D. Walker - The Snacking Dead

Ronnie fled.

Pam tied Earl with the choke chain he was still wearing, and led him out of the arena. The knights had run to find the screaming King. No one in this world had honor anymore, or even good sense. She wondered what Daryl would have done. He would have kicked some ass if he was there. But he wasn’t. She’d have to do it herself.

She had to find Ronnie. She was going to keep her family together if it killed her.

makes 24 deviled eggs

1 dozen large eggs, hard cooked and peeled

¼ cup mayonnaise

¼ cup sour cream

2 teaspoons Dijon mustard

1 teaspoon prepared horseradish

Dash or two of hot sauce

Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

Paprika, for garnish

1 Halve the eggs lengthwise and pop the yolks out into a medium bowl. Arrange the whites on a serving platter.

2 Mash the yolks with the mayonnaise, sour cream, mustard, horseradish, hot sauce, and salt and pepper to taste until everything is thoroughly combined and smooth.

3 Spoon the filling back into the egg whites and serve them with a dusting of paprika.

A piping bag for the egg filling makes a cheery, pre-outbreak touch. In a pinch, make a piping bag from a pillowcase and a spent shotgun shell.

P am and Ronnie dragged Earl through the corridors of the castle.The alarm had been raised, and Canterbury was in total disarray.

They found themselves at the mall entrance, where a tall, white wall had been thrown up to keep out the walkers. The men of the watch had deserted it as they scrambled to recapture the freed animals.

“What kind of sick mind pits kittens against the living dead?” Ronnie sobbed.

“The kind this world creates,” Pam said. “We might all be better off outside these walls than in.”

At that moment the King emerged from the basement, a patch over his wounded eye. He raved at the fugitives. “You won’t last a day beyond the wall,” he said. “Winter is coming! Winter is coming! The walkers will get you if the savages don’t!”

Pam and Ronnie had already torn open the wall and unlatched the glass doors to the mall. They found themselves in a multilevel shopping mall, infested with undead suburbanites.

The King’s screaming instantly drew the attention of the walkers. Many staggered toward the breech in the wall, where the men of the watch already had their hands full with the puppies. Others came toward Pam with hungry, dogged steps.

The biters seemed to ignore Ronnie as long as she stayed close to her brother. She held his leash and tried to get him to stop squirming.

Pam had whipped out the pizza peel and started jabbing. Heads went skidding across the mall floor as brains and gore accumulated in a wobbling heap around her.

“Earl, cut it out, you pest!” shouted Ronnie.

Earl’s sack had slipped.

“Earl!” she wailed, but it was too late. She fell, her brother’s teeth sunk into her neck.

Pam emptied the contents of one last walker’s head with the peel and knelt over her daughter, trying uselessly to stanch the wound.

“Ronnie! Ronnie, no!”

“Mother, please,” the girl said softly. “It’s Nica. Not Ronnie.”

serves 8 to 10

2 cups pomegranate juice, not from concentrate

1 cup sparkling or dry white wine

4 (7¼-ounce) envelopes unflavored gelatin

¼ cup sugar

⅓ cup pomegranate seeds, plus more for garnish

2 (14-ounce) cans sweetened condensed milk

1 cup cottage cheese (optional)

1 In a mixing bowl, combine ½ cup pomegranate juice and the wine. Add the contents of 3 gelatin packets. Fill a large bowl with ice water.

2 In a small saucepan over high heat, bring the remaining juice and sugar to a boil. Stir it into the juice and gelatin mixture. Place the bowl in the ice bath to cool, then transfer the gelatin mixture to the refrigerator until it thickens, 20 to 30 minutes.

3 In a 10-cup Bundt pan, distribute the pomegranate seeds over the bottom. Add the gelatin mixture and return to the fridge for 10 minutes, or until set but still sticky.

4 Meanwhile, in a medium bowl, sprinkle the remaining gelatin over 1 cup cold water and allow it to absorb the water. Stir in 3 cups boiling water for 2 minutes, until gelatin is fully dissolved. Stir in the condensed milk. Chill the mixture in the ice bath and then gently spoon it into the mold over the pomegranate gelatin layer. Refrigerate overnight or until firm.

5 To unmold, fill sink with warm water. Dip the mold just to the rim in the water for 30 seconds. Lift from water, dry the outside with a towel, and loosen the edges of the gelatin from the mold. Place a cold, moistened plate over the top of the mold and invert the plate and mold together. Carefully lift the mold; if gelatin does not release, dip the mold in warm water and try again.

6 Before serving, scoop the cottage cheese into the center of the mold and serve garnished with more pomegranate seeds.

This low-risk dessert makes an arresting presentation, and it’s an elegant reminder that another gruesome battle is always just around the corner.

P am muzzled her teenage daughter with duct tape.Not that she hadn’t been tempted many times before, but she never expected to actually have to do it. When your kid turns into a living dead monster, everyone has different ways of coping.

After clearing a section of the mall, she hid her family in a booth at the Chuck E. Cheese’s. She wrapped the dog chains around both kids. Then, with exaggerated calm, she improvised a plate of nachos in the kitchen and tried to make sense of her situation.

She still felt like that timid girl hiding behind a tree in the Blue Ridge Mountains. Back then, Daryl had protected her and taught her to use a hatchet in exchange for the best cheese sandwich she knew how to make. Now there was no one to show her what to do and no one to make snacks for but herself.

She tried on Ronnie’s hoodie. The silkscreened pink skull felt about right. She strapped Trey’s pizza peel to her back using Earl’s SpongeBob backpack, and hitched the cleaver in her belt.

Her reflection, glimpsed in a shop window, made her shudder.

She exited the mall, undead children in tow. The hoodie, or else the presence of her biter children, seemed to mask her from the ravenous throng of walkers still clustered there. She relished her invisibility.

In some ways, little had changed. Earl still fidgeted and wandered. Ronnie still rolled her eyes and made that exasperated slurping sound. But at least she wasn’t a vegan anymore.

She led them out of the town into the woods. She found a clearing, tied the kids’ chains to a tree, and sat down to finish the gooey nachos. It had been their family dish, the one food they could always agree on. Now she’d have to throw in a live field mouse or a squirrel to get them to eat it.