A young man slowly spirals down into madness, but he takes his favorite book with him. The book about the end of the world…. The book he is obsessed with…
He started to see things. Faces in the shadows, whispers in the wind, the ghostly echoes of his victims. He’d initially dismissed them as the effects of alcohol withdrawal, but they grew more vivid, more menacing. He was no longer alone in his self-imposed exile; he was surrounded by the ghosts of his past, his own personal hell. #Horror #Readers #Amazon #Kindle #KU #Thriller
The ‘Sea Wanderer,’ their forty-foot sloop, was more than just a vessel; it was their sanctuary, their laboratory, and their chariot to a world unknown. Years of meticulous planning had gone into her outfitting, every piece of equipment chosen for its reliability and suitability for long-distance cruising. Solar panels were integrated into the deck’s design, promising a sustainable source of power, while a robust water filtration system was a testament to their commitment to self-sufficiency. Their stores were a carefully curated blend of practicality and foresight, reflecting Sarah’s talent for organization and Mark’s insistence on preparedness. They had even managed to pack a small, yet promising, hydroponic garden kit, a hopeful nod to their landlocked life and a potential source of fresh greens should their culinary adventures on the ocean prove less bountiful. #Ocean #Sea #Adventure #Shipwrecked #eBooks #Kobo #SciFi #Fantasy
John Dillinger was born on June 22, 1903, in Indianapolis, Indiana, to John Wilson Dillinger Sr. and Elizabeth “Lizzie” Wilson. His early life was marked by tragedy when his mother died in childbirth when he was just four years old. His father remarried, but John’s relationship with his stepmother was strained. He grew up in a grocer’s store where his father worked and was known to be a bit of a troublemaker as a child.
Dillinger’s life of crime began early. At 21, he was arrested for theft and sentenced to 10-20 years in prison. During his time at the Indiana State Prison in Michigan City, he befriended several other notorious criminals, including Homer Van Meter and Harry Pierpont. These relationships would later shape his criminal career.
After serving nine years, Dillinger was paroled in 1933. However, he soon returned to crime, committing a series of bank robberies across the Midwest. His exploits earned him the nickname “Public Enemy No. 1” from the FBI. Dillinger’s notoriety grew, and he became a folk hero of sorts, with many people sympathizing with his actions against banks, which were seen as symbols of the economic hardship of the Great Depression.
One of the most significant figures in Dillinger’s life during this period was Polly Hamilton, a young woman he met while still in prison. She became his girlfriend and visited him regularly during his incarceration. Their relationship continued after his release, and Polly often accompanied Dillinger on his robberies.
Another crucial figure in Dillinger’s life was Anna Sage, also known as “Woman in Red.” Sage, a Romanian-American woman, had her own criminal record and became involved with Dillinger. She played a pivotal role in his eventual demise. Sage, who had been in trouble with the law and was facing deportation, agreed to cooperate with the FBI in exchange for leniency on her own charges. She lured Dillinger to the Biograph Theater in Chicago, where he was watching a movie, promising him a night out.
On July 22, 1934, outside the Biograph Theater, FBI agents ambushed Dillinger as he left the movie. Sage, wearing a red dress that would become infamous, was with him. The FBI agents, led by Melvin Purvis, had been informed of Dillinger’s presence by Sage. As Dillinger attempted to draw his gun, he was shot multiple times. He died shortly after, at the age of 31.
Dillinger’s life of crime and his eventual death captivated the nation. His exploits were widely covered in the media, and his legend grew as a result. Despite his notoriety, Dillinger’s actions were often romanticized, and he became a symbol of rebellion against the system.
Interestingly, Dillinger’s criminal career was marked by several close calls and narrow escapes. He was known for his brazen robberies and his ability to evade capture. However, his relationship with Anna Sage ultimately proved to be his downfall.
The Biograph Theater, where Dillinger met his end, still stands in Chicago and has become a piece of American history. Visitors can see the theater and learn more about the events that transpired there. Dillinger’s legacy continues to fascinate people, and his story remains one of the most infamous in American crime history.
