he wasn’t in a good mood.
No, Glenna was timid because she was that way by nature, and because she had lived under horrific conditions during and after the freeze.
Just prior to Saris 7’s collision with the earth, the kind-hearted warden at nearby Eden Federal Correctional Facility opened the gates to the prison and set the inmates free.
“If we leave them there and abandon them, they’ll be locked in their cells and die of thirst and starvation. I refuse to meet my maker after having been party to the deaths of four hundred men. No matter what they’ve done.”
The problem was, the warden’s kind heart doomed many of the residents of the nearby town of Eden instead.
Many of the more brutal inmates of the prison took refuge in the town. If the residents didn’t give up their homes willingly, they were shot dead. Those residents who survived were forced to care for the convicts, by gathering food and water and cooking and cleaning for them.
Those who refused were beaten or killed, or forced to watch their loved ones tortured before their very eyes.
And the women suffered an even more horrible fate, forced to accommodate the men sexually in addition to everything else.
Many of the residents managed to escape from Eden, although most perished while trying to make it to the nearest civilized city a hundred miles away.
Those who remained led a truly terrible existence for seven and a half long years, until the world thawed again.
Glenna was one of those people.
So it was understandable that after being through hell for many years she would develop some peculiar traits.
One of them was that she was extremely shy, and a bit afraid, of being around men.
Glenna and her family were kept hostage by a particularly brutal man named David Castillo. Castillo eventually murdered her husband and always kept one of her children locked in a room for which only he had the key. Glenna was forced into slavery to keep her children from suffering the same fate as her husband.
Then the thaw finally came, and with the spring flowers came the rumors.
Stories started floating around that the small town of Eden was far from a Biblical paradise. Rather, it was a city under siege, where the most vile men on the face of the earth ruled with an iron fist. And the good were forced to do their bidding.
Marty Haskins had always hated bullies. Even as a small kid, the bullies at his school left him alone. For they knew that inside little Marty was a ball of fire just itching to come out. Those who’d tried in the past to pick on him knew that he’d fight back. And when he did so, he fought back with a vengeance.
There were others at the school whom the bullies picked on as well for a variety of reasons. Perhaps because they were small, or had a disability. Or didn’t look or act as the bullies thought they should.
The word got around, and those children gravitated toward Marty. They wanted to be his friend, and Marty made it so. Some of Marty’s other friends told him, “They don’t want to be your friend. They just want you to protect them.”
But Marty didn’t mind. To Marty, they were one and the same.
To Marty, part of being a friend was protecting one another from those who’d do any of them harm.
It was just part of who he was.
When word got back to Marty that the good men, women and children of nearby Eden were being brutalized, all the memories from his childhood came rushing back.
And he knew he had to make a stand. For even after so many years, he still despised bullies.
Marty gathered up a few volunteers to help take back the town, and asked the people at the compound to join in. To fight the good fight, as it were. With the help of John Jacoby and Frank Woodard, both former lawmen, they were able to
No, Glenna was timid because she was that way by nature, and because she had lived under horrific conditions during and after the freeze.
Just prior to Saris 7’s collision with the earth, the kind-hearted warden at nearby Eden Federal Correctional Facility opened the gates to the prison and set the inmates free.
“If we leave them there and abandon them, they’ll be locked in their cells and die of thirst and starvation. I refuse to meet my maker after having been party to the deaths of four hundred men. No matter what they’ve done.”
The problem was, the warden’s kind heart doomed many of the residents of the nearby town of Eden instead.
Many of the more brutal inmates of the prison took refuge in the town. If the residents didn’t give up their homes willingly, they were shot dead. Those residents who survived were forced to care for the convicts, by gathering food and water and cooking and cleaning for them.
Those who refused were beaten or killed, or forced to watch their loved ones tortured before their very eyes.
And the women suffered an even more horrible fate, forced to accommodate the men sexually in addition to everything else.
Many of the residents managed to escape from Eden, although most perished while trying to make it to the nearest civilized city a hundred miles away.
Those who remained led a truly terrible existence for seven and a half long years, until the world thawed again.
Glenna was one of those people.
So it was understandable that after being through hell for many years she would develop some peculiar traits.
One of them was that she was extremely shy, and a bit afraid, of being around men.
Glenna and her family were kept hostage by a particularly brutal man named David Castillo. Castillo eventually murdered her husband and always kept one of her children locked in a room for which only he had the key. Glenna was forced into slavery to keep her children from suffering the same fate as her husband.
Then the thaw finally came, and with the spring flowers came the rumors.
Stories started floating around that the small town of Eden was far from a Biblical paradise. Rather, it was a city under siege, where the most vile men on the face of the earth ruled with an iron fist. And the good were forced to do their bidding.
Marty Haskins had always hated bullies. Even as a small kid, the bullies at his school left him alone. For they knew that inside little Marty was a ball of fire just itching to come out. Those who’d tried in the past to pick on him knew that he’d fight back. And when he did so, he fought back with a vengeance.
There were others at the school whom the bullies picked on as well for a variety of reasons. Perhaps because they were small, or had a disability. Or didn’t look or act as the bullies thought they should.
The word got around, and those children gravitated toward Marty. They wanted to be his friend, and Marty made it so. Some of Marty’s other friends told him, “They don’t want to be your friend. They just want you to protect them.”
But Marty didn’t mind. To Marty, they were one and the same.
To Marty, part of being a friend was protecting one another from those who’d do any of them harm.
It was just part of who he was.
When word got back to Marty that the good men, women and children of nearby Eden were being brutalized, all the memories from his childhood came rushing back.
And he knew he had to make a stand. For even after so many years, he still despised bullies.
Marty gathered up a few volunteers to help take back the town, and asked the people at the compound to join in. To fight the good fight, as it were. With the help of John Jacoby and Frank Woodard, both former lawmen, they were able to
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