Christmas Preview

Merry Christmas all you readers! Here's a VERY raw preview of the first chapter. By the time this book is complete (and I don't know when that will be, unfortunately) it will look a lot different.

Chapter 1

Dylan looked at the black smoke in the distance—the signal that all was clear. He turned around where Hunter stabled himself against a tree; his leg was bloody. A rag was tied around his calf.
“I can’t lose it Dylan—a one legged rebel is no good to them, and I would be hung a traitor if I tried to go home.”
Dylan offered no pity. He turned to Trista, and said, “Help me with him.”
“I screwed up,” Hunter softly cried, “I’m sorry.”
“Let me go ahead,” Trista offered, “I’ll get someone to drive out here and pick him up.”
Dylan nodded, “He can walk.”
“Are they going to have to cut it off?” Hunter asked sobbing more noticeably.
Trista smiled, “Relax, Hunter. The bullet barely touched the surface—you’ll be fine.”
Dylan grabbed Hunter’s arm, and began to pull at him, “Come on.”
“Stop being such a jerk, Dylan.” Trista said, pulling his hand off Hunter’s and standing protectively in front of him. “We all mess up. No one got too hurt—we all live to see another day--just let it go.”
“All of this,” Dylan said looking at his leg, “For a video game?”
“It’s been a long time sense I’ve played,” Hunter said, pausing and then adding defensively, “How was I supposed to know some old guy set it up as a trap?”
Dylan smiled, “Let’s see—empty house, door wide open, and a video game playing on the TV! That all sounds innocent enough, right? Couldn’t possibly be something meant to draw some dumb kid in, right? Who would ever think of something like that?!”
“Well when you put it that way.”
“Relax, Dylan.” Trista said putting her hand on Dylan’s.
“Relax? What if I wasn’t there to take care of the old guy? What if he was actually a good shot and did more than just nick his leg?”
“Well he didn’t—Hunter learned his lesson. Calm down.”
Dylan looked at Trista intensely, sighed, and finally admitted, “I can’t take anymore of these missions—this was supposed to be are chance to make it right.”
Before Trista could reply, a hand came over Dylan’s mouth muzzling him; instantly he saw men dressed in dark fatigues doing the same to Trista and Hunter.
The man whose hand was covering Dylan’s mouth said quietly, “I’m going to release my hand. Very quietly say the password—or prepare to die.”
Dylan nervously said, “Moonpie.”
“Ha! That was yesterdays. Cut their throats!”
“It is moonpie.” The one holding Hunter said, “Yesterdays was fartburger.”
He thought. “What’s today?”
“Thursday.”
“It’s not moonpie?”
“It is moonpie.”
“So what’s the problem, then?”
“Nothing, sir—they said the right word. They live.”
He starred at Dylan carefully, “what are you doing out here?”
“We are late. We were supposed to meet up with a special op team four hours ago.” He looked at hunter, “but we ran into trouble.”
“Your Dylan?”
Dylan nodded.
“We’re your team--we figured you were dead when you didn’t come.” He paused, and stood in front of Dylan. “Hungry?”
Dylan nodded. He looked at the person who moments ago had muzzled. He was Hispanic had black, unkept hair; his eyes were wide and anxious.
“Let’s get some chow. We can go over everything while we eat.”
Dylan, Trista and Hunter followed the group to two beat jeeps in the distance.
“Names Charlie, by the way.” The man said.
“You don’t look like a Charlie.” Trista said.
“That’s not my real name.” He explained. “Charlie’s just what I tell people to call myself. Ever heard of Nam? Vietnam?”
Trista nodded.
“They were always looking for Charlie. So that’s where it comes from—people are always looking for me—trying to kill me. Get it?”
Before any of them replied, Charlie looked at Dylan and asked, “You drive?”
“Not really?”
Charlie laughed. “Today you get your first lesson.” He tossed him the keys. “I might be a little drunk--I can’t remember if I drank at lunch today or yesterday. Either way you’re driving.”
Dylan looked at the keys confused.
“Don’t worry! I’m an excellent teacher! Get in!”
Everyone is in.
The other company gets in jeep.
Dylan starts jeep.
“Follow them.”
The other jeep was speeding away.
Charlie smacked him, “Catch up! They’re getting away!”
Each bump Hunter grunted. Charlie turned, “Quiet, already!”
“It hurts!” Hunter whined.
“What happened to him anyway?”
“Some old man...” Dylan started to say, but Charlie cut him off.
“Look at that! They’re way up there! Don’t you know how to drive?”
Dylan nodded no, “My foot is all the way down!”
“Just make it go faster already!”
It was getting dark. “How do I turn on the lights?”
“What lights?”
“The car lights.”
Charlie laughed. “There’s no lights on this thing! It would make it too easy to spot.”
“So what happens at night?”
“That’s why you were supposed to keep up! We would have been there twenty minutes ago!”
Dylan turned away frustrated.
Completely black. Charlie lit a cigarette, which provided brief light.
“I can’t drive like this!” Dylan said.
“You wussing out on me?”
“I can’t see!”
“Dylan, you can’t drive either--but that hasn’t stopped you from driving?”
“Huh?”
“Where were going, you don’t need to see.”
“Where are we going?” Hunter asked confused.
Before Charlie replied, the jeep crashed and everyone was tossed forward. Luckily Dylan had slowed down.
“I do believe we are here.” Charlie laughed. “Come on. There’s flash lights in the truck--I hope they put batteries in them this time.”
Charlie uses the flashlight to survey the damage. Dylan and ran straight into a dead tree. “Jeep had a good life, but this kind of thing is bound to happen when you drive in the dark.”
“So now what?”
“Wait til sun up, and then we’ll hike the rest of the way in.”
Beat...talk about this at night.
“There’s a war on three fronts now--the Rebels, the Cocos, and the Reformers.”
“So who are the good guys?”
“War isn’t about good and bad—right and wrong--just and unjust. All logic goes on the
way side the moment someone pulls the trigger. It’s a bitch, but when people can no
longer use words to come to a resolution, then all hell breaks loose--and that’s war. It’s
hell and this long into it, I think it’s safe to say we are in it’s deepest circle. No turning
back now!”
“So what’s the point?”
“You are in hell’s deepest circle--you’re either an idiot or you have something your
searching for.”
“Can’t it be both?”
Charlie laughs

