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Shadows Have Gone, the third book in the End of All Things series, will be released on March 26. I'm doing a countdown during the two weeks leading up to its release with a new excerpt every day. Stop back tomorrow for something new!
Ω
Justin
decided to assuage their curiosity and yanked back the tarp. There wasn’t much.
A dozen or so cans of food. A case of bottled water. A few bottles of beer, and
one bottle of whiskey Justin had already commandeered for medicinal use,
stashed inside Stacy’s toolkit. But there were gasps of delight when the toilet
paper was uncovered.
“Oh,
thank God,” said Jason with deep sincerity.
Because
of his mechanical knowledge, Jason had been drafted as community plumber and
was continually frustrated by clogged toilets. He had nagged Carly until she
had brought it up in a meeting. As disgusted as people were by the idea, they
needed to use cloths and wash them afterward or use pieces of paper they would
dispose of elsewhere, but neither could go down the toilet. Despite the discussion,
Jason could be seen at all hours, deployed with a plunger, a hand-cranked
plumbing snake, and a scowl already in place.
Justin—drat
the man—had laughed and said he couldn’t help. He’d said the social aspects of
the community were Carly’s job.
“Some
parts of human behavior are just so deeply engrained, it’s gonna take a lot
more than you’re willing to do to change it.” He shrugged. “Let them break
their toilets.”
“That’s
what happened to the Guthries,” Carly said in a sour tone. “Now Andy is
badgering me to let them move into another house because, as he said, not
having a working toilet is a health hazard.”
“They’re
still using it?” Justin asked. “Even
though it doesn’t flush?”
“Apparently
so. Stop laughing. Won’t even consider using a bucket or setting up an
outhouse. Stop laughing.”
“Remind
me again why we can’t just throw them out?”
“We
can’t evict people just for being idiots, Justin. We wouldn’t have any people
left. Everyone is an idiot about something. He’s indignant because he says we
have plenty of empty houses.”
“But
then they’ll try to flush something unflushable and break that one, too.”
“Exactly.”
“And
perhaps only after the last toilet is plugged, mankind will learn,” Justin had
intoned in a deeply solemn voice, then burst out laughing again.
Ω
Pre-order Shadows Have Gone from Amazon, or stop by Goodreads to check out the reviews and add it to your own shelf.
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