Apologies for Stepping Away
You know how it is... a year as tumultuous as 2020 (most of which was spent unemployed and in quarantine) takes its toll on even the strongest person’s mental state. There is good news though! I’ll be publishing bits and pieces from a story that’s slated to be published here on tumblr.
Synopsis:
The warning signs had all been there: not even a National Guard reaction could have slowed the late-season spread of one of the worst wildfires in recent history. It was about the time that the blaze reached Colorado that people finally began to worry for their own safety. Those who survived watched as their homes burned, leaving massive fields of ash and ruin in its wake.
Two months later, the beginning of winter brings frighteningly cold days under the remaining ash cloud. Anyone who failed to evacuate in time desperately travels along a road to the East, trusting a broadcast that speaks of stable ground and relative comfort if they can reach the coastline. Metropolitan Chicago stands proud as the last major city at which to resupply in relative safety.
But for Raleigh Stanton, a scout with the newly formed Chicago Council Police whose father gave all but his life to help the effort, there has to be a better way to get there than by land. She gets her chance to prove it when Governor Mason sends her and her team north to Milwalkee to investigate claims that the water has cleared enough for large transport to travel with drastically less risk of equipment failure.
Yet there may be more risk than even she could have predicted, with a new militia known as Ascalon moving in toward the chance at mass evacuation as well.