Showing results by narrator "Christopher Graybill" in All Categories

The endless struggle for power among the barons is a way of life in Deathlands, but Ryan Cawdor and his warrior survivalists take no sides — unless forced to. But as the land around the Rio Grande reaches the breaking point in a bitter war, the companions are harnessed into battle, moving toward a grim confrontation with an old enemy whose secret stockpile of 21st-century nerve gas is poised to unleash infinite madness once more upon a ravaged Earth.

A cold sense of dèjá vu becomes reality as the group emerges from a gateway they'd survived before — a grim graveyard of lost friends and nightmares. The consuming need to escape the dangerous melancholy of the place forces Ryan and company onto the frozen tundra, where an even greater menace awaits. The forbidding land harbors a dying tribe — cursed members of the ancient Inuit, who seize the arrival of Ryan and his band as their last hope to appease angry gods...by offering them up as human sacrifice.

Ryan Cawdor is gunned down and left for dead by the new Provisional US Army, commanded by a brilliant general with a propensity for casual mass murder and a vision to rebuild America. Waging war from his pre-Dark, fusion-powered armored locomotive, he's poised to unlock the secrets of the Gateways — as the rest of Ryan's group stand powerless. All except one. Hope may be lost for Krysty Wroth. But revenge is enough.

Emerging from a gateway in the Midwest, Ryan senses trouble within the well-fortified ville of a local baron, whose understanding of pre-Dark medicine may be their one chance to save a wounded Jak. But while his white coats can make the drugs that heal, the baron knows the real power and money is in the hardcore Deathlands jolt. And where drugs and riches go, death shadows every step, no matter which side of a firefight you stand on....

Ryan's razor-sharp edge has been dulled by the loss of his son, Dean — but grief is an emotion he cannot indulge if the band is to escape the chains of sadistic Baron Ethan. His thriving ville offers a special commodity: blood sport. Now with the group's armorer, JB Dix, imprisoned and near death, Ryan and the others are forced to join Ethan's hunt — as the hunted. But the perverse and powerful baron has changed the rules. Skilled in mind control, he ensures the warriors will not be tracked by high-paying thrill seekers. Instead, they will hunt each other — to the death.

Ryan and his group make their way to a remote island in hopes of finding brief sanctuary. Instead, they are captured by an isolated tribe of descendants of African slaves from pre-Civil War days. When the tribesmen declare Mildred Wyeth "free" from her white masters, it is a twist of fate that ultimately leads the battle-hardened medic to question where her true loyalties lie. Will she side with Ryan, J.B. Dix, and those with whom she has forged a bond of trust and friendship...or with the people of her own blood?

Emerging from a gateway into a redoubt filled with pre-Dark technology, Ryan and his band hope to unlock some of the secrets of post nuclear America. But the fortified redoubt is under the control of a half-mad former sec man hell-bent on vengeance, who orders Ryan and the others to jump-start his private war against two local barons. Under the harsh and pitiless glare of the rad-blasted desert sun, the companions fight to see another day, whatever it brings....

In the radiation-blasted heart of the northwest, Ryan and his companions form a tenuous alliance with a society of women warriors in what may be the stunning culmination of their quest. After years of searching, they have found the gateway to the pre-dark cabal of the Illuminated Ones — and perhaps their one chance to reclaim the future from the jaws of madness. But to seize tomorrow, they must confront its deadly guardians: what is left of the constitutional Government of the United States of America.

Deathlands is a living hell, but there is someplace worse: a parallel Earth where the atomic mega-cull never happened. Now this Otherworld Earth is in its final death throes. Yet for an elite few, the reality portal offers a new frontier of raw energy, expendable slaves — a bastion of power for Dredda Otis Trask. Her invasion force of genetically engineered warrior women has turned the ruins of Salt Lake City into the deadly mining grounds of a grotesque new order — one that lies in wait for Ryan and his companions.

There was a saying in the rangeland that the Western Anti-Horse and Cow Theft Association always got its man. And when one of its representatives lost his life in the line of duty, there was no rest, no easing up nor even any sleep for any man in the organization until the murderer was brought to justice. It was a tradition, and a prideful and useful one. John Irons could see where the bee was falling this time, and he is proud and thankful that it is so.

Red-headed Rann Tate, when he settled in the grim desolation of the Gallows Mountains, wanted only a chance to work his little spread alone and in peace. But even on that lonely rawhide frontier a man cannot cut himself off entirely from human friendship - although there might be a heavy price attached, brought about by the same forces that gave these mountains their dreaded name.

It is not known how Emmett Corbin stood off 20 men at Mekelumne, and how he walked alone into the fire of Saul Bassett and his brothers at Steamboat Springs. What happened at Spanish Crossing was far less dramatic, but far more harrowing and, for Emmett Corbin, far more terrifying.

This one was fast...he fired as Matt's bullet slammed into his chest. Nobody robs Matt Davison. Not three men, not 15 - at least that's what he thinks. Now Matt will find out how good he really is.

A despised general, a crooked lawman and a cutthroat cattle buyer join up to double-cross ranchers along the Mexican border. Then, they pick on the wrong man.

The new teacher whipped the overgrown Tucker boy on the third day after the opening of the Windmill School. That night at the supper tables of sheep spreads and cow outfits up and down Catclaw Valley, people said that the young teacher, Bowie Jones, should have been told about the Tuckers. Unfortunately for Bowie Jones, no one had told him.

A cruel, hated man collects a fortune, then disappears in the desert. The Texas Rangers think it's murder and put one of their best on the job but he'll need help. There's evil here that no one suspects.

The rope was already around Bill Peace's neck. He looked at Judge White, hardly able to believe that this man would lend himself to a lynching. But that was before the outlaw Al Sisson interfered. Bill realized that he would be trading certain death for the life of a fugitive, but the prize seemed worth the gamble.

Splinters from the wooden banister flew against his face and he felt the tug of lead... A desperate cowboy starts a range war and ends up the prime target. Can he hire enough guns to save his hide?

Hagger is a man on the run, a thief and would-be killer. He's no good on a horse, and feels miserable and out of place in the snowbound high country. But, then, Hagger comes upon a white bull terrier, abandoned in a mountain cabin, and his whole life begins to change.

Ah Sin was only a boy, 6,000 miles from China, and he wanted desperately to go back. The lawyer had promised him that once Black Margo was convicted and hung, his estate would pay the youth's back wages, a thousand dollars, so he could return to China. But the frontier justice system did not always work as expected.