His uncle stepped up beside him. “They said a little celebration,” he growled. “This is a damn block party.”
Tish turned her head to hide her smile. Miles didn’t bother. Some things it seemed, never changed. Even victory couldn’t make Pete like people—or crowds.
A slight blond figure with one arm in a sling sauntered up to the gathering and nudged his uncle with the elbow of her good arm. “Come on, old timer,” Guglik said. “Let’s get out of here so you can buy me a drink.”
Miles laughed and shook his head. “I’d say you earned it, Unc.”
The elder Matthews slapped his nephew on the shoulder and strolled into the crowd. The knots and clusters shifted around them, recognizing the private moment and giving them their space.
“What do we do now?” Tish asked. She hugged him harder, as though trying to reassure herself that he was really there. Miles understood the feeling.
He drew back a little and swallowed past the sudden lump in his throat. All the years, and all the miles, he’d never expected that he’d be standing in a position of victory. He’d tried to hope, all along, but somewhere along the way, that optimism became a front.
They’d lost too much, and too many. He’d lost too many. Charlie, and Sticks, and Derek. Poor doomed Janacek, fighting like a demon to try and secure the slimmest of chances. The chance that had eventually paid off, and restored the hope of something approaching a normal life to the scattered remnant of humanity.
“We survived,” Miles said at last. “Now I guess it’s time for us to live.”
Afterword
When I first wrote A Place Outside the Wild, I told myself it was a standalone, and that I’d move on to other projects once I got the crazy thing out of my head. You could say that didn’t work out so well, two sequels later. When I first started writing A Place for War I told myself, ‘Self, this is it. Time to wrap things up.’
I’ve got to stop having conversations with that guy. They never seem to pan out.
While this will be the last mainline Z-Day novel for the foreseeable future, I will be returning to the universe. A short-story collection, taking a peek at the goings-on in places unvisited or hinted at, is in the works and should be out sometime in 2019 if you’re interested in that sort of thing.
In the meantime, check out the first book in my Paxton Locke series, ‘Fade.’ You thought holidays were awkward at your house? Pax has one hell of a family, and there’s magic, snark, and plenty of heroic derring-do.
Kudos to Bryan Miller for his always-stellar proofreading.
Special thinks go out to this book’s crop of redshirts—Coop LoPresto, Julian Thompson, Richard Paolinelli, Bill Gray, and Lynn Repko.
And now for the marketing bits . . .
Word of mouth is the best, most cost-effective advertising there is for a new author.
Critiques are even better. Whether you enjoyed this book or not, please consider leaving a review on Amazon or Goodreads. If you did enjoy it (or want to yell at me for killing your favorite character) feel free to follow me on Twitter for updates, snippets of works in progress, and other randomness. If social media isn’t your thing, you can check out my blog.
About the Author
Daniel Humphreys is the author of the Z-Day series of post-apocalyptic sci-fi thrillers and the Paxton Locke urban fantasy series. His first novel, “A Place Outside the Wild,” was a 2017 Dragon Award finalist for Best Apocalyptic novel.
Dan loves sci-fi movies, target shooting, and tinkering with computers. He has spent his entire career in corporate IT and suffers from elevated blood pressure due to a lifelong love of the Arizona Cardinals. He lives in Indiana with his wife and family.
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