmare from which we couldn't wake. Some of us still haven't, and soon, we'll be at the water's mercy again. In less than two months, we're going home.

America waits for us to reclaim and to rebuild, but mostly, simply, for us to return. Before we undertake that perilous journey, I have to get the 357 souls here ready for the trip, and I only know one way it can be done - Adrian has to come back, and lead us home, as he promised.

Adrian… That incredibly patriotic man has been exiled, even though he’s the only reason that we survived. His secret was the only excuse the camp needed to turn on him, but I won't. I can't. I swore myself to him the same as the rest of his Council, and like them, I still believe.

I’ve gotten way ahead of myself, far beyond the beginning, when our future didn’t look as good is it does now. Most people here in New America won’t talk about the War or the long, ugly journey we made together. They say the memories have faded, but I know a lie when I hear one. Some horrors you never forget. Like our final battle with Cesar and his large band of ruthless Mexican guerillas.

It's been five years, but I still see the deep red streams of blood running down rain-soaked trees. I still smell men burning alive in their metal coffins. I dream of it sometimes: of the cold, wet night when I was the
bait,
and I'm sure Adrian does, too. It was the moment we knew our people would live - because of one man’s dream and his lies.

From the very beginning, Adrian kept us alive, gave us everything he had - and he always did what was best for the camp, no matter what it cost him personally. He taught us to be stronger than we thought we could be, to look out for each other, and ourselves, and through it all… he lied by omission, knowing these scared, hurting survivors would never have trusted him, would never have given him a chance, if they had known who he really was.

We came a long way together in the year after the War, over thousands of miles of heartbreaking devastation, and it hurts those of us who remain loyal to see him accept their unfair judgment without a fight. It makes everything we went through seem less important than it was, weakens the magic somehow, and I can’t allow that.

I’ve been seeing open doors again, and that sly ocean cautions me, says the return trip will be just as hard as the one we undertook to get here. If there’s a storm headed toward the flock, it’s our Shepherd we’ll need to see us through it.

So, for Adrian and for those of us standing by him, still ready to die for him, and for the dreams he made me believe in from almost the first minute I set foot in his Refugee camp, I will tell our story and leave nothing out. Maybe then these people will realize what he did for our country, accept how much we owe, and allow him to reclaim what’s rightfully his.
Us.

Before I tell you about our harsh, ugly journey, let me show you what happened on that day, what they did to us and what we did to each other. This is how America’s story of survival began…

The Horseman

Edward was taken in the Draft, held in a bunker for months after the War, while his wife was murdered and left to die. When the food began running out, he helped breach compound to free everyone. Those freed men then destroyed the nearest towns. The horseman, so called because of his touch with animals, has never forgiven himself. Until Alexa saved him, he only wanted to die.

The Biker

Daniel liked to risk his life for thrills before the end of the world forced him to see that there were more important things to die for. He lost his child in the aftermath of the War, and tried to take his life because of it. Alexa healed his injuries and his heart.

The Preacher

In his mid-twenties, Jacob has jagged scars that crisscross his cheek and forehead. Before the War, he was government. After, he was the preacher in River City.
He believes in peace and will go out of his way to achieve it, but when the battles come, he is as dangerous as the rest of Alexa’s companions. The other men assumed his wounds have caused this, but their leader knows better. Jacob is a born killer.

The Convict

Mark was a criminal when she came for him, in an underground slam in Boulder with the other killers. That hadn't stood in her way. When Alexa had left Boulder, he had been at her side and happy to be in the place he was born for.

The Blacksmith

David is the normally silent member of her group.
Taller than her other men, he wears the same dark coloring and intelligent blue eyes. Little else is known, yet.

The Driver

Billy was a limo driver before the War. He can scale a tree like a monkey. He’s the only one of her men to have hair long enough to keep in a ponytail. Little else is known, yet.

The Leader

Alexa is a leader of men. She culled her companions from the dwindling herd
 
of mankind because she sensed they alone might have the strength to make the journey, and each battle fought at her side tightens the bonds. For her, their quest is about more than finding a safe place. It's about the search for missing family. With her scarred fingers and fire-roughened voice, this stunning blonde warrior will lead these six bad-ass men through hell and back to reclaim what she lost in the war – her place on Adrian’s right.

All Angela White Titles

Life
After
War series

The Survivors

On The Road

Safe Haven

Adrian’s Eagles

Bachelor Battles Trilogy

The Change

Changeling Winds

Flash Fiction

Twisted Shorts

Alexa’s Travels

A Prelude

Bone Dust & Beginnings

Upcoming Releases

The Network

The Killin’ Fields of Nebraska

From the Ashes