Squawk - Beginnings: The Dragon Games Revolution Read online

  Squawk: Beginnings

  Book 1

  By Craig Halloran

  Squawk: Beginnings

  Book #1

  By Craig Halloran

  Copyright © 2016 by Craig Halloran

  Amazon Edition

  TWO-TEN BOOK PRESS

  P.O. Box 4215, Charleston, WV 25364

  ISBN eBook: 978-1-941208-89-2

  www.craighalloran.com

  Cover Illustration by Eamon

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted, in any form, or by any means, electronic, mechanical, recorded, photocopied, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the copyright owner, except by a reviewer who may quote brief passages in a review.

  Publisher's Note

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  Table of Contents

  PROLOGUE

  CHAPTER 1

  CHAPTER 2

  CHAPTER 3

  CHAPTER 4

  CHAPTER 5

  CHAPTER 6

  CHAPTER 7

  CHAPTER 8

  CHAPTER 9

  CHAPTER 10

  CHAPTER 11

  CHAPTER 12

  CHAPTER 13

  CHAPTER 14

  CHAPTER 15

  CHAPTER 16

  CHAPTER 17

  CHAPTER 18

  CHAPTER 19

  CHAPTER 20

  CHAPTER 21

  CHAPTER 22

  CHAPTER 23

  CHAPTER 24

  CHAPTER 25

  CHAPTER 26

  CHAPTER 27

  CHAPTER 28

  CHAPTER 29

  CHAPTER 30

  CHAPTER 31

  CHAPTER 32

  CHAPTER 33

  CHAPTER 34

  CHAPTER 35

  CHAPTER 36

  CHAPTER 37

  CHAPTER 38

  CHAPTER 39

  CHAPTER 40

  CHAPTER 41

  CHAPTER 42

  CHAPTER 43

  CHAPTER 44

  CHAPTER 45

  CHAPTER 46

  CHAPTER 47

  CHAPTER 48

  CHAPTER 49

  CHAPTER 50

  CHAPTER 51

  CHAPTER 52

  CHAPTER 53

  CHAPTER 54

  CHAPTER 55

  CHAPTER 56

  CHAPTER 57

  CHAPTER 58

  CHAPTER 59

  CHAPTER 60

  CHAPTER 61

  CHAPTER 62

  CHAPTER 63

  CHAPTER 64

  CHAPTER 67

  CHAPTER 68

  CHAPTER 69

  CHAPTER 70

  CHAPTER 71

  CHAPTER 72

  EPILOGUE

  From the author

  About the Author

  PROLOGUE

  In the year 2025, worldwide nuclear war breaks out. Billions of people die from the blasts and the fallout. Yet as with all disasters, there are a few survivors. With everything they’d known all but wiped out, the enduring forge ahead. Decade after decade, they work to rebuild the world they once knew. They scrape for food, water, and any comfort they can find, but civilization has mutated. The old surviving powers have risen from the ashes. They are now called the Dominion. They control everything. At least, they try to.

  CHAPTER 1

  Sitting on a wooden stool, thirteen-year-old Gabe watched his father, Saul, wrap a long strip of dingy cloth over the calluses on his hands. Holding a second strip, Gabe said, “Can I wrap the other one?”

  Eyeing the work on his hand, his father tilted his head to the side. He was a well-knit man with wavy nut-brown hair that covered his ears. His clothes were heavy and padded with scrap materials that made a rugged set of armor. Around his neck was a pair of goggles with a green tinted lens. There were extra lenses too, tilted up like small wings, set in adjustable brass fittings. He cracked a smile. He spoke with a voice like a gentle bear. “Okay, Gabe. Give it a go.”

  Gabe hopped up off of the stool and starting wrapping up his father’s hand. “Is that too tight?”

  His father moved his fingers in and out of a fist and nodded. “Not bad.” He rubbed Gabe’s head. “Not bad at all.” He stood up to full height until his head almost touched the low ceiling in the small room they called home. The room had two cots for beds and a padded chair with the seams torn in several places. Several blankets were folded up on the floor, and a few pillows were stacked beside them. There was a large window, coated in dust but still clear enough to let the daylight through. Saul moved over to the window and peered out.