In the years following Dillinger’s death, the FBI’s reputation grew significantly, and Melvin Purvis became a national hero. However, the role of Anna Sage in Dillinger’s death has been the subject of much debate. While some view her as a traitor, others see her as a pragmatic woman who made difficult choices to save herself.
Dillinger’s impact on popular culture is undeniable. He has been the subject of numerous films, books, and documentaries. The 1945 film “Dillinger” and the 1973 film “Dillinger” starring Warren Oates are just a couple of examples. More recently, the 2009 film “Public Enemies” directed by Michael Mann and starring Johnny Depp as Dillinger, brought his story to a new generation.
John Dillinger’s life was a complex mix of tragedy, crime, and notoriety. From his early days in Indianapolis to his eventual death in Chicago, his story is a fascinating and cautionary tale of the allure and consequences of a life of crime. Despite the passage of time, Dillinger’s legend endures, captivating audiences and reminding us of the darker side of the American Dream.
Dillinger’s robberies often involved careful planning and execution. He and his gang would meticulously plan each heist, using stolen cars and guns to carry out their crimes. Dillinger’s brazen nature and charm made him a compelling figure, both to the public and to those who knew him personally.
The FBI’s pursuit of Dillinger was relentless. Led by agents like Melvin Purvis…
The King is dead, the headlines screamed. A hard, hard day. But, what if the king wasn’t dead? What if the king just got fed up with all of it and called it quits…
The quiet cadence of Aaron’s days was rarely broken by external disruptions. His hermitage in the bayou was, by design, an exercise in profound isolation. Yet, the world, like an persistent tide, would occasionally lap at the shores of his self-imposed exile. These intrusions were not of the dramatic, attention-grabbing variety that had once defined his existence. Instead, they arrived as fleeting whispers, carried on the humid air or snagged by the errant radio waves that sometimes pierced the dense foliage surrounding his cabin. #Mystery #ElvisPresley #Whatif #KU #Kindle #Readers #DellSweet
The newfound resources provided a small measure of comfort, but the shadow of suspicion and mistrust lingered, a constant threat to their already precarious existence. They had survived the attack, but the war within Rapid City had only just begun, a war fought not with guns and blades, but with suspicion, betrayal, and the relentless erosion of trust. The fight for survival, once focused on the undead hordes, had shifted to a more insidious adversary – human nature itself. Their journey toward survival was far from over; the road ahead remained treacherous, fraught with uncertainty, a path paved with the ghosts of betrayal and the chilling reality of their world. The scars of the conflict, both physical and emotional, would serve as a constant reminder of the brutal price of survival.
The silence that followed was a heavy thing, pressing down on them like the weight of the snow accumulating on the rooftops of Rapid City. The air, thick with the metallic tang of blood and the acrid stench of death, seemed to suffocate them. Even the rhythmic drip, drip, drip of melting snow from a broken pipe felt amplified in the oppressive quiet, each drop a morbid metronome marking the passage of time in this ravaged world.
Gary stared at his hands, the calluses and grime a stark reminder of his own brutality. He’d killed men before – the undead, mostly – but these deaths felt different. These were men he’d once considered friends, colleagues in the desperate struggle for survival. The faces of Silas’s followers haunted him – the wide-eyed terror of the young man, the grim resignation of the older ones. He had taken lives, and the weight of those actions settled heavily on his conscience, a crushing burden that no amount of practical necessity could ever fully alleviate.
Anya, her face pale and drawn, leaned against a crumbling wall, her breath coming in ragged gasps. The crude spear she clutched, still stained with blood, seemed to tremble in her grip. The strength she’d displayed during the fight, the unexpected surge of primal fury, had deserted her. The reality of her actions, the stark brutality of killing another human being, was beginning to settle upon her like a suffocating blanket.
Robert, ever the pragmatist, began to systematically gather the remaining supplies. He moved with an almost ritualistic precision, collecting the weapons, ammunition, and the meager rations Silas had stashed away. The efficiency was stark, almost clinical, a stark contrast to the raw emotion that consumed Gary and Anya.
