Foamers (22 page)

“You thinking about getting back together?” X asked, raising an eyebrow.

“No, I just haven’t seen her. Is she dead?” Damian’s face went slack as he felt the
pain of his words.

“She left us for another group of survivors.”

“What do you do when what you want isn’t what’s best?” Damian asked, leaning against
the door frame. “Sorry, it must be the sleep deprivation talking.”

“No need for sorrys. It’s weird giving advice to the same shell with a different
nut inside, but I believe when you want something, you need to go for it. However,
if you’re like your brother, I doubt that’s in your cards,” X replied.

“I appreciate the advice. That might just be one thing I have in common with Kade.
Anyhow, neither the blood nor saliva is able to pass on the mutation. So you’re safe,”
Damian said.

“Thanks,” X said, looking over his shoulder. “If you don’t mind, I’m gonna get back
to what makes me happy.”

“I’m sure I’ll be seeing plenty of you,” Damian replied.

X closed the door and returned to where Ashton lay hiding beneath the sheets.

“Lose the pants,” she said with a smile. “Keep the hat.”

* * *

Beta and the rest of the foamers gathered around a Tribesman’s corpse and fed on
the flesh. They had only lost two of their pack to the men in black with the cruel
fire.

Alpha and Pepper were not feeding with the rest because they were still lying in
the underbrush. The two of them had dug down into the snow and lay together, the
first time any pack members had slept apart.

Alpha had no sense of what to make of the excessive beating in his chest. When he
pulled away from Pepper, the pounding lessened. He pressed his body against hers
again and the rapid patter returned.

The sound of the other foamers feeding carried through the air to him. Something
had happened that he didn’t understand. He had seen something that wasn’t in front
of his eyes. It was a blink of an image; a girl, a gray-eyed girl. It was just as
clear as Pepper’s hair in front of his face. The image faded and a sound echoed only
for him.

Family
.

* * *

What a dysfunctional family they were, Kade thought as they sat around an empty dorm
room. Kade was shoulder-to-shoulder with his brother and sister as they all passed
boxes of junk food back and forth, catching up on the stories they had missed since
the beginning of the Primal Age.

Just because they shared the same blood didn’t mean they were the only family Kade
had there. Jem was back, plus he still had Mick and X, who were also brothers to
him. Even John, as much as he rode the kid, had become like a little brother. Grace
had killed her own family to save his life, forever signing herself on to their
cohort, and he felt personally responsible for her.

And Tiny. She could kick his ass and save it in the same breath. He could love her
and hate her in the same heartbeat. She would fight him as hard as she would fight
their opponents. Without her, he would never have been able to find his way in the
Primal Age.

The only unknown was the new Stray: Number Five. Number Five was apparently Damian’s
key to healing the foamers, so she was more than welcome.

He still had questions about the foamers, and he hoped with Damian here, they could
get some answers. What they couldn’t answer he needed to find out through observation.
The foamers had spared him, and he needed to know why.

One day soon, he had to assume, the Tribe would return. Winter was just settling
in. The Flu was still out there. Foamers roamed the area. His group needed to find
food. Their water had to stay sanitary. The list of obstacles they would have to
face to survive in the Primal Age was long, and it would only get longer with each
passing day.

Kade smiled. He wasn’t worried about the challenges. The Primal Age had brought him
confidence. This was what he had been born to do. His cohort was strong and capable,
and he was ready to lead them against whatever challenges the days, weeks, months,
and, hopefully, years, would hold.

For the first time in his life, Kade looked forward to tomorrow.

The End

___________

There are far more people who have helped bring me to this published point in my life than I can possibly thank. First I will start with the teachers over the years who led me down this path: Nancy Menapace, Mr. Hoffman, Tom Rechtin, Mark O’Connor, Cindy Lacom, Bonnie Culver, Dr. Lennon, Nancy McKinley, Ken Vose, Nick Mamatas, and Kaylie Jones.