  Gabe walked to his father’s side and dusted away a spot with his fist. They were three stories high in the compound that overlooked the northern wall of Newton. The city had once been a vast hospital complex. It was the home of several thousand survivors of the great fallout.

  His father grunted. “Humph.”

  “What?” Gabe pushed up on his toes, cupped his hands to the windows, and gazed outside. “I don’t see anything.”

  “The wall. It gets bigger every day.” His father shook his head. “Bigger and bigger.”

  Outside, on the northern perimeter, a host of men carried the body of an automobile and stacked it on the top section of a misshapen wall. Gabe could see the bright gleam of green paint underneath the dust. The colors he found buried under the dirt from time to time always fascinated him. His imagination raced as he tried to figure out how they got to be that way.

  Shaking his head, he watched the hardworking men pack the car body into the man-made wall. The wall encircled the entire compound for miles and was made up of scrap metal, mounds of dirt, and hunks of stone. “Is it bad that it’s bigger?”

  Eyeing the activity below, his father rapped the window with his knuckle. “It depends on whether they are building it up to keep something from getting in or getting out.”

  Gabe scratched his head. There were always men along the walls. They carried steel poles and clubs. Some wore small homemade knives called shanks. They didn’t like people coming around the wall, and they’d run Gabe off more than once in his lifetime. He just loved looking at the items that were crammed inside it. There were objects that shone like the sun, and he didn’t have any idea what they were.

  Saul moved away from the window and picked up a lantern that was set in the corner. He shook it. The shallow layer of oil within waved and wobbled. “We’re getting low. Probably three days left at most. Listen, Gabe, don’t burn early, and don’t burn all night. The Count is getting stingy with this stuff.”

  “I know, Dad.” He made his way to the other side of the room and opened a closet door. He grabbed a long post of steel and brought it out. The steel was a piece from a compound road sign that his father had sawed down. Some of the old dark-green paint still showed. The top of the pole was cut at an angle and filed down to a sharp point. He walked it over to his dad and clanked the butt of the crude-looking spear on the ground. The point rose a hair taller than his father. “So it’s time to hunt the dragons, huh?”

  His father took the spear. His hands fit into a pair of grooves where the metal had been pinched into a tighter neck. He gave Gabe a nod. “Yes. Word has it there’s a big one digging into the crops. We’ll see. Probably just a giant rabbit.”

  Gabe giggled. “There’s no such thing as a giant rabbit.”

  With a smile, his dad flipped the
spear around like a propeller. “They used to say that about dragons.”

  CHAPTER 2

  Gabe and his father made their way down the hallway. It was dim, with only the light of the windows at either end giving off light. He rubbed his nose. The musty smell always tickled whenever he passed through the place. An elderly black man with cotton-white hair leaned in the doorway to his room. Showing a mouth of missing teeth, he gave a nod and went back in his room, cackling.

  “I hate it when he does that,” Gabe said, eyeing the room as they passed. He rubbed the goose bumps on his arms. “Why does he always do that?”

  Saul shrugged. At the end of the corridor was a heavy wooden door inside a metal frame. A fire-exit sign hung over it. He pushed down the bar and shoved the door wide open. “Come on. Let’s see how your grandmother is doing.”

  Gabe’s chin dipped, and he let out a sigh. “Aren’t you going to let me go to the wall with you? I’ve got to see you go.”

  “You need to stay with your grandmother.” His dad gave him a little shove toward the stairs. “But I’ll give you all of three floors to convince me otherwise.”

  Fingers locked together, Gabe started walking backward down the stairs, saying over and again, “Please! Please! Please!”

  Giving Gabe the eye, Saul said, “You really should watch where you’re going. You’re going to fall one of these days.”

  “I won’t fall. I never do.”

  Saul shook his head.

