Authors: Steven Barnes,Tananarive Due
Devil’s Wake (30 page)
Despite all reason, and the bright weight of his promise, Kendra felt hurt. She ignored the feeling, struggling to make a joke. “Like somewhere we won’t get sold to a work crew if we stay too long? Or we’re not afraid of breaking down on the road?”
“Yeah.” Terry’s grin shone in the moonlight. “Somewhere like that. Like Domino Falls, maybe.” He paused. “Or Devil’s Wake.”
Kendra didn’t say the next thing in her mind:
What if we never find that place?
Instead, she took his hand and enjoyed his strength as he lifted her to her feet.
They didn’t wake anyone when they took their places back by the fire, so they shared the heat of Terry’s bedroll and lay side by side. Neither of them closed their eyes until Sonia and Piranha returned, distracted and excited by their nearness.
As the firelight died to embers, Kendra and Terry finally fell asleep. The last thing either knew was the sound of the other’s breathing.
Kendra dreamed.
The authors would like to thank Major Jefferson Davis, for a tour of the Vancouver Barracks and for useful conversation on military arms, tactics, and training; Steve Perry, for overall sharp eyes; and Tahlia Holt, for help researching the Puget Sound area and Bainbridge Island.
It would be dishonorable not to thank the artists who created the images and ideas most commonly associated with the “zombie apocalypse” notion, and the very shift from spellbound Haitians to something far more sinister and universal: Don Siegel, Daniel Mainwaring, and Jack Finney (
Invasion of the Body Snatchers
), Ubaldo Ragona and Richard Matheson (
Last Man on Earth
[
I Am Legend
]), George Romero (
Night of the Living Dead
), and Danny Boyle and Alex Garland (
28 Days Late
r). Understanding our vast affection for these tropes will hopefully explain why we were eager to tangle these speculative threads together… winking at an audience that, we hope, is having as much fun as we are.
The thematic… thread, if you will, weaving through all of these cinematic visions is that there is a force that dehumanizes us, that
pits us against the very people and institutions we once relied upon. And that the only salvation is our connection to one another, and our own hearts.
In fact, that is all that has ever saved us. Or ever will.
Steven Barnes
Tananarive Due
March 1, 2012
Atlanta, Georgia
ALSO BY STEVEN BARNES
Streetlethal
The Kundalini Equation
Gorgon Child
Firedance
Lion’s Blood
Zulu Heart
Far Beyond the Stars
The Cestus Deception
Great Sky Woman
Shadow Valley
ALSO BY TANANARIVE DUE
My Soul to Take
Joplin’s Ghost
The Good House
Freedom in the Family
The Living Blood
My Soul to Keep
The Black Rose
BY STEVEN BARNES AND
TANANARIVE DUE
WITH BLAIR UNDERWOOD
Casanegra
In the Night of the Heat
From Cape Town with Love
and forthcoming
South by Southeast
STEVEN BARNES
is an award-winning author of twenty-three novels, including the
New York Times bestseller Star Wars: The Cestus Deception
. He lives in Smyrna, Georgia.
TANANARIVE DUE
is the award-winning Essence bestselling author of
Blood Colony, Good House, and Joplin’s Ghost
. She lives in Smyrna, Georgia.
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COVER DESIGN BY ALAN DINGMAN • COVER PHOTOGRAPH © Danielle Kiemel
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This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Copyright © 2012 by Steven Barnes and Tananarive Due
All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever. For information, address Atria Books Subsidiary Rights Department, 1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020.
First Atria Paperback edition July 2012
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Barnes, Steven.
Devil’s wake : a novel / Steven Barnes, Tananarive Due.
p. cm.
I. Due, Tananarive, 1966– II. Title.
PS3552.A6954D48 2012
813'.54—dc23 2011033779
ISBN 978-1-4516-1700-9
ISBN 978-1-4516-1701-6 (ebook)