Deadfall
Author: Stephen Wallenfels
Pub. Date: December 11, 2018
Publisher: Disney-Hyperion
Formats: Hardcover, eBook
Pages: 384
Twin brothers Ty and Cory Bic are on the run. When they encounter a dying deer in the middle of a remote mountain road with fresh tire tracks swerving down into a ravine, they know they have to help. But when they reach the wrecked car the vehicle appears empty, with signs that the driver escaped.
Until they hear a sound coming from the trunk.
Ty and Cory are escaping demons of their own. But what they discover in the trunk puts them in the crosshairs of something darker and more sinister than their wildest nightmares.
Told through a gripping, lightning-fast narrative that alternates between present and past, this unputdownable survival thriller unravels the tangled circumstances that led Ty and Cory to the deer in the road and set them on a perilous course through the wilderness of the Pacific Northwest.
Excerpt
I may be wrong here, but my guess is it’s not that she wants my company specifically—she just doesn’t want to be alone. I listen to her breaths, watch the small puffs of vapor rise and fade. She settles into a wheezy but regular rhythm. I lean in for a quick look. Her skin has a pinkish color, which I hope is a good sign. That means she’s warming up. After a few minutes, I’m pretty confident that she’s asleep. With her situation stable I’m tempted to get water now. It’s really what I should do. She would never know that I was gone—other than the fact that we would magically have more
water. I shake that thought away. She asked me to stay and that’s what I will do. Besides, I need to sleep. That need is like a heavy hand on my spirit pushing me down.
Before I collapse I look out both porthole windows—still gray and raining softly. Our tracks are pretty much gone. I make sure the ceiling vent is open and blow out all but one candle, slip the
headlamp over my head in case the candle goes out; then I slide my sleeping bag off hers, zip myself inside, and hope that sleep comes fast and easy.
But sleep does not come fast or easy. I was afraid it would be the terror of the driver’s flashlight coming down the slope, or Ty leaving, or even the gut-emptying sight of blood-tipped bone
through skin, that would haunt me in the almost dark. It’s none of those visions.
As I listen to the sound of her breathing and feel the steady rhythm pull me closer to my own personal oblivion, all I see are those bruises. I hope that whatever violences she endured are
behind her and that this hole in the ground is what I promised it would be: a refuge and not a grave.
About Stephen
Stephen Wallenfels lives in Washington state with his wife. He wrote freelance for the Health and Fitness industry for fifteen years before turning writing novels. His passions are family, hiking, cooking, reading, movies, climate change, and especially writing.
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