THE HITTER: QUIET WAR

THE HITTER: QUIET WAR

A Cade Grayson Thriller

Book 1

“Through a combination of tight, well-structured plots and fully realized characters, Chesser has emerged as one of the top indie writers in the business.” Joe McKinney – Two-time Bram Stoker Award winner and best-selling author of the Dead World series
 

THE HITTER: QUIET WAR
Edited by Monique Happy Editorial Services
106,000 words
 

After nearly twenty years of direct involvement in the seemingly non-stop combat operations in the Middle East—first as a sniper in the 75thRanger Regiment 2nd Battalion, then as the youngest member of the Army’s storied Delta Force—Cade Grayson is back home in Portland, Oregon, trying his best to reintegrate into civilian life.

Everything changes when a pair of Pelican cases are deposited on Cade’s porch by a stranger driving an unmarked panel van. Knowing in his gut that the unannounced delivery has a connection to his old life, and that whatever is contained within the hard cases must have something to do with the recent lightning-fast fall of Kabul, Afghanistan and the total capitulation of the remaining U.S. forces to the Taliban, he cracks the seals reluctantly.

Sent by his former Delta commander, the cases contain proof that Al-Simoom, a terrorist organization whose leaders Cade’s Pale Riders team had captured and put away for life in Kabul’s Pul-e-Charkhi prison, are claiming responsibility for the suicide bombing at Abbey Gate—a despicable act that killed thirteen U.S. service members and scores of innocent Afghanis.

But that’s not all. Intel suggests that in the aftermath of the suicide bombing at Hamid Karzai International Airport, dozens of Al-Simoom members melted into the agitated crowds escaping the carnage and stole their way aboard airplanes bound for the United States.

Though the number of Al-Simoom cells and their whereabouts in CONUS are unknown, one thing is clear: With the twenty-year anniversary of 9/11 fast approaching, America is a target-rich environment—and Cade Grayson and his fellow former Pale Riders are at the top of the list.

With no time to waste, Cade sends an overture to former teammates requesting they put life on hold and convene at the Grayson home.

Cade and his reconstituted team learn the whereabouts of one cell leader, verified through facial recognition software. With little more than the city and the terrorist’s last known location to work with, the Pale Riders go on the offensive. Assisted by allies still hardwired into the special operations community and with the unsolicited financial backing of a billionaire benefactor, the Pale Riders set out to find the one thread that, when pulled, will lead to the unraveling of Al-Simoom’s deadly plans. 

 "Through a combination of tight, well-structured plots and fully realized characters, Chesser has emerged as one of the top indie writers in the business."
- Joe McKinney, two time Bram Stoker Award winner, and best-selling author of the Dead World series.

62000 words. Approximately 250 pages.

For Cade Grayson, husband, father, and former Delta Force operator, that one warm sunny Saturday in July—later to be labeled Z-Day by some anonymous person probably long dead—began like all the others before, and none since.

With his daughter, Raven and wife, Brook, away visiting her parents in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, Cade hopes his immediate future holds nothing but an easy chair, Mariners on the tube, and paring down a honey-do list a mile long.

But those hopes were quickly dashed and his life forever changed when news broke of a clash in downtown Portland between soldiers from the Oregon National Guard and hundreds of anarchist protesters suddenly turned violent and, by one anchor’s account, blood-thirsty and cannibalistic.

As the first waves of injured bystanders, Guardsmen, and rioters arrived at hospitals in and around Portland, it became apparent that a deadly new disease had been unleashed on the population.

Whether the virus was naturally occurring or an escaped lab experiment Cade hadn’t a clue, and he wasn’t especially concerned until he learned of its unprecedented virulence, unusual method of transference, and the fact that, according to the talking heads on the news, it brought the newly dead back to life, semi-mindless, and with an insatiable desire to feed on the flesh of the living.

Armed with this new information and now seeing the bigger cities such as Washington D.C., New York, and Los Angeles rocked by the rapidly spreading scourge, Cade ignores the volley of contradictory edicts drawn up by the White House and set into motion by FEMA and DHS, dusts off his tools of war, and loads his truck with supplies.

Unable to get ahold of Brook and Raven and unwilling to leave them at the mercy of some distant politician’s inability to hold the nation together, he begins an impossible 3,000 mile journey across a reeling United States with presumably millions of infected in his path and only one acceptable outcome: find Brook and Raven alive—or die trying.

Edited by Monique Happy
Monique Happy Editorial Services 

 "Shawn Chesser is a master of the zombie genre." Mark Tufo – Best-selling author of the Zombie Fallout series

"Through a combination of tight, well-structured plots and fully realized characters, Chesser has emerged as one of the top indie writers in the business." Joe McKinney – Two-time Bram Stoker Award winner and best-selling author of the Dead World series

Riker's Apocalypse: The Promise

Edited by Monique Happy Editorial Services
107,000 words

Army veteran Lee Riker is staying in an Atlanta shelter and supporting himself with the odd carpentry job when his sister, Tara, summons him home to Middletown, Indiana for the reading of their mother’s will.

Hopeful that the unknown sum of money included in his portion of the inheritance will be sufficient to bring an end to his latest run of bad luck and trouble, Riker boards a Greyhound bus in Atlanta with his duffel bag, less than two hundred dollars to his name, and a secret he must protect at all costs.

Riker makes it to Middletown only to learn his sister has recently witnessed a gruesome death. Insisting she saw the victim rise from a pool of his own blood to attack the Samaritan rendering aid, Tara floats the idea that the man may have been a zombie.

While the siblings are comparing what Tara thinks she saw to the conflicting stories about the event being reported on the news, the emergency broadcast system is activated and they find themselves under order to report to one of three newly established quarantine centers.

With this unexpected turn of events looming over their heads, and as a result the reading of the will likely postponed indefinitely, Riker informs Tara of the promise he made to their mother on her deathbed months ago.

A promise whose details leave Tara nearly as confused as those of the grisly attack haunting her every thought.

A promise that Riker insists is worth ignoring the government edict in order to fulfill.

A promise that requires the Rikers to leave town even as shadowy forces seek to seal it off from the rest of the country—a tall order they soon learn will be easier said than done.