D. Michael Battey

Tenacity Gene: a Novel D. Michael Battey

It is July 2039, and two highly disciplined men with nerves of steel honed in a $2 billion nuclear submarine are obsessively discussing infectious diseases. Marine Lt. Colonel Buzz Striker and Navy Commander Dwight Hoggue are sitting on highly classified information from the Chinese that an aggressive virus reported to cause a cytokine storm in its victims in a matter of hours has been unleashed on the world. They prepare for the worst. Six months later, Striker is in hiding, and Commander Hoggue is devastated. His grandchildren and his wife are dead. Isolated in a cabin outside a Floridian forest, Hoggue watches helplessly as the virus spreads across the United States, eventually collapsing the government and leaving only the addicted and compulsive unaffected by the disease. Suddenly, Hoggue becomes a man on a mission, determined to build his own paramilitary organization that will combat those who wish to enslave the survivors for their own selfish purposes. In this science fiction tale, a societal collapse reveals a futuristic hell populated only by alcoholic, drug-addicted, cruel enslavers. As a devastated population awaits a miracle, two military commanders must do everything in their power to bring order, salvation, and ultimately hope-before all life ends forever.