In five weeks (January 9th), Forge Books are due to published Deep Freeze, the first book in Michael C. Grumley‘s near-future thriller Revival series. It’s a “fast-paced near future thriller that explores cryonics and humanity’s thirst for immortality,” which sounds like it might very well appeal to readers of CR.
And we have an excerpt for you, today: chapters 2 and 3. But, before we get to them, here’s the synopsis:
The accident came quickly. With no warning. In the dead of night, a precipitous plunge into a freezing river trapped everyone inside the bus. It was then that Army veteran John Reiff’s life came to an end. Extinguished in the sudden rush of frigid water.
There was no expectation of survival. None. Let alone waking up beneath blinding hospital lights. Struggling to move, or see, or even breathe. But the doctors assure him that everything is normal. That things will improve. And yet, he has a strange feeling that there’s something they’re not telling him.
As Reiff’s mind and body gradually recover, he becomes certain that the doctors are lying to him. One-by-one, puzzle pieces are slowly falling into place, and he soon realizes that things are not at all what they seem. Critical information is being kept from him. Secrets. Supposedly for his own good. But who is doing this? Why? And the most important question: can he keep himself alive long enough to uncover the truth?
*
2.
The trip through southern Minnesota was met by even harsher weather, blanketing the landscape in thick white snow, the only exception being the dark tire tracks directly in front of them, traversing the lonely two-lane highway before disappearing ahead into a flurry of white flakes, all brightly illuminated by the bus’s headlights.
The driver steadily slowed as the visibility decreased, and he was barely able to see the headlights of oncoming traffic as they approached and sped past. Grumbling under his breath at their recklessness, the older man leaned forward with both hands firmly gripping the oversized steering wheel. His old eyes intent and undeterred.
Before long, several faint red lights appeared through the bitter gale, as a square, boxed pattern, and gradually revealing the multiple taillights of a large semitruck as the bus steadily closed in.
The driver glanced into his overhead mirror at his handful of passengers, all lulled to sleep by the bus’s interior heat and the powerful vehicle’s slow, methodic rumble.
Traffic began to move, and the bus began to accelerate again, passing a neon-green sign that read NARROW BRIDGE AHEAD.
Even from a distance, it was clear the driver of the oncoming vehicle was traveling too fast for the conditions. Too fast to notice the road abruptly narrowing at the aging girder bridge. Unaware or unconcerned that, unlike asphalt, metal bridges could not trap heat. Instead, the girders iced rapidly in extreme weather, pulling heat from what little asphalt there was and allowing snow to thicken over its surface. Just enough to prevent traction above a certain weight and speed.
It was the tires from the oncoming SUV that met those conditions under a sudden stomp of the brakes. Causing the vehicle to slide — suddenly and uncontrollably — across the narrow road’s double yellow line and into the lane of the approaching semitruck directly ahead of the bus.
The truck’s driver was as crisp as one could expect at three in the morning. Reacting reflexively, he attempted to remain in his lane by forcing the nose of the truck through the diminishing space left between the sliding SUV and the bridge’s right-side railing.
Almost instantly, the semitruck’s cargo trailer pitched violently, causing a slow-motion slide across the width of the entire bridge, and leaving no escape for the large bus immediately behind him.
In an instant, the bus driver was nearly standing on his brake, in an uncontrolled slide as he fell back into his seat and rapidly pumped his foot up and down upon the pedal, applying quick, repeated jolts of momentary traction. It was the proper braking procedure, but it was not enough.
At thirty-five miles per hour, the sheer weight and momentum of the passenger bus could not be stopped, and it plowed headlong into the cargo trailer. Smashing into it as though it were a brick wall, and the bus a slow and unstoppable train. The giant windshield was obliterated on impact, and the rear of the trailer shoved violently forward and through the bridge’s protective side railing.
Inside the bus, the passengers screamed as they were jolted from their slumber into a scene of panic and chaos. Two near the front shrieked at the swirling carnage in front of them before a blast of bright sparks and shattered windshield imploded, raining a curtain of pebbles over the first several rows of seats in glittering destruction.
Then came the sound. Through the destroyed windshield came a thunderous bang as the bus continued its violent slide, followed by the screeching of heavy metal of thick girders as they twisted, snapped, and finally tore loose.
