Tread Fearless: Survival & Awakening (The Gatekeeper Book 4)
Read Tread Fearless: Survival & Awakening (The Gatekeeper Book 4) Online
Authors: Kenneth Cary
Tags: #Christian Books & Bibles, #Religion & Spirituality, #Occult & Paranormal, #Supernatural, #Teen & Young Adult, #Children's eBooks, #Occult
THE GATEKEEPER
,
BOOK 4
TREAD
FEARLESS
Survival & Awakening
BY
KENNETH CARY
Copyright © 2015
Kenneth Cary
All rights reserved.
ISBN-13: 9781518805462
ISBN-10: 1518805469
OTHER TITLES BY
KENNETH CARY
The Gatekeeper Series:
Curtain Fall
Lamp Black
Compass Call
Email:
[email protected]
Website:
www.lightprepare.com
DISCLAIMER
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either a product of the authors’ imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events or locales is entirely coincidental. Please consult with a physician before attempting to replicate anything in this fictional account.
CREDITS
Amazon CreateSpace, for their support of independent authors.
EDITED BY
Kim Cary & Scott Spangler
DEDICATION
To my Heavenly Father, for granting me the necessary gifts, trials, and experience needed to prepare for this life, and the next. To my dad, a stranger no more. To my children, in whom I’ve been made to love from afar, but love all the more for their strength, love and support. And most importantly, to my wife and soul-mate, the woman I’ve known across time and who loves me like no other. May our journey together equal a sum greater than the parts. You’re awesome, and I love you will all my heart. And finally, to my loyal readers and Gatekeeper Series fans, without you this story would have ended with the first two-hundred pages. May you read and enjoy this story like all the others.
AUTHOR’S FORWARD
A
s the Gatekeeper Series draws ever closer to its culmination point, I can’t help but reflect on the similarities between mine and John’s comparative journey. I’m speaking allegorically of course, but like John’s fictional account, my real-life journey has been one of trial, learning, growth, and self-improvement.
While comparing this story to my first, Curtain Fall, I realize how much I’ve changed as a writer and storyteller. I’d like to think I’ve improved, but if not, then I’ve most certainly changed. And it’s my interest in change that motivates me to keep writing.
It’s been a learning experience for me, and I sincerely appreciate all the love, support and encouragement I’ve received along the way. I can’t speak for other authors, but I will say that I’ve put my entire heart and soul into this story. It’s as much a part of me as any child, and few parents enjoy exposing their children to the harsh realities of the world. At times, I have actually considered abandoning this story for a new project. But a larger part of me demands a conclusion. I guess it’s the same part that helps tell the story, that hidden part that’s buried under many layers of conscious distraction.
Be that as it may, you don’t need to read my other books before you enjoy this story. However, if you’re new to the Gatekeeper series and want to jump right in to the deep end of the pool, then I offer you a quick synopsis of my three previous books, which are, in order of release: Curtain Fall, Lamp Black, and Compass Call.
In Curtain Fall, John Anderson, the main character of the story, reacts to a prophetic dream about an impending disaster. He sees the eruption of the Yellowstone Caldera, a massive supervolcano, and how it changes the physical and social landscape of America. When John realizes what’s about to happen, he immediately accelerates his physical preparedness efforts and warns friends and family to prepare. Some
listen, and some don’t, but it doesn’t stop John from acting on his own for his immediate family.
In Lamp Black, the volcanic ash begins to fall and blanket the country. Though only about twelve inches falls on John’s home in northern Texas, it nevertheless initiates nationwide chaos. When essential services cease, and transportation systems grind to a halt, the rule of law succumbs to anarchy. Believing that his family will be safe in their semi-rural neighborhood, John soon learns that chaos has already reached them when neighbors are viscously attacked by desperate survivors. This story also accounts the journey of John’s good friend, Pete, who makes a daring 200-mile drive north, during the height of the refugee mass exodus heading south, to link up with John.
Compass Call accounts the challenges of being the only prepared family in a neighborhood of unprepared people. When the desperate designs and agendas of unprepared people force John to reevaluate his future in the neighborhood, he begins to form a company of like-minded survivors. Survival becomes a more brutal existence, when the need to take lives is balanced against saving others. The chain of events that unfold in this story will make you consider your own plans about surviving-in-place, or bugging-out.
And the story continues here, in Tread Fearless, as John’s company of survivors depart the neighborhood. John convinces them to accompany him to sanctuary, a place of refuge in southern Colorado, and once prepared they waste no time in leaving. They face many interesting challenges while driving through the troubled survival landscape around them. This story also introduces John’s other good friend, Mark. Believing San Antonio would be safe from the disaster’s effects, Mark also decided to stay put. And by the time chaos reached him, it was almost too late to react. After engaging a violent youth gang, Mark sets out on a solo journey to join up with Pete and John. Now if he can only reach them.
