Zombie Book 2 is Underway

(NOTE: this is now the first chapter of the third book...haha.)

I took a long break from blogging. I needed to focus on the holidays and publishing The Librarian. Now I'm back, neck deep in the world of Zombies! I've decided to post the first five chapters, just as I did with the first Zombie Book, so tonight I'm posting chapter 1:

DAYS went by without seeing another living human out in the open, now there were five looting a drugstore that had long been picked clean. There were three men and two women, skinny and wearing rags. I watched them give the place a good once, twice, thrice, over. They didn’t even find a box Bandaids. I felt bad for them. They looked tired and hungry and scared. My own people had none of those problems. We had everything we needed and then some...I could help these people, but I wouldn’t. They looked nice enough, I supposed but looks can deceive. For example, I looked like a living human, but I wasn’t anymore. I’d been dead for months.

From my perch atop the adjacent building, I could see over much of downtown Olympia, Washington. Or, what was left of her. Before the disease landed here, it was a gem of a city. The capital of Washington with Neoclassical architecture. O-Town was the pride of the state. A small knit community full of art, drama, food and just filled to the brim with hippies… Now all those free loving, latte sipping, bean bag playing youngsters were walking corpses looking for grub. You could say, they had the munchies in life and in death. I chuckled to myself at that thought. You have to find humor in this life. It took dying for me to learn that.

A gunshot cut through the quiet streets. I looked down at the people in the drug store. The five people were running off down the road. They didn’t have a gun. The shot didn’t come from them, but they knew what it meant. It meant someone was shooting at a zombie out there somewhere, and zombies seemed to move in packs. Finally some action.

I jumped down from the building some forty feet and landed loudly on the road of an abandoned car. If I’d been alive that would have hurt like hell. I might have even broken a bone or sprained an ankle. Instead, I climbed down from the car and walked calmly down the deserted roads in search of zombies. Hell, maybe I could even save the poor wretch that just rang the dinner bell.

I bent down and put my hand on the cement and I could feel the ground tremor. The vibrations grew until I could hear them. I looked back and saw the horde approaching fast from behind me. Over six million zombies pouring through the streets toward the sound of the gunshot and the smell of a human. Fuck! I ran to the closest vehicle to me, a tall van. It was locked. I didn’t have time to find another place for cover. I got down on my stomach and rolled under the van just in time for the horde of the dead to scream by, rotting parts and putrid smell. Some fell and were simply trampled over. It was a stampede of rotters. The slower zombies trailed behind. I rolled back out to walk with them. I liked the calmer bunch. They reminded me of classic movies. Nice and slow, but that meant whoever these guys were after would be just a pile of bones by the time I got there. I had to get ahead of the horde somehow.

“Derek to Erin,” I heard from my walky-talky at my hip. The zombies around me stopped and looked at me. They almost seemed confused. I looked like food, sounded like food but I didn’t smell like food. I growled at them and they moved away.

I ran ahead of the slow rotters and turned the corner to find the Army Hummer I saw earlier that day. The door was unlocked but the keys were probably on the driver, who was probably dead.  Lucky for me I was recently taught how to hotwire a car by my friend, Gerald.

I pulled out my walky and pressed the button, “Erin here. The hunt is hot. How may I be of service?”

“Thomas has been asking for you. You’ve been gone for days. You’re finally within range, so does that mean you’re coming home soon?”

“I’ll be there tonight. I’ve learned so much. Be ready to have your minds blown!”

I pulled out my pocket knife to remove the plastic cover on the steering column but found the wires exposed.

“That’s good to hear. Your son misses you.”

“Hey, um Derek. I don’t suppose you know how to hotwire a Humvee.”

“That’s Gerald’s area of expertise. Let me hand you over.”

“Thanks.”

Soon Gerald’s excited voice filled the vehicle. “Hey, sweet cheeks!”

A zombie stopped to look at me. I gave him a cold stare. “Move on buddy, nothing to eat here.”

“Shut the fuck up and tell me how to hotwire a Humvee.”

“I love you.”

I sighed and decided not to tell him to eat shit and die. “I don’t have time to play with you right now.”

“Well, first off I’d suggest you don’t try to hotwire a Humvee.”

“And why not?”

“Well, for starters they are just fucking bad for the planet. Did you ever think about that? No, you didn’t. You is selfish.”

“I is,” I agreed. “I found a working freezer in Seattle last week full of ice cream, and I ate all of it.”

“Nooooo!”

“Yes, double fudge, caramel ribbon, moose trek.”

“You cold-hearted bitch!”

I let him hear me laugh. “It’s not like it would have made the trip back with me. I did bring you all gifts, but first, you have to tell me how to hotwire this fucking humvee.”

“Okay, okay. You wore me down. Against my better judgment, I will tell you how to hotwire a Humvee.”

“Yes, thank you.” I had my knife ready in my hand. I didn’t know which of these thick wires to cut. They all looked the same.

“First, I want you to look to the left of the steering wheel.”

“Okay.”

“Are you looking left.”

“Yes.”

“Good. There is a knob on the dashboard. Turn it to the start position.”

I felt my face heat up with anger and embarrassment. I put the knife down on the seat forcefully and turned the engine over with the twist of the knob, easy.

“Did you get that?” He asked over the walky. “I know it was complex and-”

“Fuck you,” I interrupted him. He laughed good and long into the walky. I turned the station on the walky and put the humvee into reverse, pulling out onto the road. I felt a couple bumps. I didn’t even look in the mirrors. I knew what I hit and I didn’t give a damn. They were already dead.

The Zombie Book 2 will be published in June 2018. If you haven't read the first Zombie book the cover is a link to the Amazon page. Just click it!

This is the working cover for the 2nd book!