kagenokami

A minor logical inconsistency here: One wonders what sort of "Mama" could manage to beat a 250-pound 14 year old senseless with only an 18-inch "paddle" as a weapon? That berserker Hag must be built like Godzilla! I would expect simple survival instinct would induce a teenager of that age and size to take that "paddle" away from "Mama", (and quite likely make her eat it! )

Re: drpaladin's ealier review... A minor technical nit: Decompression sickness is caused when a SCUBA equipped diver absorbs excess nitrogen into his bloodstream while under pressure at depth and then ascends too quickly causing the dissolved nitrogen to form bubbles in the divers bloodstream, bubbles which can block smaller capillaries in the brain or organs. On a breath-hold dive without a tank or other access to additional air under pressure, the nitrogen in the divers bloodstream is only as much as he had at the surface, and there is no excess to form bubbles - decompression sickness does not occur in breath-hold dives. The story line as written seems to imply that Thomas was breath-hold diving on this occasion - DCS wouldn't be possilble if that were the case. Leaving out DCS, the stress and panic of nearly drowning due to getting caught in the net, plus having swallowed a lot of salty seawater may have increased the liklihood of an older man experienceing a stroke... that is certainly possible - but not something one can blame on a 15-year-old boy. I agree - grumpy Uncle Martin is very wrong to blame Thomas' death on Casey. And Martin's treatment of Casey in forcing him to wear that shock-collar like a disobedient DOG is outrageous.

This is very good, each character is developing and adding to the whole, with several distinct threads of storyline to keep moving forward. Great start and hope to see more...

Glad to see Brad got whacked and Devyn survived... ... or did he?? All of Brad's drug-suppliers and drug-clients certainly knew Devyn could identify them too... I hope you aren't planning a "gotcha-last" chapter in which Devyn gets whacked as a surprise twist ending?!? Or a "final turn of the screw" ending in which the drug guys TRY to whack Devyn, but MISS and get MICHAEL by mistake?!? (Yeesh, been reading too many "evil authors" lately I guess)

Given the apparent history of Brad controlling Devyn, I suspect Devyn is not thinking of attacking Brad with that knife but something darker... We may hope and pray that Jason returns with the cavalry... and doesn't find Devyn already dead by his own hand with that knife he just found?

step-brother "Brad" appears to be an entity most deserving of a 12-gauge enema... and he's not the only one either.

Hehehe... I just knew that was coming!! Its not nearly as much fun to be a psychic-killer if you have the "sixth sense" too!! Can't wait to see how it plays out...

Purrrrfectly excellent catboy tail!

This is great stuff - Larry and Paul seem to have been bodily assumed into an "afterlife" in a world where magic works and dragons are real - which begs a question: With a salute to the late Anne McCaffrey, one has to wonder what effect "Dakota" and the as yet unamed lady dragon "making out" will have on Paul and Larry? Especially Paul since he seems to have connected telepathically, (or "impressed" to use Ann's term), with "Dakota"... Can't wait for the next chapter...

Great start!! Can't wait to see how this develops. Of course this brings the question: As a gay telepath / maybe-empath, is Benji a good "horse whisperer" too??

Ordinarily, when the sea "silently goes away" like that, its time to run for high ground because its coming BACK as TSUNAMI.... but Oh Wait... the high ground is an ACTIVE VOLCANO belching MAGMA!! -> This gives "Caught between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea" true life and meaning!!! Of course the goat would probably say there isn't a cliff in sight anywhere... :worship: .

Great ending! A truly classic "got-ya-last" that one. BURN Scar BURN!!

Well at least the Sheriff won't have to retrain or fire Deputy McClatchity now...

I agree with xleroc... "Dmitri" would need a 100-kiloton pair of plutonium balls to try and sneak back there after he saw that small army of bikers turn "Mario" into swiss cheaze!! "Dmitri" ain't no damn ninja.

Four Sparrow missiles fired at a wounded-pigeon of a business jet being piloted by a kid who's never landed a plane?? That's hardly a "cliffhanger"... when one considers that those missiles were built under government contract by the lowest-bidder and all four of them will probably malfunction... Or maybe not.... BOOM scratch one rock band!!

Oi Mate, we gotta a lotta roasted roo on the barbie!! And when Vladimir arrives in HELL, he will first have to listen to Old Scratch totally laughing his ass off at the stupid engineer who built his own demise.

Great story... ...but good lord what a cliffhanger ending! Unleash a pair of suddenly telekinetic / telepathic seven-year-old twins on the world and just imagine the resulting chaos!!

Eeewwww... A couple of 60-kiloton very dirty nukes that will kill the city they are detonated in and poison a huge area downwind pretty near forever?? That can be easily concealed in some construction projects poured concrete and lie there in wait for someone to dial a cell-phone code to detonate them as much as 10 YEARS after they are hidden?? Brandon might need to sing an old Barry McGuire tune:...Ah you don't believe We're on the eve of destruction...

Jimmy is definitely a master of tightening the screws... introducing all these groups of good people who will be in harm's way when the infected persons start to come out of their coma phase... ...meanwhile we all sit with bated breath awaiting the feces impacting the air-circulation device and ALL HELL BREAKING LOOOOSE!!

And when Max finds out that Mark and Tom have got together.... Max will shit a life size brass rhinocerous! Hope this story resumes soon.

Poor Bobby... manages to avoid being infected with Mutant Killer Zombie Mist, survives mononuceosis and sleeps through the Zombie Apocalypse, only to wake up dying of radiation poisoning?? And the ArchAngel sounds his trumpet, and the world fades to black...

Hey, mononucleosis is a sweet kitten compared to Pandora, aka Mutant Killer Zombie Mist!! Now if Bobby's parents had a nice old cold war era fallout shelter bunker with a really secure blast-proof door, that would be the ideal place to "sleep off" his case of mononucleosis, while the soon to begin ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE raged outside!

Jimmy, you brewing that HIGH OCTANE NIGHTMARE FUEL again?? This is some seriously scary stuff... But wonderfully well written nightmare fuel...

Bill W, excellent start, can't wait to see where it goes from here!

<cue "Jawws" muzak> Hello, I am yet another "lurker in the shadows" here... a frequent reader, but never ever write anything, so I offer my thanks to those more talented than I who feed my voracious appetite for reading. - Kagenokami (a dweller in the shadow of the gods)