Hey gang! I haven’t forgotten you! As promised you can now download Dark Winter as a complete novel. The PDF version doesn’t have a cover because I can’t edit PDFs… sorry about that. The Kindle version (.mobi) does however! Let me know if I can upload it as anything else. Cheers!
Download Book 1 & 2 as One Novel
They gave Lindsay back her armor and rifle, though without Katie’s help, she had trouble remembering how it all went together. She refused to ask for help from any of these people though and managed the forearm, shin and chest armor after a short time. It felt heavy and awkward, like she’d forgotten to tighten something. It was too long in the chest and she briefly wondered if they’d given her Katie’s armor. She hoped they did.
The rifle she knew better. The little carbine was light but still heavy enough to feel powerful in her hands. A tactical strap went over her head and under her arm, holding it ready to use but also secure if she needed her hands. With the squeeze of her finger, she could have killed those men at the radio station with this weapon. Instead she’d stabbed one to death and crushed the throat of another. She’d done that. Lindsay Volk, Mount Hope High School Senior had killed two men brutally and without remorse. That lack of feeling still scared her. It was like something inside of her was numb and cold.
“Ready to go?” a gruff voice said behind her. She turned, seeing the man called Holden standing there in the doorway of the armory. He wore an all black uniform, body armor, and helmet with a strange goggle-like protrusion on it. Only the patch on his shoulder was white, though a black half-circle broke the white field in half. A black sun rising over a white field. She wondered why they’d chosen such an ominous name. Black Dawn.
It sounded evil. Continue reading
James woke with a start. The clock read 0520, still an hour before he’d normally bother getting up. He was about to close his eyes again when he realized the base was buzzing with activity. He heard the wap-wap-wap of several helicopters, the whine of jet engines and groans of trucks. There were people calling out to one another, not in alarm but with the hurriedness of preparing for action.
Then the shooting began. Sitting up, he rubbed the sleep from his eyes and strained to listen. The voices were still no-nonsense and orderly. No sense of panic or desperation. They were not being attacked.
Must be zombies at the wall, attracted by all the damn noise, he thought. Even if they weren’t being attacked, something was happening and he wanted to find out what. That no one had woken him for a briefing told him his dad was still pissed. Continue reading
The silence was the worst part.
Lindsay lay in the dark, straining to hear Katie’s voice. She wanted to know she was alive. For a time, there had been shouting but then, suddenly, nothing. She’d been terrified she would hear screaming but the silence was so much worse. Nothing indicated Katie still lived.
Unsure how long she lay in the quiet darkness of her cell, Lindsay slipped in and out of a disturbed sleep. Sometimes she dreamed of sunny days at school. She’d be in study hall, talking to Sidney Meyers about the Senior Prom plans. Danny Phillips asked if she’d go, but Lindsay hadn’t given him an answer. Continue reading
“Put down your weapons and get on your knees.”
The man motioned to them with the muzzle of his rifle. Lindsay didn’t understand. This was the army right? Weren’t they here to help them?
“We heard your radio thing! We need your help, mister… uh, soldier?” Lindsay said, the words sounding young and pathetic in her ears. She couldn’t see the man’s expression behind his mask. The gun didn’t waver.
“I said, put the damn weapons down or I will kill you.” Continue reading
The metal door gave way with a sharp crack of splintering drywall and wood. The sounds of the dead grew louder as they pushed through, crawling over one another in their haste and hunger. The darkness didn’t impede them in the slightest, crashing through like a wave of unending destruction, fingers reaching, teeth gnashing.
Lindsay stared in horror. She’d never seen so many. They were endless, a sea of death. The smell hit her then, an overpowering stench that reminded her of rotting garbage and soured milk.
For all its horror, the Infected were known to her. The bodies that lay behind her, in the tunnel that led to safety, did not move or moan or grab. They lay still, rotting and bloated. The stink that came from them was sickly sweet. She tasted bile in the back of her throat. Continue reading
James listened to the whine of the A-10s start up from his bunk. His quarters was in the back of the complex, a windowless room made of concrete and painted a dull gray. He had only a single light, a small LED lamp on his nightstand, but it was enough to light the small, square room.
He lay, partially dressed in athletic shorts and a t-shirt, holding a picture up to the light. He’d kept it, squirreled away in a rucksack. It was bent and creased despite his best efforts. The top was partially torn but he’d done that. He’d wanted to tear her from his life but found he couldn’t.
Elena looked furious, standing in her grease-stained fatigues while James grinned widely in his flight suit and helmet. They’d both been wasting time while she checked over his landing strut. He’d said he’d popped the hydraulics on the landing as a joke. That face she’d made kept him laughing for a long time. Continue reading
The whine of the A-10’s engines filled the air as James popped the canopy. He pulled off his helmet and let the frigid evening air wash over him. It was cold but at least it was fresh, compared to the stale, sweat-scented atmosphere of the cockpit. Nearly being shot out of the sky by a shoulder-mounted, guided missile tended to do that.
He leaned his head back against the ejection seat, closed his eyes, and laid his hands on the canopy rail. For a moment he just sat there, glad to be alive, thankful his training had saved him and his plane. Sometimes he wondered which his father would miss more.
Opening his eyes he glanced down at the instrument panel, looking for the picture he used to hide away there during his time in the Air Force. It wasn’t there of course, but the habit remained. He looked for it every time and every time it made him angry. He wasn’t sure if it was because it wasn’t there or because he still cared. Continue reading
