Literature / The Winter Queen Contingency

A nuclear zombie novel ... in two parts.

The Winter Queen Contingency is the sequel to Patrick Ashe's Zombie Apocalypse novel The Autumn Queen Protocol, released in early 2023. It's also topical with sociopolitical issues Ripped from the Headlines. Thus, unlike the more COVID-direct issues of its 2021 predecessor, this one focuses on growing global instability and the renewed prospect of World War III, given elite profiteering from said pandemic and Russia's Real Life invasion and war on Ukraine. It retains the Two-Act Structure but with a Time Lapse rather than an Anachronic Order.

Beginning about a year after the first book, Part One follows Cassandra and Mike having nearly conquered the infected in Oscar Lima, the fearsome quarantine zone of the first book. But now the government and private contractors find them a nuisance to their politics, including blaming them for an alleged leak that creates a new quarantine zone, Oscar November. Cassandra has a plan to totally clear Oscar Lima when the government suddenly intervenes and redirects them to Oscar November, with a host of new challenges, while the world teeters on the brink . . .

Part Two follows a now-grown Angelina as she takes the mantle of The Leader, fighting the infected, particularly their Big Bad Great Chancellor Sarmat. He's as much Man of Wealth and Taste as he is a Blood Knight determined to Kill All Humans. And Angelina's constantly beset by her own side, between corrupt business interests and ideological zealots, making for a Who Needs Enemies? situation. It all leads to a Xanatos Speed Chess finale between multiple factions. Saying much more about Part Two would venture into spoiler territory, but suffice to say, the exceptionally rough setting fits the title.

As before, there are subtle and not-so-subtle Author Tract messages around shared themes of doing good vs. seeming good, surviving vs. thriving, finding purpose/identity, connection, science, anti-authoritarianism, populism, economic inequality, civil liberties, nature, and grief, along with new themes of war, global politics, communication, appreciating life, time, the meaning of leadership, legacy, and love. Division is also a theme, as it's a two-part book series with two parts each, and Part One of this has twin protagonists. Ashe uses "division" to paradoxically emphasize unity where it may not be expected (e.g., between Remnant humans and infected/Infinite, and real demographics, e.g. trans woman of color Cassandra adopting white Angelina and mixed race Jeremiah). And there's Ashe's ubiquitous Humans Are Bastards.

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The Winter Queen Contingency contains examples of:

• 11th-Hour Superpower: The Reveal of Angelina's infection along with precisely how she uses Chloe's cryogenically saved t. gondii turn what could've been another Sarmat Curbstomp Battle into hers.
• The Ace: Cassandra, reprising her role as a badass battlefield tactician, markswoman, and later leader of mankind, with adopted daughter Angelina following closely in her footsteps.
• Action Pet: Chloe, a cat that draws first blood in the story.
• Action Prologue: Begins with professional soldiers and researchers (reflecting Cassandra and Mike's roles from the first book) being overrun by infected and rescued by Big Damn Heroes Cassandra, Mike, and Chloe, establishing the latter as experts in dealing with the infected.
• After the End: Part One is 20 Minutes into the Future and Part Two is this.
• Aliens in Cardiff: As with the previous book, Part One takes place in a zombie quarantine zone (two, this time) in rural Pennsylvania. Part Two is much more geographically spread with varying setting types.
• All for Nothing: Cassandra's fears of their mission AND the deal for their likely dead families at the end of Part One, although her survival is key to Part Two. Also how Angelina sees their use of the Seven's intel in Part Two that she thought would be a critical bargaining chip.
• All of the Other Reindeer: Jeremiah is widely considered "useless" in his world, even by his own students, for specializing in art.
• Alpha Bitch: Karen Glory, an obviously corrupt private military goon who wins over audiences with half-truths and academic accolades in a bloodless rivalry against Cassandra and Mike. Somewhat applicable to power-hungry Zynema.
• An Aesop: As Angelina states, slow and steady "still" wins the race (echoing Mike from the first book), and true power isn't always apparent and aggressive. And along with many other topical sociopolitical ideas, nuclear war is a really bad idea.
• Another Dimension: The mythical phantoms are believed to be from this, somehow opened by the nuclear war, and is confirmed to exist on the last page.
• Antagonist in Mourning: When compared with his later hostility and insults toward humanity, Sarmat's introduction of responding to news of Cassandra's death with a quiet solemnity, not even a hint of celebration, hints at this.
• Anyone Can Die: Especially given the end of Part One. Most of its characters die by then, including one of the two main protagonists, i.e., Mike. The second, i.e. Cassandra, is Killed Offscreen (granted, at the end of a huge Time Lapse and by "natural" causes of a nuclear wasteland) right before Part Two, which also kills off many named characters.
• Apocalypse How: Part Two is Class 2, of the nuclear war variety; societal collapse nearing extinction with subsequent rebuilding, on a planetary scope.
• Apocalyptic Logistics: Many of these are touched on early in the Part Two narrative.
• Arc Words: "Time", especially being short on it, gets touched on in the first line and throughout the book. Relatedly, the use of "vintage" in Part Two. It's sentimental early on, and rather practical later on.
• Aristocrats Are Evil: The leaders of the fully evolved infected, i.e. The Infinite, are portrayed as aristocratic in dress and behavior, living in the few remaining high towers (versus the rough living, mostly subterranean Remnant humans), but are no less bloodthirsty than their predecessors.
• Arrows on Fire: How Jeremiah dispatches an audience of high ranking Infinite in the final fight.
• Ascended Extra: Angelina was a side character in the first book, and barely mentioned in Part One in this one, but then becomes the main character of Part Two.
• Asshole Victim: The Master Sergeant, a consistent jerk who's barely competent, gets bitten and subsequently killed.
• As the Good Book Says...: The book begins with a fitting citation of Revelation 6:8. Newland chuckles about the meaning of "inherit the earth". Also, agnostic Angelina offhandedly references Matthew 4:4, "One does not live by bread alone," speaking to the duology's theme of Living Is More than Surviving.
• Awesomeness by Analysis: The protagonists all use strategy and cunning to stay ahead of the infected.
• Badass Army: Any Infinite warrior is automatically hard to take down even if you do score a hit (or three).
