Syphon: Guardians of the Fractured Realms Read online

  Contents

  Title Page

  Copyright © 2016 by Chad Kunego

  Dedication and Acknowledgements

  A note from the author

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Chapter 36

  Chapter 37

  Chapter 38

  Chapter 39

  Chapter 40

  Chapter 41

  Chapter 42

  Chapter 43

  Chapter 44

  If you like what you read...

  SYPHON: GUARDIANS OF THE FRACTURED REALMS

  by Chad Kunego

  Copyright © 2016 by Chad Kunego

  All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof

  may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever

  without the express written permission of the publisher

  except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events, and incidents

  are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner.

  Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

  Printed in the United States of America First Release, May 2016

  What The…?!? Publishing

  131 West Seneca Street, #109

  Manlius, NY 13104

  www.WhatThePublishing.com

  [email protected]

  www.ChadKunego.com

  [email protected]

  Formatting, cover design, and editing by

  What The..?!? Publishing

  Dedication and Acknowledgements

  Like most things in life, this book wasn’t created in a vacuum, with that said

  I’d like to thank the following people:

  Emily A.- My first beta-reader. Your thoughts gave me the confidence to

  keep working on this project.

  Heather H. - Your suggestions and thoughts on this project helped refine

  what this book eventually became. For that, I’m thankful.

  And my wife, Heather, for the encouragement and helping me polish this

  book until it hopefully shines. After 17 years, I finally found something

  that stuck.

  And finally, this book is dedicated to my Mom. I wish you could have lived

  long enough to see this book get published. You never stopped believing

  I could do whatever I put my mind to. I just hope you’re looking down

  on me from Heaven, still rooting me on. I hope I made you proud in the end.

  Hi, I know these things are usually talked about at the end of a book, and I’m going to mention it there as well, but I just wanted to ask you a favor before you get started. Basically, I wanted to ask you ahead of time if you’d be so kind as to leave a review of this book on Amazon if you enjoy it. Unfortunately, it’s a fact that the only way a book gets found is if there’s a bunch of reviews for it. No reviews = no sales. And no sales means it’s more difficult to afford the time needed to write. Not that I won’t keep writing, but reviews could mean the different between being able to write at night and possibly taking on a second job.

  If you like this book and my style of writing, that means the difference between possibly having a new book in six months or a few years. The same can be said for any of the authors you like, so if you like their work, leave review for them as well.

  If for no other reason, you let us know you like what you read. Thanks in advance and enjoy the story.

  Click here to leave a review

  Chapter 1

  Thump…

  He felt, more than heard, the sound as it reverberated around him. He couldn’t see where he was. For some reason, he couldn’t see anything. All he could make out were sensations of movement and pressure, of things sliding across his skin. Randomly, he felt hands trying to grab ahold of him as he spun away. His body slid smoothly through the resistance, instinctively changing direction in response to stimuli he couldn’t detect.

  Thump…

  As the air vibrated soundlessly, he felt a new sensation. Pain. He felt momentary impressions of pain, barely noticeable at first but growing in intensity, flare up across parts of his body. The pain quickly faded, only to be replaced by more flashes of pain on other parts of his body. He felt confusion. He couldn’t remember how he had come to be in his situation or what he was supposed to do.

  Thump…

  The pulses were coming more rapidly now as the world slowly started to resolve itself into flashes of half-seen distorted faces, of teeth snapping at his face as he continued to move. He could feel something was coming, something malevolent. As he fought to free himself from the hands that kept grasping at him, he felt an overwhelming sense of dread building behind him. Spinning around, the world resolved into a demon with razor-sharp pointed teeth lunging toward him. As the world slowed to a crawl, he could see the light glistening off the drool that coated the teeth and dripped off, falling toward the floor below. As he struggled to bring his arms up to try and stop the creature from attacking him, it felt like the air thickened around him. As the fangs came within inches of his face, he started to open his mouth to scream.

  THUMP!

  The head exploded as his world disintegrated in a flash of white-hot fire.

  §§§§§§§§§§§§

  His eyes snapped open as he lunged into a seated position. He slammed his eyes shut again as the blinding light lanced into his skull, impaling his thoughts for a moment and causing him to recoil backward.

  Thump…Thump…Thump…

  He gradually became aware of the sound as it slowly worked it’s way back into his consciousness. As he tried to clear his head of the massive pain he felt behind his eyes, he felt his heart beating rapidly. He fought to control his breathing as he tried to calm down. As he struggled to make sense of what was happening, he felt a sensation of warmth start to spread up his left arm. The comfort that accompanied the warmth allowed him to relax as the pain behind his eyes quickly receded into the background.