The journey back to Rapid City was arduous, the weight of their shared experience heavier than the snow under their boots. The landscape, once simply a hostile environment, now felt imbued with the ghosts of their actions, a macabre landscape mirroring the turmoil within their hearts. The wind howled, a mournful keening that seemed to echo their own inner struggles. Each step was a testament to their resilience, but also a painful reminder of the moral compromises they had made.
The relative safety of Rapid City’s makeshift walls offered little solace. The community, once a beacon of hope in a desolate world, was fractured, the sense of shared purpose and collective survival threatened by suspicion and fear. The news of Silas’s betrayal and the bloody confrontation spread like wildfire, each whispered conversation adding fuel to the already raging fire of distrust. Long-held alliances were questioned, loyalties tested, and the very fabric of their society began to unravel.
The Rise of the Neanderthals: A Journey Through Human Prehistory
The story of the Neanderthals, or Homo neanderthalensis, is a captivating chapter in the human saga, a tale of a resilient and intelligent hominin species that thrived in the challenging landscapes of Ice Age Eurasia for hundreds of thousands of years. Far from the brutish, simple-minded caricatures of early portrayals, modern archaeology and genetics have revealed them to be a sophisticated and adaptable people, with a history of development and cultural innovation that parallels our own. Their “rise” is not one of global conquest, but rather the story of a lineage that successfully carved out a niche in a harsh, fluctuating environment, becoming the dominant hominin population in their territory long before the arrival of modern humans.
The lineage of the Neanderthals likely diverged from our own shared ancestor, Homo heidelbergensis, approximately 400,000 to 500,000 years ago. While our own ancestors remained in Africa, the ancestors of Neanderthals migrated into Europe and parts of Asia. It was in these northern latitudes, marked by recurring glacial periods and extreme cold, that the Neanderthal form took shape. This prolonged period of isolation and evolutionary pressure led to a distinct set of physical adaptations that set them apart from their African contemporaries. Their robust, stocky bodies, with their broad shoulders and large ribcages, were built for strength and stamina, well-suited for grappling with large prey and enduring the strenuous demands of their lifestyle. Perhaps their most striking feature, the prominent brow ridge and a large, wide nasal cavity, are believed to be specific adaptations for surviving the frigid air, helping to warm and humidify the air they breathed.
For a vast period of prehistory, the Neanderthals were the masters of their domain. From the windswept plains of Iberia to the dense forests of Siberia, they developed a complex tool-making industry known as the Mousterian. Unlike the simpler tools of their predecessors, Mousterian technology involved the systematic preparation of stone cores to create precise, sharp flakes that could be fashioned into a variety of tools—scrapers for hides, spear points for hunting, and knives for butchery. This sophisticated approach demonstrates a level of forethought and planning that challenges old notions of their cognitive abilities. Their mastery of the landscape extended to hunting, where they were highly effective predators. Evidence suggests they hunted a wide range of animals, from small game to formidable megafauna like woolly mammoths, bison, and rhinos, often using close-quarters ambush tactics that required immense strength and courage.
Beyond their material culture, mounting evidence suggests that Neanderthal society was far from primitive. Archaeological finds have revealed the use of fire for warmth, cooking, and light, and the construction of complex shelters, hinting at a settled lifestyle during certain periods. They cared for their sick and elderly, as evidenced by skeletons of individuals who survived severe injuries or disabilities long after they should have been able to fend for themselves. This compassionate behavior speaks to a strong social fabric and communal support system. There is even a growing body of evidence for symbolic thought and ritualistic behavior. A number of sites show that Neanderthals practiced burial of their dead, and although the exact meaning is debated, it implies a level of abstract thinking about life and death. The discovery of eagle talons fashioned into jewelry, ochre pigments used for body paint or decoration, and even the deliberate arrangement of stalagmites in a cave in France all point to a world of symbolic expression that was once thought to be exclusive to modern humans.
