Circle Thrice: Book Summary
The quake that hits Japan as the group jump out. The remainder of the population of Japan are killed during the quake and the redoubt is destroyed. It causes a malfunction but they are saved and pulled into the redoubt in Tennessee. The jump is totally horrible for all.
When they finally wake up, the walls of this gateway are purple in color. The control room show’s signs of fighting. As they explore they discover that the redoubt is huge, miles across. Eventually they get to the entrance and find someone left the code behind so they can leave it.
The search for the rest facilities so they can get cleaned up and get some rest. Doc nearly gets killed by a trap set by the soldiers as they leave the redoubt, but it’s the only trap they encounter. They do eventually find the washroom facilities and everyone is able to clean up, as well as get some sleep.
The dorm section of the redoubt has nothing in it. No food, no equipment, not a single thing. They check out the map and see a section of the redoubt that is marked ART. They go to see it, and it turns out to be an ART storage section where many pieces of art were saved from the war. They all look over the section impressed with what they see.
When they finally leave the redoubt they discover that they are indeed in Tennessee. At first, they think that they might be on an island, but it turns out that they are just surrounded by a large number of lakes and rivers.
While Ryan is exploring near the ruins of a old tower, he finds himself surrounded by a huge number of mutated insects. They herd him towards the tower which he climbs. The insects surround him, and start to dig around the supports, in the hopes to bring down the tower down. The others show up and J.B. blows a tunnel through the insects to help him escape.
Miles later they come across a small inbred community. They enter into it, surprising everyone. The villagers are slightly hostile, but they let the outlanders eat. Everything is going fairly good until they tell the villagers that they are going to take a raft. It looks like they are going to make it, when one of the people hits Jak with a stone. He blows the person away and the fire fight begins.
Jak gets hit in the stomach, but his belt buckle saves him. Ryan gets shot through the leg, but nothing vital is hit. Many of the villagers are killed in the attack.
They spend most of the day travelling and resting. Finally they make camp for the night and it is quite and uneventful.
The next day they plan to continue all the way to Shiloh, everyone wishing to visit the ancient battlefield. Mildred and J.B. go hunting while Ryan and Krysty go exploring. They end up finding a small, beautiful church hidden away. The stained glass windows depict death. Krysty ends up ringing the bell, just for the hell of it.
Next thing they discover the priest shows up, armed with a double barreled shotgun. He tells him that his name is Father Sandor and then forces them to head into the crypt below the church. He orders them to strip so he can start his fun. When he bumps into the remains of one of his victims, he is startled giving Ryan a chance to attack. He is able to kill him after forcing the huge man to the floor, then jamming a white hot poker into his mouth. On the way out they set fire to the church, burning it to the ground.
When they join the others, they find that Mildred killed a wild pig and they feast on it. When they are done they travel south. During the day’s travel, they only see a total of five people on the journey, and all seem to be crazier than a shithouse rat.
After they stop for the night, they set off first thing in the morning. Around ten they pass below a bridge and are attacked by a group of men. The fight is brief but brutal, and they nearly lose Jak to the river when several men jump on the raft its self. Fortunately for them, the rest of the day is uneventful.
That evening they land at Pittsburgh Landing. The locals want to charge but after Ryan threatens them, they decide it’s best they let the group moore for free. They barter for a meal which turns out to be very good. They then get rooms and rest up for the night.
The next day they meet a man named Judas Portillo. He takes them to see the battlefield of Shiloh, and describes to them what happened, showing them a map of the battle. They then pay the small man a handful of jack and return to the ville. When they leave they discover that some of the villagers left before them, planning to ambush them for their weapons. They pull ashore before it can happen.
Hours later they stop for the night and Ryan goes to explore. He encounters a pair of people, who turn out to be rabid and he is forced to kill both before returning to the others.
The next day they travel down the remains of the I-64 hoping to take it all the way to Memphis. They end up joining up with a wagon train carrying grain. The wag train leader is named Mike Sullivan. He warns them about the countess who rules over the barony near the ruins. That night he refuses their offer to let them help with the guard duty.
