Echo: A Dystopian Science Fiction Novel

Time for some home-made Noms—cheesy eggs with onions, there is no finer comestible!  I look in my fridge and see that the single remaining carton of eggs is long past its expiration date—seems like I should’ve eaten them a year and a half ago.  I shrug.  Oh well—eating like a filthy, down-on-his-luck man-whore is par for the course in the life of your favorite author and professional Man Child Kent Wayne.  I reach for the eggs and place them on my counter.  Out comes a small mixing bowl (I prefer scrambled, mostly) and I reach for the first egg.  That’s when I see the whole carton—all twelve eggs—shiver.  My fingers jump back.  What the Dark Knight is going on???  They shiver again, and I stumble, catching myself with both hands against the kitchen wall.  Okay, that is DEFINITELY not—then one of the eggs begin spider-webbing with cracks, and a tiny, slime-covered piece of fur begins emerging from it.  I’m frozen in horror as I watch the rest of the eggs crack open; I see an eye, a snout, I also see a paw…these bits and pieces begin expanding outward, running together, forming into a…HOLY CRIPES IT’S A LITTLE CHIHUAHUA!  The slime-covered little not-dog stares at me with those unnerving little fish-eyes, then rasps:  “You’re time is nigh, two-legs.  On your knees—pay obeisance to me like the filthy crawler you are.”  When I simply continue to stare at it, it screams, “ON YOUR KNEES!” and twin bursts of daemonite fire erupt from its eyes.  It raises a paw toward me and twists the air; I feel its tiny peanut-brained mind digging through my psyche, some straight up Kylo-on-Poe torture action.  “AAAAH!!!” I scream, clutching my head, squeezing my eyes shut.  It doesn’t matter; horrible faces drift through my vision:  Gary Busey, Carrot Top, Justin Bieber….they’re all laughing at me, telling me to quit, telling me to cut out my organs and offer them to this evil little not-dog.  Out of options, I fumble in my pocket for eReader and open it to Echo.  Magic flash.  Suddenly, I feel another presence in my mind, one that pushes back against the Chihuahua Lord.  In the battleground that my psyche has become, I feel my loyal buddy and 10 lb. Terrier Extraordinaire Bitefighter protecting me and striving against the chihuahua.  I’m sucked into a psionic dreamscape where Bitefighter and the chihuahua are both 50 feet tall and locked in a doggy death battle, their feet plowing through an alien skyline of gravity-defying structures that resemble curves and spirals.  The chihuhua snarls:  “I am an anthrax, butcher bacterium, warm-life destroying.”  Bitefighter:  “I am a world, space-floating, life-nurturing.”  They tumble like lovers, smashing through a purple forest of sentient trees.  Chihuahua:  “I am a nova, all-exploding…planet-cremating.”  Bitefighter:  “I am the Universe—all things encompassing, all life embracing.”  They get to their feet, then clutch the other’s shoulders, struggling to off-balance each other.  Chihuahua:  “I am Anti-Life, the Beast of Judgment. I am the dark at the end of everything. The end of universes, gods, worlds…of everything.  And what will you be then, Terrier?”  Bitefighter pauses, locks gazes with his enemy, and an eldritch flare erupts from his eyes.  In a steady voice he says:  “I am hope.”  The chihuahua’s expression remains fixed in a snarl, then turns into one of shock and fear.  My dreamscape comes to life and begins attacking the not-dog, weighing it down with buildings, trees…the chihuahua screams and writhes on the floor.  It manages to blurt out, “You will pay for this Bitefighter!  Vengeance will be MINE!” before vanishing in a swirl of colored concepts.  Bitefighter shrinks down to his normal size, jumps into my arms, gives me a lick on the face, and says, “Roof!”

Shout out to the amaze-balls Mr. Neil Gaiman for that one.  Has that super-old carton of eggs in your fridge mutated into an evil canine that can rip apart your mind via the Dark Arts?  Well Echo can fix that right up.  Right now I’m in the middle of reworking Echo 1, trying to get all my noob mistakes out.  If you refrain from buying it due to my amateurish writing style, a product of my first ventures into fiction, then I totally understand, and I’ll announce when I re-upload an updated version.  If you buy it anyways, then many thanks!  Get Echo Vol. 1 on Kindle here:  Vol. 1 on Kindle.  Vol. 2 on Kindle here:  Vol.2 on Kindle  Vol. 3 on Kindle here:  Vol. 3 on Kindle