The fantastic cover art for THE KILLING FLOOR is by artist Andrée Wallin; the complete artwork is shown below.
In my view, it’s the perfect image of the apocalypse–a soldier in a gas mask, dehumanized by his cold, robotic appearance and horrific actions, fighting to survive and just maybe save the world to ensure this is not really the end, but a new beginning, the start of a world where others will not have to experience what he has. This is what the people in THE KILLING FLOOR face–a choice to save themselves, or give everything they have, even their lives, so that humanity itself has the best chance to survive.
This plays into a common theme in my apocalyptic fiction. The people in my stories tend to get brutalized by the end of the world, but there is a cathartic sense by the end that even though some of these people won’t make it, some of them will, and perhaps humanity has a chance to survive the end and come out the other side.
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