Variant X

He who has health…has hope. In the not so distant future, cancers, called the Cluster, rage through the populace. The government sells expensive Cluster fighting drugs in the name of improved health but the people lack a true cure or the will to find one. When a child is born that could potentially lead to this cure, his father seeks to hide him from those that vow to do him harm. In a post-modern world balanced on the precipice of extinction, the father and his son embark on separate journeys in separate worlds, to save their family. With the help of April Wolfe, a fiercely independent young woman who is determined to save her own family, the three face horrors manifested from the mystical realm that is the Interzone. Pursuing them and leaving destruction in his wake is Roosevelt Cleveland. A power neither our world nor the Interzone can contain. The journey leads them all to a final showdown in the desert of Texas, fighting for the very survival of humanity itself.

Patrick Pearce is a reformed trial lawyer, English professor and ad man who spends most of his time traveling through Interzone on the rails. While many of his works are available there, including The One-Eyed King and the Locksmith, this is his first published work for you toppers. He lives, as many suspect, in an old trapper's cabin in the woods on a mountainside somewhere between Alaska and Colorado. His wife, two kids and a dog named Indiana reside there too. They hope the snow never melts. He can be reached at patrickpearce.com and on Facebook.