• Badass Boast: Angelina always speaks of peacemaking first, but when her brother asks what she will do if Sarmat is hellbent on killing off her people, she responds, "Then I will kill the king." She does.
• Battle of Wits: Part Two, between both infected and uninfected, mirroring this dynamic in Part Two of the previous book.
• Being Good Sucks: An Ashe staple. These heroes rarely feel good about being heroes.
• Beware the Nice Ones: Sweet little Chloe and Angelina embodies this trope in spades; she gave Sarmat and his council multiple chances, but kept The Reveal up her sleeve (to them and the reader) just in case his arrogance and hatred cornered her and gave her no choice but to tear him apart.
• Beware the Quiet Ones: Sheepish Jeremiah beats himself up for being too weak and impractical to help the Remnant cause of survival, and almost everyone but his supportive sister Angelina and her sweet girlfriend Shannon join in on those dismissive criticisms. However . . .both his art on her nails and his archery skills are instrumental in destroying Sarmat, the Infinite Council and other high dignitaries.
• Big Damn Heroes: The story begins with Cassandra, Mike, and Chloe (yes, the cat) being this for an infected-overrun research mission. Later on, Cassandra and Newland for Mike and the Master Sergeant, just as the latter were running out of ammo against an infected horde.
• Blame Game: Mike and Cassandra were previously lauded for their actions in the first book, but the presumed breach of Oscar Lima that creates Oscar November is blamed on them by Karen Glory and others. It's actually due to governmental malfeasance to make the infected into super weapons.
• Blood Knight: The once-principled master warrior Elias becomes this after Cassandra's death and the new attacks on humanity, as he fears for his family to the point of fanaticism along with his enemy Sarmat.
• Book Ends: Chloe having a hand (well, paw) in bringing down an elite infected. There's also summery Scenery Porn (that took about 70 years to return, providing a Green Aesop about how nuclear war is really bad) punctuated by a coming electrical storm. In an odd case, Part One ends with Cassandra's hand on where Mike stood before a nuclear bomb turned him to ash, immediately followed by Part Two beginning with Angie's hand on Cassandra's grave.
• Boom, Headshot!: The expertly trained Cassandra and the Special Forces all deliver these.
• Boss's Unfavorite Employee: Angelina tells insecure "loser" Jeremiah about how this was Mike's life before the outbreak. Mike's relationship with the sour Master Sergeant echoes this dynamic.
• Brains and Brawn: Badass Bookworm Mike and Genius Bruiser Cassandra's overall dynamic, respectively, but sometimes switch. Indeed, the titular contingency is ultimately one of Cassandra's making.
• Broken Pedestal: Angelina's backstory with Elias makes their current relationship like this.
• Bury Your Gays: Ultimately averted for Angelina's love interest Shannon, who initially seems to have perished in a nuclear attack, but survives. They eventually break up for unnamed reasons.
• Butch Lesbian: Angelina's overall style, albeit fitting for the world she's leading. But she does use makeup only for a specific purpose related to The Reveal.
• The Chains of Commanding: Somewhat following the overall anti-authoritarian vibe, when the protagonists come into rule, they do so reluctantly, with other powerful interests seeing them as weak and too idealistic. Said interests prove to be as adversarial as the official antagonists who want them all dead.
• Chekhov's Armoury: Many seemingly unrelated details and situations in Part One and early in Part Two are critically important toward the end. For example, Cassandra's dream, her Sayre Plan, Julio's staff (with a fake out for how it is used), Chloe surviving in a bunker, Jeremiah being a decent archer, the use of makeup and exact words that hint at The Reveal, a strange smell in the field, and even a set of contact lens are all instrumental in the final fight.
• The Chessmaster: Angelina, following after Cassandra, in her battle against Sarmat and rebel officers on her own side.
• Chess Motifs: Begins lightly in Part One and finishes heavily in Part Two, both implicit and explicit.
• The Chosen One: The Prophecy refers to humanity being saved by Sevens. Guess what secret Cassandra's heir Angelina is hiding?
• Cloud Cuckoolander: Julio, but with a strong helpful side.
• Corrupt Corporate Executive: Waldron and his son are stand-ins for these types, proving as much of a threat as the Infinite.
• The Coup: Elias's plan that's so obvious from the get-go that it's not even a spoiler. How it turns out, though . . .
• Crazy-Prepared: Cassandra playing an exceptionally long game that eludes to the title. Part Two is basically just her implied plan from Part One playing out. Also Angelina and Jeremiah when facing Sarmat. He's well-established as powerful, smart, and malicious, but they have several tricks up their sleeves.
• Crippling the Competition: Sarmat's sucker punch against Angelina at the end. Unfortunately for him, she's holding two Reveals up her sleeve, saved for such an event . . .
• Curb-Stomp Battle: Cassandra and Mike against any infected until facing the enhanced infected in Oscar November, in which they barely survive each encounter. Most depicted Infinite-on-Remnant encounters go like this in favor of the Infinite, with Knoxville as an exception. Also with Sarmat against Alpha Team, but also Angelina against Sarmat and his troops following The Reveal.
• Darker and Edgier: Than the previous book, given that a nuclear apocalypse happens halfway through the story, with subsequent Endless Winter.
• Death from Above: The unnamed foreign threat of hypersonic missiles in Part One. Not to mention the nuclear missiles used on a global scale in Part One and a continental scale in Part Two.
• Decapitation Presentation: Angelina's visual victory lap after surprise curbstomping Sarmat.
• Defeating the Undefeatable: Sarmat rose to power by matching Cassandra's battle strategy, but they apparently never fought one-on-one before her death by disease. Then everyone from Angelina's Cabinet, to Waldron, and even her trusted brother Jeremiah (who knows her secret, i.e. her infection) warns her not to take him on, given that he easily wiped out their entire elite fighting unit in minutes while unarmed. She probably has doubts herself, even with said secret. But add a Secret Weapon by the way of Chloe's cyro-frozen serum . . .
• Defensive Feint Trap: Angelina's overall strategy to wear out the Infinite and what she uses in hand-to-hand against their leader Sarmat, invoking Muhammad Ali's name in both situations.
• Defiant to the End / Defiant Stone Throw: The last member of Alpha to survive Sarmat's trap unloads on him and spits in his face when subdued before the fatal blow. Even hateful Sarmat acknowledges his bravery.