  Gabe continued with his pleas as his feet hit each step with the ease of a cat. Aside from the dirty glow behind the soot-covered windows, the stairwell was only a few shades from pitch-black. At night, one could hardly see a thing, but Gabe knew the building well. At landing after landing, he angled backward, stepping over old boards that no one ever picked up. “Please, please, please, please, please…”

  When Gabe hit the bottom level, his father opened up the door. “Fine. You can come. But once I’m out of sight, you stay with your grandmother until I return.”

  Gabe nodded.

  “I mean it, son.”

  “I know. She’ll be fine, you know.” He gave a shrug. “Besides, where is she going to go? She’s so slow. It takes hours to get her up the stairs.”

  “She’s more able than that.” Gabe’s dad made his way into the main corridor of the old hospital. The wide-open space had high ceilings and large tiles on the floor that were relatively clean. The windows that encircled the huge lobby helped alleviate the gloom in the otherwise dreary facility. Even some of the stone tiles shone with a coat of polish on them. Saul led the way through some cracked double glass doors that were always slightly open. “Just don’t underestimate her. She’s no cripple.”

  Gabe stayed alongside his father, trying to match him stride for stride, arms swinging, until they came to an entrance. Across the top, a sign read Cafeteria. Inside, there were many much older people huddled over the tables. Candles burned in the center of the occupied tables. No one looked up—rather, they stayed busy flipping cards and nibbling on crackers.

  “There she is.” Gabe pointed at the table with two women and one man. They all looked ancient.

  “You’ve got a good eye for spotting things, Gabe.”

  “I just looked for the wrinkles.”

  Dad gave him a nudge. “What did I tell you about that?”

  “I know. I know.” He made his way behind the woman in a soft pink set of robes, who was centered between the other two. Her shoulder-length chestnut hair was beginning to thin and gray. Her bright eyes were fixed on her cards. Standing right behind her, he gave her shoulders a squeeze and said in a voice loud enough for all to hear, “Hi, Mabel! Guess who?”

  Her lips curled, revealing a crooked smile. Brushing his hands aside, she nodded.

  “Hey, Saul. Hey, Saul!” the old man said. He made a feeble wave with one hand. In the other hand, his cards trembled in his fingers. His eyes stayed fixed on Gabe’s dad. “Hey, Saul!”

  Mabel nudged the old man and tapped the table. The man looked puzzled and set down a card. Mabel swiped the cards away and gave a short little laugh.

  “Mabel,” Saul said, “I’m going to be gone for a while. Dragon hunt. Gabe will watch out for you.”

  She shook her head and shooed him away.

  “See? She’s fine, Dad.” Gabe patted her on the top of her head. “For an ancient thing. Let’s go.”

  The look on his dad’s face said it all. A frown began to form above his jaw.

  Jostling his grandmother, Gabe gave her a hug from behind. “I’m just teasing. She’ll be fine, Dad. Just fine.”

  Saul’s shoulders slumped a little, and he sighed. “Come on, Gabe.” He swung his arm over Gabe’s shoulder.

  Gabe shuffled alongside his father, and they left. He never understood why his dad worried so much about Mabel. His grandmother was as safe in the compound as anywhere else. And truth be told, she could take decent care of herself.

  As they made their way to the exit, Saul had a long face. Gabe made an attempt to cheer his father up. “You know, staying with her wasn’t so bad when she talked more. She used to sing songs and talk to me, but now all she does is hum.” He flipped around in front of Saul. Walking backward, he said, “Tell you what—I’ll let her teach me those card games.”

  Standing in the foyer that stretched several stories high, his father clasped Gabe’s shoulders. “Family’s important, son. Me and her is all you have left.”

  Gabe felt his heart sink down into his boots. That little speech got him every time. His dad spoke as if there was more to his family that was somehow lost.

  Seeing the look on his son’s face, Saul stepped close so that the boy’s head was right beneath his chin. “You know, before long, you’re going to be as tall as me.”

