Book excerpt: Without food, there is no future. After a long, deadly nuclear winter, spring has finally come to Flagstaff, but food reserves are critical. Dozens die of malnutrition every day. If more food can’t be grown, the city won’t survive another year. Fortunately, help is on the way. The remnants of the U.S. Army in Mexico have promised Flagstaff security, but there’s a catch: the Army needs food, too. Lots of it. Jenn is already starving. Her friends and family are starving. Desperate to save them, she joins a mission to find seed and farmland in Phoenix. With the window for planting almost closed, every day is crucial, but the desert isn’t empty. Little does she know, her world is about to get a whole lot bigger—and more dangerous. A Second Beginning is the sixth book in David Lucin's Desolation series.