Author's forward
Welcome to my latest project in the world of Chuck fan fiction. I know what you're thinking: "A 1000 word Author's Foreword? Yikes!" I realize that a foreword, much less one this long is unusual for a Fan Fiction story, but in the case of this story I felt it was necessary for several reasons, including some warnings about the story and the background for its genesis.
As with my other stories, this one deviates significantly from Chuck cannon. While I was (and still am) a big fan of the show in general, I prefer to not have my writing bound too tightly by the world created by Josh Schwarz, Chris Fadek and the other writers. Sometimes this finds expression in making slight adjustments to canon to fix what I see as mistakes or areas that were just "glanced" over by the series writers and other times it finds expression in major revisions to canon to overcome some of the frustrations I had with the over-the-top angst that the writers seemed to like to put our favorite couple through. Or the completely unrealistic way certain characters, particularly the military ones, especially John Casey, are portrayed. I know, I know. I want realism for a series about a completely outlandish concept such as a computer being downloaded into a loveable nerd's head? What can I say, when it comes to the portrayal of the military, I have a rather pathological issue with how Hollywood and a lot of popular authors generally portray them. All too often they are portrayed as inept at best or borderline psychotic or evil. I guess my anger at this goes back to the last fifteen years I've spent a civilian employee supporting the men and women of the United States military. Then there is this story.
Chuck vs The Apocalypse has its genesis in my love of not only Chuck, but also post-apocalyptic fiction, particularly the zombie apocalypse subgenre and Stephen King's The Stand. Throw in a couple of rabid plot bunnies (none of which, I will admit, are entirely original), sprinkle in some science, a healthy dose of heterosexual male fantasy, and stir – and this story is the result. I pretty much start messing with cannon right out of the gate in one way or another. I'm well aware that the changes I've made to cannon may at best annoy and at worse upset some people, and for that I apologize. However, this is a story that has been percolating in my mind for a number of months (even as I was writing my other stories, Chuck vs Semper Fi and There Is Such a Thing as Second Chances) and one that I felt I just had to write. So I just ask that after reading the Prologue, if you are really turned off by the story, stop reading. Nothing is worse for an author than to be continually bombarded with negative feedback, especially when the only purpose for this feedback is to excoriate the author for daring to change canon.
Originally I had intended to write the entire massive, novel-length story in its entirety before I published it. However, I since decided that as my work on There Are Such Things As Second Chances has slowed down, both to circumstances in life beyond my control and circumstances within my control (namely writers block, laziness, etc) that I wanted to provide those of you who follow my work with some new material to hold you over while waiting for my inconsistent (time-wise) updates to Second Chances. As of the publishing of this Foreword, I have several chapters of written, which I will publish one at a time.
A word about the story pace – this is my longest story by far, and as a result, there is a lot of "build-up", particularly in the Prologue and Part I, before we get to the full-on adventure/action starting in Part II. This isn't to say there isn't some of this in the Prologue or Part I, just that it is minimal and mainly serves to set up the larger story. As for the romance component of the story, most of the early "action" is pretty mild and bland in the Prologue and Part I. Things will pick up in Part II a little bit, but the full blast romance will not be until Part III. So I apologize in advance if the story doesn't move fast enough for you; but the specific details of the plot required me to approach it this way.
Like my other stories, this one will not shy away from bad language and violence. In fact, this story will probably be more graphic in that respect. There will also be, later on in the story, much more blatant sexual situations that in my previous stories. There will be some character deaths, some major, some minor. I also use, especially in the beginning, a lot of medical terminology. Some of this is pretty self-explanatory, some not. Where I feel necessary, I will insert footnotes to explain the terms.
One final warning – as with all my stories, some of my personal social and political views do make an appearance at various points in the story; for this I apologize in advance if they offend anyone. As much as I try as writer to remove my views and bias, I'm not always successful. And the nature of this particular story has made that even more difficult, as the premise is one that presents ample opportunity for those views and bias to appear. So I'm more than prepared to receive hate mail for that; just be advised that while I'm more than willing to take heat for including those items in my story, you will not convince me to change my views or opinions, so please don't try. And as always, any objections you voice should at least be well-reasoned; screeching flames and diatribes and name-calling will be deleted mercilessly.