Mad Swine (Book 2): Dead Winter
Page 24
I savagely battered at the doors for another minute or two before finally using my head and approaching the problem from another angle. Instead of battering my way in, I managed to get the pipe between the concrete frame and the jamb of one of the doors and put all of my weight into it. Brian and Ian piled on suddenly, providing more leverage, and with a ripping sound one of the doors finally split, the wood giving out against our combined weight.
Ian jumped down into the cellar, landing heavily below, and Brian followed him down into the darkness. I barely noticed Maureen slowly making her way down into the cellar as I collapsed against the rim of the foundation and stared down into the void after her. From somewhere down there I heard voices of women and men, though I could not discern how many were down there. Ian’s laughter came to me clearly, and I knew that his mother must be alive, she had to be.
Dropping the metal pipe, I sat up on the concrete lip of the shelter and stared down at my hands while I tried to control my breathing. My hands were covered in the thick black soot, but they might as well have been covered in blood; I felt like I had the blood of too many on my hands.
All of my decisions over the last three months had suddenly come back to haunt me. How many people had died under my command? There had once been over a hundred souls living in Randall Oaks the first week after the Mad Swine infection changed our world. A month later less than half that number still survived. Two months later, there were less than thirty.
From the storm cellar, the remaining Finnegans began to emerge. Men and women of various ages came forth, dirty and weary but joyous to see the rest of their clan. Maureen laughed and cried at the same time as she hugged her kin, each in turn, as they emerged from below. Ian came last, escorting an elderly woman I could only assume was the Finnegan matriarch. His arms surrounded her and he was hunched over, speaking to her in whispers; she was stone-faced, expressionless. The Finnegans were raw with mixed emotions. They were shocked by the tragic loss of the members of their clan, but excited and grateful for those who’d survived whatever had transpired on this land.
I stood now, knowing there was work to be done. For now, this place was our home. We needed to prepare to defend it. We needed to get organized and get folks out of the cold. We needed to bury the dead. And we needed to figure out what the hell had happened here.
As the remaining members began to flock toward us, I looked around at those who had made the journey and witnessed the defeat on their faces. While they looked on at the bodies and the ruins of the barn, I could see that the promise of a new hope they must have thought awaited quickly had been diminished. The sights of the dead reminded them of the reality of the new world in which they lived.
Nowhere is safe. And there are no happy endings. Yet life goes on. We would rebuild this place and it would become as much a home to us as was Randall Oaks. And in the spring, Kat and Sam and rest of those we left behind would join us. Our story was not over, our future was not yet written, and perhaps with a little hope, we could change our ending.
To be continued in
MAD SWINE
NEW DAWN
Coming Soon…
Acknowledgements
There are many people in a writer’s life that are essential to writing a great novel, whether they realize it or not. I’d like to take a moment to thank those who played an essential part in this book being written:
I’d like to thank Nicolette Berry, Selby Connor, Joe Gorzkowski, Gary Mountjoy, Tony Papaleo and Gavin Coates for their honest input.
And to Michael T. Kelly: May the road rise to meet you. May the wind be always at your back. May the sun shine warm upon your face. May the rains fall soft upon your fields and until we meet again, May the Lord hold you in the palm of His hand.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Steven Pajak was born in Chicago and raised in the city’s Near Northwest Community. He also lived in Wartrace, Tennessee and Dallas, Texas before moving back to Illinois where he now resides in a Chicagoland suburb.
Visit Steven’s official website at www.stevenpajak.com. For information about the Mad Swine series visit the official Facebook page at www.facebook.com/StevenPajakAuthor
If You Enjoyed…
If you enjoyed Mad Swine: Dead Winter you may enjoy these books:
The Infection by Craig DiLouie
Pavlov’s Dogs by D.L. Snell & Thom Brannan
Long Voyage Back by Luke Rhinehart
The Flu by Jacqueline Druga
Table of Contents
Title Page
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
ABOUT THE AUTHOR