Shadow
World Book Summary.
The novel opens in a small ville called Moonboy. It is fairly
close to the ruins of Salt Lake City in a suburb of Morgan County, Utah. It
turns out that the ville despises mutants.
It is a very hot day and there is a strange shimmering in the
street. A huge vortex appears out of nowhere. Several figures wearing black
armor step out of the vortex. The people of the ville assume that they are
muties.
The invaders are attacked and retaliate using laser weapons
and they cut them down, and then use a spray to dissolve the bodies. They appear
to be harvesting the bodies as well. A scavenger named Grub witnesses the attack
from an upper story.
Ryan and the others are heading through a steaming swamp.
They are leading a small family from Brigham ville that was hit by a Cholera
Epidemic. They have been separated,
and the father, Benji comes across a woman covered in blood. It is actually a
trap and the woman is a cannie, one of the people who have been following them.
They originally thought they were being pursued by Stickies
Jak catches up to Benji and sees
that he has been killed. He attacks the cannies and kills several, scattering
the rest.
They re-group and wait for the
attack that isn’t long in coming. The cannies attack in two groups and attempt
to get at the mother and the children. During
the fight a crossbow bolt grazes JB and Krysty suffers a minor graze.
The survivors of the attack break off and one grabs Ryan’s rifle.
Mildred treats the wounds and examines the dead cannies.
It is determined that they are all
heading towards the same place, a ville called Perdition. Ryan wants his rifle
back and the hunt is on.
The four Cannies hit the ville and
go into the gaudy. There they hear Grub telling the tail of the attack. They
take him aside and learn more about what happened in Moonboy Ville. With the
promise of sex they leave the ville. Grub quickly learns their true intent.
The companions arrive and hit the
same Gaudy. They find out what
happened and learn where Moonboy is, and Ryan is still intent on getting his
weapon back. They don’t waste any time following the cannies.
They go through the wasteland and have a running fight through a group of
mutant rattlers.
Out of no-where it starts to rain
birds. A few at first but then
hundreds, thousands. They are in the middle of the dead lakes and Mildred
guesses that it was toxic gasses that caused the birds to die.
Using binocs they see the ville and
spot a strange APC and a helicopter. They also see the cannie leader, who calls
himself the Right Reverend Gore, split his people up and they head into the
ville.
The cannie female, named Giggly
Jane strips off her cloths and heads down the center of the ville as a
distraction. The other two males head in and are cut down by laser mines.
Nothing larger than a two by two inch chunk is left intact. The cannie woman
tries to lead the people away and finds the remains of her friends.
She is cut down as well.
Gore fires on the invaders and is
shocked that he can’t hit them. The invaders send the helicopter after him and
they use the laser to stop Gore. The pilot then spots Ryan’s group and he
heads out after them. They open
fire on the vehicle and are amazed when their rounds miss completely.
To try and save the others Ryan leads the copter on a chase, expecting to
be killed when the pilot finally corners him. Instead the pilot hits him with a
chemical weapon and he is rendered unconscious.
Ryan finally comes to and finds that the people have him and the cannie captive. The cannie is announced to be contaminated and unsalvageable. They spray bacteria over the cannies body and it quickly consumes him. One of the people takes a tissue sample of him and announces that he is clean. They tell him that he is going to come back with them to the alternate world.
The explorers from the other world
brought a satellite launcher from the other side. It is to help open a larger
portal to bring more across. In order to make sure he does as he was told, they
tell him how easy it will be to kill his companions. He has to go with them and
they enter the rift.
On the other side he is greeted as
a hero, the hope for a dying world. He meets another doctor and learns what the
five symbol means. After a brief
interview he is taken out of the complex. They travel for several long minutes
on a lift and then head into a literal demolition derby of a highway.
After a short trip they enter a building and travel on a second lift for
a quarter of an hour.
Again Ryan finds himself moving
through another crowd. He meets with the CEO of the five corporations and
answers all the questions they have for him.
To him it sounds more like an intel gathering for a possible invasion.
After it he is taken out and they leave again.
A siren blares and everyone dons breathing masks.
After an accident, a sec man who was a possible enemy finds his breathing
mask ruptured, he takes a breath and dies as his lungs are destroyed.
Back in the Deathlands JB decides to try and force the
invaders into bringing Ryan back from where ever they had taken him by
threatening the rocket that they brought over. Unfortunately the invaders call
his bluff.
Ryan’s escort comes under attack.
He is forced to abandon the vehicle with the woman who brought him
across. The highway they are on is at least fifty lanes wide and they can see
huge pile-ups all over the place. They
are forced at gunpoint by a group of mercs to go with them.
The mercs lead them to the surface away from the rest of the
city and Ryan is sure he sees millions of people, many clearly dead.
They drive until they hit a condensation zone and past that are in an
area that has been totally taken over by a green slime.
They come to a hidden trailer and go inside.
