Night Terrors: Savage Species, Book 1 (14 page)

“
Get in
,” Colleen shouted across Jesse.

The professor slowly lowered his arms and pivoted toward them, his expression both joyful and unbelieving.

“You think we can make it out?” Colleen asked as the professor hustled toward them.

“If we can—” Jesse started, but broke off when he spotted something about fifty yards away.

In the middle of the deluxe section, surrounded by a dozen pale figures, several RVs had been overturned. A couple were still upright, though the figures were working on them too. It was next to the largest RV, however, that they saw what prevented them from answering when the professor climbed in the passenger door next to Colleen and said, “Thank God for you two. I can’t tell you how much…”

The rest of his words were lost in the rush of foreboding that had gripped Jesse.

“We have to go over there,” he said, dry-mouthed.

Colleen nodded, but she looked very frightened.

Jesse put the pickup in drive and cut across the main road. Weaving in and out of campsites, they approached the giant white RV with green and blue stripes decorating its flanks.

And the big white Buick parked outside it.

About the Author

Jonathan Janz grew up between a dark forest and a graveyard, and in a way, that explains everything. Brian Keene named his debut novel,
The Sorrows,
“the best horror novel of 2012”. The Library Journal deemed his follow-up,
House of Skin
, “reminiscent of Shirley Jackson’s
The Haunting of Hill House
and Peter Straub’s
Ghost Story
”. Samhain Horror also published his third novel,
The Darkest Lullaby
, in April.
Savage Species
is his fourth full-length work. Look for his fifth novel, a vampire western called
Dust Devils
, in early 2014. He has also written three novellas (
The Clearing of Travis Coble
,
Old Order
, and
Witching Hour Theatre
) and several short stories. His primary interests are his wonderful wife and his three amazing children, and though he realizes that every author’s wife and children are wonderful and amazing, in this case the cliché happens to be true. You can learn more about Jonathan at
www.jonathanjanz.com
. You can also find him on Facebook, via @jonathanjanz on Twitter, or on his Goodreads and Amazon author pages.
 

Look for these titles by Jonathan Janz

Now Available:

The Sorrows

House of Skin

The Darkest Lullaby

Coming Soon:

Savage Species

The Children

Dark Zone

The Arena

The Old One

Dust Devils

Peaceful Valley is about to become a slaughterhouse!

Savage Species

© 2013 Jonathan Janz

The construction of the Peaceful Valley Nature Preserve, a sprawling, isolated state park, has stirred an evil that has lain dormant for nearly a century, and all the men, women, and children unlucky enough to be attending the grand opening are about to encounter the most horrific creatures to ever walk the earth.

The Children

Part Two of Savage Species

Jesse, Emma, and their companions must fight for their lives against the horde of bloodthirsty creatures known as the Children. Meanwhile, Charly and Sam follow the trail of Charly's missing baby below ground to a hidden cave system. But they're followed by Charly's husband, who has murder on his mind…
 

Enjoy the following excerpt for
The Children:

Professor Clevenger slammed into the dash with a bone-jarring
whump
. The RV rocked away from the impact, teetered on its side a moment, then toppled. From inside the RV, Jesse heard shrieks of pain and terror. A creature appeared from nowhere and, berserker style, plunged through the motor home’s windshield. More screams from inside. Then came a volley of staccato blasts, someone firing a gun within.

The rain was gushing now. Jesse shielded his eyes. Peering through the gaping hole that had once been the truck’s windshield, he watched a creature leap onto the overturned RV’s side. Surely unaware there was a creature there, someone from within the camper threw open the side door and attempted to climb out. Whoever it was let out a yelp of surprise and tried to close the door, but the creature was too quick. It reached down and fished the person out, a short woman Jesse now recognized as Linda Farmer, the camp ranger. Movement to his right drew his gaze and he saw Colleen drawing a bead on the creature, who was lifting Linda into the air, her legs flailing madly. The scimitar teeth leaned toward her exposed neck, but just before the creature ripped out her throat, the side door of the motor home swung open and Ron the DNR officer emerged. He leveled a black gun and squeezed off a fusillade of shots. The creature dropped Linda, took a couple wobbly steps at Ron, then crumpled.
 

Ron clambered along the top of the overturned camper to retrieve Linda’s weeping but intact body, but before he reached her, a creature pounced on him. Rolling onto his back, Ron thrust the gun up to shoot the creature, but it backhanded the pistol, the black object skittering uselessly along the white metal before disappearing over the edge. The creature raised its taloned hand to kill Ron, but before it could, a crack of thunder sounded and a gaping hole opened under the creature’s armpit.
 

Beside the truck, Colleen pumped the shotgun and advanced on the creature. Rather than clutching its side or bellowing in agony, the creature turned and let loose with a combination bark and hiss that made Jesse’s flesh crawl.
 

Then the creature leapt at Colleen.
 

Night Terrors

Savage Species, Part One

Jonathan Janz

Peaceful Valley is about to become a slaughterhouse!

For the first time ever, Samhain Publishing will serialize a terrifying original novel,
Savage Species
, in five installments, with new installments coming every two weeks. Here, as a special introduction to the fear that awaits you in
Savage Species,
is the first section,
Night Terrors
, absolutely free!

Jesse thinks he’s caught a break when he, the girl of his dreams, and her friend are assigned by their newspaper to cover the opening weekend of the Peaceful Valley Nature Preserve, a sprawling, isolated state park. But the construction of the park has stirred an evil that has lain dormant for nearly a century, and the three young people—as well as every man, woman, and child unlucky enough to be attending the grand opening—are about to encounter the most horrific creatures to ever walk the earth. A species so ferocious that Peaceful Valley is about to be plunged into a nightmare of bloodshed and damnation.
 

eBooks are
not
transferable.

They cannot be sold, shared or given away as it is an infringement on the copyright of this work.

This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the writer’s imagination or have been used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events, locale or organizations is entirely coincidental.

Samhain Publishing, Ltd.

11821 Mason Montgomery Road Suite 4B

Cincinnati OH 45249

Night Terrors

Copyright © 2013 by Jonathan Janz

ISBN: 978-1-61921-718-8

Edited by Don D’Auria

Cover by Angela Waters

All Rights Are Reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

First
Samhain Publishing, Ltd.
electronic publication: June 2013

www.samhainpublishing.com