Chapter 1

"Welcome Home"

Jack cooked the last slab of Brahman steak on the wood stove before leaving the shack to go help his father unload the monthly supplies from the caravans passing through on their way to Anchorage.

As Jack got to the caravans his father turned around with a ghostly look on his face, “What is it Pa?” Jack said before grabbing the box of 30-30 shells from the caravan driver "More Instamash." His father said gagging.

“Oh is that all? It looked like you were staring down a Stone Sheep at full charge.” Jack said jokingly.

“I wish, I swear to the stars above if I have to eat one more box of that Instacrap I'm gonna kill someone!”

“Dad will you calm down there's a Brahman steak cooking in the shack you can have if it will stop you from putting someone through a wall.”

“Okay” his dad said while he took the last crate off the cart and handed it to a group of villagers that showed up to help.

“I'm going inside will you pay the Driver the caps we owe him?”

“Sure whatever dad.” as Jack handed the bag of caps to the Driver he heard a women yell "They're Home, Oh my they're Home!"

Jack looked to see a group of battered and beaten men and women in Winterized Combat armor covered with the Snow Devil's signature white duster. "Ana" yelled Jack as he ran to embrace the young officer in the front of the group. “Ana what happened to you guy's?”

“Jack I'm just glad to be home, I need to rest and so do my men. I'll explain everything later I promise.”

That night everything was quiet in the town although Fort Yukon never was a busy town like Fairbanks or Dead-Horse, there was the occasional caravan that passed through on there way to the southern cities they always caused a bit of excitement out of the townsfolk.

But something was off tonight, Ana was real quiet at the dinner table she barely ate, and she wasn't very talkative either. When Jack went up to bed after dinner he heard father arguing but he couldn't hear what was being sad to understand why, so he snuck downstairs to see what was going on. When he got down stairs he seen father, Ana, and another man that he couldn't quite make standing around the wood stove in the middle of the house.

Ana was talking about being assigned on a mission to go to an old military base up north but Jack couldn't hear the name, father told Ana that there was no way he was letting her go. The man spoke in a thick Russian accent, far thicker than fathers. He said that she would be well protected and not to worry about her.

Father was having trouble buying what the man was saying. “Vlad you can't expect me to let my daughter go to that hell hole with you and your men. We had twice the men last time we went there and we still got slaughtered.”

“Alexander, where is your sense of duty that I remember so vividly? The man now known as Vlad replied. “I'm sure your daughter will be just fine she surely has shown her prowess in combat.”

“My sense of duty died with my country. I'm not about to let what little of a life I have left walk out into that wasteland and never come back over some wild goose chase. We'll discuss this later but for now we all need to rest, you'll have an answer soon Vlad.”

“Remember Alex this is a lot bigger than just your family, hell its even bigger than all of us! This is for the very survival of humanity.” Vlad said while he was walking out the door.

To be continued in Chapter 2................

Sincerely,

Prizrak

Additional Information

1. Jack: Jack is 16 years old. He is the son of a Russian immigrant Alexander Chernikova. Jack is 5'11 he has dark brown hair and blue eyes. Jack is very curious, and has a strong sense of pride and respect towards his only two surviving family members, his father and his sister.

2. Stone Sheep: Not to uncommon in the Arctic Wasteland that is Post War Alaska. Stone Sheep are mutated Mountain Goats that have grown in size and have formed large stone like callouses on their heads. They are known to be extremely aggressive and are deadly in combat known to pulverize a man's bones in one charge.

3. Ana: Anastasha Chernikova is the 26 year old sister of Jack. She is the current commanding officer of the Snow Devil's and holds the rank of Captain. She is known to be caring but stern with her men, and has come to acquire quite a report with them. Ana has come to be a mother figure to Jack since their real mother passed away. She has black hair and green eyes like her mother had.

4. Alexander: Alexander Chernikova is the 58 year old father of Ana and Jack. He was a former commander and founder of the Snow Devil's. But relinquished command after he lost half his men and almost his daughter in an avalanche.