Whatever the poison was, it wasn’t quick
As Trader slipped helplessly down the wall to the floor, his heart felt squashed in his chest, crushed into a space so small it could hardly beat against the surrounding pressure. He labored against the pain and the terror for an eternity, then both seemed to miraculously lift. Trader realized he was looking down on his own body from a vantage point along the ceiling. He watched his own legs jerk and kick, and his head bang the floor, leaving a broad smear of blood. It didn’t matter; the pain was no longer part of him. It belonged to the body, the dying physical form to which he felt not the slightest kinship.
Encounter
#00 in the Deathlands series
James Axler
A GOLD EAGLE BOOK FROM WORLDWIDE
TORONTO NEW YORK LONDON AMSTERDAM PARIS SYDNEY HAMBURG STOCKHOLM ATHENS TOKYO MILAN MADRID WARSAW BUDAPEST AUCKLAND
If you purchased this book without a cover you should be aware that this book is stolen property. It was reported as “unsold and destroyed” to the publisher, and neither the author nor the publisher has received any payment for this “stripped book.”
First edition February 1999
ISBN 0-373-81197-7
ENCOUNTER
Copyright Š 1999 by Worldwide Library.
All rights reserved. Except for use in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including xerography, photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, is forbidden without the written permission of the publisher, Worldwide Library, 225 Duncan Mill Road, Don Mills, Ontario, Canada M3B 3K9.
All characters in this book have no existence outside the imagination of the author and have no relation whatsoever to anyone bearing the same name or names. They are not even distantly inspired by any individual known or unknown to the author, and all incidents are pure invention.
Ž and TM are trademarks of the publisher. Trademarks indicated with Ž are registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office, the Canadian Trade Marks Office and in other countries.
Printed in U.S.A.
CONTENTS
ENCOUNTER - ADeathlands Prequel
INSIDE DEATHLANDS - Birth of a Series
A FAMILIAR TALEA STRANGE LAND - Laurence James onDeathlands
PROPOSAL FOR A SHORT PAPERBACK SERIES - The Moment of Conception
THE IDEA TAKES HOLD - Further Thoughts
CONTEXT - Editorial Trends
THE CONCEPT OF DEATHLANDS
PACKAGING THE VISION - A Picture Is Worth
DIALOGUE BETWEEN WRITER AND ARTIST
IN THE WRITER’S EYE - Character Profiles
HISTORY AND DESTINY - Major Characters
GATEWAYS IN THE SERIES
IMAGES FROM DEATHLANDS
BEYOND DEATHLANDS - TheOutlanders Connection
THE DEATHLANDS SAGA
This world is their legacy, a world born in the violent nuclear spasm of 2001 that was the bitter outcome of a struggle for global dominance.
There is no real escape from this shockscape where life always hangs in the balance, vulnerable to newly demonic nature, barbarism, lawlessness.
But they are the warrior survivalists, and they endurein the way of the lion, the hawk and the tiger, true to nature’s heart despite its ruination.
Ryan Cawdor:The privileged son of an East Coast baron. Acquainted with betrayal from a tender age, he is a master of the hard realities.
Krysty Wroth:Harmony ville’s own Titian-haired beauty, a woman with the strength of tempered steel. Her premonitions and Gaia powers have been fostered by her Mother Sonja.
J. B. Dix, the Armorer:Weapons master and Ryan’s close ally, he, too, honed his skills traversing the Deathlands with the legendary Trader.
Doctor Theophilus Tanner:Torn from his family and a gentler life in 1896, Doc has been thrown into a future he couldn’t have imagined.
Dr. Mildred Wyeth:Her father was killed by the Ku Klux Klan, but her fate is not much lighter. Restored from predark cryogenic suspension, she brings twentieth-century healing skills to a nightmare.
Jak Lauren:A true child of the wastelands, reared on adversity, loss and danger, the albino teenager is a fierce fighter and loyal friend.
Dean Cawdor:Ryan’s young son by Sharona acceptsthe only world he knows, and yet he is the seedling bearing the promise of tomorrow.
In a world where all was lost, they are humanity’s last hope….