The Roads of Hell
The Woodman, Book 1
By G.H. Bright
Genre: Post-Apocalyptic, Dystopian, SciFi
POST APOCALYPTIC, yet so much more!
“Modified Ebola has decimated the globe, handfuls of survivors eke out an existence whilst others are intent on building from the ashes a world of unimaginable pain and horror. The Woodman fights to keep the world from tipping completely over the edge whilst battling his own demons.”
Imagine a world where nothing is easy. No electricity, electronic communications fuel or running water. Imagine that world came so fast there was nothing you could do about it. No preparation, no stockpiling of goods. One day you flick a switch and a fire comes on, the next day you need to learn to make fire to get warm and keep animals away.
No law, no order, survival of the fittest is the name of the game. From seven billion human beings to a few million spread out across the globe almost overnight.
Ebola has attacked the human race, virtually wiping it from the face of the planet. For those who survived, the struggle is just beginning and for some the nightmare is just starting.
A madman, now free of prison hospital builds an army and marches on Coast Town with the intent of taking for his own ends. Coast Town is a haven on the south coast of England, a refuse for the few survivors to gather and start again. Three years on from the dark day when Ebola first struck, the people face another challenge, this one perhaps all the more frightening because it might not kill you, just enslave.
Duke Woods, The Woodman, stands in the way of the madman. Duke has the power to stop him and a score to settle, too. With the help of another man, a new friend, they take the battle to the madman known as The Black Pope.
Will Duke survive?
Can The Black Pope be beaten?
Will the Ebola virus, known to all as The Death, return?
As Duke’s past comes back to haunt him so the battle for life takes off, with not only his life in the balance but that of Coast Town, too.
CONTAINS CONTENT SOME READERS MIGHT FIND DISTURBING.
The Fires of Hell
The Woodman Book 2
This second instalment starts six weeks after Book one, the Roads of Hell, finished.
The reluctant hero in the making, Duke Woods, The Woodman, has contracted Ebola, otherwise known simply as “The Death”.
The Black Pope is still alive and kicking, unknown to most, and The Woodman has a new friend.
Michelle, a six-year-old girl remains at his side watching and waiting whilst The Death ravages his body. Hannah, the love of his life is not allowed near them in case she and the child she carries become infected and the communities, at the news of his contagion, go into lock-down.
Hannah is nearly six months pregnant, Sue is seven months into her pregnancy, and several other women are carrying babies too.
As Duke recovers, he finds the Army is still in place and helping everyone it can, and the Elders are still unable to achieve even the simplest of things. Coast Town looks to be thriving again with the new influx of people but as always, trouble is just around the corner and new horror surfaces.
Just when things looks good for the survivor’s, just as they begin to grasp skills forgotten, new evils and hard times rush to compound issues and make life a far greater struggle than it already was. The Death wiped out 90% of Mankind; illness and disease took even more.
Those that lived through it, instead of banding together, seem unable to change their ways and people find they still have to fight Mankind’s greatest enemy, Mankind itself.
The Gates of Hell
The Woodman Book 3
This instalment begins six hours after Duke Woods, AKA The Woodman, has decided he must leave Coast Town.
If he leaves, they stand a chance of negotiation with the small army coming their way and he gets to go home to his family. If he stays, the army will want his head. He has to try and flee, regardless of how it looks to others.
The ‘reluctant hero in the making’, fights his way out with bow and arrow, and arrives home only to find his family in mortal danger. Then, in a twist of fate; Duke is taken prisoner and escorted to Dover Castle. There he has, under threat of death, to fight for his freedom and his sanity as the true horrors of a madman come to light. Seth Windsor is insane and out for blood, a truly bad concoction, and he will only be happy when Duke is forced to fight for his life.
Sue goes to other lands to start a new and joyful life whilst Coast Town burns; only to find the sweet talking man was really a serpent in disguise.
Duke fights evil time and again, fashioning himself unwittingly into a hero regardless of his wish to not be.
Years of peace follow, communities come together, trade together and grow, and a network of towns and villages live in harmony with the people of the woods. Harmony that is, until evil rears its ugly head once more in the form of feral kids linked to Seth Windsor. The Death is still out there, perhaps it always will be, and evil men still rampage across the lands too. The peace is shattered by these feral kids and a new terror from the north. Will peace ever really come to The Woodman?
Hell on Earth
The Woodman Book 4
Duke and Coast Town face a new challenge as the horror from the north, having taken the Oxford Crew, move southward looking for The Woodman. Duke attempts to build an army and defend. Kufuo is still missing, on an adventure of his own trying to trace his roots and all the time ships from the new world head toward them for confrontation. Senator Horst is not all he seems to be and speaks with a serpents tongue. Marine Cobb goes AWOL and tells Duke what he already suspected, that Horst let the Ebola virus loose in the first place. Fighting for his life and the lives of those he loves, Duke must defeat the terror from the north and deal with Senator Horst whilst keeping his people together.
This fourth and final instalment gives the answers to who the people were that died at the start of book one, explains who unleashed the virus, modified it and why. Duke comes close to death, Sue at last finds happiness and Duke, Gould and Troy find out who lives on the forbidden isle.
This is the last in the on-going series, however, the saga continues with books 5 and six.
All Hell Broke Loose
The Woodman Book 5
Modified Ebola was created to wipe out the masses and cut down the numbers of humans on planet Earth. Three differing strains – due to natural mutation and the meddling of the mega-rich – has created a bleak world for those lucky enough to survive. This is book five in the saga and, whereas you might not have read books one – four, you can pick it up by jumping right in here. Life is peaceful once more, the newcomers are getting used to this way of life in southern England and Duke Woods is a dad again. Evil, however comes from across the Channel and threatens the very existence he has fought so hard to build. If the virus wasn’t bad enough this new terror rips the heart out of not just Coast Town but The Woodman too as this battle becomes personal and painful.
Hell Hath No Fury
The Woodman Book 6
Three differing factions head for Duke’s Lands. All have different agendas, one wants to live in peace and be friends whilst another is happy to die for the cause just so long as The Woodman dies too, and the third faction – an eight hundred strong army – wishes for nothing more than total domination. Attacked on different fronts, abandoned by The West and with his lands diminishing rapidly, Duke Woods has the fight of his life on his hands. It is a fight that will cost dearly, many people will die in battle and the return of The Death will take its share too. Stretched to the limits of manpower and with the weather against them, the Marines and Fighting Men stand side by side with The Woodman and family in a fight to the death to save Coast Town. This is a win or lose-it- all battle to the death. Contains graphic violence and sexual content, not for the squeamish.
I live on the South coast of England, Sussex to be exact, but I was born in Hampshire.
When not writing I Instruct motor vehicle studies, including computer diagnosis & diagnostics on modern systems. I love the beach, being social, walking the beach/woods and family life (not in that order) and real ale.
The Woodman saga – book one written in 2000 – is set in a world where modified Ebola has decimated human life as we know it. Duke Woods fights to bring peace and stability to life again but also has to fight his demons to do so.
A cross between Mad Max meets Game of Thrones, meets Contagion meets Robin Hood, this is the story of a modern day hero trying to do the best for everyone and putting himself in the line of fire to do it.
Casey's Corner 