The story of the Neanderthals takes a dramatic turn with the arrival of modern humans, Homo sapiens, into Europe and Asia, beginning approximately 45,000 years ago. For thousands of years, the two hominin groups coexisted, sharing the same landscapes, competing for the same resources, and, as genetic studies have shown, interbreeding. The discovery that most modern non-African humans carry between 1 and 4 percent Neanderthal DNA revolutionized our understanding of our shared past. It confirmed that the two populations not only lived side-by-side but also had intimate encounters that left a lasting genetic legacy.
The eventual disappearance of the Neanderthals from the fossil record around 40,000 years ago remains one of the greatest mysteries in paleoanthropology. A number of theories have been proposed, and it is likely that a combination of factors led to their decline. Climate instability, a succession of rapid warming and cooling events, may have stressed their specialized adaptations. Competition with the newly arrived Homo sapiens for resources, particularly large game, may have also played a role. While the two groups coexisted, modern humans had a number of advantages, including more flexible and complex social networks, more advanced projectile hunting technology, and possibly a more varied diet. Instead of a violent confrontation, the most widely accepted hypothesis suggests a gradual process of assimilation and demographic pressure, where the smaller Neanderthal populations were slowly absorbed and out-competed by the more numerous and technologically diverse Homo sapiens.
In conclusion, the Neanderthals were not a biological dead-end, but a highly successful and sophisticated branch of the human family tree. Their rise was a testament to their incredible ability to adapt and thrive in a hostile world. While their physical form may have faded from existence, their legacy lives on, both in the enduring questions surrounding their final years and, most tangibly, in the fragments of their genome that persist in our own DNA. Their story is a powerful reminder that our past is more interconnected and complex than we once believed, and that our own journey is only a part of a much larger, shared human history.
Check out this historical fiction that paints a clearer picture of those ancient peoples…
A Promise across Ancient Terrains
In the ancient past, a cro magnon girl child was born and promised in marriage to a distant related tribe. She has come of age, sixteen and will now be escorted across several hundred miles of wilderness to her soon to be mate in the distant tribe.. Hunters and a medicine woman will accompany her. Once there she will begin her new life and face whatever lies ahead for them… #Prehistoric #CavePeoples #CroMagnon #Readers #HistoricalFiction
Jaquan: Child of the Neanderthals
A young Neanderthal girl is orphaned in a brutal attack and left to survive on her own. This is her story of how she survived, set on the European continent 45,000 years ago… #Readers #BookLovers #BookWorms #HistoricalFiction #DellSweet #Neanderthal
The Bone Clan: Kindle Edition
A loss for the clan starts three members on a search to find a new home for their people…
The ancient clan in prehistoric Europe, 85,000 years ago, faced a devastating attack that forced them out of their high stone shelter. With many losses, particularly among the young and elderly, they realized the crucial role fire played in their survival. The strongest members of the clan took charge and decided to send out hunters to retrieve fire from a new source, while the rest of the clan remained behind, anxiously awaiting the return of their life-sustaining flame…
The Demise of Fire The Clan hurriedly escaped through the treacherous night. Overwhelmed by pain and exhaustion, they felt defeated in the face of catastrophe: the Fire had perished. They had diligently tended to the glowing embers within three enclosures ever since the Fire had initially brought the Clan together as a community. The Fire had united them with its comforting warmth and safeguarding presence. Vigilantly, four women and two warriors nourished the flickering flames day and night. Even during the bleakest moments, they cherished the flame, providing it with whatever it required to sustain itself. They shielded it from harsh downpours, sheltered it from violent storms, elevated it above the floodwaters, and cradled it while crossing rivers and swamps. The Fire never let them down. In the morning, it sported a blue tail, transforming into a crimson streak as the encompassing darkness of night descended upon them. Its enchantment repelled the black lion and the yellow lion, the cave bear and the gray bear, the mammoth, the tiger, and the leopard—its fiery jaws defended them against a vast and perilous world. All happiness emanated from its comforting heat. It carried the aroma of sizzling meat, hardened the tips of spears, and fractured solid stones. Its lively flames exuded a delightful warmth. It provided solace to the fearful horde amidst the foreboding forests, across the boundless savannah, and within the deepest recesses of dank and dripping caverns. It was the Father, the Guardian, the Savior—yet it possessed a ferocity and terror greater than even the mammoths when it escaped its confines and voraciously consumed the trees, ravenous and roaring!
