was why. Maybe he’d pick up an echo of my transmission later, when he was closer to my body. I just didn’t want him to go on assuming he wasn’t on my mind before the doctor turned it to sludge. I laid down and used my right hand to strap in the left. The refugees, many battered and bloodied, were all around me now. They secured my other hand as well as my ankles and placed a brace over my forehead, tightening the cinch until my head was totally immobilized. A crisp sheet was flung over me. The machines above us started to move. Long laser-tipped arms stretched and contracted, taunting us with their deadly power. My right hand was tugged on. I turned my head as far as it would go. One of the refugees was fumbling with the binding around my wrist. I felt something inserted into my hand and immediately recognized what it was. <Smith?> <Yes, it’s me.> I clutched him tight and moved my arm an inch or two under the sheet to find that my right hand was no longer secured. Hope surged from deep inside and every last nerve began to tingle. I looked at the young girl who had removed the restraint. She appeared to be just as blank-stared as the rest of them. The probes protruding from under her hair blinked green, but she must’ve still been in some control of herself. I tried to make eye contact though I could barely move my head. She turned away and one of the machines centered itself over my forehead. My eyes darted in every direction in an effort to locate the doctor. I needed him to come close. Simultaneously, ten separate arms on the machine overhead reached for my skull. Lasers engaged, and I smelled the burn of my own flesh and hair. My skull began to vibrate as the lasers dug into bone. Unable to move my head, I searched for the doctor, startled when he showed up right next to me. “It will all be over soon, my little puppet.” I lifted Smith, and the sheet fell from my wrist. Whipping the barrel in his direction, I squeezed the trigger as far as it would go. DENVER MOON BOOK III: THE THIRTEEN OF MARS IS AVAILABLE OCTOBER 11. MORE INFO: DENVERMOON.NET WARREN HAMMOND IS KNOWN FOR HIS GRITTY, FUTURISTIC KOP SERIES. BY TAKING THE BEST OF CLASSIC DETECTIVE NOIR, AND REINVENTING IT ON A DESTITUTE COLONY WORLD, HAMMOND HAS CREATED THESE UNIQUELY DARK TALES OF MURDER, CORRUPTION AND REDEMPTION. KOP KILLER WON THE 2012 COLORADO BOOK AWARD FOR BEST MYSTERY. HIS LAST NOVEL, TIDES OF MARITINIA, WAS RELEASED IN DECEMBER OF 2014. HIS FIRST BOOK INDEPENDENT OF THE KOP SERIES, TIDES IS A SPY NOVEL SET IN A SCIENCE FICTIONAL WORLD. JOSHUA VIOLA IS A 2021 SPLATTERPUNK AWARD NOMINEE, COLORADO BOOK AWARD WINNER, AND EDITOR OF THE STOKERCON™ 2021 SOUVENIR ANTHOLOGY. HE IS THE CO-AUTHOR OF THE DENVER MOON SERIES WITH WARREN HAMMOND. THEIR GRAPHIC NOVEL, DENVER MOON: METAMORPHOSIS, WAS INCLUDED ON THE 2018 BRAM STOKER AWARD™ PRELIMINARY BALLOT. VIOLA EDITED THE DENVER POST #1 BESTSELLING HORROR ANTHOLOGY NIGHTMARES UNHINGED, AND CO-EDITED CYBER WORLD — NAMED ONE OF THE BEST SCIENCE FICTION ANTHOLOGIES OF 2016 BY BARNES & NOBLE. HIS FIRST NOVEL, THE BANE OF YOTO, WON THE USA BEST BOOK AWARDS, NATIONAL INDIE EXCELLENCE AWARDS, INTERNATIONAL BOOK AWARDS, AND INDEPENDENT PUBLISHERS BOOK AWARDS. HIS SHORT FICTION HAS APPEARED IN NUMEROUS ANTHOLOGIES, INCLUDING DOA III: EXTREME HORROR ANTHOLOGY, DOORBELLS AT DUSK AND CLASSIC MONSTERS UNLEASHED. IN 2022, HE BECAME THE CREATIVE DIRECTOR OF COMICS AND NOVELIZATIONS FOR RANDOM GAMES’ VIDEOGAME FRANCHISE, UNIOVERSE, A NEW SERIES FROM THE CREATORS OF GRAND THEFT AUTO AND DONKEY KONG COUNTRY, AND THE WRITERS OF STAR WARS: THE CLONE WARS AND HALO 4. WHEN HE ISN’T WRITING AND EDITING, VIOLA DABBLES IN ART. IN 2020, HE COLLABORATED WITH HIS HUSBAND, AARON LOVETT, ON AFTERSHOCK COMICS’ MISKATONIC #1 COVER ALPHA COMICS VARIANT. AS A VIDEO GAME ARTIST, HE WORKED ON PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: CALL OF THE KRAKEN, SMURFS’ GRABBER AND TARGET: TERROR. VIOLA IS THE OWNER AND CHIEF EDITOR OF HEX PUBLISHERS IN DENVER, COLORADO. 33
36 Publizr Home