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    The City and the Island: A Mindbridge Trilogy Novella
    The City and the Island: A Mindbridge Trilogy Novella
    The City and the Island: A Mindbridge Trilogy Novella
    Ebook82 pages2 hours

    The City and the Island: A Mindbridge Trilogy Novella

    By Joe Luegers

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    About this ebook

    Max Kacey has a date with destiny. Step into the many minds of this fan-favorite character as he chases ghosts from his past and confronts a horrifying vision of his future.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherJoe Luegers
    Release dateMay 9, 2022
    ISBN9781736541159
    Author

    Joe Luegers

    Joe Luegers is a guitarist, pianist, organist, composer, teacher, and writer. He lives in Evansville, Indiana with his wife Alax and their two kids. Joe published the adult horror novel The Gears That Watch the Clockmaker in 2018 and has since turned his focus towards writing young adult fiction. He performs frequently as a soloist, alongside his amazing wife on vocals and ukulele, as well as in an eclectic range of ensembles including the opera rock band The Tapestry.

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      Book preview

      The City and the Island - Joe Luegers

      The City and the Island

      The Mindbridge Trilogy

      Book 1.5

      By Joe Luegers

      Editing and proofreading by Emily Bernhardt and Kandis Robinson

      Chapters

      I. He is Everywhere and Nowhere

      II. He Might Explode

      III. He is a Fashion Accessory of Accidental Mass Destruction

      IV. He Has a Date With Destiny, and/or Her Non-Rhyming Synonyms

      V. He’s Dead, Trapped in Plastic

      VI. He Watches the Very Gates of Hell Crack Open and Spill Out Untold Horrors, Or: He Has a Male Bonding Experience

      VII. He Contains Multitudes

      VIII. Grand Finale: He Watches a Bad Movie and Checks His Email

      Author’s note

      The City and the Island is a novella which takes place between the events of The Bridge: The Mindbridge Trilogy Book 1, and A Path of Branches: The Mindbridge Trilogy Book 2. This story was first written exclusively for members of my mailing list, inspired directly by feedback I’d received from readers. You like Max? Well, okay: here’s more Max than you ever thought you needed.

      You will not find material here which is essential to understanding the next book. What you will find is a deeper look at the unseen forces which have been slowly pushing our characters toward the story’s ultimate conclusion, a chance for Max Kacey to come to the forefront, and a ceiling fan on steroids.

      If you’re here, reading this novella, it’s because YOU are one of my most dedicated readers of The Mindbridge Trilogy. For better or worse, this unapologetically weird story is for you.

      -Joe Luegers, writer/musician

      I

      He Is Everywhere and Nowhere

      Earth

      Going up.

      * * *

      He is turquoise. He is a turtle. He is a girl. He, who is temporarily titled Tundra the Turquoise Turtle—

      —can he just pause a second and say dang that alliteration is tasty. It really is the simple pleasures that help keep one’s sanity in such an overly-complicated duoverse. Anyway—

      Un-pause. Cue theme music. Crescendo in the quintal harmonies of the horn section.

      He, who is temporarily titled Tundra the Turquoise Girl Turtle, is fighting for control of the desolate kingdom which is so charmingly, awfully named Wood Land. Get it? Wood. Land. Proper noun? The woodland of Wood Land, or Wood Land the woodland.

      His consciousness further divides as he visualizes the pitch meeting where someone suggested this beautifully stupid name.

      "What if we call it Wood Land? asks the imagined intern. Get it? It’s a, um… a proper noun?" They wipe the theoretical sweat that is suddenly collecting on their fictional brow and await a response from the pretend producer, whose glare must have recently been sharpened. Wood Land? Seriously? The idea sounded a lot better in his imaginary imagination.

      To everyone’s surprise, the producer jumps up from his seat, slaps his hand on the desk, and declares Give that make-believe man a raise!

      Back in Wood Land, a burning leaf drifts down from the peri-apocalyptic canopy, followed by a flurry of flaming foliage that float through the fraught forest. Tasty. Gunfire, explosions, and nervous chittering echo all around. He (she) narrowly dodges an exploding acorn thrown from some squirrely assassin. A line of ants march up a nearby tree, each and every little insect carrying a bullet on its back. The first Squirrel-Turtle war is a desperate bloodbath, but a beautiful one: the graphic horrors of woodland combat pixelated in the latest ultra-high-definition. Oh my Dobbs, he can even see the funiculus on one of the bullet-schlepping, eusocial bugs! The funiculus!? Was there really someone who cared so much about this project that they made sure to animate in the funiculus?

      And this person deserves a raise, do they? asks imaginary Barb from Human Resources. She sips her tea. For doing their job? This generation! Back in my day, we animated funiculi in three feet of snow for a single dime, and we were happy about it.

      Hold on… why are the ants ascending the tree? Have the insects already sided with the Squirrel Republic? Darn you, Ernesto.

      Time to rally the turtle troops.

      * * *

      Going down.

      * * *

      He is surfing the internet. His surfboard has flames painted across the deck. The flames make it go faster.

      Experiencing the internet from within doesn’t have to happen in the third dimension, or any dimension at all. It’s not really a physical location, just a bunch of ones and zeros. He must be hanging out with humans too much, because his conception of the internet has recently become an actual place. He sees it. He feels it. He smells it.

      The internet smells disconcerting.

      He glides across the infinite and yet expanding ocean of knowledge. Even for a mind as great as his, it really is a lot to comprehend. Occasionally he spots a flicker of something interesting in the depths of zettabytes and fishes it to the surface.

      The most recent catch is what appears to be a video of a shirtless clown squirting

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