John O'Brien - Sanctuary

He awakens with a panicked feeling that a lot of time has passed while he has lain in darkness. The fear arises from not knowing what happened; an instinctual feeling of survival. It also comes from not knowing how long he has lain in the darkness and fearing the painful light will be in the sky soon. His head is pounding and he isn’t able to think very well. He reaches out with his mind but can’t sense any others of his pack nearby. He opens his eyes and raises his head. Relief, well, what he feels as relief, enters as he finds it is still night and death from the light in the sky hasn’t found him.

Pushing himself to his knees, he glances around. The other members of his pack lie on the ground around him; lying still; not moving. There is a lingering smell not unlike when the other two-legged ones made those noises with their sticks that caused the death of some of his pack in nights previous. As he looks around, there is a noiseless click in his head. A warm flush rushes through his head. Images and sounds flood through. He grabs his head, not from any pain, but from the multitude of noise that seems to be dancing inside. Another noiseless click and he looks up in wonderment.

He suddenly senses other packs of night runners as they run through the streets and fields. The ability is no longer confined to short distances. He knows he can push and receive the images of their communication over a greater distance. He also has other memories, of before becoming transformed; that’s how he thinks of it, becoming transformed. He looks up at the large, red “S” on the building that he and his pack, or what was his pack, laired in and knows it is a Safeway store. How he knows that now, or rather, how he didn’t before confuses him to an extent. Not all things come back into memory; how to use items and the knowledge of certain things remain hidden. He doesn’t know what a gun is or how to lock or unlock a door but his mind is still flooded with some memories.

He knows they walked into a trap that killed a lot of his pack members. He realizes he has another language in his mind as he gazes up at the Safeway sign above him. The others running in packs won’t know it but he knows, without knowing how he knows it, that the other two-legged ones have this language. He knows he was once one of them. He also knows that part of him is gone. He is now one of the transformed. The name Michael Benson rings in his mind. He knows that name. He knows it is him. He remembers!

John is a former Air Force fighter instructor pilot who transitioned to Special Operations for the latter part of his career gathering his campaign ribbon for Desert Storm. Immediately following his military service, he became a firefighter/EMT with a local fire department. Along with becoming a firefighter, he began a career in the Information Technology industry starting two large casinos in Washington as the Information Technology Manager and becoming the Network Manager for the Washington State Legislature, the Northwest Information Technology Manager for the Federal Aviation Administration, and the Network Systems Manager for Hollywood Video. Currently, John is self-employed with his own Information Technology consulting company, consulting and managing various businesses with their information technology needs. He also volunteers for a local youth center managing their computer lab.

As a former marathon runner, John lives in the beautiful Pacific Northwest and can now be found kayaking out in the waters of Puget Sound, mountain biking in the Capital Forest, hiking in the Olympic Peninsula, or pedaling his road bike along the many scenic roads.

Facebook: http://facebook.com/JohnWBObrien

Smashwords: http://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/JohnOBrien

Web site: http://anewworldseries.com

A NEW WORLD: CHAOS

A NEW WORLD: RETURN

A NEW WORLD: SANCTUARY

A NEW WORLD: TAKEN

Copyright © 2012 John O’Brien

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form, except for the inclusion of brief quotations in review, without permission in writing from the author.

Cover art by: SM Reine

http://smreine.deviantart.com/