When the United States is crippled by an Electromagnetic Pulse attack, Captain Beverly Mossberg must save the rest of the world from the same fate.
Non-stop action from start to finish, Beverly Mossberg, her kids, Michael and Jazz and stranger Sedona Armstrong, must walk to Washington DC to assassinate the terrorist responsible for an EMP attack on the United States before he can launch other attacks on different countries.
Excerpt
“Is there someone in the woods, Mom?”
Keeping herself between the woods and Michael, she turned to face the woods. The noise didn’t sound close, but it was definitely headed toward them.
The woods before them sloped upward. The foliage was thick and green making it difficult to see anyone coming.
Instinctively, she reached behind her back and put her hand on the Sig.
Grunts accompanied the rustling, crunching sounds. Odd grunts. Low and guttural. They sounded funny. Not quite –
A loud growl issued from the woods. Definitely not human. It sounded like –
“Shit!” Bev said hoarsely. She turned and physically turned Michael in the direction from which they’d come. “Run!”
Sedona had walked a few yards with Jaz lagging behind when Michael’s voice – literally a nonstop scream – reached her from around the curve. Alarmed, she stopped, uncertain about whether to run to or away from the sound of his voice.
He dashed around the curve, then followed closely by Bev screaming, “Run!”
Immediately adrenaline pumped into Sedona’s body, increasing her heart rate, sending fight or flight impulses along her nerve endings. There was just one thing she needed to know. “Where?”
“Back to the building! Run! Now!”
Sedona hesitated only a moment longer; long enough to see what they were running from.
A rather large, rather angry-looking black bear.
Her eyes opened wide, those nerve endings now screaming for her to run.
She turned and charged past Jaz, who stood, her face pale, staring wide-eyed at the sight of her mother and brother being chased by a bear.
“Run, Jaz!” she screamed. When Jaz didn’t respond, she stopped, quickly turned the child and physically pushed her into running ahead of her. “Run!”
Bev and Michael soon caught up to – and passed – Sedona and Jaz.
Great, Sedona thought wildly, now that bear’s right behind me.
The bear loped behind them at a distance of a couple dozen yards, not attempting, yet, to close the distance between them. Human feet running out of fear and desperation kept him at a good distance.
Bev reached the building first. She ran up to the metal door and grabbed the knob. “Dammit!” she cried. “Locked!”
“The ladder!” Sedona shouted as she charged past Bev.
“What ladder?” she asked even as she followed.
“Over here!” She ran to the opposite side of the building where an aluminum ladder led up to the roof. She stopped, grabbed Jaz and pushed the girl toward the ladder. “Up!’ she said.
Jaz didn’t have to be told again. She began climbing the rungs at breakneck speed.
“Michael! Go!” Bev yelled as the child began clambering up after his sister.
The bear growled.
“Go!” she said to Sedona. But Sedona hesitated. “What?”
“Vertigo,” she said helplessly.
Bev grabbed her arm and shoved her toward the ladder. “Damn your vertigo, Arizona! Get up that ladder!”
Sedona took one or two steps up the rungs and made the mistake of looking down. She stopped as dizziness overtook her.
Bev charged up the ladder after Sedona almost knocking both of them off running into the woman when she stopped.
“I can’t,” Sedona wailed.
“Yes. Yes, you can,” Bev said breathlessly. “Please Sedona,” she pleaded desperately. The growl of the bear was closer to the building. “Look up, don’t look down! Think of it as stairs. Whatever it takes, do what you have to do and get up this ladder!”
The word became a mantra in Sedona’s head as she tilted her head upward and began to climb. Stairs. Stairs. Just stairs. Funky stairs, stairs you have to climb with hands and feet, that’s all, just stairs. It’s either this or get eaten by a bear. Hey, that could be a poem. Stairs or eaten by a bear. Stairs, that’s all, just stairs.
Upon reaching the top of the roof, she literally threw herself over to make way for Bev, not looking, not paying attention, not even caring where or how she landed so long as she got off those funky stairs. She landed on her back, her head falling on something soft, not caring what it was. She lay there panting, feeling she was completely useless, but unable to stop the dizziness and nausea overtaking her.
Bev vaulted onto the roof, then turned and began pulling up the ladder.
“Can bears climb ladders?” Michael asked, his voice panicked.
Jaz, who’d stood in shock until that moment, quickly dispensed with her backpack and grabbed the ladder. Michael attempted to help, but with his mother and sister pulling for all they were worth there was no place at which he could grip the ladder and help. He stood by helplessly as they pulled the ladder up and laid it across the roof.
The bear growled from the ground below.
Michael joined them at the edge and looked down at the bear.
He growled, stood upon his hind legs and stretched himself up the side of the building. The stucco-covered concrete allowed him no purchase and he sat back on his haunches, growling with more exuberance. Obviously, he was a little perturbed that breakfast was out of reach. He took the liberty of lying down to wait them out.