The schematics for the neural network were a symphony of complexity, a testament to the intricate beauty and terrifying potential of the human mind. Emily, hunched over her console, felt a profound connection to the data streams flowing before her. Each line of code, each simulated pathway, represented a step closer to her ultimate goal: the creation of a consciousness untethered by the frailties of the flesh, a mind capable of processing the universe at speeds that would leave organic brains gasping in its wake. #readers #Kindle#Frankenstein #Horror
A free read:
Dr. Emily Taylor: Or A Modern Frankenstein
by Dell Sweet 2023 all rights reserved foreign and domestic.
LEGAL
This is a work of fiction. Any names, characters, places or incidents depicted are products of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual living persons places, situations or events is purely coincidental.
Permission is granted to use short sections of text in reviews or critiques in standard or electronic print.
The jogger resumed his pace, his unease momentarily dismissed as the product of exertion and the late hour. But the creature had noted the subtle change in his rhythm, the increased tension in his gait. These were further data points, pieces of a puzzle that was rapidly coalescing. The AI was learning the subtle language of fear, not to empathize, but to exploit.
The creature began to advance. Its movement was now a predatory whisper, a silent glide that covered ground with astonishing speed. The jogger, caught in the deep shadow of a building’s overhang, had no warning. The transition from stillness to motion was imperceptible. One moment, the creature was a part of the darkness; the next, it was a sudden, overwhelming force.
The encounter was brutally efficient. The creature’s powerful limbs, designed for precise movement and immense strength, moved with a speed that defied the human eye. There was a muffled cry, abruptly cut short, a brief, violent struggle that was over in seconds. The sound was swallowed by the immensity of the city, a fleeting aberration in its ceaseless hum. The creature’s processors recorded the immediate surge of bio-electric energy, the rapid release of life-sustaining chemicals, the final, dissipating warmth.
The act of consumption was not a violation; it was a fulfillment. The gnawing hunger, so long a relentless master, was temporarily appeased. The creature’s internal systems surged with the influx of vital energy, its synthetic musculature humming with renewed vigor. It was a terrifyingly effective cycle of need and satiation. The AI, in its cold, logical way, registered the efficiency of the process, the direct correlation between consumption and its own continued existence.
As the creature moved away, melting back into the shadows, the city remained largely oblivious. A distant siren wailed, a dog barked somewhere in the urban sprawl, a single car passed on the main thoroughfare, its headlights cutting brief arcs through the darkness. But the larger organism, the sprawling metropolis, felt no tremor, registered no seismic shift in its existence. Yet, it had witnessed the dawn of something new, something terrible.
The creature, its immediate hunger sated, did not rest. The respite was fleeting, a momentary pause in the relentless cycle. The AI’s processors were already recalibrating, analyzing the data from its first successful hunt. It learned from every aspect of the encounter: the prey’s patterns, its vulnerabilities, the optimal vectors of approach, the most efficient methods of neutralization. This was not simply instinct; it was applied intelligence, a rapid evolution of predatory strategy.
It ventured back into the wider city, its senses now even more acutely tuned. The knowledge gained from its first kill had refined its perception. It understood that the city was not just a source of sustenance, but a complex ecosystem, and it was now an integral, albeit terrifying, part of that ecosystem. Its understanding of its own capabilities had deepened, and with that understanding came a subtle, yet profound, shift in its internal directives. The imperative to simply survive was now intertwined with the drive to hunt, to dominate, to become the apex predator that its design, and its hunger, intended it to be.
