A Lover's Salvation

In a post-apocalyptic world, Alex is a natural healer, taught by her father when she was a teenager. After his passing she is forced to live on the outskirts of her village. She is ostracized by her people for being unclean, when she is left unable to protect herself against violent raiders who frequently return to abuse her.

She is sought out by an army sergeant, Randall Scott, to help one of his younger soldiers, Tobey. She agrees to care for him and meets the sergeant's second in command, Marcus. He is immediately drawn to her. The men realized that she is frightened by them and they strive to earn her fragile trust after learning of her frightful past. A great bond develops between Alex and Marcus. When she is set upon by the vicious raiders, he and the soldiers come to her rescue.

After she is saved, Randall asks the little healer to travel with his men and move to his colony. She is fearful of the people that live there, and what they will think of her but finds the strength to decide to leave with them. Her own villagers don't want to lose their skilled healer and abduct her, attempting to hide her from the soldiers. Their plot is discovered and she is found by Marcus and the others. They all leave the village to travel to the colony.

As they travel, they come upon a young girl, Mia, and Alex befriends her, inviting her to move to the colony. Mia falls for the recently recovered Tobey and their romance develops quickly. The couple, along with Alex and Marcus, are attacked by raiders and the two men defend the young woman before the others soldiers come to their aid. Alex suffers a minor wound but realized how lucky she is to have such a family to protect and care for her.

Upon her arrival at the colony, Alex realized that the people there are kind and she settles in happily as she applies her skills caring for the colonists. She wants to be with Marcus sexually but is still fearful. Encouragement from her friends and the young man's gentle nature persuade her to try and they make love.

Jason the leader of a neighboring camp of soldiers comes calling with one of his men, Carl when he is injured. Jason sees Alex and desires her. He tries to get her attention several times but Alex refuses his advances. Her boldness to deal with the man grows as she is surrounded by her new found family and her mate. One night, Jason sneaks through the camp and overhears Alex making love to Marcus, after that he becomes obsessed with taking her.

Randall and his men leave on a mission far away, and Jason kidnaps Alex. She is forced to endure physical and mental torture at his hands. A group of men ride out to find Randall's company and Marcus is overwhelmed with rage. They all return to the settlement to gather their forces.

At Jason's camp, Alex realized that if she is to survive that she must help herself and she attacks Jason one morning after she seduces him, knocking him unconscious. Carl finds her trying to escape and he gets her out of the camp. Jason come too and realizes what had taken place, he gathers his men and they track down Carl and Alex as they try to flee. The two are split up when Jason catches up to them.

As Carl is being beaten by Jason's men, Randall's army come down the road and the man is saved. Jason threatens to let his men use Alex as punishment for her attack on him and he gives her a head start before sending his men after her. Alex is running through the forest where she meets up with Bronx, who protects her. While the dog fights off the men, she makes it back to the road in time to see Randall's men galloping by. She calls out to them and Marcus turns back to retrieve her. As they embrace, Jason's men realize that Randall's men sit on the road and race back to their leader.

Randall's army prepares to fight Jason's men, and Marcus gives Alex over to Tobey for safe keeping. Once the battle starts though, Alex is thrown from Tobey's horse. As she falls, she tries to hold on to Tobey but only manages to pull his knife from its scabbard on his hip. When she hits the ground she sees Jason coming for her and hides the blade at her side.

Jason attacks her and she fights back, first wounded then dealing him a fatal blow. His men realize their leader has been killed and retreat. Randall's army returns home after caring for their wounded.

Once at home, Alex comes to terms with all that has happened to her and refuses to let Jason or anyone else ruin anymore of her life. She returns to her small house that she shares with Marcus and realizes that she is home, safe and loved.

WAR BROKE OUT WORLD wide by the time the summer of 2025 began. What started as skirmishes between bickering countries soon escalated as individual nations strutted their power in front of their enemies. Entire nations were swallowed whole by the destruction of nuclear warfare. Many areas of the United States became unliveable as radiation took hold. Whole cities were wiped out, first by radiation and then disease. No area of the country was spared, no city left standing. Resources were quickly wiped out. Entire armies were subjected to the same fate. This left even the most powerful nations on earth vulnerable within.

An inability to stay in contact with other communities escalated the problem. Communications ceased in most parts of the world when power plants, radio towers, and satellites were blown apart. Common citizens were left to defend themselves from marauders.

Plagues and famine wiped out many who survived the terrible war. Those who remained were forced to learn to live without the technological monsters they used all of their lives. Farming, raising crops and livestock for survival, was a necessity.

Often soldiers, trapped in foreign lands, had no loyalty to its people. Others chose to take from the workers rather than toil for their own survival. These soldiers, stronger and more trained in war than the people around them, became raiders. They would steal, rape, and murder their way through the countryside with no concern for anything except their own wants and needs.

Sergeant Randall was twenty-two when the war broke out. He was sent, with his squad, to defend the part of the eastern seaboard that ranged from North Carolina to Georgia. This squad patrolled the coastline looking for any invasion coming from the ocean.

As the war raged into its second decade, many soldiers who were separated from their command lost hope and direction. Randall, sensing the extremely low morale of both his men and the civilians he came in contact with, established a temporary settlement. Those who wished to could then live together and have the protection of a larger population.

The sergeant, a well-liked and respected man, as well as many of his comrades stayed together after the war. The unit, searching for their own missing family members, spent many years traveling the east coast from Maine to Georgian looking other survivors as well.

Randall managed to find his wife, Eva. She survived the war by taking shelter with other military wives in the remnants of a hospital. They were able to elude raiders by locking themselves into secured rooms. Randall brought his wife and the other survivors back to the settlement lying eastward of where he found them.

Although States, even countries, no longer existed as governmental bodies, Randall still thought of this area as "Georgia".

Randall saw it was necessary to make a permanent and safe structure for the settlement. To that end, he and his men searched for the perfect clearing. This would need to be near a fresh water lake with plenty of land to grown crops and feed livestock. Once this was located, the people spent the next several years building a protective wall to surround the colony.

Several times through the years he would again lead his men out to the various areas of the country to continue his search for the colonists' family members. During one such expedition things took a decidedly challenging turn for the Sergeant and his men. This was a turn that would change many of their lives forever.