  Thump…Thump…Thump…

  “Ohhh…”

  Clenching his teeth, he realized he was scrunching his eyes tight against the glaring source of light. As he struggled to relax more, he vaguely heard a voice yelling in the distance as he continued to collect his thoughts.

  “He’s waking up.”

  The sudden voice slammed into him, causing another wave of pain to cascade through his head, but it wasn’t as intense as the last spike of pain. Another pulse of warmth traveled up his arm. After another moment, he tried to open his eyes again. Squinting against the pain caused by the light, he tried to take stock of his surroundings. Begrudgingly, the room he was in started to resolve itself into
something he could make sense of. He glanced to his right as he tried to determine the source of the thumping noise. With a start, he realized it was the sound of fluid dripping from a bag of IV fluid.

  Looking down at himself, he realized he was laying in what appeared to be a hospital bed. He caught movement out of the corner of his eye, causing him to abruptly shift his attention. Squinting in the direction of the movement, he noticed an older gentleman enter the room. By the lab-type coat, he assumed it was a doctor of some sort.

  “Ah! You’re finally awake I see!”

  He winced at the volume of the doctor’s voice. With a softer tone, the doctor spoke again.

  “Sorry about that. Don’t worry though, the sensitivity to sound should lessen shortly. My name’s Dr. Greene. How are you feeling?”

  He tried to look at the man through cracked lids, attempting to process what was being asked. After a minute, he realized the gentleman was staring at him with what he took to be an expectant look.

  “Bright…” he replied, his voice cracking as his tongue stuck to the roof of his mouth.

  He tried to swallow, but couldn’t work up any moisture. The effort caused him to cough roughly.

  “…Thirsty…”

  “Well, that’s to be expected. You’ve been unconscious for a good bit now.”

  He noticed the doctor glancing over his shoulder, nodding to someone he couldn’t see.

  Walking toward the bed, he unslung the stethoscope dangling around his neck. Adjusting the bed to an upright position, the doctor placed the stethoscope on various parts of his chest and back.

  “Deep breath in. Hold it… Okay, breathe normally.”

  This went on for a few minutes before a nurse came in with a pitcher and a cup of ice with a straw in it. Pouring some water, she brought the cup over to him. He went to reach for it but was stopped short by something around his wrist. Looking down, he noticed he had a set of handcuffs on his right wrist along with a restraining strap. Wiggling his other hand under the blanket, he could feel another restraining strap on his left wrist as well. He started to feel panic rising only to have it fade again as another pulse of warmth traveled up his arm. After taking a long sip of water, he glanced back at the doctor, rattling the cuffs for emphasis.

  “Oh… Those are for, uh, your safety as well as ours. When you were brought in, you started thrashing about pretty violently. You broke a nurse’s nose before we were able to sedate you.” He waved his hands when he noticed my eyes start to get wide, “nothing to worry about. He’ll be fine. Anyway, as I was saying, you were brought in under some unusual circumstances.”

  “What happened to me? Was I in an accident or something?”

  “Well…”

  The doctor trailed off as they both heard a commotion coming from out in the hall. He glanced toward where the doctor was staring, trying to determine the source of the disturbance. He could just make out the nurses’ station where a nurse appeared to be having an argument with a stocky guy in a suit. The lady standing next to him was staring intently toward his room. Looking back up at the doctor, he inclined his head toward the argument, raising his eyebrows in a questioning look.

  “Yes… They’re here to talk to you, if that’s what you’re inquiring about. As I was saying, you were brought here under some unusual circumstances. I’m not at liberty to tell you about it, but I’m sure the nice detectives will be more than glad to fill you in on the details.”

  He heard the sarcasm in the doctor’s tone as he looked back at the two detectives. He wasn’t sure why, but he knew that the stocky guy was right handed, carried a handgun in a cross draw holster, and had a backup around the inside of his left ankle. He could also tell that he favored brawling based off the way he moved and gestured in his direction.

  As for the woman, after a quick glance, he could tell that she knew some type of martial arts, something that favored hand techniques based off how she unconsciously planted her feet and kept her weight balanced over the balls of her feet. Of the two, he felt she was the more dangerous person. He wasn’t sure how he could tell that just by looking at them briefly, but he was positive he was accurate on both counts. Before he had a chance to ponder it further, the guy became impatient and pushed the nurse out of the way before purposefully striding toward his room.

  Glancing at the nurse, the doctor inclined his head toward the restraining strap on his left wrist.

  “I believe we can remove that so our patient can hold his own cup, don’t you think?”

