Scratches

If you enjoy the old west with a twist, cowboy lawmen with guns blazing and outlaws, always on the take and of course dope, zombies and the strange flying machines of the elders….this one might be for you?Scratches starts as the Sacramento lawman—Dan Bardwell—falls from his saddle in front of the mission gates at Arroyo de la Cantua. After safely getting his man—or men rather—and riding away into the night, the lawman is awakened by a terrible buzzing which can’t be explained. With a blood moon rising across the range, he is confronted by the undead as he stands next to a little fire with a blued Navy Colt in each hand. The zombies continue to pile through the long nighttime hours until the bullets are no more. As he lies prostrate under an unforgiving desert sun, sand blows around his form and he has a series of delirious visions, where he meets Ahote—an old Indian friend—and Father John who may or may not really be there?Scratches is the first of a planned series of short stories written in support of the novel, Ain’t No Law in California—from Solstice Publishing, in which the Sacramento lawman, Dan Bardwell, rides through hell and high water on the trail of some outlaw or another. The short collects various bits from the rewrite of a follow-up novel which I hope to submit soon.If you enjoy the old west with a twist, cowboy lawmen with guns blazing and outlaws, always on the take and of course dope, zombies and the strange flying machines of the elders….this one might be for you?