This Savage and Beautiful Night | Flashback: The Final Trilogy of Stories | Part One

Book excerpt: The final Flashback begins ... It's all led to this. All the characters and situations of the Flashback/Dinosaur Apocalypse come together in a final trilogy of tales that will close out and define the saga. Join Ank and Williams, the crew of Gargantua, the kids from Thunder Road, and so many others as they heed the call to adventure one last time and face the very architects of the Flashback! Welcome to the world of the Flashback, a world in which man’s cities have become overgrown jungles and extinct animals wander the ruins. You can survive here, if you're lucky, and if you're not in the wrong place at the wrong time--which is everywhere, all the time. But what you'll never do is remain the same, for this is a world whose very purpose is to challenge you, a world where anything can and will happen. So take a deep dive into these loosely connected tales of the Dinosaur Apocalypse (each of which can be read individually or as a part of the greater saga): tales of wonder and terror, death and survival, blood and beauty. Do it today, before the apocalypse comes. From This Savage and Beautiful Night: “Francis,” said Bella Ray—indicating the mic should be given to him. “Go.” “Ah—” He took the cordless mic and placed it near his lips. “Test, test … Okay.” He cleared his throat. “This is in response to Sheila. Because, what you don’t understand, Miss, is that that was no mere wind—it was a conduit; and in that conduit I could hear them,” He looked at the sky; at the Flashback Borealis—now diminished by the sun—and the drifting lights (which were of a color no one had ever seen). “Which I have heard before, as you know.” He indicated the crowd. “As everyone knows. Because the truth is, I have been closer to their dark materials than anyone—anyone here in Barley, that’s for sure. And I am telling you: there was something in their voices this time that wasn’t there before, something, I think, that they’ve never experienced. And that’s fear.” At which the amphitheater fell ghostly silent, at least for a moment. “Well, fear of what, exactly?” called a man with a stump for a hand (his name was Roger), at last. “They’re sure as hell not afraid of us.” Francis just shook his head. “I don’t know. Fear of whatever’s at the center of that labyrinth; which is why they’re gathering on it. Maybe even the fear that it will somehow affect their precious Flashback ...” “Wait a minute, wait a minute,” blurted someone—some punk kid, I believe his name was Lonny. “So you’re saying there’s two conflicting forces—sort of like a football game—one of which is responsible for the Flashback, while the other is even now beckoning to us?” He laughed and slapped his hat against his hip. “Well, hell, man, sign me up with the Beckoner! Let’s do this!” Laughter; laughter and riotous applause—which devolved into chaos—as Bella Ray threw up her arms and someone tossed torn paper (like confetti) and something parted the crowd like a float, like a tank. Something that turned out to be an armored dinosaur (an ankylosaurus) with a man walking beside it, a duo I knew to be the great Ank and Williams themselves—veterans of the Dinosaur War and the Bearers of the Hammer. The Legends of the North. “That’s just precisely what he’s saying,” shouted Williams assuredly, authoritatively. “And he’s exactly right to do so—because that’s the situation.” He looked at Francis, who brought him the cordless microphone. “And it’s high time we accepted it; and started drawing up our plans. Because friends—fellow survivors, veterans of the Big One and all those who have come here because they heard Radio Free Montana, it’s all come down to this.”