The Light: Houston, Texas
by Joe M. Solomon
Publisher: NES Publishing
Publication date: June 11, 2019
Genre: Dystopian
March Madness has begun and college basketball playoffs are heating up, not that Robert Walker—a graduate student from Texas—particularly cares. He has decided to skip classes for the day, sleep in, and get some rest. Unfortunately, a brief spat on the phone with his fiancée makes that impossible. Hoping to take his mind off of it, he scans through TV channels in search of entertainment and instead finds one news report after another that warns of violence erupting in the streets.
People are randomly and savagely attacking one another all along the East Coast from Maine to Florida. Some speculate it may be related to strange lights that have appeared in the sky above the outbreaks. Before any solid conclusions can be drawn, however, the brutality spreads, sweeping across the country until it hits Houston, then proceeds on to the West Coast. Robert, a handful of classmates, and a few others manage to survive the first wave and find themselves in the midst of civilization’s blackest hour, surrounded by pandemonium, bloodshed, and masses of people who have been stripped of their humanity. Hours later, as those strange lights continue to dominate the sky, the vicious horde undergoes a new transformation.
There is no escaping the horror. Unable to reach his fiancée by phone, Robert sets out to find her, joined by a small ensemble of fellow survivors. The thirty-five miles they must cover are fraught with danger, and their terror grows with each step they take as they witness the genesis of a new Earth. Can they find a way to stop it? Will they even survive it?
Sneak Peek
Anthony opened the back door and slid in without John having to stop.
Up on the right, Mount Vernon Street met and ended in West Main. As the truck approached the intersection, fear rippled up and down Robert’s spine. “Guys, look.” He pointed to a soccer field just beyond it.
It brimmed with crazies. Shrubbery pressed against the low fence that surrounded the field, thinning and dying in some places. Large dead or dying oaks with outstretched branches lined the west side of the field. But Robert took little notice of them. He was too distracted by the hundreds of light-people who swayed subtly beneath the soccer lights that burned brilliantly as if illuminating a night game.
“What’s the swaying about?” Alex asked.
Robert shook his head. “I don’t know, but I don’t like it.”
The truck inched onward along West Main, parallel to the lunatics.
Robert watched uneasily as more than one or two light-people looked their way. “How close are we to the library?”
“This is it to my left,” John said. “Solid brick on three sides.”
Without warning, the unconscious owner of the truck sprang to life. “Get them off me!” he screamed, eyes wide.
More light-people in the soccer field looked at the truck and began shuffling toward them.
Robert clamped a hand over the truck owner’s bloody mouth. The guy twisted and fought and swung meaty fists at John and Robert. The back of one fist struck Robert in his nose. Pain exploded in his face, adding to the pounding that already assaulted his head from the accident, as warm blood poured down over his upper lip. Swearing, he tried to get the guy under control.
“Get them off me!” the truck owner cried out a second time. “Get them off!”
“Shut up, guy,” Alex whispered loudly.
“Knock him out, Robert,” Anthony urged.
“I’m trying,” Robert growled, frustration rising as he stole glances at the soccer field.
And just like that… more bad news.
Meet Joe M. Solomon
Joe Solomon earned both master’s and doctoral degrees from Rice University and is a writer, a director, an independent filmmaker, and a composer. His first novel—a supernatural thriller entitled The Darkness: Giger, Texas—reached #2 on Amazon’s Best Seller list and is available in paperback, ebook, and audiobook. His next novel—The Light: Houston, Texas—will release in late summer 2019. He has also completed a collection of short stories that arose from the macabre and will release next year.
Giveaway!
I like the cover
Oh I like the mystery element in this one. I wonder what’s causing the craziness. This sounds good.
This sounds perfect for me and what a killer cover!
I hope you end up enjoying this one, gotta love picking up a good dystopian thriller! !