Stranded Island - Before the Storm
Description
They were hired to map the island. But the island was mapping them.
Ethan Ward trades in hard data, satellite telemetry, and logic. When his team is contracted to survey a remote, uninhabited volcanic island, it's supposed to be a straightforward six-week job.
But the jungle refuses to be measured.
Equipment vanishes and reappears in impossible places. GPS coordinates lead into deadly ravines. And deep within the dense canopy, the team discovers fresh, intricate symbols carved into the trees?markers that predict lethal environmental hazards. Ethan insists there is a rational explanation, but as the island's topography seems to shift around them, his team's sanity begins to fray.
They aren't just lost. They are being herded.
When Ethan uncovers a massive, subterranean facility hidden beneath the rock, he realizes his team isn't there to work. They are the guinea pigs in a brutal, live-environment calibration... and the real experiment is about to begin.
Before the Storm is the chilling prequel novella to Bruce Swain's Stranded Island series. Step into the maze and discover where the nightmare began.
More details
Person
Bruce Hagan writes psychological thriller fiction built around one core principle: systems reveal who people really are under pressure.
He is the author of the Stranded Island series and Alex Carter Series, both of which explore controlled environments, psychological escalation, and the breakdown of identity under structured stress.
His work sits at the intersection of thriller fiction and behavioural strategy?where survival is not just physical, but cognitive, emotional, and psychological.
Bruce builds narrative frameworks that feel less like stories and more like engineered environments: designed to test perception, loyalty, and decision-making at every level.
He is currently developing an interconnected thriller universe centred on escalating systems of control and awakening.
