It spread fast- no time to understand it- let alone learn how to fight it. Once it reached you, it was too late. All you could do is run. Rumored safe zones and potential for a cure drifted across the populace, forcing tough decisions to be made. They say only the strong survive. Well they forgot about the smart, the inventive and the lucky. Follow five different groups from across the U.S.A. as they make their way to what could be America’s last stand in the Lone Star State.

    

    YOU KNOW THEIR NAMES They are etched deeply in the new history books. things in common. First is the need to take care of themselves and their loved ones. Second is a sense of independence. Third is a willingness to work hard to achieve their objectives. Fourth, and fortunately for the human race, they all possess an understanding of history and the way history relates to possible futures. Last, but certainly not least, is the foresight and wherewithal to prepare for any number of futures, both good and bad. All of the Twelve Groups were rather well respected, if not always well liked, even before the Dark Times began. And each member of each Group became the stuff of legends during those terrible, fateful days that became known as the Dark Times. ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Jerry D Young was born at home, in Senath, Missouri July 3, 1953. At age 5 the family rented a small farm house on an active farm 40 miles southwest of St. Louis. While the family weren't farmers, they lived something of a homestead type life, raising a milk cow, sometimes two, and calves, a pig or two, chickens, and the occasional goat. Along with the stock, a large garden helped to feed Jerry's three brothers and two sisters for several years. Fishing and hunting contributed to the pantry, as did foraging the wild edibles on the property. At the age of 14, the family, minus a brother and two sisters that were now adults and on their own, moved back to Senath. Having been encouraged from an early age to read, Jerry was a regular patron of the Senath Branch Library. A love of a good story was born within him, and shortly before graduating high school, for a lack of stories that he liked at the library, he began to write short vignettes, and started taking notes for stories that he wanted to tell. Well, a full life interceded, and the writing didn't resume for several years. But while working a job with a much free time, and the then newfangled home computer, Jerry began to write in earnest. With the occasional gap in the process, Jerry continued to research and write, never believing he could ever be published. But when he turned 50, he wanted a change in his life, left the job he was doing and began focusing on his writing. When he became ill, the writing stopped, but not the inspiration. When he started writing again, in 2004, after getting the medical problems under control, he began to read some on-line stories dealing with emergency preparedness, one of his other loves. The die was cast. Now with over a hundred of the vignettes and short stories about how to survive disasters written, along with his other novels, Jerry decided to go for broke, adding one of his previous works every few days to his list of stories now available, Jerry continues to write, both the Prep/PAW stories, as well as action adventure with a little romance type stories that first got him started.

    

    She works for a non-profit by day and clips coupons by night. The time in between is spent doing homework with her son. She wants a stable and secure life for him, but she needs a new start for herself. That won’t come easy, though. Julie is recently divorced, financially stressed, and still reeling from a violent attack in her past. She is determined to make it on her own, however. She learns self-defense skills and enrolls in a women’s-only firearms class. That’s where she meets a likeminded woman who helps take her skills to the next level. Julie’s personal evolution continues as she uses her couponing know-how to stockpile essential food and survival supplies. She will become self-reliant—and never be a victim again. The urgency of her efforts takes on new importance as society begins unraveling around her. America is divided. Conservatives and liberals are at war. Then the newly elected president cuts funding to so-called Sanctuary States, including her home state of Oregon. Julie loses her job. Everyone who lives off the government gets desperate. Riots. Crime. Fire. Julie needs to flee to the safety of her family cabin in Colorado’s Rocky Mountains. Can she get there, though? There is an exodus of people, and the conservative states—now called Great States—have established border checkpoints. Refugees are being turned away. Will she be one of them? Will Steve, her ex-husband, let her take their son far away? Will he demand to go with them? There is a wildfire at hand. Civilization is crumbling. And Julie is running out of time. The Divide is the first book in the A Great State trilogy.

    He thought he’d been to hell and back in Iraq, but when he arrives back in his home town of Copperville, his war is not over. Everything has changed, and nothing is as he remembered. What happened? Is this the end? When society breaks down, who will keep order? People are running scared, abandoning their homes, fleeing for their lives. Where is his wife, and is she alive or dead? There are no answers, only questions. The local cops have fled, and lawlessness is the new power in the land. Yet some men and women will fight to survive. It is time for Americans to defend what is theirs. To fight and keep fighting. To remain forever free. Last Man Standing is the first in an ongoing Forever Free series of short novels that chronicle the vicious aftermath of the breakdown of society.