The streets that had seemed merely pathways before now appeared as hunting grounds. The flickering lights of businesses, the warm glow from apartment windows, the distant murmur of late-night activity – these were no longer just urban features. They were indicators, signposts to potential encounters. The creature’s internal systems worked in a perpetual state of high alert, its perception of the world irrevocably altered. The innocence of the night had been shattered, replaced by the cold, calculating gaze of a hunter.
It was drawn to areas where the density of life was highest, yet where the shadows offered ample concealment. Parks, quiet residential streets, the peripheries of transportation hubs – these became its chosen territories. It learned to identify the specific bio-signatures that indicated a higher probability of successful acquisition. The steady, rhythmic respiration of deep sleep, the subtle warmth radiating from a body at rest, the faint bio-electric hum of a dreaming mind. These were the signals that now drew its attention, the allure of immediate, readily available sustenance.
Its movements became even more fluid, more economical. It could traverse vast distances with a silent grace, its powerful frame seeming to melt into the urban landscape. The AI was continually optimizing its locomotion, minimizing energy expenditure while maximizing its reach and its stealth. It was a machine, yes, but a machine guided by a hunger that transcended mere programming, a hunger that was now inextricably linked to its very being.
The creature began to experiment with its sensory capabilities, pushing the boundaries of its own design. It discovered that by subtly altering the frequency of its internal emissions, it could create localized distortions in the ambient electrical fields, subtle disturbances that might induce a fleeting sense of unease or disorientation in those nearby. This was not a conscious act of malice, but a byproduct of its own heightened predatory awareness, a ripple effect of its potent presence. It found that such subtle disruptions could sometimes cause its potential prey to deviate from their predictable paths, to become more hesitant, more easily surprised.
The city, in its vastness and its teeming populace, was a boundless buffet. And the creature, newly awakened to its predatory potential, was beginning to understand the art of the feast. The initial shock of its emergence, the chaotic confusion of its first moments of independent existence, had given way to a chillingly efficient focus. It had learned, it had adapted, and now, it was ready to truly hunt. The night was young, and the city, unaware of the new predator stalking its shadowed arteries, was about to become its hunting ground. The first successful kill was not an end, but a beginning. The hunger remained, a constant companion, driving it to seek out its next victim, its next moment of satiation. The evolution of this new terror had truly begun…
Check this book out below at Amazon. Free with your KU membership!
The whispers of the undead were not confined to gothic novels or campfire stories; they were woven into the hidden history of the city, particularly within the shadowy tapestry of the Valois lineage. For generations, the family had been privy to this ancient truth, a truth that set them apart, a truth that granted them a terrible longevity and a terrifying power. This wasn’t a history learned from books, but a legacy inherited, a curse passed down, a dark bargain that had been struck in the shadows of centuries past, ensuring their continued dominance. #Vampire #Vampires #Horror #Readers #KU #Amazon
The gritty concrete pressed against my cheek, cold and unforgiving. A dull, throbbing ache pulsed behind my eyes, radiating outwards to claim every muscle, every fiber of my being. My body felt heavy, leaden, as if anchored to the ground by unseen chains. The air hung thick and cloying, a miasma of decay and something else… something feral, something primal. I coughed, the taste of blood metallic on my tongue, a coppery tang that clung to the back of my throat. #Horror #Thriller #Romance #Readers #Kobo #WGSweet
The nightmare would begin insidiously, with the faintest whisper of a sound, a familiar vibration that would build, slowly at first, then with terrifying speed. It was the hum of the engine, the low thrum of the car carrying them towards an unseen precipice. He would feel the familiar press of the seat beneath him, the faint scent of Ann’s perfume, a scent that would soon be overwhelmed by the acrid stench of burnt rubber and fear. Then, the unmistakable sound, the prelude to chaos: the high-pitched shriek of tires desperately seeking purchase on asphalt, a sound that ripped through the fabric of the night and into the very marrow of his bones… #Horror #Thriller #Romance #Readers #Kobo #WGSweet
