Ragnarok Rising:
Desolation
Book Five of
The Ragnarok Rising Saga
By From
The End is only
The Beginning www.DarkWaterFiction.com
Ragnarok Rising: Desolation
Book Five of the Ragnarok Rising Saga
By D.A. Roberts
First Edition © 2016
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means whatsoever without express written permission from the author, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
Please refer all pertinent questions to the publisher.
All characters appearing in this work are fictitious. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
Cover Design and Interior Images by Phil Morrissey
Typeset and Layout by D.A. Roberts
Editing by: Annette M. Roberts
Author Bio Photo by David Mann – Mann Made Photos - Willard, Mo
Interactive Map by Kate Hughes
Check out the interactive map for a new level of experience in reading. See the actual locations from the book, as you read it.
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Published by
Dark Water Fiction
Springfield, MO
www.DarkWaterFiction.com
Table of Contents
Acknowledgements
Author’s Forward
Prologue
Chapter One - Frozen Wastes
Chapter Two - Jotunheim
Chapter Three - Unexpected Allies
Chapter Four - Muspelhiem
Chapter Five - Fimbul Winter
Chapter Six - Storm Warning
Chapter Eight - Hard Decisions
Chapter Nine - Pale Morning Light
Chapter Ten - Know Thine Enemy
Chapter Eleven - A Warm Fire
Chapter Twelve - Through Fire and Flames
Chapter Thirteen - The Best Laid Plans
Chapter Fourteen - Hearth and Home
Chapter Fifteen - Gathering Clouds
Chapter Sixteen - Ride of the Einherjar
Chapter Seventeen - Spec-4's Riddle
Chapter Eighteen - Familiar Streets
Chapter Nineteen - Bloodlines
Chapter Twenty - Snakedance
Chapter Twenty One -Shelter From The Storm
Chapter Twenty Two - Desperate Hours
Chapter Twenty Three - Versus the Horde
Chapter Twenty Four -Shadow of Death
Chapter Twenty Five - Archer's Gambit
Chapter Twenty Six - Valkyrie's Rest
Chapter Twenty Seven - Dawning
Chapter Twenty Eight - Nightfall
Chapter Twenty Nine - Hrimthurssar's Bane
Chapter Thirty - The Road to Pensmore
Chapter Thirty One - Whispers in the Dark
Chapter Thirty Two - Death's Ride
Chapter Thirty Three -The Road to Hel
Chapter Thirty Four - Loki's Son
Chapter Thirty Five - Laufeyson
Epilogue
Author’s Bio: D.A. Roberts
Also By D.A. Roberts
Acknowledgements
Once again, I need to say thank you to all of the people who helped make this book a reality. As a writer, I always look forward to writing this page but dread it at the same time. I never want to forget anyone, but I know I usually do. There are so many people that deserve my gratitude and more, I’m not sure I can even name them all.
As always, first I will thank my family. To my wife Annette, what can I say? Without her editing, beta reading, coaching, encouraging and all-around hard work, this never would have happened. She works as hard as I do to make every book I write as good as we can possibly make it. I couldn’t do it without her.
To my sons Nathan, Nic and Noah, I just wanted to say I love you. I hope that you can show your own kids these books with as much pride as I had when I showed them to you. These books are proof that you should never give up your dreams. You can do anything you set your minds to, if you’re willing to work hard to get there. Nothing worthwhile is easily obtained. Always believe in yourselves because I always will believe in you. I’m so proud of the young men that you’ve all become. I know you’re destined for something great.
Special thanks to my friend and artist, Phil Morrissey. It’s been an honor and a privilege to have you with me on this journey. Your ability to create amazing images that fit my visions has been inspiring. I’ve called you a wizard before, because what you do is pure magic. Thank you, my friend. You, sir, are awesome.
To the Beta Readers who helped to polish this into the book that it became, I cannot fully express my gratitude. Christina Ludlum, Kent Scott, Bill Osborn, Brian Forrester, and Mike Mello. Without you, this book would have been much different. Thank you for helping me knock off the rough edges and to fix the details. You are all amazing.
To the fans of the series, I want to say a special thanks. You’ve been patient with me for quite some time. I apologize that it took so long to get this one out, but it couldn’t be helped. I hope that you find it was worth the wait.
D.A. Roberts
Author’s Forward
Welcome to book five of my Ragnarok Rising Saga. It’s been one Hel of a journey getting here. If you had told me four years ago that this series would come so far so quickly, I would never have believed you. This has been an amazing adventure for me. Looking back at all the ups and downs, I still feel blessed to have been able to share my stories with you all.
With the culmination of the series in your hands, you’ve walked this path of Ragnarok with me and seen this world through your mind’s eye. It’s not been an easy journey nor has it been without its difficulties. I’d planned to have this book released by the middle of 2015, but fate had other plans. So many things have happened to me this year that it would take another book just to tell you all about it. Suffice it to say, this wasn’t an easy year for me. I apologize for making you all wait so long.