Ryan McAninch, Eric Diamond, and Ben Richmond, for being the first people who had to deal with my stories. Sean Casella, for never being afraid to tell me when I’m boring. Luke Lubich, for always providing great material. Mike McCormick, for being the best researcher I know.

My letter writers: Dad, Mom, Alex Smith, Emily Kosenske, Amy Diamond, Brady McCormick, Jeremy Mortorff, Corey Pelow and, Jon Ritchie, the NFL player who went out of his way for me.

My writing family, The Moby Dicks, without whom I would not be here. They are all doing great things and you should check them out.

My family—without their constant support, feeding, and providing of roofs to write under, I would never have been able to chase my dream. My cousin, Rachel Wenrick, for being the first person to encourage me to be a writer, for better or worse.

To everyone who played a part in this novel who I didn’t have space to call out by name, thank you.

Lastly, thank
you
. Without readers there would be no need for writers. Hope you enjoyed.

JUSTIN KASSAB
graduated in 2009 to the worst job market since the Great Depression: the end of the world didn’t look so bad. To pass his time of being unemployed, he took an interest in survivalist skills. The hobby carried over into his writing and led to the crafting of The Primal Age Chronicles, a series of short stories and novels about the end of the world.

___________

The increasingly commercial nature of mainstream publishing has made it difficult for literary writers to find a home for their more serious, thought-provoking works. Kaylie Jones Books will create a cooperative of dedicated emerging and established writers who will play an integral part in the publishing process, from reading manuscripts, editing, offering advice, to advertising the upcoming publications. The list of brilliant novels unable to find homes within the mainstream is growing every day.

It is our hope to publish books that bravely address serious issues—historical or contemporary—relevant to society today. Just because a book addresses serious topics and may include tragic events does not mean that the narrative cannot be amusing, fast-paced, plot-driven, and lyrical all at once. Our flagship publication, Unmentionables by Laurie Loewenstein, is exactly such a novel. The book takes place in 1917 Illinois, on the verge of US involvement in WWI. While the larger topics are race and women’s suffrage, the characters and their courageous stands against oppression and reactionary bigotry could not be more relevant today.

Kaylie Jones Books launched in January 2014 with
Unmentionables
by Laurie Loewenstein. Forthcoming titles include
Sing in the Morning, Cry at Night
by Barbara J. Taylor (July, 2014),
Starve the Vulture
by Jason Carney (January, 2015), and
The Love Book
by Nina Solomon (January, 2015).

Kaylie Jones
New York, NY
January 2014

“Exceptionally readable and highly recommended.” —
Library Journal
(Starred review)

“Engaging first work from a writer of evident ability.”
—Kirkus Reviews

“Marian Elliot Adams’ . . . tale is contagiously enthusiastic.”
—Publishers Weekly

“
Unmentionables
starts small and expands to touch Chicago and war-torn France as Laurie Loewenstein weaves multiple points of view together to create a narrative of social change and the stubbornness of the human heart.”
—Black Heart Magazine

“
Unmentionables
is a sweeping and memorable story of struggle and suffrage, love and redemption . . . Loewenstein has skillfuly woven a story and a cast of characters that will remain in the memory long after the book’s last page has been turned.”
—New York Journal of Books

Marian Elliot Adams, an outspoken advocate for sensible undergarments for women, sweeps onto the Chautauqua stage under a brown canvas tent on a sweltering August night in 1917, and shocks the gathered town of Emporia with her speech: How can women compete with men in the work place and in life if they are confined by their undergarments? The crowd is further appalled when Marian falls off the stage and sprains her ankle, and is forced to remain among them for a week. As the week passes, she throws into turmoil the town’s unspoken rules governing social order, women, and Negroes. The recently widowed newspaper editor Deuce Garland, his lapels glittering with fraternal pins, has always been a community booster, his desire to conform rooted in a legacy of shame–his great-grandfather married a black woman, and the town will never let Deuce forget it, especially not his father-in-law, the owner of the newspaper and Deuce’s boss. Deuce and his father-in-law are already at odds, since the old man refuses to allow Deuce’s stepdaughter, Helen, to go to Chicago to fight for women’s suffrage.

