Mad Swine (Book 2): Dead Winter (32 page)

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.

MAD SWINE

NEW DAWN

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.

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

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