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About the Author
Chris Hampton has written two young adult novels: Cory’s in Goal (a coming-of-age soccer story published in 2014) and Edge Walker (an apocalyptic wilderness adventure, forthcoming in Spring of 2016). Growing up in an Air Force family, Chris learned to be adaptable. Frequent moves around the U.S. opened him to the exploration of both urban and wild places. As a young adult, he worked gold mines, construction, heavy machinery, and tree trimming. Then, for twenty-three years, he taught high school English and coached soccer. Some of that time was spent in Kayenta, Arizona, among the Dine people who, Chris says, truly walk in beauty. When Chris and his wife, Ann, were introduced to Tom Brown Jr.'s Tracker and Wilderness Survival School, they discovered new worlds of wonder and adventure. In recent years, he has helped run Young Men's Initiation programs. Both Ann and Chris now spend much of their time taking and teaching classes, traveling, and writing about their experiences.
Grandview and Cory Towson’s soccer adventures continue in Striker, Chris Hampton’s forthcoming book, available 2016.
Connect With Me Online:
Twitter: @champbooks
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/chrishamptonstories/
Email:
[email protected] Following are the first 8 Chapters of my new ebook, Edge Walker, to be released May 28, 2016. It is a present-day apocalyptic wilderness adventure. Enjoy!
Edge Walker
Copyright 2016 Chris Hampton
Edited by Morgan Chinnock
All characters appearing in this work are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.
This partial ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only and is only a portion of the complete ebook story Edge Walker. This preview is for beta reading only and may not be re-sold or given away to other people. The entire book may be pre-ordered. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.
The Ledge
The city burns. Orange against black night.
Over his left shoulder hangs a blood-red moon. Sickle moon. The stars: red, too.
Four days, four nights, the city has burned.
Soon, people will come into the desert to escape death in the city. The boy feels this in his gut.
Sick, hungry, the people will be crazy, killing anything to live. They will come out in his direction. Looking. Hunting.
This ledge makes a good camp. Primitive. Simple. His sanctuary.
He sits, arms around knees, and watches the city burn, a long day's walk to the south.
No fire here. No need. Late spring. Enough leaf and debris for night warmth, stuffed in a shallow cleft behind him.
But soon he must go. He's been here too long. Yes. He will leave in the morning.
He stands. Turns from the far-off glow and worms into the debris cleft, feet first. Head stays out so he can hear, see, move quickly, if needed.
Each night, he fears what might come. Still, though, he sleeps. Some.
A small backpack makes a pillow. Everything he owns now.
No.
He owns nothing.
Sudden, sporadic flashes erupt in the far-off city. Then muffled booms. He's tired but watches. Can't help it. Metal dragons in the distance, small shiny ships, exhale fire.
He saw the shiny ships and their death up close, four nights ago when he fled the house, fled the city.
Man-made lightning. Man-made storms. Man-made death.
His head drops to his pack. Heavy. Weary. No answers to questions he's not sure how to ask or who to speak them to, now that Grandfather's gone.