But Marian’s arrival shatters Deuce’s notions of what is acceptable, versus what is right, and Deuce falls madly in love with the tall activist from New York. During Marian’s stay in Emporia, Marian pushes Deuce to become a greater, braver, and more dynamic man than he ever imagined was possible. He takes a stand against his father-in-law by helping Helen escape to Chicago; and he publishes an article exposing the county’s oldest farm family as the source of a recent typhoid outbreak, risking his livelihood and reputation. Marian’s journey takes her to the frozen mud of France’s Picardy region, just beyond the lines, to help destitute villagers as the Great War rages on. Helen, in Chicago, is hired as a streetcar conductor surrounded by bitter men who resent her taking a man’s job. Meanwhile, Deuce struggles to make a living and find his place in Emporia’s wider community after losing the newspaper.

Marian is a powerful catalyst that forces nineteenth-century Emporia into the twentieth century; but while she agitates for enlightenment and justice, she has little time to consider her own motives and her extreme loneliness. Marian, in the end, must decide if she has the courage to face small-town life, and be known, or continue to be a stranger always passing through.

LAURIE LOEWENSTEIN
grew up in the flatlands of western Ohio and now resides in Rochester, NY, where Susan B. Anthony was arrested for voting in 1872.
Unmentionables
is her first novel.

“No one without a heart as big and warm as Barbara Taylor’s possibly could have written a story about a family tragedy that’s infused with so much hope and love, humor, mystery, and down-to-earth wisdom. This is a book I’ll want to give to people. I could not put it down and can’t wait to be captured again by the next book this wonderful human being writes.” —Beverly Donofrio, author of
Astonished: A Story of Evil, Blessings, Grace, and Solace

“Not since reading Richard Llewellyn’s
How Green Was My Valley
fifty years ago have I felt such empathy and love through fiction for a place, a time, and a people.
Sing in the Morning, Cry at Night
is a book of equal power and beauty, a bittersweet tale set in early-twentieth-century Wyoming Valley, Pennsylvania, the heart and soul of America’s anthracite coal-mining region, a place where Grace and Grief—now, as then—walk hand in hand.” —Sara Pritchard, author of
Help Wanted: Female

“The world of Christian miners—the hard core of the anthracite mining industry in northeast Pennsylvania—is beautifully evoked by Barbara J. Taylor in this remarkable novel. I found myself drawn back to its pages, living deeply in its world as I read. The sense of place—a place I know well, as I grew up there—is vividly realized. This is a lyrical, passionate novel that will hold readers in its thrall. A first-rate debut.” —Jay Parini, author of
The Last Station

Almost everyone in town blames eight-year-old Violet Morgan for the death of her nine-year-old sister, Daisy.
Sing in the Morning, Cry at Night
opens on September 4, 1913, two months after the Fourth of July tragedy. Owen, the girls’ father, “turns to drink” and abandons his family. Their mother Grace falls victim to the seductive powers of Grief, an imagined figure who has seduced her off-and-on since childhood. Violet forms an unlikely friendship with Stanley Adamski, a motherless outcast who works in the mines as a breaker boy. During an unexpected blizzard, Grace goes into premature labor at home and is forced to rely on Violet, while Owen is “off being saved” at a Billy Sunday Revival. Inspired by a haunting family story,
Sing in the Morning, Cry at Night
blends real life incidents with fiction to show how grace can be found in the midst of tragedy.

BARBARA J. TAYLOR
was born and raised in Scranton, PA, and teaches English in the Pocono Mountain School District. She has a master’s degree in creative writing from Wilkes University. She still resides in the “Electric City,” two blocks away from where she grew up.
Sing in the Morning, Cry at Night
is her first novel.