Graphic Novel

The First volume of the N00b Warriors Graphic Novel can now be downloaded here:

Here are the links:
iBooks: http://itunes.apple.com/us/book/the-n00b-warriors-the-graphic/id463192900?mt=11
Nook: http://search.barnesandnoble.com/books/e/2940013006010
Kindle: http://www.amazon.com/N00b-Warriors-Graphic-Novel-ebook/dp/B005M65TOO/ref=zg_bs_156112011_15?_encoding=UTF8&zgs=digital-text&zgrt=top-sellers&zgid=156112011

N00b - The Graphic Novel

Here's the first six cells of the graphic novel. It will probably be the last update until it comes out (mid September to early October.

First Graphic Novel Cell

If you aren't following on Facebook, then you haven't seen this yet. It's the first graphic novel cell of the N00b Warriors. The first volume is schedule to be released in October.

Graphic Novel

For those of you who don't follow the Facebook page (why don't you, btw? It's more updated then this), here are a few illustrations from the N00b Warriors graphic novel. These are just concepts--not the finals. Comments are welcome.

Amy

Dylan & Trinity

Jacob

James

A Quick Summer Update (And a New Series + New Free Book!)

Greetings N00b’s!

Summer is upon us at last--hopefully for most of you that means some kind of vacation; for me, it means I will, at last, have the time to start putting outlines and sketches together, and putting N00b 2 together.

In the meantime, I have something new for all of you. The first is a new series I co-wrote about the life of Spartacus--it’s called “Spartacus: Rise Up From the Dust” and it’s available now on iBooks, Kindle and Nook. It is the story of a young slave, who becomes the servant of the famed gladiator, Spartacus. It has plenty of action, and I’m sure you will all love it. Spartacus will be $0.99 for two days, and then will go up to $2.99 after that--so buy it now! I know, I know--it’s not free! Because I’m not the only author, there are some expenses that need to be covered--but don’t worry, Book 2 of N00b’s will be free.

I also have a free book that just went up on iBooks called “Roughing It.” It’s based loosely on Mark Twain’s classic book. Fingers crossed, I can get this book up free on Kindle soon (it’s currently $2.99).

Thank you so much for all of your support!

Scott Douglas

www.scottdouglas.org

New Fragments

A few have you have asked if Lyle will make an appearance in Book 2...well here you go.

FYI, the Oral Histories are likely going to replace the Blogs in book 2; they're meant to give back-story, but are not part of the regular narrative.

The Rebellion: An Oral History

Lyle Ridgemont, Frosted Flake Company Leader (Interviewed: Scottsdale, Arizona – 22 March 2058)

I was 17 when I was assigned by the President himself to investigate the "rumors" of the rebellion. It wasn't a rumor, of course. It was a fact. But the Frosties refused to tell the public that--Cocos too--but at this point they weren't really concerned with the rebellion.

Why?

They were running the war from a political standpoint. The English Union, Eurasia Alliance, and Western Canada all showed their support and were providing virtually unlimited resources. The Frosted Flakes had the Latin countries, but with most of the fighting in is in the North, no Latin country could send help fast enough--and they were mostly broke. So when the one person that had raised the spirits of the Frosties shows up with Rebels, the Cocos saw it as just another victory. A lot of people, myself included, suspected the Rebellion was being funded secretly by the Cocos.

What did you know about the Rebellion when you were assigned to investigate them?
Two things. One, they were real. Two, they were my ticket to promotion. Like I said, I was 17, so I was still cocky enough to believe everything they told me.

How did you investigate?
Well, like I said, there wasn't really anything to investigate. It was fact. Every time a rebel unit popped up, I was sent to ask questions. But it was really pointless. They were ghost. They popped up randomly and then disappeared. They were better trained then all of us in that respect. In the months of investigating, I caught one. One rebel. He was a kid--I think he was eleven or twelve. Got lost. But he didn't know anything. Just kept saying it was all a lie--didn't even know why. He was pretty banged up by the time I got the chance to interview him. This is all the information I got from him: raised in New Mexico, trained in either New Mexico or Colorado, assigned to a intel unit, but he didn't know what kind of intel they were gathering. Mostly he cried. He got sent across the borders to prison and was the only caught rebel for sometime.

Why did they pick you?
I never asked, but I suspect it was because I knew Dylan. He served under me during the Battle of Disneyland. Heck, he was the reason for my first promotion. I think they thought I could offer some insight. I don't know. Everything changed after the Reuter's Prison Attack.

How so?
I guess you could say it became a grown up investigation. Everyone wanted a piece of that. It wasn't a company inquiry into the possibility--it was a full fledge manhunt. Everyone wanted it stopped. I was replaced by a general and reassigned to a supply depot in Prescott, Arizona. That didn't last long.