• A Degree in Useless: How most people, including Jeremiah, see Jeremiah for his main skill being art. (And most people, including Jeremiah, also think he's not even that good at that, thus his search for a purpose.)
• Deliberate Injury Gambit: Given The Reveal, it's apparent in retrospect that not only did Angelina prepare and argue for peace in earnest with Sarmat, even turning and walking away when he demanded a surrender, but she also had a considerable backup plan (with hints throughout the book) in the event that he chose violence. He did, and she fell, feigning defeat. When he pulled her in close to taunt her with a Fate Worse than Death, she utilized not one, but two aces in the hole to great effect.
• Desperately Looking for a Purpose in Life: Mike in Part One and Jeremiah in Part Two.
• Determinator: Cassandra on her infected hunting trip to Sayre, after her dream and Karen Glory's trash talk, which ended with an implication that she and Mike were responsible for a supposed leak. And Angelina to end the conflict after her Cabinet usurps her and starts a second nuclear war, which Sarmat anticipates and launches a devastating counteroffensive.
• Diabolus ex Machina: On the very last page, an antagonistic dimension, believed to be the source of the mythical phantoms, is opened by Corrupt Corporate Executives.
• Divided States of America: The mainland US is now divided between The Remnant of humanity spanning east of the Mississippi River to the Atlantic Coast, the Infinite ruling the key Gulf Coast, the Sevens scattered in the Midwest, and the nigh-uninhabited frozen areas north.
• Does This Remind You of Anything?: The arguments around Just War, nuclear escalation, and elite corruption and exploitation while the public fights among themselves are obviously topical for 2023. Exact arguments regarding Russia/Putin vs. Ukraine pop up with the Infinite vs. the Remnant. Also, the "Final Absolution" plan of the Infinite Council to wipe out humanity sounds an awful lot like the name of a certain Third Reich atrocity. Additionally, the way Sarmat pins down Angelina is suggestive of sexual assault.
• Double-Meaning Title: As with the previous book, the title means something literal in Part One and metaphoric in Part Two.
• Downer Beginning: Part Two. Atop the world barely inching back from nuclear war 30 years later, this part begins with Cassandra's funeral.
• Dream Sequence: Cassandra and Mike both have one, and each with people they're still grieving (Cass's being a Flashback to her crew in the previous book), and each ending with Foreshadowing or Dreaming of Things to Come. Mike's ends with the nuclear war in which he perishes, and Cassandra's includes a mysterious woman with two children that resemble her later adopted children.
• Dwindling Party: How the elite Special Forces mission into Oscar November goes.
• Dying Moment of Awesome: Mike's rain of bullets against the infected, followed by witnessing the beginning of the nuclear war.
• Elective Monarchy: The system that emerges in Part Two, ruling the 10,000 residents of Mammoth.
• Elite Army: While most Remnant soldiers and militia are fighting more for survival than to win, their Alpha, Bravo, etc. Strike Forces are akin to the modern Special Forces (a la Part One).
• The End... Or Is It?: The epilogue skips forward forty years, to a seemingly healed world, until the last page unveils the above Diabolus Ex Machina.
• Escort Mission: Nominally what the Special Forces are on for Cassandra and Mike.
• Even Evil Has Standards: While Sarmat is power-hungry and genocidal, even he doesn't misgender or deadname Cassandra (although this could be due to him considering her a Worthy Opponent).
• Evil Chancellor: Sarmat. Even his name in a nuclear context makes it clear. He also lived a sordid but successful life prior to his deliberate infection for greater power.
• Evil-Detecting Dog: Or rather, cat, as it was in the last book. Not only are they lethal to infected, but they can usually smell them at a distance.
• Exact Words: Two at the end. When Angelina notes that the difference between uninfected and dinosaurs is that the former's "still here", Sarmat responds "Hm. Yes . . ." with a sinister grin before demanding a surrender followed by, in essence, extinction. Also applies to Cassandra's dream-turned-prophecy was that Sevens would save humanity from the Infinite, which Angelina shrugs off when a journalist asks her about it. While Queen Alexandra of the Sevens cautiously helps, they ultimately don't commit to joining the battle (but Sarmat rains nukes on them anyway for mere spite). While Angelina is the leader of humanity, The Reveal is that she's a Seven, so the prophecy is fulfilled.
• Failed a Spot Check: The intel Queen Alexandra shares with Angelina. Specifically that the Infinite have defectors, increasing by the day, who could be useful allies. When asking why they didn't know, Alexandra says they avoid Remnant because of fearing violence.
• Fake-Out Twist: Angelina's infection is a straight example of The Reveal, but the hinted-at use of Chloe's deadly t. gondii, a possible threat to Sarmat and the Infinite, is implied to be in Julio's staff that she's using to feign injury. Sarmat senses it's some kind of weapon and knocks it away. But the real deadly use of that t. gondii is her painted nails/claws. However, Julio's staff is a weapon, but a long-distance one (i.e., contains a bow and arrow) used to kill all the watching Infinite via Arrows on Fire to ignite Cassandra's preset flammable field.
• Fake Weakness: Sarmat correctly deduces that Angelina is faking an injury for some kind of plan involving her staff. He proceeds to sucker-punch her down a hill and pin her on their negotiation table. She's also faking being uninfected, covered with makeup and wearing contact lenses. And the staff, while useful for his subordinates, is a decoy to him for what's on her fingernails . . .
• Fast-Killing Radiation: The generals that escape their bombed-out bunker in Part Two succumb to radiation sickness in minutes, which is unlikely for even a few hours after nuclear fallout settles.
• Fate Worse than Death: What Sarmat expresses his intentions are with Angelina, including tearing out her eyes and decapitating her. When he gets the chance, his bodily positioning also implies sexual assault, done so in full view of his high command media drones, and her brother. See The Reveal and Karmic Death for how that goes for him.
• A Father to His Men: Of the feminine variety. It's the commanding philosophy of Cassandra and Angelina alike. While other leaders frequently compete with them and dismiss them as weak, they have many genuinely loyal subordinates (Newland being a prime example) because of their mutual respect.
• Final Solution: Sarmat and the Infinite Council's stated goal, ideologically dressed up as "Final Absolution".
