The Hungry Winter: Dark Grid: Book 2

The lights have been out for five weeks. Winter has only begun. Owen Mercer finally made it home to his family, but safety on their Tennessee farm is an illusion measured in calories, diesel, and doses of medicine. As snow closes the Cumberland Plateau, nine farms, a church, and a school form the Ridgeline Compact—a fragile cooperative built on visible ledgers, shared labor, and consent. Deke Sutton has built something else. His Provisional Authority controls Harlan Springs stockpile at gunpoint. When Sutton hangs two alleged looters and begins requisitioning farms, the Compact must decide whether survival means accepting his order or defending a slower, harder kind of justice. Then influenza strikes the school shelter. Nurse Grace Okonkwo must ration medicine and warmth while every empty bed becomes an accusation. And when Sutton kidnaps retired lineman Marcus Webb to repair the hospital generator, Owen prepares a rescue that could ignite a civil war. The deciding weapon will not be ammunition. It will be food—and the moment Suttons own guards understand who has been feeding their families. The Hungry Winter is a realistic post-apocalyptic survival thriller about finite supplies, accountable justice, and the communities people choose to build after the grid goes dark.