by David Kazzie
“Mommy!” Will called out, sliding next to her, throwing his little arm around her back.
“You OK, Spoon?” she croaked.
“Yeah,” he said. “Is it over?”
She wept.
“It’s over.”
She washed her mouth out with a handful of snow; then she pulled her son close, hugging him tightly, breathing him in. He had saved her. He had turned the tide. Around them, the crowd stood mute, watching the bizarre scene unfold before them. She kissed him on the cheek and then stood up.
“Love you, bud.”
He nodded.
Nearly twenty people in her charge now, nearly all of them children. There would be many more back at the ruins of Olympus, wondering what to do now.
They had little food. Their shelter was in ruins.
But they were free. These women were no longer bound by the stricture of their oppressive Lottery. These children would have a future, that much she would see to. They were in her charge now. And most important of all, they had the vaccine.
She passed out the little bit of food remaining in her pack, told the group to share it. They ate in silence. Their faces were long and dirty and sad. Will sat quietly in a group of kids for the first time in his life, his eyes bouncing from child to child. He had never spent time with other kids. Ever. The enormity of that burden made her tear up as she sat there. It hadn’t been fair. Not fair at all.
A little girl, maybe seven, approached her. She wore a heavy jacket and ski pants. Her face was small and round and Rachel wanted to scoop her up and read her stories and drink hot chocolate with her.
“I want my mommy.”
“We’ll go back and look for her.”
“Is she dead?”
“I don’t know. We’ll try to find out.”
“OK.”
She tottered away, chewing on her jerky.
They would find out, Rachel decided. They would wait. They would scavenge for supplies. They would find the hybrid seeds Gruber had mentioned. They would do the best they could, and they would press on. If Gruber’s wild claim was to be believed, they all had many decades ahead of them.
They would start again.
She thought about her father.
I hope you can rest now, Dad. I forgive you.
Whatever debt he had built up to her, he had paid off in spades. He had done the best he could with the equipment he had. She liked to think she had done the best she could with Will. No beating around the bush. It was a terrible world out there. If the last few months had taught her anything, it was that every day, every minute could be their last. Maybe there would be no happy ending for all of them, for any of them. Maybe they would have to be satisfied with a happy present. A happy moment. Here and there. Putting those moments together like a puzzle until it resembled a picture worth looking at.
She saw Will smile at something one of the kids said.
Then he laughed.
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
To Dave Buckley, Mindy Heaton, Scott Weinstein, Wes Walker, and Rima Wiggin for their thoughtful notes and advice on early drafts of the manuscript.
To Ann Rittenberg and Camille Goldin for their editorial notes and for handling the business side of bringing this book to life.
To Steven Novak, for his wonderful cover design.
To Jason and Marina at Polgarus Studio for their work formatting of the print edition of this novel.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
David lives in Richmond, Virginia, where he works as a novelist and attorney. His first novel, The Jackpot, was a No. 1 Legal Thriller on Amazon in 2012 and was later published in Bulgaria. His second book, The Immune, was published in 2015 in serial format and made it to the top of Amazon’s bestseller list for post-apocalyptic novels.
He is the writer and creator of a series of popular animated films, including So You Want to Go to Law School, which were featured in the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, and on CNN. They have been viewed nearly 3 million times and are always available on YouTube.
Email him at [email protected]
Follow him on Twitter @davidkazzie
Visit him on Facebook at David Kazzie, Author, or his website at The Corner.
Table of Contents
PROLOGUE
1
2
3
4
5
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12
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