An interesting element in this part of the story is an underlying theme of, “Things aren’t always as they appear.” Survival situations are
very stressful, and they can easily bias our perceptions of people and places. This is due, in large part, to our generally comfortable and modern lifestyle, where stress from making life and death decisions is hardly a requirement. And because we’re not accustomed to making such decisions, we’ll tend to overreact and err on the side of caution. Survival of the fittest (smartest) will definitely be a factor in the post-apocalyptic survival environment.
I also want to point out, and this is very easy to forget while reading this story, that each book in the series constitutes a relatively short period of near-real time. The entire Gatekeeper Series as it is currently written, covers a period of time from October 10
th
, to October 22
nd
, 2016. That’s twelve days of activity. Less even, if you start the counter from initial ashfall. In those twelve days there are four, three-day installments of the story, and each has its own unique application in relation to the disaster scenario that I first introduced in Curtain Fall.
There are many other unique qualities to this story, but none are more significant than the interwoven spiritual element. I’ve attempted to remain more spiritual than religious, but I do imply an open and honest interest in God the Father, and His Son, Jesus Christ. So that makes me a Christian. But I ask that you think of John’s growing spiritual abilities more as super-human feats, which is exactly what they are.
To have abilities like John’s would be truly superhuman. I know of no one who can do the things he can do in this story, but the possibility of such abilities intrigues me. Besides, if the scriptures are any indication of superhuman potential, where many great and marvelous things were accomplished by regular people blessed by God, then why can’t we imagine such a thing happening today? Truly, such abilities would be incredible if granted to the right person, in the right place, and at the right time.
In closing, I want to say thanks to all my loyal readers. Thanks for supporting me and being interested in my work. You motivate me to continue, and your interest becomes my interest. I anticipate contributing two more books to the series, but I’ll have to alter my writing style
to suit a more protracted timeline. However, please keep in mind that while the story will never truly end, my account of it will. I’ve already seen where I’m to end it, and will offer an occasional glimpse into their future to ease everyone toward closure.
In the meantime, you can find updates and more of my physical and spiritual preparedness work at the
Lightprepare.com
website. Until next time, enjoy the story and let me know what you think. I love hearing from readers who say it changed their lives. And it’s certainly changed mine. With that, I leave you respectfully and sincerely.
Adieu.
CHAPTER INDEX
CHAPTER 1
SIEGE
H
e heard her scream and turned in time to see her fall to the floor. Lisa was shot. The first thing that went through Mark’s mind was why she didn’t act quickly enough – why didn’t she hit the floor when the first shots were fired. But then again, she wasn’t a trained soldier. Mark knew she wasn’t even armed, and here he was judging her actions against his own.
In those brief few seconds of time that marked the opening phase of the siege, when Lisa stood frozen in place as rounds passed through the front wall of the house, and one single, high-velocity bullet struck her in the leg, Mark became lost in time. In that single moment, everything changed for him. His life, his love, his hope, all came crashing down around him when his Lisa fell.
With her screams filling his mind to a boiling point, he brazenly walked up to the shattered front window, flipped his weapon’s selector switch on the fully licensed M4 to full-auto, and sprayed the cars across the street with an entire thirty-round magazine. The rapid staccato of his military-grade assault weapon firing, mixed with the sounds of the super-sonic bullets striking the road and cars pleased him, but hardly satisfy his lust for revenge.
He realized later that he could have ended it all right there. He could have reloaded, and then jumped through the window and charged the cowering gangbangers – taking them all by surprise while they hid behind their cars across the street - but Lisa’s pain brought him back to reality. He couldn’t afford to lose control, not now, not with Lisa’s life on the line.
Mark reloaded while he walked deeper into the living room. When he reached down to grab the trauma kit from his range bag, heavy gunfire erupted behind him. As rounds began to once again puncture the walls around him, Mark quickly dropped to the floor. He low-crawled over to Lisa and inspected her wound. “It’s okay, baby. I’m right here,” he said.
He didn’t have to force her hand away from the wound to know that it was mortal. And when he looked into her eyes, he knew that she also knew it was bad. She was going into shock and losing way too much blood, so he quickly strapped a tourniquet around her upper thigh. The bullet, Mark realized, must have clipped her femoral artery. And he wasn’t equipped to handle it alone, especially not with a determined enemy bent on killing them both.