• Fire-Forged Friends: What Cassandra and Newland become, despite their distrust of each other for much of Part One, and her outright fury at him for withholding information until the end. Part Two reveals him to be a general trying to prove his worth to a now-deceased Cassandra.
• Flashback Nightmare: Both Cassandra and Mike have dreams that start nostalgic for people they've lost, but then turn into this as shades of how they die show up . . . along with a flash-forward that is also nightmare material.
• Forbidden Zone: The quarantine zones, especially the hive around Sayre (which Mike refers to as Tolkien's "Mordor"). In Part Two, Mobile and the Gulf Coast, where the Infinite amass.
• Foreshadowing: Characters make various side comments in Part One that hint at what's to come in Part Two, most obviously when Newland talks about his favorite songs. Also in the end of Cassandra and Mike's dreams.
• Friendly Zombie: Sevens are essentially this (though they tend to be more avoidant than friendly per se).
• From Hero to Mentor: Cassandra in Part One vs. Part Two. The latter posthumously, when the story picks back up. The backstory not only informs that she gradually took power, but also became an Old Master to the protagonists.
• Gambit Pileup: Part One, to a lesser extent, between geopolitical powers, with the main characters just trying to make it out alive. Part Two is primarily Angelina vs. Sarmat, with Elias, Zynema, and Waldron joining them in vying for supremacy for different motivations, each dismissing some mix of the others due to their plans. Angelina is the one talking the least trash, and hers is the Last Plan Standing, which makes for An Aesop.
• Glass Cannon: What cats are to infected (with a side of Fragile Speedster).
• Glory Hound: A near-case of Exactly What It Says on the Tin with Karen Glory and her Glory Group.
• Godzilla Threshold: When Alpha gets easily bested by Sarmat, they call in a "Broken Arrow"; an old military parlance for saying a team is so overrun that their own side's aerial assault should fire on their position. However, Sarmat informs them their aircraft has been spotted and is shot down.
• Go for the Eye: The open secret of where to aim on infected if one's ammo doesn't have the serum necessary to break their rhino-like skin.
• Gone Horribly Right: Oscar November is revealed to be not the result of a leak from Oscar Lima, but government testing grounds of infected experiments . . . and how well the protagonists and special forces escorts can fight them.
• Government Conspiracy: Played With. As in the previous book, the protagonists correctly suspect malfeasance, even as they shrug off the fanatical-type conspiracies of the public. This time, they just don't know exactly what the malfeasance is until it's too late.
• Greater-Scope Villain: The infected/Infinite and Sarmat are the nominal villains. But humanity, especially corrupt elites exemplified by Waldron, keeping making it much worse (see World War III).
• Gung Holier Than Thou: The Master Sergeant is closer to this than to Sergeant Rock. He may have battlefield expertise, but his repeated dismissal of Mike and (to a lesser degree) Cassandra reeks of pettiness and helps no one.
• Heart Is an Awesome Power: What Angelina is trying to convince her depressed artsy brother Jeremiah, to varying success.
• Heel–Face Turn: Among minor Infinite characters, both a radarman and one of Sarmat's personal assistants have second thoughts, apparently on the road to being the defectors the Sevens have tracked. Also one of the launch officers loyal to Elias and Zynema, who immediately regrets helping them launch the missiles after Elias offhandedly mentions they would target the peaceful Sevens next. Unfortunately for all of these examples, their regrets all came moments too late.
• Here We Go Again!: Another global catastrophe brought by corrupt elites, for the third time in the book, happens at the very end. Now-elderly Angelina curses and uses it as a segue for training the newest generation.
• The Hero Dies: Of the twin protagonists, Mike dies at the end of Part One and Part Two begins with Cassandra's funeral.
• Heroic BSoD: Cassandra, as she did with her Survivor Guilt in the previous book, after having to leave Mike to cover her escape with Newland as the nuclear war begins.
• Heroic Sacrifice: How Mike meets his end, taking the gun so Cassandra and Newland can reach the bunker as infected come after them. It's specifically with the intention to fulfill a Desperately Looking for a Purpose in Life.
• Hope Spot: When the Remnant prevail in the Battle of Knoxville (although Sarmat dismisses it as a planned gesture to improve their image overseas).
• Humans Are the Real Monsters: A theme, like Ashe's other works. The fact that uninfected cause astronomically higher bloodshed than the infected/Infinite is a damning point.
• The Hunter Becomes the Hunted: What becomes of cats, named directly by Sarmat, being hunted to near-extinction as the Infinite evolve and grow immune to most of their t. gondii strands.
• I Am Not Left-Handed: Sarmat mocks Angelina's apparent weakness in their fight. His Arrogant Kung-Fu Guy attitude promptly runs head-first into her Reveal.
• Immune to Bullets: Described as having gray skin "like a rhinoceros", infected are to most rounds, unless they are coated by Item Amplifier serum (with iffy efficacy as the infected evolve).
• Implied Death Threat: Whereas Sarmat outright says he'll decapitate Angelina, when they actually meet, she tries to engage in small talk by asking about movies, dropping Jurassic Park and its famous T-Rex scene in which there is "biting smarmy lawyers" (law being one of Sarmat's previous professions). Moments later . . .
• Insidious Rumor Mill: One of the tactics of Elias and Zynema. They make public notes of protest, e.g., Angelina having a Chinese girlfriend (implying two different kinds of bigotry) and that she relies on her (supposedly) inept brother Jeremiah. In a parallel with Part One, this is also something Karen Glory used against Cassandra and Mike.
• Inspiration Nod: The Prologue to Part Two ends with a rephrasing of the famous "night" narration from Castlevania II: Simon's Quest, and Alpha's strike on Sarmat starts like the HALO Jump in Godzilla (2014) but ends like Castlevania (1986). The title is also similar to "The Winter Contingency" stage/directive in Halo: Reach which shares Part One's themes of a Dwindling Party of military elites and a coming global catastrophe. And there's a very subtle reference in the exact calendar day the nuclear war happens; three days prior was mentioned as August 26th, thus it happened on the 29th . . . as it was expected to in Terminator 2: Judgment Day.
