Adventure, Thriller
A man left alone on earth.
Alan is visiting Japan on business. After the outbreak of a pandemic, he finds himself to be the single survivor. The viral disease has wiped away his past life: he must fear injury, loneliness and hunger. Yet, Alan decides to travel back to his family in Berlin, straight across Asia. An exciting, thought-provoking book, impossible to put down.
Praise for Two Journeys:
“Move over, Cormac McCarthy, another survivor is traveling the Armageddon road. Clemens P. Suter’s apocalyptic thriller grabs you in the first couple of pages and never lets go. The reader feels real empathy for the main character’s plight as he begins a seemingly impossible 9,000-mile trip to learn his family’s fate. The cause of the calamity is mysterious but clues are uncovered along the way causing tension to build until we reach the shattering climax. Two Journeys is not to be missed.” - G. Dedrick Robinson, author of Blood Scourge
Excerpt
SAMPLE from the novel Two Journeys:
Then one morning, the barometer’s needle started to rise, and a few hours later the weather started to improve. A new, different kind of breeze came from the southeast, blowing most of the clouds away. The sun came out; I hadn’t realized how much I had actually missed it.
Suddenly a feeling of urgency came over me. The opportune moment for crossing the channel was rapidly approaching. I tried to resist it—after all, was I ready for it? Was all the equipment on board? Could I handle the boat? Then I decided to go with the flow and to set off the next morning shortly before daylight. I had plotted my course many times over. I would aim straight for the island of Iki, which was less than thirty miles away. Then I would pass on directly to Tsu and continue along its northern coast and then cross the final part of the strait and aim for the Korean city of Pusan. The course would be strictly northwest almost all the way.
According to the maps, it should be easy sailing. My interpretation of the manual and the other books that I had found suggested that the trip would probably last fifteen hours. The charts revealed that the islands in between had been (or even were?) inhabited, offering a fallback should anything go wrong. I decided against any voluntary stopover on one of the islands. After all, should the weather worsen again, I could get stuck there indefinitely.
The challenge was the gasoline. What would happen if I ran out of gas? I had calculated the total volume of the tanks several times and had tried to estimate the amount of fuel that I would need. I had once heard that a boat would use approximately one liter for every mile, but that depended on factors such as the strength of the wind, the size of the ship, and the weight that it was carrying. The boat had several tanks, all of which now filled to the rim with fuel that I had carried over from the other ships in the harbor.
The maps showed small villages on the islands, even an airport on the bigger one, so I thought there might be the possibility to get additional fuel there. At the very last moment, I decided to take a small life raft in tow.
I studied the controls again. I had completed some practice runs in the harbor and I had ceased hitting the docks. I wondered what the shore on the other side of the strait would look like. Flying an airplane wasn’t hard but landing was—I suspected the same applied to boating. I hoped that I could find an easy port in Korea.
That night I took my final walk through town. It was getting dark already, a beautiful subtropical evening, the sky aflame and hardly any wind. The two dogs walked along, barking when they saw another dog, protecting their own pack.
I needed to get an additional compass, some new clothing, a waterproof flashlight, and some batteries.
I wandered into a part of town where I hadn’t been before. The houses were small and painted in bright pink and orange colors. I passed a park, and in the fading daylight, I saw a young couple on a park bench, romantically hugging and protecting each other from the chill that had started to come in from the sea. She had her head on his shoulder, he his cheek on her hair. His arm was around her tiny body. Her pink handbag stood straight and orderly on the gravel next to the park bench.
My heart jumped, and I quickly walked up to them. As I came closer, I saw that they were dead and in an advanced stage of decomposition. Her dress was soiled with body fluids, and their hair was blowing away with the wind.
Loneliness came over me. I looked at them for a few minutes, speculating about their lives. Finally, I turned away and left them behind, forever frozen in their final embrace.
About the Author
Clemens P. Suter is the author of roaring adventure novels. Suter's first novel “Two Journeys” was published in 2011, and describes the adventures of the sole survivor of a pandemic. Its sequel “Fields of Fire” appeared in 2016. “Celeterra” (2013) is a dystopian novel, centered around the theft of Charles Darwin’s testament. Suter’s novels are suited for all ages, combine straightforward adventure and philosophic elements. Although Suter’s topics are serious, romance and humor abound.
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