  Glancing once toward the door at the approaching detectives, she looked hurriedly back at the doctor. After a quick nod, she undid the restraining strap on his left wrist. Wheeling the table over to him, she placed the pitcher and cup within reach. Hurrying around the bed, she started undoing the restraining strap on his right wrist.

  “WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING?”

  The nurse jumped and froze as her gaze snapped toward the detective, a slight look of fear in her eyes. The doctor laid his hand on her shoulder and nodded at the remaining strap before striding forward. As she started working on the strap again, the doctor replied.

  “Oh come on detective! He’s still handcuffed to the bed. What do you think he’s going to do? Carry the bed away with him? Gnaw his arm off? He’s still suitably restrained with your… your cuff on him. I just thought it would be better if he could hold his own glass of water instead of needing one of us to do it, unless you’d like to volunteer to have someone from your precinct do it?”

  The detective started to take an angry step forward before his partner laid a hand on his shoulder.

  “Of course. The handcuff is more than sufficient Doctor. My partner was just thinking about everyone’s safety is all. He tends to get carried away about stuff like that.”

  Her partner started to open his mouth, but she elbowed him in the ribs before continuing.

  “Isn’t that right, Frank?”

  “Yeah, yeah… Let’s get on with it.”

  Dr. Greene moved over to the corner.

  “Don’t stress him out too much or I’ll have to ask you to leave.”

  Frank started to open his mouth again, glanced at his partner, then snapped it shut.

  “That’s fine. We just have a few questions to ask your patient to try and determine what happened at the spot where we found him.”

  Glancing toward him, she continued.

  “Hello, I’m detective Cora Blanchett and this,” she said, motioning to her partner, “is detective Frank Giani. As we mentioned, we’d like to ask you a few questions if that’s okay?”

  He slowly nodded before she continued.

  “First of all, when we found you, we couldn’t find any identification on you. So can we get your name?” she asked as she pulled a notebook out of her pocket and flipped it open to a page, her partner mirroring the action.

  He started to open his mouth to answer, then paused. A tinge of fear started to form before the pulse of warmth melted it away again.

  “Uh…” he started, looking over at the doctor with a worried expression growing on his face. He tried again, concern starting to color his voice.

  “Uh… I uh… I don’t know… What happened to me? Why can’t I remember…?”

  “Likely story…” Frank muttered under his breath. Cora gave him a dirty look before focusing on the doctor with a raised eyebrow, vaguely waving toward him while he struggled to remember his name.

  “Well, it is possible he could be suffering from some form of temporary amnesia,” he began, flipping through some charts. “While the CT scans showed something odd…” he trailed off as he mumbled something to himself. After a brief pause, he glanced back up.

  “Other than reports of a lump on his head by one of the EMT’s that brought him in, there’s really no way to be sure whether it’s temporary, permanent, or being faked. Assuming the EMT wasn’t mistaken, then it’s entirely plausible for the patient to be suffering from some form of memory loss due to head trauma.” Looking ove
r at him, he asked, “do you know what day it is?”

  He started to open his mouth, but then shut it while shaking his head no, concern flashing across his features again.

  The doctor went down a quick list of questions before he looked back at the detectives.

  “Well, from the sounds of it, he hasn’t lost all his memory, or he wouldn’t be able to talk to us. He seems to be able to move in a coordinated manner, so that part of his brain is functioning fine as well. Since the CT scans don’t show any permanent trauma, other than a strange shadow that we want to investigate with an MRI, I would assume it’s just a temporary loss of memory. There’s no way to be sure though since the mind is a funny thing. We’ll just have to wait and see.”

  Giving his partner a dark look, Frank started to turn toward the door.

  “So at this point he’s a John Doe…? Seriously…? This is bullshit Cora and you know it. He’s hiding something and I’m going to find out what it is. I wanna know why he was in that warehouse where we found him and why he was surrounded by dead bodies.”

  “Frank…” Cora started to say as John sucked in a sharp breath when they mentioned dead bodies before he started coughing violently.

  Everyone stared at him with varying levels of concern as his coughing grew increasing more violent. Doctor Green rushed over to him just as he gave one final, violent cough before wiping his mouth, a slight trail of blood streaked across his lips. He started to reach for the cup of water, but the doctor interrupted him.

  “Open your mouth,” he commanded, pulling out a pen light as he gently grabbed his chin with the other hand, “let me take a look.”

  Dr Greene shined the light in his mouth for a minute, turning his head from side to side before letting him go.

  “Well, your mouth looks okay. Not sure where the blood came from since I don’t see any lesions or cuts. I’ll order up some more scans to check your lungs. Might be some internal damage we’ve overlooked since all the test results haven’t come back yet.”

  Glancing back at the detectives, he waved his hand at them in a dismissive manner.