Chapter One

Kazan was tying his shoe, again.
“Dangit, this darned shoelace is no good,” he muttered to himself.
Somehow when the last bomb hit his left shoelace somehow had become altered in some way and wouldn’t tie right. The shoe tied for the time being he jumped off the rock he was sitting on and thought about his situation. He was in a ruined city, which was all that was left of Phoenix, Arizona. It had been completely destroyed by the war that the American Union fighting against the Eurasian Union. He was one of the only survivors. He owed it to his Ninja trainer who taught him the ways of hidden movement and self-defense. His plan was to try to make his way to a small settlement on the outskirts of Phoenix, which he thought might not have been destroyed by the bombs.
When the first bombs hit he had been actually practicing his defense moves so he was wearing his traditional all black ninja gi. He had a practice wooden sword and his practice wooden throwing stars with him. He hoped it would be enough to keep off the criminals that lined the roads these days. He decided to start off immediately because his house with all his belongings had been obliterated. As he set off his eyes stung and he felt a strange feeling in his toes. At the time he dismissed it as nothing. As he walked along he looked around at his home of 11 years. It didn’t look anything like the Phoenix he was used to. Everything had been destroyed by the bombs.
He was beginning to get close to the edges of Phoenix and the place he was looking for when from inside a somewhat standing house he heard a yell, a grunt, and the crash of glass breaking…………………………………
Should he go into the house to see what is going on or should he
run like heck toward the settlement?