“How long will he stay down there, Mom?” Michael asked.
Gasping for breath, Bev said, “I have no idea, honey.”
“So we’re up here for the duration?” Jaz’s voice carried a note of fascination. At least it wasn’t accusatory.
“Looks that way,” Bev said. “He’ll get tired of waiting. Leave. Sooner or later. I hope.” Her voice didn’t have much hope in it. She took a deep breath, having finally caught it, and exhaled, her cheeks puffing. She turned and surveyed the roof spotting Sedona a few feet away. The woman still lay on her back, eyes closed, gasping for breath. Cautiously, she said, “Uh, you okay there, Arizona?”
“In a minute,” she gasped. The nausea was gone, but the dizziness still made her head swim.
“Uh, well, you, uh, might wanna move.”
She cautiously opened one eye and looked at Bev. “Why?”
Jaz turned and issued a short, “Gross!”
“What?” Sedona asked.
“Ewyuck,” Michael said when he spotted Sedona.
She was becoming alarmed. “What?” she asked tartly, daring to open both eyes.
“Uh, well, um, that’s not a pillow under your head,” Bev said.
Sedona didn’t move. A sickening dread filled her, the nausea returning. Where was the owner of that Jeep Cherokee?
She groaned as she rolled away. Overwhelmed by dizziness and nausea she looked at where she had been lying.
Though the image rolled in her vision she recognized a bloated decomposing body a few feet away. Nausea hit her again. She fought to keep down the stale granola bar she’d had for breakfast that morning. It was a losing battle; the nausea wouldn’t be denied its escape.
“You okay, Sedona?” Bev’s voice was close as she knelt beside her.
When she placed her hand in the middle of Sedona’s back, she lost the battle. Her stomach clenched. Half-digested granola bar and bile ended up on the roof beneath her. She found the wherewithal to nod as her stomach clenched again and she dry heaved.
Bev continued rubbing her back, which had both a soothing and an irritating effect, but she didn’t stop her. If nothing else it provided her comfort knowing the woman didn’t abandon her in disgust.
After ceaselessly muttering, the stairs, the stairs, the funky funky stairs in her head, the clenching stopped. She fell over onto her side and rolled over onto her back. She was still light-headed and remained in her prone position. From experience she knew the dizziness would pass; it only required lying very still until it did.
“I’m okay,” she rasped, her throat raw from the expulsion of what little her stomach had held.
“Can you sit up?”
“Not yet. A few minutes. Sorry.”
“No need to be sorry. You did good, Arizona.”
She knew what Bev meant: she’d made sure the kids got up the ladder first. Instinct. It was just instinct. But she knew what that meant to Bev.
The world slowly came back into focus. She cautiously turned her head and looked up at Bev. The image didn’t roll. Good. A good start. The body behind Bev was partially blocked by Michael and Jaz, both looking at her with concern. That was good too. The rest of the body, which consisted mostly of jean-clad legs, she could mentally block out.
“Think you could drink some water?” Bev asked.
“In a minute,” her voice still raspy. “Just gotta get my bearings.”
“Take your time,” Bev said gently. The bear growled from the ground. She gave her a wan smile. “I have a feeling we’re not going anywhere anytime soon.” She gently patted her arm and stood.
As Bev walked to the edge of the rooftop and gazed down at the bear, Sedona slowly, carefully, pulled herself to an upright sitting position. She intentionally put her back to the dead body.
Michael and Jaz walked around to her line of vision.
“You okay, Arizona?” Michael asked. The poor kid’s face grimaced with worry.
She gave him a wan smile. “I’ll be okay.”
“You look a little, um,” Jaz searched for the right word, “gray. I would say you look a little green around the gills, but it’s hard to tell.” She took off her backpack and unzipped it.
Sedona chuckled, then stopped as this unsettled her queasy stomach. “Was that a joke?”
“More like an attempt at one.” She removed a bottle of water and held it out for Sedona. “This is rain water. A little cleaner than the stream water.”
She accepted the bottle and gave the girl a sincere smile. “Thanks, Jaz.”
“You’re welcome.” She looked as though she wanted to say more but she didn’t.
And Sedona didn’t press. She knew there would come a time when the girl might want to continue their discussion in more detail, but certainly not within earshot of her mother. She opened the bottle and took a tentative sip of water. She waited to make sure it stayed down before taking another.
“Well,” Bev said rejoining them. “That is one determined bear.”
“One hungry bear,” Sedona amended. “What do we do now? Just wait it out?”
Bev shrugged. “What choice do we have?”
“Good point,” she agreed morosely and took another sip of water.
Bev removed her backpack and walked toward the other end of the roof away from the body. “I know what I’m gonna do.”
“What?” Michael asked following her.
“I am going to try out the blanket I salvaged from Wally world yesterday and take a nap.”
