John T. Cullen has authored over 20 books, including The Generals of October (Simon & Schuster, 2004)—pulse-pounding political-military suspense fiction set in a near-future U.S. Constitutional crisis.
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John T. Cullen also writes screenplays, including one for Nebula Express (adapted from his SF novel) and the violent, darkly glistening, utterly strange tale of a serial killer in Scorpion.
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Robinson Crusoe 1,000,000 A.D.
a novel
by John T. Cullen
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8.
Alex didn't know how long he stood in the gloom beside his birthing tank, with water plashing around his ankles.
Nor did he know where his mother was, nor why he was Alex. Or if he was Alex, and he was sure he was not. So who or what am I, he wondered.
He hugged himself and cried like a small child, though he was a grown man. It wasn’t cold exactly, but the water droplets drying on his skin made the still air feel chilly. Nothing happened except his nose got stuffy, and he stopped crying after a while. Nobody came to help him, which was sad. Then again, nobody came to eat him, and that was good.
Sniffling, he remembered the Other’s cloak. The Other’s body floated on the surface as a tangle of indistinct lumps. Alex walked with sloshing ankles around the outside of the birthing tub to grab hold of the Other. Alex worked the cloak loose of its cold rubbery corpse, pushing it away. The garment was repulsive. It was wet and heavy and smelled of decay. Only Alex’s own pitiful state caused him to overcome his revulsion and slip the garment over his head. It was still faintly warm from the Other.
Far away, as if outside, an animal roared hungrily. Was it getting closer? Was it finding a way in?
Alex slumped in a corner and wrapped his arms around himself , shivering as needles of cold invaded his bumpy skin. His teeth chattered, and his vision came in rocking bursts. He was cold and terrified and hungry. Where was he? What was everything? He knew part of it—a small part—but not enough to make sense of it. The memories of Alex Kirk came rushing like faint, flickering holograms through his bloodstream, the way subway trains went crashing through a lighted station and one could see right through its glass windows. What was glass? What were windows?
How long did he sit there? Probably a day or two. He slept.
The roaring woke him several times. There were animals somewhere nearby—big ones, from their sounds—and something in the way they circled outside (if this was inside, there had to be outside, he could only guess). From something in the way their roars triangulated in on him, he knew they wanted to taste his flesh. He didn’t know his name, but he wondered if somehow they might. He called himself Alex but knew he wasn’t. He was only a few hours old. Surely even in the wild dumb beasts knew more than he did. But they did not have the meme soup of Alex Kirk rushing along the metro rails of his inner grand central union station where the lights were going on, one by one. Or was he hallucinating at that?
Stiffly, he dragged himself erect. The cloak had dried to a warm dampness by now from his body heat. It smelled faintly of rotting meat. It was roughly square except at one corner, where the Other must have chewed on it in its hunger. Alex wondered if he would be reduced to the same. Remembering fine milled soaps and warm baths and freshly folded linen shirts, he wanted to cast this abomination from him, but he needed it to stay alive.
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If you like what you're reading, please send at least two other avid readers to this website.
—Thank you! …Your grateful author, John T. Cullen.
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Other gripping books by the author:
Copyright © 2005 by John T. Cullen. All Rights Reserved.
John T. Cullen has been a pioneer in digital publishing since 1996. He is listed by digital publishing historian Karen Wiesner as the sixth digital publisher in history, and the second person to publish serialized chapters on line (starting 1996). His web magazine Deep Outside SFFH was the first to be listed along with the professional pulps in Writer's Market (1999) and was at one time the oldest professional SFFH magazine in the world. John T. Cullen continues to explore new ways to adapt the primordial power of storytelling to emerging new digital opportunities as the Third Millennium springs to light.
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A Walk in Ancient Rome John T. Cullen (Simon&Schuster May 2005) innovative, acclaimed walking & teaching tour—explore every corner of the Imperial capital at its zenith almost 2000 years ago; learn its history—smell and taste the very air of Classical Rome.
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= Summer 2008 =
A Walk in Ancient Rome, Second Edition John T. Cullen (Clocktower Books 2008)—New! Many new maps; images from the unique scale model of AndréCaron of Quebec. Read this innovative book, with its acclaimed walking & teaching tour. Explore every corner of the Imperial capital at its zenith almost 2000 years ago; learn its history. Smell and taste the very air of Classical Rome. The new edition is bigger, like an atlas. Some people have carried the 1st edition with them to Rome, and found it greatly enhanced their experience.
Dead Move: Kate Morgan and the Haunting Mystery of Coronado, 2nd Ed. John T. Cullen (Clocktower Books, San Diego, Summer 2008). John T. Cullen has tackled the mystery of the ghost at the Hotel del Coronado. He has assembled a dramatic new theory about how and why she violently died on the back steps of the hotel in 1892. A first-class ghost story and whodunit wrapped in one.
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