A new breed of hero walks tomorrow's hellish frontier...

Jak’s hand was red and swollen

The slash was dark, puffy and angry looking. It had
stopped bleeding, but now it oozed a clear fluid. Mildred
sniffed, then wrinkled her nose.
“Sweet-sour stink. Either those little bastards have some
kind of venom in them, or their feces are more virulent
than I first thought.”
J.B. squatted over one of the corpses, probing it with
the tip of his flensing knife. “Fangs seem solid, not like
a rattler’s, if that helps. I don’t see any poison sac in its
mouth or throat, either.”

“Thanks, John. Whatever the cause, I have to radically
revise my prognosis.”
“What do you mean?” Krysty asked.
Mildred glanced up. “Judging by how fast it’s progressing,
instead of a day or two, Jak might have six to eight
hours—if he’s lucky.”


Available wherever books are sold January 11, 2011