First published back in February of 2016, Rich Hawkins’ novella ‘The Plague Winter’ formed the second instalment within the ‘Year Of The Zombie’ series which saw a zombie story published (in ebook format) each month of 2016 from a variety of different horror authors. All twelve stories were later collected together and published within the ‘Year Of The Zombie’ (2018) anthology (which was also published in paperback format).
This novella also formed a standalone instalment into the author’s signature ‘Plague Trilogy’.
DLS Synopsis:
The plague was everywhere. Pestilence had saturated the land. The country now belonged to the infected. Those that remained uninfected were sparse – the few remaining survivors had been reduced to desperate scavengers.
In the eighteen months since the start of the outbreak, Eddie had slowly come to understand that no one was coming to help. The world was truly fucked and dying and he and his grandson were on their own.
They’d stuck to the countryside. A silent and forlorn landscape, coloured in decay, and exhausted by the winter. Eddie had no idea how many people had passed through the village since the start of the outbreak. Looters and refugees. Scavengers. Survivors. How much of the land had been stripped clean now? How much was left for Eddie and his grandson to live off?
It would be easy to give up now. Lie down in the ruins and fade into the decaying landscape. Amongst the dust and ash and all things left to desolation. The monsters – the infected – made their existence a desperate struggle. Always on guard. Always hiding. Never safe.
The whiskey numbed Eddie’s mind and soothed the black tumours of anxiety in his heart. But even whiskey was getting scarce now. Then all he’d have left would be Sam. A boy too young to understand.
Eddie protected Sam. Kept him away from the danger. Hid him from the threat the infected posed. But it was only a matter of time. Life was fickle. And every breath they took edged them closer and closer to their last…
Jesus wept is this one fucking bleak read! And God damn is it a compelling one too. Absolutely captivating from the outset and soon swallows you up with the grisly, grimy, downtrodden atmosphere which seeps from every page.
The novella’s a standalone story that bolts onto the author’s ‘Plague Trilogy’, which saw an infection wiping out the vast majority of mankind, and turning those infected into mutated beasts.
If you’ve not read any of Rich Hawkins’ work before, then this is very much his sweet spot. The well-trodden ground he’s most acquainted with. A post-apocalyptic setting, bringing together a blend of Lovecraftian body horror, not too dissimilar to the grotesque mutations from ‘The Thing’ (1982). We then bring in a narrative close to that of ‘The Road’ (2006), together creating a gritty, evocative and emotionally bleak tale.
Furthermore, Hawkins has skilfully given his small cast of characters deeply fleshed lives. Eddie in particular, who’s aging, tired and suffering from alcoholism, feels incredibly real to us. Like we know him. As if he exists in our lives. We feel his hurt, his tiredness, and his unending love for his grandson – Sam.
For the most part, the story is set within a small, isolated house, located in the rural outback. In the confines of this abandoned old cottage, the pair hide out, eking out an existence surviving off scraps that Eddie manages to scavenge from the neighbouring village.
Honestly, the atmosphere almost chokes you with the desperation on show. Nevertheless, the love exhibited by Eddie for his grandson feels like a small, weak flame struggling within the cold and wet of a vast damp cavern. Like with ‘The Road’ (2006), this draws us, the readers, towards these characters so much more. Bonds quickly form, carrying us along through this grisly and bleak story, upon the tired backs of these two.
Indeed, although the mutated infected bring with them the immediate horror, it’s the human element within the story that casts the darkest shadow. It’s what the novella is all about. Pulling us in and making us suffer the cold, the hunger and the desperate agony of hope.
The sudden arrival of an entirely new character – Yost – commences a snowballing of events which will have you unable to put the novella down. It’s proper heart-in-mouth stuff, where you just can’t tear your eyes away from the page. Not until that final, moment when it’s all over.
Honestly, what a fucking read!
The novella runs for a total of 47 pages.
© DLS Reviews