• Instantly Proven Wrong: After a coup in which Zynema steals the codes, Elias finally gets to nuke the Infinite, confident that this is the Remnant trump card to ultimate victory. As the events play out over mere minutes, not only do the Infinite possess nukes, but they also have missile defense capabilities. Cue gargantuan backfire.
• Introverted Cat Person: Mike. This (along with guitar playing and rock/metal music) is Creator Thumbprint.
• Irony: The government's MockGuffin and mission for the heroes is a dangerous data delivery related to the infection, which is what the government was trying to prevent Cassandra from doing in the previous book (although data retrieval was at least the nominal mission in that story).
• It Can Think: The previous book established that the infected were evolving. Many of their previous cognitive limits no longer factor early this time, and they've become clever enough to set traps and outwit uninfected. By Part Two, they're at least as intelligent as the uninfected Remnant.
• It Has Been an Honor: What Cassandra's last words and Last Kiss mean to Mike, especially after explicitly saying she wouldn't.
• It's Quiet… Too Quiet: What Alpha remarks after seemingly achieving their high stakes mission. For good reason, as Sarmat is Faking the Dead as a trap to kill them all.
• It's Raining Men: Alpha uses a HALO jump to drop into their high stakes mission.
• It Sucks to Be the Chosen One: Neither Cassandra nor Mike are pleased with how much the military needs them nor Angelina, who succeeds them and comes to embody the prophecy originating in Cassandra's dreams.
• Just Friends: Cassandra and Mike both know the latter likes the former, but she feels like this trope.
• Kansas City Shuffle: While his officers allow it, Sarmat correctly suspects that Angelina's staff is some kind of weapon. After he assaults her, he knocks it away, remarking "no tricks". However, her real weapon for him is Chloe's 30-year-old t. gondii (which is different enough from the modern strains to which he's immune to be a lethal threat) in her nails/claws. And the staff is still used by Jeremiah as a bow-and-arrow to set his elite spectators ablaze.
• Karma Houdini: The Greater Scope Villain Waldron suffers no consequences for his war profiteering.
• Karmic Death: Slightly averted with nuclear trigger-happy Elias, being carted off by phantoms just before he could succumb to nuclear fallout of an exchange he started. Straight with Zynema being buried under those bombs. Straight with Sarmat, whose belligerence and threat of decapitation ends with him being decapitated by Angelina, who offered a truce multiple times and tried to walk away from him when he started that last melee.
• Killer Rabbit: Housecats like Chloe, while vulnerable in stature, are highly dangerous to infected.
• Lady of War: Cassandra, as before. Her intellect, quotes, pantsuit, and keyboard playing suggest grace, but she's actually heavier on the Action Girl side.
• Laser-Guided Karma: Darn near literal with Elias, Zynema, and their supporting military after they launch a nuclear first strike. Also exactly how Angelina kills Sarmat, matching both how he killed Alpha's leader and what he promised he'd do to her.
• Last Stand: Mike covers Cassandra and Newland's escape from infected just before the nuclear war begins. He Didn't Make It.
• Living Is More than Surviving: A major theme throughout this series. Particularly with the theme of flowers in Part Two. Somewhat deconstructed with Jeremiah, as he's Desperately Looking for a Purpose in Life by wanting to be more practical instead of a Starving Artist.
• Lock-and-Load Montage: A quick one for Mike right before he agrees to Cassandra's dangerous Sayre trip.
• Martial Pacifist: Angelina always tries for peace first, given so few remaining in this world. And while she is well-trained (obviously, as she is partially raised by Cassandra), she also has far more capability in battle (see The Reveal) that doesn't come out until Sarmat has pushed her completely to the limit.
• Mauve Shirt: Newland is the only one of the Special Forces escort to survive, albeit wounded. He's promoted to a Gold Shirt General by Part Two.
• Meaningful Name: Common for Ashe. Cassandra seeks the truth, no matter what. She's also an elite soldier "randomly" placed in Bravo, whereas Mike (with lesser skills than her or his father; an "echo" of him) is placed in Echo. Angelina seeks peace, even while everyone around her pushes war. Jeremiah is much like the "weeping prophet" of the Bible. Sarmat . . . well, just Google what relevance his name has to a story involving nuclear weapons. His Field Marshal Belhor is a terrible devil to Remnant towns. Alpha is implied to be the very best warriors humanity has to offer in Part Two, but see Worf Effect. The Infinite Naval Ships Mirror and Leviathan each suggest what technical capabilities they have. Oh, and one guess what kind of person Karen Glory is like.
• A Million Is a Statistic: Somewhat hard to avoid given what happens at the end of Part One.
• Mirror Character: Main characters Cassandra and Angelina have many parallels, but the difference comes in how the former strategizes around the unknown to her whereas the latter strategizes on the unknown to the reader. Their sidekicks, Mike and Jeremiah respectively, have similar character motivations and arcs.
• Mirroring Factions: A running theme, especially between the Remnant and the Infinite. Queen Alexandra makes a "Not So Different" Remark about them when Angelina realizes her own side could have worked with their defectors, but their own violent attitudes and assumptions (and zealots like Elias) discouraged them.
• MockGuffin: The "Whiteout" data courier mission of delivering the "invaluable" hard drives worth "the GDP of entire countries" is just a trick to test and deliver Cassandra and Mike to a bunker before impending nuclear war.
• Mook Horror Show: How the final fight ends. Sarmat and his mooks corner Martial Pacifist Angelina and her quiet, artsy brother Jeremiah, but they came exceedingly prepared for that.
• Mordor: The "home of infected" around Sayre in Part One. Mike invokes this very name (to Cassandra's chagrin; she likes the nerdy reference, but not his flippant attitude while they're on-duty).
• More Dakka: Another .50cal M2, critical in the previous book, provides this toward the end of Part One.
• My Death Is Just the Beginning: Implied in Part Two as Crazy Prepared Cassandra's plan to save humanity. As her adopted kids discuss, about a year before her death, she prepared different arenas to be flammable like her Sayre plan, anticipating that they could be used in the likely event that the Infinite resumed warfare after her death. They had previously come to a stalemate with the Remnant due to her adept battlefield strategy, and with her gone, they figured Angelina would be easier to defeat. They figured wrong.
• My God, What Have I Done?: Several minor characters, both Infinite and Remnant, express immediate regret for their actions towards the end.
