Blizzard of Souls by Michael McBride

Author:Michael McBride [McBride, Michael]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Factor V Classic Releases
Published: 2015-01-21T06:00:00+00:00

IV

Mormon Tears

ADAM STOOD ON THE BEACH IN KNEE-DEEP SNOW, STARING TOWARD THE eastern horizon, where somewhere behind the low-lying banks of clouds the sun was rising into the sky. Even though he could only vaguely sense its presence as a faint gray aura, he drew a measure of comfort from it. They had survived another night. There had been so much in his former life that he had taken for granted, even something as commonplace as the sunrise. He’d never truly appreciated the magnitude of such a profound celestial event from which nearly all life was derived, nor had he ever wondered if he might be witnessing it for the last time. As he did now. Wrapping his arms around his chest to stifle the goosebumps the thoughts had generated, he turned back to the stone cliff he now called home, wincing at the knot in his lower back from sleeping on the rock floor, if indeed closing his eyes sporadically through the night could be called such.

The dike they had crafted ran the length of the shoreline in front of him, not quite as tall as he was, but high enough to hide the others from sight. The sharpened tips of the poles poked several inches out of the embankment in twin rows, hopefully soon to be covered entirely by the falling snow. They had rammed them straight through the wall of sand so that the trailing ends projected behind, where long boards were waiting. When the attack finally came, all they would have to do is align the lumber with the ends of the poles and lower a shoulder to it, goring whatever tried to scramble over from the other side. It was a flimsy plan at best, but it was only meant to slow them down while they fell back to the cave. There was no way they would be able to face down the Swarm and survive. Their entire scheme was predicated on using the element of surprise to postpone what was beginning to feel like the inevitable.

He climbed over the mounded sand and slid down the back side, careful not to dislodge any of the spears. Ahead and to the left, the sand slanted up to the top of the semi trailer, its roof barely visible. There were five rows of fencing above it, so poorly nailed together that it looked as though it might topple of its own accord, were it not for the haphazard Xs of wood holding one row atop another and the slanted wood appendages propping it up. The blowing flakes actually helped to strengthen it, drifting into a crust of ice and packed snow on the opposite side. His only trepidation was that when the time came, it wouldn’t burn as well or as quickly as they needed it to.

To his left, a spire of flames rose out of the hole in the scorched lid over the pit. It had taken several more trips to secure all of the coal

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