The giant vehicle stopped, and for a moment teetered over the edge.
All breathing stopped. Briefly.
Before the bus’s two front wheels gave way and eased forward over the edge. Causing the undercarriage to scrape mercilessly over the bridge’s asphalt and slowly extend out into open air. Sliding, gradually at first… then quickly, and then all at once, plummeting just over twenty feet to the frozen river below.
3.
The screaming resumed. And continued throughout the fall. Through the bus’s entire plunge and sudden impact, where it was met by an explosion of ice and water through the missing front windshield.
The driver, strapped in his seat, was pinned by the force of the icy water. And behind him, horrified passengers screamed at the wall of oncoming water before them.
The first half of the bus was filled in seconds by icy water swirling with glass, while just outside, a thick layer of ice from the frozen river could now be seen surrounding the vehicle. It scraped against the glass until several windows shattered inward, creating a second deluge into the bus’s interior.
The roiling water reached the mother and son, who were both paralyzed and buckled where they sat, only beginning to fumble with their tangled belts when besieged by the river water.
Able to free herself, the mother turned to search for her son—desperate and frantic—only to see him immediately disappear from view.
She stood up screaming his name, and quickly found him in the arms of the man from the store, who now pulled the boy up and over the headrest as if he weighed nothing, thrusting him up the rising floorboard toward the back of the bus. He then grabbed the woman and did the same, pushing her forward in front of him and yelling over her shoulder at an older couple struggling at the rear of the bus.
“Get one of those windows open! Above the ice!”
The older man, perhaps in his sixties, stared back in panic. As if trying to understand.
“The window! Get it open! Now!”
The man’s eyes focused and he jumped, using each headrest to pull himself up the narrow aisle until he reached the last row of seats and lunged over both seat cushions on the left-hand side to grab the two bright red metal handles. He yanked as hard as he could, then pushed.
Nothing.
He pushed again, harder. Watching as the ice outside crept insidiously from window to window. Closing in on the same window he was trying to open.
“Other side!”
The stranger behind the mother and son continued shouting as he pushed forward, even while they repeatedly slipped and fell back into him.
The older man now raced to the opposite side and yanked the window handles up. This time throwing his weight against the glass and sending the large pane flying out.
“Go!” the stranger ordered. “Get out and help pull them through!”
The older man didn’t hesitate. He scrambled out and onto the river’s frozen surface. Slipping at first, he managed to spin around and grab his wife’s outstretched hands.
Inside, mother and son were still being pushed forward, scrambling up the slippery aisle, but no longer making progress. Prompting the man behind them to yell over the noise, “Climb over the seats! Over the seats!”
The icy water reached his legs and lower back with a paralyzing sting.
If there was any fortune at all, it was in the temporary rotation of the bus, allowing the last two windows on the right side to remain above the water level. But not for long, because he could feel the entire vessel continuing to sink downward. And it was accelerating.
The young boy made it over the last seat, scrambling to and out of the window with helping hands from the outside. The bus continued to sink, and the thick layer of ice continued rising toward the only open window.
“Hurry!” the man shouted, and suddenly heaved the woman forward with both hands, sending her over the last seat.
Outside, the older man and his wife wrapped hands tightly around the woman’s and pulled.
The entire bus was almost underwater, with the ice finally reaching their escape window, allowing the couple to retrieve the woman by sliding her out belly-first onto the ice’s surface.
It was then that a giant cavity of air escaped, and the bus suddenly plunged, and the open window was abruptly slammed back up and closed again.
“No!”
The older man scrambled from the outside to pull it open again, his fingers tracing around the frame, searching for a gap to pry free. Finding nothing, he waved to the stranger trapped inside. “Get back! Get back!”
The older man turned and cocked his leg and foot back as far as he could, sending a powerful kick into the center of the pane.
A small crack appeared.
He pulled back again, kicking harder. Another crack.
It was sinking too fast.
“Damn it!” he yelled, and kicked again. This time the crack broke open with a small hole. Again and again he kicked, enlarging the hole as the entire pane slowly began to disappear from view. His last kick missed, instead hitting the outer frame as the window finally sank below the frozen ice and water.
*
Michael C. Grumley’s Deep Freeze is due to be published by Forge Books in North America and in the UK, on January 9th, 2024.
Civilian Reader 