• No Celebrities Were Harmed: Real Talk's Will Donnelly bares a resemblance to Real Time host Bill Maher with a bit of Lawrence O'Donnell.
• No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: The Sevens at Asterite don't commit to battle alongside humanity, but do offer intelligence to Angelina and the Remnant that they believe may help negotiate peace. An Infinite mook manning the ballistic missile submarine says to another that merely meeting with humanity means that Asterite is now forfeit, and thus why Sarmat commands that Asterite be targeted and destroyed.
• Noodle Incident: The protagonists' reaction to the event on the last page, specifically as Oh, No... Not Again!.
• No One Could Survive That!: The last line of Part One, confirming that unlike the fragile uninfected huddled in bunkers, the infected can survive outside in a post-nuclear war wasteland.
• Not Using the "Z" Word: First "infected" and then "Infinite". The z-word gets used once or twice with a humorous or lampshade element.
• Now It's My Turn: Sarmat knocks around Angelina, even breaking ribs, then pins her down before she lets The Reveal rip. She both has infected powers, essentially a Seven, and brought the uber-rare old t. gondii from Chloe to which he isn't immune. Cue curbstomp.
• Now or Never Kiss: What Cassandra offers to Mike, thinking that her Sayre Plan was especially dangerous versus their previous fights.
• Nuclear Mutant: What it's implied that the infected, now even stronger (albeit more grotesque) and as smart as uninfected, have become in Part Two.
• Nuke 'em: What Elias wants to do to destroy the Infinite. When he launches missiles, their defense system knocks them out of the sky, immediately followed by a devastating Counter-Attack.
• Off with His Head!: How Sarmat kills Alpha's leader. And how Angelina kills him, with a subsequent Decapitation Strike of his cabinet and top officials by Jeremiah, thus a pair of literal and metaphorical decapitations of the Infinite.
• Oh, Crap!: When the soldiers at the beginning see how ineffectual their rounds are against infected. Also Mike when he realizes how much more powerful infected in Oscar November are. Then there's several huge examples toward the end of Part One. Also a few toward the end of Part Two, notably by Elias when enemy ships he didn't know existed pop up on their instruments, complete with missile defense systems and missiles of their own.
• One-Winged Angel: The evolved, post-nuclear infected in Part Two, especially Sarmat, who grows larger and more monstrous, with tougher skin and elongated fangs and claws, when in battle mode. Unfortunately for them, Angelina's name isn't her only connection to this trope.
• Our Zombies Are Different: While super-strong with ultra-tough skin (impervious to most bullets) and fast, are deathly allergic to cats, and hunt uninfected in open areas. Overall mindless but later evolve to comparable intelligence. And while the Sevens are mostly peaceful, they fear being hunted down by the rest . . . for good reason.
• Percussive Maintenance: Angelina's staff use it to fix a power relay.
• The Peter Principle: Another trope continuing from the previous book, most applicable to Glory Group this time.
• Plague Zombie: The particular kind of zombie.
• Playing Possum: What Sarmat does before he wipes out Alpha Team.
• Plot-Irrelevant Villain: Karen Glory exists to look down her Smug Snake nose at Cassandra and Mike, essentially embodying the "style over substance" philosophy, Status Quo Is God, and Corrupt Corporate Executive power that has screwed with their lives even before the infection. Both Cassandra and Mike sneer at the thought of her while on-mission in Oscar November.
• Poor Communication Kills: A theme that speaks to the pro-civil liberties and whistleblower ideas of the duology. Named verbatim by Cassandra, as she razzes Newland for withholding information that's much more likely to help everyone rather than hurt a la his Loose Lips argument.
• Power-Upgrading Deformation: How the infection sometimes works in Part Two. Implied on the very cover to be related to the nuclear war. Applicable for Sarmat . . . and Angelina.
• Pre-Asskicking One-Liner: Angelina has a few choice words in her Defensive Feint Trap against Sarmat, right before curbstomping him. A primary one being a response to him disparaging her as a "pawn who thought she was a queen" by asking what happens when a pawn reaches the other side of the board. (For those unfamiliar with chess: it becomes any other piece other than a king, most often a queen, the most powerful piece in the game.) And a couple of others, being her legendary mother's (i.e., the badass Autumn Queen) daughter, and feeling like Muhammad Ali, given said trap.
• Pre-Mortem One-Liner: Angelina leaves Sarmat helpless, his almost-severed head in her hands, and responds to his earlier mockery of the notion of her being a queen with, "Oh, I almost forgot to call it: checkmate." Cue decapitation.
• Pretext for War: Aggressors among both the Remnant and the Infinite are each trying to find (or make) one.
• Promoted to Scapegoat: While Cassandra and Mike are already scapegoated for the leak that created Oscar November, their new mission (complete with promises to financially cover their families) basically takes this up a notch, as the escorting Special Forces blame them for not being ready for upgraded infected.
• Properly Paranoid: Cassandra and Mike toward the government and it's so much worse than they initially suspect.
• Prophecies Are Always Right: The Prophecy, hinted at in Part One and attributed postmortem to Cassandra in Part Two, is that Sevens would save humanity from the Infinite. Although Sevens are friendly, they fear extinction if they help humanity, and for good reason; even meeting with them is met with near-extinction via nuclear bombardment. The Reveal of Angelina being a Seven just before she defeats Sarmat means the Prophecy is still fulfilled.
• The Prophecy: The notion that Sevens will save humanity, spoken of early in Part Two, and eluding to a dream Cassandra had in Part One. When Angelina contacts the Sevens at Asterite, their Queen specifically rebuffs this, saying joining the fight beyond sharing information would mean being targeted by the powerful Infinite. And still are anyway; see No Good Deed Goes Unpunished.
• Quantum Mechanics Can Do Anything: It's implied that the nuclear war created the phantoms, which are closely associated with a threatening Another Dimension on the last page.
• Rebel Leader: First Cassandra, ruling between Part One and Two, and then Angelina.
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: The glowing, yellowed eyes of the infinite gradually get redder as they grow more powerful. Sarmat's Eye Awaken to Alpha reveal he's alive and kicking into One-Winged Angel. The trope culminates with this quality being The Reveal of Angelina's infection, just before she kicks the shit out of Sarmat, despite him going One-Wingel Angel on her.