  Gabe gave a weak smile. “Taller.” He turned around and headed outside, where the dry heat and smoke-gray clouds greeted him. Inside was just as bad as outside, but at least there was shade within. Shielding his eyes, he glanced into the hazy sky. He slipped the goggles that hung on his neck over his eyes. Through them, the bright world had a hint of green. Looking over his shoulder, he noted that his father was doing the same.

  With a nod, his dad said, “Lead the way, Gabe.”

  CHAPTER 3

  It was midmorning, and glimpses of the sun crept through the hazy clouds above. In long strides, Gabe led the way through the compound called Newton. His trek took him over the blacktop road, which buckled in several places as tall grasses split up through the seams. He kicked through knee-high grasses and kept going.

  Many people no different than them milled about, working and chatting. An occasional glance would land on Saul. People would smile and wave. He’d do the same. The citizens of Newton carried scrap materials of all sorts. They shouldered hunks of concrete and loads of iron and pushed them over the rough road on wheelbarrows. Some women clipped the grasses from the roads while others worked out of tentlike huts. Many of the compound’s block buildings still stood. Among them, trade took place. The people bartered anything from silverware to stalks of corn or old pots. It seemed everyone worked on a task of some sort. The Count saw to that.

  “Work when the light comes until the light is gone,” the Count would say. Dusk to dawn, every day, it was build, build, build. Whether it was hot or cold didn’t matter. People worked their fingers raw.

  Saul stopped to talk to some other people. With his makeshift spear leaning against his shoulder, he laughed and made jokes with them.

  Gabe rolled his eyes. His dad couldn’t go anywhere without talking to people. It didn’t take much for the most mundane conversation to go on for hours. He moved behind his dad’s back and started poking at him. “Come on, Dad. The hunters will be waiting. You know they hate waiting.”

  Saul bumped wrists with the other men. Without giving Gabe a glance, he said in a meaningful tone, “No need to be impolite, son. It’s important to get to know people.”

  “Best of luck, Saul,” one
man said.

  “Thanks.” Saul turned his attention to Gabe. “I’m in no hurry.”

  “I know. But they’ll be waiting.” Gabe scratched a bit of soot off his goggles. The lenses had several scratches that drove him crazy, but they were about the only possession he had. “You know how Malak is. He always rides you.”

  “Don’t you go worrying about Malak. He’s in charge, so he has to be that way. That’s what leaders do—act grouchy.” Saul walked with a long, easy gait. His broad shoulders swayed a bit. “He’s not so bad.”

  Frowning, Gabe said, “You should be the leader.”

  “No thanks to that. It’s no picnic bossing the most incorrigible men in Dragon Town.” Saul shifted his spear from one shoulder to the other. “That’s Malak’s problem, not mine.” He gave Gabe a hard shove.

  The boy skidded across the loose sand and gravel on the road, arms flapping. Bending at the knees, he recovered his balance and smiled. “Nice try, Dad. You can’t tip me over.”

  “No, I don’t think anyone can. You’re like a cat.”

  “I prefer a brown squirrel.”

  “A squirrel it is, then.”

  Heading toward the outer wall, they maneuvered between rows of cinder-block buildings. The foot traffic was heavy inside the concrete canal. Gabe caught the eye of one of his friends, Jack, a sandy-haired, dark-eyed boy about his age. Jack had a bucket of water and a heavy brush. He was scrubbing the wall. The soapy water covered huge black letters that looked like an N and an A merged together. Jack dropped his brush into the bucket with a splash and rushed over.

  “Hey, Gabe!” Jack said, almost colliding with Gabe as he slid to a stop. He was almost a full head shorter than Gabe. Jack peered up at Saul. “Are you dragon hunting today?”

  “Of course he is,” Gabe fired back. “You always ask questions that you know the answer to.”

  “I’m just making conversation. Your dad does the same thing all the time, right, Saul?”

  Saul gave a nod and moved along.

  Gabe fell in behind his father. Jack followed on his heels. He liked and hated Jack. He was fun to play with sometimes, but he talked too much. Often, he clung to Gabe like a wet cloth.