The Adventures of Lazarus Gray

THE ADVENTURES OF LAZARUS
GRAY

by Barry Reese

Copyright © 2011 Barry
Reese

Published by Pro Se Press at
Smashwords

A Pro Se Press Publication under the
Reese Unlimited Imprint

Front Cover Illustration by Anthony
Castrillo

Back Cover and Interior
Illustrations by George Sellas.

Titles, Logos, Supplemental
Graphics, and Production Design by Sean E. Ali

Edited by Tommy Hancock

This book is a work of fiction. All
of the characters in this publication are products of the author’s
imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual
persons, living or dead is purely coincidental. No part or whole of
this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by
any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including
photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage or
retrieval system, without the permission in writing of the
publisher.

Pro Se Productions, LLC

133 1/2 Broad Street

Batesville, AR, 72501

870-834-4022

[email protected]

http://www.proseproductions.com

All rights reserved.

INTRODUCTION

by Tommy Hancock

THE GIRL WITH THE PHANTOM
EYES

THE DEVIL'S BIBLE

THE CORPSE SCREAMS AT
MIDNIGHT

THE BURNING SKULL

THE AXEMAN OF SOVEREIGN CITY

THE GOD OF HATE

DARKNESS, SPREADING ITS WINGS OF
BLACK

LAZARUS GRAY - A TIMELINE

By Tommy Hancock

Everyone knows you can’t
build a city in a day, right? No need to dust off the tired adage
and discuss Rome is there? Good.

Even though construction
takes some time, a city and all that goes with it can actually be
birthed in a lot less than a day. In the space of three or four
emails, to be precise.

The Sovereign City Project,
the first collected volume of which you now hold in your hands, was
a simple concept in its complexity. I have the honor of planting
the seed in the fertile minds of two of the best New Pulp Authors I
know, of having a shared city where each of us wrote a character
that was the central part of our individual stories while that
character resided in Sovereign with whatever the other two also
created. As already stated, these weren’t just any two authors.
Barry Reese and Derrick Ferguson brought not only mad creative and
writing skills to the Project, but also decidedly different
viewpoints on where their characters would come from and most
definitely where they and Sovereign City itself would go. I was
more than glad to be the third conspirator in this plot to create a
fantastic world of New Pulp fiction.

With authors in place,
Sovereign itself had to come into some sort of existence, even if
it was in the abstract initially. That came rather quickly as well,
the name and the origin of the city all tied together, as it should
be. The founders of this settlement (Both the actual three authors
that created it and the fictional fathers we decided founded it)
wanted it to be the ideal American city. To have everything every
other city had all in one place, so it would have a waterfront and
there would be mountains nearby as well as flat farmland on the
other side of town, etc. and so forth. Essentially, Sovereign City
sprouted up in the most perfect place in the United States for an
all purpose City. Our imaginations.

Obviously the next step in
the process of breathing the life of words and images into
Sovereign City would be populating the world with its good and bad,
its movers and shakers, the characters that would be the axis the
entire Project turned on. I came to the idea with a character
already half-conceived, Doc Daye-The 24 Hour Hero. Derrick stepped
up and had his own Fortune McCall sail into Sovereign’s harbor for
action and adventure. And although adventures of each of these
stalwart Sovereignites are forthcoming very soon from Pro Se Press,
the hero that shines brightest as the most prolific and first to
fight for all that is right in the City is a man who wakes up in
his first story with no idea who he actually is.

Lazarus Gray is yet another
New Pulp character destined to be a classic from the mind and pen
of Barry Reese. Known for his ‘Rook’ universe as well as dabbling
in other characters, Barry brings every skill and talent in
storytelling, every trick of the trade, every bit of Pulp he has
ever exhibited and mixes it wildly together in the form of Lazarus
Gray.

Shrouded in a mystery and
cloaked in questions, Gray steps off the beach he awakens on and
jumps head first into adventure, wrapping himself in the enigmatic
aides that make up his Assistance Unlimited. Morgan, Eun, and
Samantha, all solid New Pulp creations in their own right, add a
depth of emotion to the stoic enigmatic figure that Gray casts in
each and every story. Another prominent character that Barry builds
a brick and puddle at a time is the City itself. Cast in a veil of
crime and corruption, Gray’s Sovereign is one that will not survive
without a man like him looking out for it. Lastly villains as vile
and colorful as any yet to grace a page populate each and every
tale, each one more evil and harder to beat than the
rest.

What Barry does in this series of
stories is truly set the tone for the Sovereign City Project.
Quoted often already as saying this character is sort of his homage
to the Avenger, Barry goes beyond that, I believe. These seven
stories, including one that guest stars Barry’s Rook, are more than
simple tales of daring do, dying devils, and distressed dames,
although they are definitely all that in spades. THE ADVENTURES OF
LAZARUS GRAY is a study in evolution, both of character and
concept. Barry very carefully lays out a blueprint for Gray and
those around him and then just as judiciously adds what is
necessary to build on it a bit at a time. The people you meet in
the first story are changed and different by the time you finish
the last page. They grow, they mature, they succeed, and they fail.
And Sovereign City, again a character all its own, goes through
exactly the same pains and processes.