• Redshirt Army: All the Special Forces except Newland, along with the Glory Group's attempted helicopter rescue, all perish.
• Regretful Traitor: Subverted with Elias. Even though his plan goes down in literal flames, with his belligerent, warmongering tactics completely backfiring, his last thoughts are explicitly not regretful, but hateful.
• Reluctant Ruler: While still in mourning, Angelina is elected as leader of the fledgling Remnant, showing little interest in lording power, yet still resented by many. Also applies to her predecessor, who falls into the seat after years of infighting and corruption by others.
• The Reveal: As Sarmat prepares a Fate Worse than Death for Angelina in front of his highest officers and cameras to the surviving world, he mistakenly pulls out her contact lens . . . revealing her red eye, indicating her infection and its powers. She also brought an old "gift" from long gone Chloe in her nail polish . . .
• Rigged Spectacle Fight: What Sarmat plans for Angelina, in a Make an Example of Them way, including a forced surrender, to intimidate those watching via the cameras. None of which go his way.
• Ripped from the Headlines: Highly fitting for 2023, especially for government corruption and escalating nuclear tensions, including a real life detail about congressmen laughing about future lobbying gigs while ostensibly questioning corporate powers in official hearings (i.e., Rep. Trey Hollingsworth and Bank of America, Sept. 2022).
• Save This Person, Save the World: When Cassandra tries to interpret the military forcing them on a mysterious mission, she has a strong feeling that little Angie is somehow important. She's right.
• The Scapegoat: What Cassandra and Mike are for Karen Glory (a stand-in for government-corporate collusion) for a supposed leak that necessitated Oscar November, as well as when things go awry in Oscar November which is a government test site for experimental infected; their Special Forces escorts, who may or may not be in on the conspiracy, blame these two new advisors for basically not knowing what they had no way of knowing.
• Scavenger World: Most of the time between Part One and Part Two, which features an emerging civilization.
• Scenery Porn: The lovely natural world in Part One and the Epilogue. Scenery Gorn for most of Part Two.
• Science Hero: Most of the protagonists, but Mike in particular, being a data analyst-turned-zombie fighter.
• Secret Test: The government mission has nothing to do with delivering data. Their goal is to deliver Cassandra and Mike to a bunker while testing them on their own super-infected.
• Secret Weapon: Angelina figures that even her secret infection might not tip the battle with Sarmat in her favor. So she "goes vintage" by using Chloe's 30-year-old serum in her nail polish for an effective edge, making it a Curbstomp against a previously undefeated foe.
• Shout-Out: An Ashe staple, particularly with Cassandra's many quotes and apropos rock and metal songs from David Bowie, Black Sabbath, Iron Maiden, Metallica, Cypress Hill, Leonard Cohen, Yngwie Malmsteen, and Pink Floyd, along with mentions of Public Enemy, Whitney Houston, and U2. Also mention of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart fitting "Dies Irae". Also naming Muhammad Ali when discussing using his "rope-a-dope" strategy. There's also a subtle reference to The Crow (1994) (namely T-Bird's summation of Tin Tin's fate), "[Infected] want to eat my organs in alphabetical order."
• Sins of Our Fathers: Alexandra hints that this is part of the Infinite's mission to destroy humanity.
• Sliding Scale of Idealism Versus Cynicism: As in the last book, both parts lean toward cynicism in various ways, but have aspects of idealism.
• Smug Super: Sarmat. He may have held back when at war with who he saw as a Worthy Opponent in Cassandra, but then makes a point to dismiss the remaining Remnant, specifically Angelina, with The Social Darwinist viewpoint. Even though Angelina is actually stronger, at least with her secret weapon, but her soft-spoken nature is intentional to use his pride against him. Note that Mike discussed the pitfalls of pride with her in the first book.
• The So-Called Coward: Angelina is frequently bashed as this, particularly by Elias, as well as Zynema, and some of her own people. Yeah . . . given The Reveal, that's not what's happening.
• Spiteful Spit: Both an Alpha Team member to Sarmat and Elias (to his side) while arguing with Angelina.
• Splatter Horror: To be expected in the genre. Especially detailed in the melee combat of Part Two.
• Spoiler Cover: If you think about who was on the previous book's cover, this one gives a pretty big hint as to The Reveal. And even though the text is a touch obscured by the painting, it says "a nuclear zombie sequel", which is pretty big hint as to the end of Part One and into Part Two. Hell, even the blue to the left side and red to the right side hint at Angelina's eyes, thus her infection.
• Spoiler Title: While it means something literal in Part One, its symbolic meaning in Part Two (a dynamic established with the previous book) is not totally clear until The Reveal. Angelina is the Winter Queen Contingency.
• Stepford Smiler: This very trope name is used to describe Karen Glory.
• Super Mode: Angelina, after her infection is revealed. Cue curb stomping Lightning Bruiser.
• Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: Part Two picks up 30 years after nuclear war, with many horrors noted (e.g., rampant cancers, starvation, street violence, all atop a gray world slowly regaining its biosphere) and quickly notes that the human race that once numbered in billions now numbers in thousands. (Later noted as at least 100k in North America. Even if it was 900k globally, that would be about 0.01% of the globe's current 7.8 billion.)
• Survivor's Guilt: A mainstay for Cassandra, after incidents deployed overseas, the events of the first book, and being one of two to survive Part One, which ends with nuclear war.
• Suspiciously Similar Substitute: In Part Two, Angelina mirrors Cassandra (somewhat justified in that the latter became the adoptive mother and trainer of the former) and Jeremiah mirrors Mike. (Word of God is that Jeremiah was meant to have a personality and philosophy like Ashe deliberately, as the author was annoyed that some reviewers of the first book thought Mike was his Author Avatar. Ashe considered Mike to have a few shared traits for distinct characterization, but was otherwise meant to be more of The Everyman.)
• Taking Up the Mantle: Angelina becoming Second Reign (given who was First).
• Talk to the Fist: How Sarmat chooses to close the diplomatic summit to intimidate the world by assaulting Angelina, per his earlier threats expressed to others, but she apparently anticipated this possibility per The Reveal.
• Team Mom / Cool Old Lady: Annette, reprising her role from the last book.
