Jade nodded. “I think so,” she said. “What do I need to do?”
“I can run,” Max cut in and untangled himself from around Jade.
“I’m faster,” Jade said smoothly, and Max’s mouth dropped in irritation, as if to say how would you know?
“Run to the gun club as fast as you can,” Wyatt instructed. “Get Nikki. Tell her we need her. Right now. It’s life or death.”
“Got it,” Jade said as she pressed a hand to her shoulder wound and took off down the side road leading to the gun club. She staggered a bit, but she disappeared quickly around the bend in the road. She was fast.
Matthew let out a deep breath and tried to clear his head. Wyatt was hard at work keeping David alive, but there had to be something Matthew could do to help. The way David seemed so motionless, rocked by Wyatt’s chest compressions, made that building grief inside Matthew swell to bursting point. He couldn’t let it overwhelm him. David still had a fighting chance. They would make it out of here alive and well, but if David was truly unconscious, there was no way they’d be able to haul him the rest of the way up the mountain without help.
“Let’s build a stretcher,” Matthew said to Max and Patton. “We’ll need it for when Jade gets back with Nikki.”
Matthew had no idea who Nikki was, but if Wyatt had sent for her, she must be skilled and could help. Right now, he trusted Wyatt to help him save his father, but Matthew wouldn’t let himself become a bystander. Useless.
“How?” Max asked, looking around in exasperation. “How do we build a stretcher?”
“Find some branches,” Matthew said, studying the huge pine trees surrounding them. “We can gather the fallen ones and lash them together. We need some strong boughs to create the frame, and then smaller ones that will bend and hold his weight. Ones that provide cushioning.”
Patton nodded. “I’m on it, Dad.”
They split up and each ducked into the woods. Matthew found some thick branches from a fallen tree that he dragged back to the main road. He broke off other, greener boughs with still-soft needles from younger trees. Others littered the ground, felled by either wind or animals. With his arms full, he carefully walked back to the road. When Patton and Max returned mere minutes later, they set their hauls on the ground. Together, they laid out the length of the frame and used some long, stringy grasses as rope. Unfortunately, the grass didn’t hold well, leaving their frame to collapse into bits.
“Our shirts,” Patton said, stripping his off and tearing the material.
“Good idea,” Matthew said. He unzipped his overcoat and used it to span the length of the frame, tying the arms to each end. Max handed Matthew his button-down, and soon enough, they had a frame fashioned out of clothes and branches, ready for David.
All the while, Wyatt’s chest compressions kept up a steady rhythm against David’s chest. Matthew closed his eyes briefly, his mind empty of anything except for that welling grief and the word, please.
Get your copy of Erupting Chaos
Available June 9th, 2021
(Available for pre-order now)
www.GraceHamiltonBooks.com
BLURB
Space marines never say die…
Commander Andrew Ritchie swore a vow to exterminate the insect-like aliens that devastated humanity. But when his latest battle turns into a rescue mission, Andrew’s medical background draws the attention of a high-ranking officer who reassigns him to the Valkyrie Corps.
This new medevac unit is a game changer, combining Andrew’s skills as a Medic and a Combat Marine. State-of-the-art Valkyrie power armor allows him to annihilate aliens while simultaneously saving human lives, giving Earth’s forces a fighting chance against their ruthless enemy.
But the alien roaches aren’t about to scurry away in defeat.
When Andrew’s team plunges into a hot zone of death and destruction, the secret behind the enemy’s carnage is brutally exposed. Andrew and his squad must now dish out one hell of a serve of vengeance.
Or else their next battle may be their last…
Get your copy of Undaunted
Available September 8th, 2021
(Available for pre-order now)
www.GraceHamiltonBooks.com
EXCERPT
Chapter One
“Ticks at five thousand clicks.”
I looked over Darwin’s shoulder to the tactical screen. He had his right hand on a glass globe mounted in the shelf in front of him and twirled it under his fingertips, changing resolution and view. We’d been drifting in the squad ship, our can, for hours. He spun the tactical glass globe—the tacglobe—and the can spun in space to match, taking tactical control from the pilot.
“Verify and number,” I said.
“Hold on, Doc,” Darwin said, squinting at the screen. He reacted to vibrations in his fingertips from the tacglobe as tiny red target dots appeared on its surface, marking hostiles relative to our position. “I’m guessing ticks. Twenty to thirty. Heading to the wormhole, which should be coming over the horizon in about five minutes now. Ticks will be in engagement range about that time.”
Ticks. Opteran drones. Dull, dark gray hardened plastic discs the size of Saint Bernards, torches, claws, and weapons hanging at the front. Just like ticks, just as annoying and thankfully just as dumb.
“Do they see us?” I asked.
Darwin shook his head. We had been drifting in the scattered wreckage of the Galactic Space Ship Salvation for four hours, waiting for a bite. Unless they took a real hard look at us, we were invisible. He rotated the glass tacglobe, made some minor adjustments, and moved his hand to an oversized red lever.
“Shall we open this can and let out the whoopass, Doc?” he asked.
I squinted, peering out the strip of window that ran the length of the bridge, knowing damned well there was no way for me to see ticks 5,000 meters away. A little target practice would let off some steam. But it would also
