[Master Hunter 02] • Cuddles

A ten-year period of accelerated climate change cripples the United States. In its wake, a barbarian horde punches through the east coast usurping the water trade from established, successful tribes. Those like Master Hunter Sam Mason’s, the largest tribe in Wilmington, North Carolina. Sam’s father, biologist Tom Mason, travels with psychiatrist Emelia Stone from Raleigh bringing help. Not a regiment of Navy elite swamp stompers, they are children of the green pill capable of telepathy, vision beyond the light spectrum, and heightened reflexes—they are the reinforcements.

The Battle of Wilmington ensues and a new enemy reveals itself. Sam and his friends join his father’s team to head south over ganglands, past mutated man-eating beasts, and through a hurricane seeking answers. They must confront a new race, one mutated by the Stone strain harnessing powers like those of the green pill. The race created a new, powerful energy source using radiotrophic fungi, and none who seeks them ever return.

But a mysterious interdimensional entity watches over Sam, bound by an agreement struck with his father. Described as unsympathetic, destructive, and selfish, and known for farming human souls for sustenance, the entity might be Sam’s only hope to survive his journey. It assumed the role of a family pet decades ago under a name representing happier times, and still uses this name today—Cuddles.

“Cuddles” concludes the two-part series titled Master Hunter, continuing events from “The Stone Scry.”

Snippet from the book:

A crackling, fuzzy voice announced, “Hello? Are you on this channel?”

Sam swiped up the handle, “This is Wanderer, over?”

“Wanderer,” the voice remarked. “What, like in that video game, Fallout?”

Sam’s brow furled. “Who the hell is this?”

“This is the man who is going to end your life, Samuel Thomas Mason.”

“Bring it, you f—”

“Put Emelia on.”

“What?”

“Put—Emelia—on. Are you both stupid and arrogant? Run along, Sammy. Time’s a-ticking.”

Emelia reached over to take the handle, but Sam pulled it away and berated, “Now, you listen to me, you motherf—”

“Fine, we’ll do this the hard way.”

Sam screamed, dropped the handle, and pressed both hands into his head, holding his brain from shattering. It felt as if two school buses had rammed against each eardrum.

Abu, Juan, Shaquan, and Sheila all bellowed in pain, wrapping arms over their heads. They struggled, holding their ears as though keeping their brains from exploding outwards. Emelia, Lou, and Tom were unaffected.

“Emelia, dear,” the voice buzzed through the radio, saying, “meet me in your little boyfriend’s pea-sized brain.”

She shut her eyes, focusing on Sam, Leave him alone!

Sam bellowed, “My brain’s hemispheres are ripping apart, make it stop!”

I wonder if I could rip his brain apart. He’s not the dashing hero I’ve heard about.

Emelia squinted, Who is this? What do you want?

Hello, cousin! I wish we did not have to meet this way, but Grandpa considered me a mistake, you know.

Tom rushed to Sam and tossed a blanket over his shoulders. “Hang in there, Son, she will protect you.” He grabbed Sam’s hands and rubbed them in vigorous friction.

Cousin? Emelia concentrated, Who are you?

You know my name, hushed in family hallways and over stewing kitchen pots. I am the one they don’t speak about.