Despite everything that has happened to me personally, this wasn’t an easy book for me to finish. From beginning to end, this one took its toll on me. Both emotionally and physically, I might add. There were scenes in this book that shook me up and caused me to have to walk away from the keyboard for a while.
So, to all of you who stood by me through this and patiently awaited the release of the final installment of the Ragnarok Rising Saga, I say thank you. Although that isn’t nearly enough to say how humbled I’ve felt at all of the kind words, messages and e-mails that I’ve received from you all. I’ve said it before and I will again, Ragnarok Rising fans are the best.
As an author, I’ve taken a few tentative steps with other books. I launched my first foray into the sci-fi genre this year and am pleased with how it turned out. I’m also working on a werewolf series that I think will really be something. I’m excited about the way it’s going. I’d be thrilled if you would all join me on those journeys, as well.
Writing, to me, has always been about sharing my stories with you. No matter how far I go in my career, I don’t want that to ever change. First and foremost, it should always be about the writing, not the writer. After all, great stories will stick with you long after you’ve read them. The best stories take you along for the journey, like a movie in your mind. It has always been my sincere hope that you have felt this way about my writing. I wanted you to feel li
ke you were part of the story because you really are. Without you, the reader, there wouldn’t even be a story to tell. Thank you for being there for me to share my stories.
So this book is dedicated to you all…the Readers of Ragnarok. It was your imaginations that brought life to the words I wrote on these pages. It was your encouragement and excitement that kept me going, even when I doubted myself. You made all the difference in the world.
Although this is the end of the Ragnarok Rising Saga, it isn’t truly the end. There might yet be stories to tell in the aftermath of the Saga. There might yet me paths to tread among the ruins. Tales to be told of heroes and great deeds to be done. Maybe we will see each other again in this world…out among the Wastelands of Ragnarok.
D.A. Roberts
January 2016
Men wade there tormented by the stream,
Vile murderers, men forsworn
And artful seducers of other mens wives:
Nidhogg sucks blood from the bodies of the dead
The wolf rends them.Well, would you know more?
In the east dwells a crone, in Ironwood:
The brood of Fenris are bred there
Wolf-monsters, one of whom
Eventually shall devour the sun.
The giants watchman, joyful Eggthur
Sits on his howe and harps well:
The red cock, called All-Knower
Boldly crows from Birdwood.
Goldencomb to the gods crows
Who wakes the warriors in Valhalla:
A soot red hen also calls
From Hel's hall, deep under the ground.
Loud howls Garm before Gnipahellir,
Bursting his fetters, Fenris runs:
Further in the future afar I behold
The twilight of the gods who gave victory.
- The Voluspa
Prologue
“You never know what worse luck your bad luck has saved you from.”
- Cormac McCarthy
- No Country for Old Men
The inevitable battle with the Hrimthurssar left us fighting for our lives in the facility beneath Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri. We’d found another complex like the one at Lake of the Ozarks where the Stalkers had been created, only this place had created something infinitely worse. In the labyrinthine depths of the government laboratory, they had been attempting to make some kind of super-soldier. What they really created was something out of a nightmare.
In their hubris, they had altered the DNA of gorillas, endowing them with traits of humans in order to turn them into weapons. What they had inadvertently done was to allow the Reaper Virus to jump species. They had created something entirely new that even the Hrimthurssar couldn’t control. We’d had to join forces just to escape with our lives.
We managed to rig the facility’s generators to overload and blow before we headed for the surface. The Hrimthurssar bolted the other direction and left us to our fate. They didn’t know about the generator, so I was more than happy to leave them to their own. It was now a race to see who got to the surface first. This was one race that we couldn't afford to lose. More than just our lives depended on getting out first.
As we reached the emergency exit beneath the hospital, I knew we were running out of time. With the undead abominations right on our heels, we managed to get through the emergency door in the nick of time and sealed it behind us. As we were heading out of the hospital basement, I would have sworn that I could hear the seals on the air-tight door opening. I didn’t want to think about it at the time, but it occurred to me that they might be far smarter than I had given them credit. Little did I know just how right I would prove to be.
We rendezvoused with the convoy just outside the hospital and I headed for the rear vehicle. Before I could reach the Humvee, the sound of rotors shook us out of the excitement. I realized then that we hadn’t escaped clean. Since the Hrimthurssar were the only ones with a chopper, I knew we were in big trouble. I switched gears and headed for the trailer that held our motorcycles. Just as I fired up the engine, Bridgett jumped on the back and refused to let me go after the Hrimthurssar on my own. That’s when I cut the tie-down ropes and put it in gear. Then I twisted the throttle and the massive V-8 engine roared with power.