While they travel over the next day Mike warns them that they might want stay with the wagons when they enter the ville of Country Row. The ville is filled with red necks who don’t like blacks or mutants. They pass what is left of the Chickasaw Rustic Park. Five small volcanos have sprung up in the park, none of them over a thousand feet in height.
Finally they reach country row. They head in to check out the sights. It turns out that its incredibly tacky, and Mildred finds it to be an insult to country music. They can’t take it any longer and leave, heading to a small bar called Harmony. Inside they have a nice meal but are interuppted by a pair of rednecks who insult Mildred and Jak. They draw their weapons and are killed. The survivors don't blame the others for what happened and they return to the convoy.
The say their farewells to Mike and his people and take the rednecks four by four. To prevent any trouble with lynch mobs, they travel through the night until they are forced to stop when a powerful chem storm hits.
While they are waiting, Ryan spots a hideous little mutant trying to get into the wag. They head out and get into a fight with the mutants, which are known as muddies. One of the mutants has a strange bauble around his neck and Ryan recognizes it as the one that Straub owned. They decide to go to the muties ville and see if Straub is indeed there.
Sure enough he is. They head in, guns blazing to rescue the man. The reason they want to is to find out what happened to Trader and Abe. When they finally free him, he is a totally different man, and barely recognizes the others. He can’t tell them what happened to Trader. He lets them know that they will be well rewarded by the countess for the rescue.
He shows them what the countess did to him, he has scars all over and she even castrated him. They go to the countess’s mansion, where they meet the woman. She is very beautiful, but it’s obvious that she is dangerous. The woman lets them stay.
The meal that they are fed looks great but is incredibly bland. The countess even allows them to stock up on ammunition and grenades from her personal armoury, as payment for rescuing Straub. They then go and check out her garden as well as the library before finally going to get some sleep.
The next day they finally head out to see Graceland. Ryan is forced to go with the Countess, who makes it clear that she wants him to try and father a child for her. She say’s that all her would be suitors are barren, but will not accept the fact that she is the one.
Graceland is a major disappointment, as it has lost it’s grandeur. Mildred is sickened at what happened and goes to plant a thermite grenade, to destroy the mansion once they leave. As they are about to leave, Doc gets terribly sick and Ryan refuses to go with the countess, choosing instead to ride with his old friend.
Mildred is forced to operate on Doc because his appendix is about to burst. She saves she old man’s life. Once again, the countess Katya Beausoleil asks Ryan to father her child, and he refuses her.
Later that day, one of her sec men is executed via stoning for stealing from her. They watch it occur, but don’t interfere, except for Ryan asking the countess to let Straub use his hypnotic powers to lessen the pain the man feels. She actually agree’s to do it.
After the killing, everyone tries to relax. Krysty even lets Ryan know that to prevent their troubles, she wouldn’t mind if he had sex with the countess. But despite the danger of not doing her wishes, he refuses. They go to sleep.
The next day each member of the group go about doing their own thing. Ryan is taken by Straub to see the countess who asks him one final time to father her child. He refuses again, and that is the end of it.
Straub invites him to have a drink, and he reluctantly agrees to do so. He has several, and they turn out to be drugged. Straub hypnotizes Ryan, then leads him around the ville, painting a mental picture of Ryan’s friends, all butchered. In his drugged state, the pictures seem very, very real to him.
Eventually Straub leads Ryan to the countess, leaving him in his drugged and hypnotized state so she can do what she wants to him. He then goes to try and commit the horrors that Ryan saw in his mind eye. When he enters Doc’s room to smother the old man, Doc nearly cuts him in half with his Le Mat, bringing the others to him. They immediately go to find Ryan.
Countess Katya takes Ryan into an attic near the gorge so she can mate with him. She lifts her skirt, demanding that he go down on her. When he refuses, she kicks him right in the wound on his leg. The pain snaps him out of his state, right into a murderous fury. She runs, trying to get away from the crazed man.
He catches her at the edge of the Gorge, and breaks her cheek. He plans to beat her to death, and is stunned when the others show up, since he believed that they had been murdered. The countess takes advantage of his surprise and slams into him, knocking both into the gorge and the river far below.
End of Circle Thrice