• Team Switzerland: The Sevens, particularly at Asterite, lean toward this for fear of being targeted by the far more numerous and deadly Infinite. For the little they do for the Remnant, see No Good Deed Goes Unpunished.
• Tempting Fate: Elias keeps pushing for a bigger fight, up to and including Nuke 'em, on the basis that Infinite advantages lie in brute strength, not superior firepower . . . which is only suspected, not proven.
• There Is No Kill Like Overkill: Sarmat's annihilation of Alpha. And in karmic irony, Angelina giving him the same treatment; a one-two punch of her own infected teeth and claws tipped with Chloe's t. gondii. She could have just let her bites and t. gondii do their work, but instead she decapitates him (which, unbeknownst to her, was his plan for her) to the horror of his followers.
• This Looks Like a Job for Aquaman: Jeremiah's archery used to Kill It with Fire at the end. This plan was hinted since Part One.
• Time Skip: 30 years between Part One and Part Two, and 40 years between Part Two and the Epilogue.
• Took a Level in Badass: Cool but caring Angie being raised by now-legendary badass Cassandra after her mother Agnes died. She took several levels . . . and at some unknown point, became a Seven.
• Too Much Alike: Mirroring violent hatred, mortal enemies Elias and Sarmat each sail further over the Moral Event Horizon with whom they target (both including the relatively peaceful Sevens), revealing themselves to be even more bloodthirsty than first demonstrated. It's also one less positive interpretation of Angelina's character as her reveal possibly implies she deliberately infected herself just as Sarmat had.
• Trash Talk: In Part One, it seems Karen Glory was put on television to sow public distrust for rivals Cassandra and Mike. In Part Two, Elias, Zynema, and Sarmat all use this to intimidate others, usually Angelina.
• Tuckerization: Of the Shout-Out Theme Naming variety, many side characters, especially in Part One, are named after buildings from Ashe's undergraduate alma mater, Appalachian State. And of those, the ones who die are buildings that have been demolished since Ashe graduated, i.e., Welborn, Gardner, and Coltrane. He already used Whitener, where he took classes for his Political Science major, in his debut novel. Chloe's name is also a combination of three cats Ashe had since childhood, i.e., Chester, Molly, and Sophie, with features matching the latter, as a Memorial Character.
• Twist Ending: In Part One, it's The End of the World as We Know It. In Part Two, it's The Reveal and a much later Diabolus ex Machina.
• The Usurper: Attempted by Big Business crony Zynema; unsurprisingly, given her open hostility to Angelina, whom she sees as undeserving precisely because of her lack of ambition.
• Villain with Good Publicity: Karen Glory and her Glory Group. While she/they are technically on the same side as Cassandra and Mike, there's a clear competition/rivalry/antagonism between them. The public (as portrayed by a live studio audience) approves of her half-truths with applause.
• War for Fun and Profit: Waldron's intentions.
• We All Die Someday: Angelina's resigned attitude about warnings not to meet Sarmat face-to-face. Which may be a fake out to her own people, as given The Reveal, meeting is necessary for her strategy.
• We Hardly Knew Ye: Queen Alexandra, the graceful ruler of Asterite, befriends Angelina and helps the humanity with intel, if not militarily, but is still destroyed by Sarmat's nukes soon after.
• "Well Done, Son" Guy: A variation. Mike's father died of COVID before the first book, but through Mike's dreams and the fight, he's still trying to live up to the Semper Fi Badass Marine his father was known to be. Also a factor for Jeremiah that Shannon names; he considers himself unworthy of his biological parents, adoptive mother (Cassandra), and his badass sister Angelina.
• We Used to Be Friends: Angelina and Elias. She saw him as a mentor, even family, with a few flashbacks backing this up, whereas his much more aggressive war strategy turns him firmly against her.
• Wham Line: The last line of Part One, informing the reader that the infected survived nuclear war and, as the government predicted from Mike's studies, were indeed taking over the ruins. In the Prelude to Part Two: "The human race that once had been counted in the billions was now counted in thousands." In Angelina's one-two punch final fight, "Underneath of which was her bright, blazing red eye" and answering Sarmat's question if that was her last trick, "No, this is." Between infected powers and Chloe's super-serum in her claws, it turns from his Curbstomp to hers.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: There's no word on what happened to Annette, the President, or Cassandra and Mike's families after Part One. Cassandra's personal items are mentioned, implying at least one return to Eagles Mere and/or her family's home outside Philadelphia.
• Winter Royal Lady: Right in the title. This one's of a grittier, nuclear winter variety. It refers to Angelina, whereas the previous book referred to Cassandra.
• The Woobie: Jeremiah, an orphan put down as a spoiled Cassandra adoptee and made to feel useless for his own skill in a hardened world being art, and even that gets put down compared others' art. The Word of God is that he is a deliberate Author Avatar, as Ashe got mad that previous book characters were criticized as being self-references that weren't (or only partially).
• The Worf Barrage: For its near-omnicide against the uninfected, even full-blown nuclear war doesn't cut down the infected.
• Worf Effect: How we're reintroduced to Cassandra and Mike at the beginning of Part One. The military's running an operation to study the infected when the latter easily overruns the outmatched soldiers. Cassandra and Mike (and Chloe!) show up and proceed to curbstomp the infected marauders. Against the Special Forces, the faster and tougher infected of Oscar November immediately establish themselves as much more effective killers than those of Oscar Lima. An even better example is unarmed Sarmat single-handedly wiping out the elite, super-trained and well-armed Alpha Team in a single minute.
• World War III: The greater backdrop of all the events in Part One, happening so fast as to later only be called "The Day". The fight against the infected is merely the spark amid the many Real Life issues listed as contributing to this.
• Worthy Opponent: How Sarmat views Cassandra, roughly his only respect for humanity which largely departs after she does, although he expresses respect to the defiant last member of Alpha before killing him.
• Xanatos Speed Chess: Sarmat vs. Angelina, despite the latter opting for diplomacy and peace talks many times. Which he really should have followed, given the titular contingency.
• You Have No Chance to Survive: Sarmat's plan for humanity. Angelina partly expects this and has a backup plan quite fitting for the title.
• Zombie Apocalypse: The premise. Or is it? As in the previous book, mankind's malfeasance overshadows it . . . only this time with mushroom clouds.