We rocketed off the back of the trailer and headed right at the advancing helicopter. While the convoy made its escape, I knew it was up to us to be a distraction to buy them the time they needed to get out of the area. Time they would need to get clear of the explosion that was building up beneath our feet in the generator room of the research facility. I had to gauge it perfectly, if we had any chance of escaping with them.
I engaged the helo with my M-4, just to get their attention. The problem was that it worked. They came after us with a vengeance. Grimnir was on the door gun and was doing his very best to turn us into a fine red mist. If he had managed to hit us with the mini-gun, that was exactly what we would have become. Grimnir made no attempt to conserve his ammo, preferring to walk the line of fire right into us. It took all of my skill on the bike to stay barely a half-step ahead.
Using the shell of the Post PX, I shot through the darkness of the building and out the back, knocking undead out of our way as we went. The Hrimthurssar circled the front of the building, expecting us to emerge out the way we had gone in. Instead, I had shot completely through the building and came to a stop in the trees behind it. Then I reached for Beowulf.
Beowulf had much more success in punching through the sides of the chopper than the much smaller M-4 round. By the time I had emptied the magazine, Grimnir was hanging from his harness with massive wounds in his chest and part of his face missing. The chopper hadn’t fared any better. It was smoking heavily and leaking fuel, desperately struggling to stay in the air.
I could see Vigdis as she fought for control of the doomed chopper, but it was Bridgett who would decide their fate. Attaching a small flare to one of her arrows, she fired a broad head into the side of the doomed aircraft. When the aviation fuel hit the flare, the entire aircraft erupted into a giant fireball and plummeted to the ground like a meteor, buckling as it fell.
“Goodbye, Vigdis,” I muttered as I watched it fall.
We caught up with the convoy just outside the main post gate, just in time to watch the facility generator detonate. The ground rippled like waves across a pond, taking both the dead and the Hrimthurssar into the next world in a massive wave of earth, fire and death. Despite the heat, it was going to be the cold wind to Hel, not the wings of the Valkyries taking them to Valhalla. For good or for ill, this battle was over. I could only assume that all of the undead monstrosities from the lab had been destroyed. The thought of them escaping was too horrid to imagine.
The next phase was about to begin. The Fimbul Winter was coming and I needed to figure out why the Hrimthurssar were so worried that we might stop Ragnarok. If there was a way to stop it, then we were going to find it. There might still be time to save at least some part of this world.
We had won this battle, but the war was only just beginning.
Chapter One
Frozen Wastes
“Some say the world will end in fire, some say in ice.“
- Robert Frost
Current Date Unknown – Possibly Early November
The howling wind drove heavy snowflakes through the air with all the fury of the Gods unleashed. The icy breath of the north wind cut through all the layers of clothing that I had wrapped myself in and pierced my flesh like icy arrows. It felt like I was travelling on the icy plains of Jotunhiem[1] instead of the windswept streets of a dead city in the Midwestern part of the United States.
Since the comets had struck the moon, the sky had grown slowly darker and the days rapidly colder. It was now to the point that the brightest part of the day was little better than a normal rainy day. Grey light that barely chased away the darkness was the best we could hope for. I couldn't help but wonder that if it hadn't been for the cold, would there be enough light to
stop the Stalkers.
I sat astride my large Percheron stallion that I named Ebon. He had come to be my trusted companion over the last few months. His black coat had grown mottled with snow that was sticking to both of us. Beside me, Spec-4 was astride a slightly smaller female Percheron of her own that she’d named Willow. We were both wrapped head to toe in all the clothing that we’d managed to grab. When we’d sat out on this particular mission, we hadn’t planned for a full-scale blizzard.
Since the Fimbul Winter had begun, we had concentrated our efforts on finding and bringing in livestock. The cattle were obviously for food, but horses would be needed for transportation. We'd been lucky to find four Percheron horses. They were big, powerful draft horses that were strong enough to carry us with our heavy equipment without slowing them down, too badly. They also handled the cold well. Unfortunately, we only had four of them.
I reached down and patted the muscular neck of my big black stallion as reassuringly as I could. Ice cracked away from his mane and fell to the ground, leaving a clear patch of his black coat showing through the snow and ice. I could see the snow was nearly up to his knees.
“Easy there, Ebon,” I said to him, softly.
He just kept his head down and continued to walk slowly through the snow. I made sure to keep Spec-4 in sight. I didn’t want us to get separated in the storm and lose each other. If that happened, we might not find each other again until the storm cleared. I knew our only hope lay in finding shelter to ride out the storm. If we didn't, neither of us was going to make it home.
We were miles away from the Bennett Springs Facility when the storm started. I had originally thought we could push through it and make it back to our haven before the storm hit in force. I was wrong. Now I knew we had to find shelter, soon. It would have to be big enough to bring the horses inside or they’d freeze to death, too.