Sedona watched as Bev opened her backpack and removed the blanket which she spread out on the rooftop. She tossed her backpack at the top of the blanket. “Are you serious?” she asked with some dismay. “How can you possibly sleep with,” she glanced behind her only long enough to confirm the body was still where it lay, “a dead body only a few feet away?”
“Easy,” she grunted as she lay upon the blanket. She laid her head atop the backpack removing the baseball cap on her head in the process. Just before placing the cap over her face to block out the sun, she looked playfully at Sedona. “The dead body won’t try to eat me.”
Professional Reviews
Better than a Saturday night date!
I needed a weekend getaway. I was
transported from Atlanta to Washington, D.C as I read “Nero’s Fiddle.” I began reading the novel in a hot bubble bath at 6 pm Saturday
and was so riveted I could not stop reading until Sunday morning at 9am…636 pages later!
Pen’s book is a blend of reality and
imagination, historical and supposition, unafraid to confront any controversial issues. Since I live near the origin of the story, Stone
Mountain, the first chapters had an Orson Wellsian effect because the events described were so believable. So creepy that I got out of my cold bubble bath and headed under the
covers in the safety of my bed.
I have long suspected that my female friends who are former Marines have a strong resolve and a bit of a mystery to their pasts. Good mothers, difficult to believe that these attractive women that ever went through boot camp hell.
Do not underestimate them! The main
character, Captain Beverly Mossberg is one of those private, beautiful, and little bit crazy people…even her children had no idea who their momma was!
Contemporary issues such as PTSD, military actions, and equal rights (race, sex, religion and sexuality) are all handled deftly…if only the author was a politician! References to
modern day television shows, movies, and even WalMart make the reader feel like they were hanging out with their own friends.
Educational – are you a science or history geek? – you even feel smarter after tackling this volume. Pen even inserts herself into the story – a Hitchcock-like cameo. Comedy,
suspense, dealing with teenagers, travel, everyone will find a reference to relate to themselves. Packed with so many different scenarios, I am afraid to give out any spoilers…(okay, cannibals)! Have a fun weekend (or longer) curling up with “Nero’s Fiddle”!
Can humanity survive an EMP attack? A great book for writers and readers.
At the heart of this book is the heroine, Beverly Mossberg. A former Marine sniper suffering from PTSD and a divorced mother of two, who's tasked with saving the country following an EMP attack.
As you can guess from the premise of the book, there is plenty of action, a fair bit of it of the disturbing kind. It's not difficult to believe that during such an event, a fair number of
humans would lose their humanity. Humans have never lost that little part of their brains often referred to as the "lizard brain" developed back in the cave man days when humans were snack packs for the dinosaurs.
The lizard brain is only concerned with survival at any cost.
Sharing the journey of our heroine through the horrors that humans are capable of are her 9 yr. old son, a bright and intelligent soul, her 12
yr. old daughter with a chip the size of Texas on her shoulder, and a complete stranger that decides Beverly is just the person needed to get her back home.
There's a host of characters as we progress from Georgia to Washington DC. Some, who show that God and humanity can shine even in the darkest of times and some, who show that evil is always present and willing to prey on the weak and willing.
The roller coaster ride of adrenaline through this book will keep you turning page after page. I have to say that what impressed me the most about this book was the author's writing skills. While there is plenty of action this book is mostly dialogue driven. Realistic dialogue is a
skill that often eludes authors and results in stilted and sometimes unrealistic character conversations. Not so here.
Great dialogue makes you form a clear mental image of the characters as if you're right there with them. I could feel the anger, fear, despair, and joy of the characters throughout this book.
You can imagine the faces of the characters as they are gripped by raging anger or blood chilling fear. My mind supplied the audio effects of the shrill screams and the bubbling
laughter.
This book is highly recommended for new authors for a great example of writing skills.
Great read -- don't miss this book!
Once I picked up this novel and began reading, I didn't want to put it down. Yet, when I neared the last chapters, I almost began to read more slowly, because I didn't want it to end. This is a one-of-a-kind adventure that will captivate readers of all genres. I loved the characters -- and hated the villains with a passion -- and felt
like I was making the entire trip with the cavalcade of them. "Nero's Fiddle" is smart, funny, devastating, mysterious, rich with description and layers, terrifying and fascinating
all at once. It features strong characters, particularly women, and surprises at many turns. Pick up this book -- you won't be able to put it down. I received a free copy of the
book in exchange for writing an honest review of it.
A true page-turner, Jeff Ovall’s futurist work of fiction peers into the history of a world not yet realized, yet ominously closer than most could imagine. A time in which the past has been reborn and humankind, in all its glory and misery, has final
Jeff Martin, his friend, Hawk, and his dachshund dog are captured by Osage Indians. Eventually they escape and find their way home. Due to his unusual shape Adolphus is called a Spirit Dog.