In the Deathlands Colonel Gabhart inspects the damage caused by the rounds that JB fired at it. He is thinking about what is happening and how that transferring 10 billion people from his world to this one would only delay the inevitable from happening here as well. He joins the others and watches a playback of Krysty disabling the mines. This act surprises all of them.
At the same time Krysty and Mildred are able to get away even
though she is totally drained. They
can hear the invaders coming after them.
In the shadow world a man named Major Oswaldo Lujan is
creeping up on the trailer where Ryan is being held. It is his intention to kill
the guards and capture Ryan. He
kills four of the guards.
Damm, one of the mercs, hands Ryan his pulse rifle while two
other mercenaries are fieldstripping and cleaning their weapons. They spot the
attack and Ryan asked about the rebellion he heard about. Inside the trailer
they have the van stashed away and use it to try and escape from the attack.
Gabhart is in the air and hunting for JB and the others. He
picks up JB’s whispered ‘oh shit’ and they try to escape from the hunters
by running past the boiling mud pits despite the danger. They find their escape
route cut off by the Colonel.
During the chase the van that Ryan is riding in is totaled
and they are forced to get out and run for the condensation layer.
While he runs he can already feel the green slime bacteria growing inside
his lungs. Before they can make it
all the way Ryan collapses. The
only way to save him is the woman injects his lungs with a drug and the effects
are almost instantaneous.
Dr. Huth is in a videoconference with the heads of the five
corporations. He’s trying to
explain what happened with the abduction. In the end Ryan is declared
expendable. After the meeting Huth
goes to his coffin sized room and gathers his belongings. He plans to cross over
to the other side.
After the injection the group are able to make it into the
condensation zone. The mercenaries
that are chasing them continue the pursuit despite the fact that they can’t
see a thing. Ryan and his
companions ambush and board one of the APC’s and kill several of the armored
mercenaries. The mercenary Damm uses a combat blade to kill the driver and Ryan
makes note of how he did it for future reference.
The other APC continues to pursue and kill thousands of
people with their near misses. The fighting and slaughter enrage the crowd and
they surround the APC and tip it over, heedless to the deaths. The mercenaries
are captured and turned over to a man named Thrill Bill.
The crowd is closing in on the APC holding Ryan and his
companions. They leave it and try
to make a run for it but the crowd around them makes that impossible. The woman
warns him not to fight it would mean his death.
But the crowd recognizes him and that saves them.
They are taken by the crowd to meet Thrill Bill.
They meet up with the man and learn about why Ryan was taken. Ryan watches as the Mercenaries that were chasing them are
executed.
Jak is the first to spot a pack of mutant coyotes.
He fires on them, alerting them. They forget about the helicopter and
start fighting the mutants. The
pilot is totally amazed at what he witness’ and on the act of the fight alone
he decides to spare their lives instead of out and out killing them. They wait
until the fight is over and use the chemical to knock them out. The pilot lands
and inspects the dead animals, none having ever seen a living animal before.
They attempt to contact the APC that came through but can’t get
through. The driver has defected, not caring any more. He has freedom.
Ryan and Thrill Bill are under attack by another APC that is
firing from higher ground. They as
well as several of his people go to their armory.
They have a way to ward off the attack, and Ryan learns a way to turn the
suits force field against them. The fight is short and brutal and they have to
escape by entering the lower levels.
When they go down Ryan sees more skeletons than he has ever
seen before. He learns from them what happened and more information on the
consumer rebellion. They make it into the sewers and hear the sound of pursuers
coming after them. Ryan drops a bunch of explosives to dissuade the pursuers.
The explosives go off and they climb a ladder and find
themselves in the middle of a super highway. They dodge the cars and the
pursuers, stopping a van driven by a high level CEO.
They use the van to get to the totalitarian complex and inside. Inside
the lift they disable to the cameras and climb on top of the lift. At the top of
the shaft Ryan is able to cut hand and foot holds in the concrete so they can
climb out and get access to the roof.
Inside the complex Dr. Huth tells the other scientists to do
the impossible and beat the Satellite launch deadline on the other world. He
plans to go through to the other world no matter what happens. He heads over to
his small home and gathers up a few personal possessions to take with him.
After Ryan and the others get out of the shaft they are on
the roof. It is far too dangerous
for them to go at night so they get some rest.
Back on their world Krysty and the others escape by using one
of Jak’s throwing knives. But
before they are killed the leader decides to get a tissue sample from them.
Daybreak finds Ryan and the others breaking into the complex.
They fight to the rift and end up losing Thrill bill when his legs are literally
cut out from under him. He stays behind in order to buy the others a little
time.
When they get through the rift Ryan holds a explosive charge
against the colonels head. Nara gets him to believe that they are all that are
left. To ensure that no one else crosses over they send the launching missile
through the rift where it detonates and destroys the totalitarian complex
sealing the rift for good.