Characterization.
Evolution. True city and world building. And all the creatures, mad
scientists, gun toting thugs, mystical malevolence, and witty
banter that anybody could handle. It’s all here, providing
Sovereign City with just the right building blocks for it to grow
even farther. Thanks, Barry.

Really, really cool
stuff.

Tommy Hancock

9/17/11

An Adventure Starring Lazarus
Gray

Written by Barry Reese

Chapter I

Man on the Beach

Sovereign City, Summer
1933

Lightning tore across the
sky, briefly illuminating the gloomy scene below. Sovereign City
Harbor was home to more derelict vessels than the average man could
count and a pitiful stretch of shoreline did little to improve the
look of the place. It was covered with washed-up debris, the dried
bones of fish and several dozen broken bottles.

A well-built man lay
facedown on the shore, his face turned to the side. A long streak
of blood ran from his temple down his cheek and his eyes twitched
continuously beneath their lids. He wore black trousers, a ripped
white shirt and black loafers. His hair was more gray than brown,
making him look older than he was, though a close examination of
his features revealed that he was in his late twenties.

Again lightning brightened
the beach and a loud crash of thunder seemed to permeate the haze
surrounding the man’s brain. His eyes opened and he slowly pushed
himself to his knees, looking slowly around himself. His breathing
was measured and regular, though his jaw was clenched as if he felt
some inner pain. With a grunt, he rose to his feet and staggered
toward the city, one hand pressed tightly against his side. At
least one rib, possibly two, had been broken, though he couldn’t
remember how it had happened. In fact, he couldn’t remember
anything at all – he didn’t know his own name or how he came to be
here. He cast one quick glance back at the choppy waters but saw no
nearby boats or ships from which he could have come. The vessels
moored in the harbor were surely too far away, he mused.

Another rumble of thunder
seemed to rock the ground upon which he walked. He momentarily lost
his footing and slipped back to the moist earth. His fingers closed
tightly around something as he sought to catch himself, something
cold and metallic buried in the dirt. He brought it close to his
face, peering through the darkness at it. A rain began to fall
then, large drops that cooled his burning flesh.

He was holding a small
medallion. A notch on the top indicated that it normally had a cord
of some kind that ran through it, allowing its owner to wear it. It
depicted a nude human man with an erect penis, bearing a sword in
his right hand. His head was that of a roaring lion. On the back of
the medallion were two words, a name that had been scratched into
the surface with some sharp object: Lazarus Gray.

"You okay, pal?"

A policeman was
approaching, pointing a flashlight directly at him. "I think so,"
he answered hoarsely.

"Looks like you took a
spill."

"I hit my head while
swimming to shore." He wasn’t sure why he was lying, why he wasn’t
telling the policeman that he didn’t know who he was or how he’d
gotten there… but the lies came easily enough.

The policeman stopped a few
feet away him, trailing the flashlight up and down the man’s body.
"I don’t think so, pal."

"What makes you say
that?"

"Your clothes ain’t
wet."

He looked down, cursing
himself for not having noticed something so obvious. He slipped the
medallion into his pocket and forced a smile. "Would you believe
I’ve been on the beach long enough to have dried out?"

"How about you tell me your
name?"

After pausing for a brief
second, he uttered another lie and by doing so he unknowingly set
himself down a dangerous path. "My name’s Lazarus Gray."

The officer’s eyes narrowed
and he quickly threw a punch at the man who was now calling himself
Lazarus. To his own surprise, Lazarus moved aside with practiced
ease and threw up his hand to catch the policeman under the chin
with a karate chop. He then gripped the man by the shoulder and
pulled him close, driving a knee into the officer’s stomach. He
finished him off with a backhand that sent one of the man’s teeth
flying from his mouth.

Lazarus stood over the
fallen man and realized that he wasn’t panting at all. He had
reacted automatically, fluidly calling upon skills he hadn’t even
known he’d possessed. He knelt down and searched the officer’s
pockets, finding a black leather wallet that contained three
dollars in cash, a driver’s license in the name of Arthur Redwood
and a small photograph of a handsome man with gray-tinged hair,
dressed in a tuxedo. Lazarus knew that this was a photo of himself,
even though he couldn’t recall ever having seen his own face. He
pocketed the photograph and stood up, having come to the conclusion
that this man was not a police officer at all. Up close, his badge
looked fake and there was nothing in his wallet to verify his
position with law enforcement. Though he couldn’t recall how he
would have known this, Lazarus also recognized that the gun in the
man’s holster was not regulation issue.

Lazarus looked back toward
the city and made his decision. He had to get away from here.
Answers would come later but for now he had to keep moving. This
man had intended to harm him, possibly even kill him. He couldn’t
take the chance that this man was operating on his own: in fact,
something told him that wasn’t the case at all. Lazarus stripped
the man of his weapon, pushing the barrel of the gun into the front
of his slacks. He pulled the tails of his button-down shirt out of
his pants and let them hang, obscuring anyone’s view of the
gun.