by Mark Tufo
‘About ti...’ The words fell away.
‘Not who you were expecting?’ Mrs. Reynolds asked. She looked disheveled and had a slightly gray tinge to her.
‘I am truly glad to see that you are still alive,’ he said, meaning the words.
‘No thanks to you. Are you wondering what happened to the good doctor?’
‘I was.’
‘He seemed so sad when he realized that your brother was gone, so I gave him the opportunity to be reunited with him. Oh don’t look so shocked. He didn’t even blink when he gave me the injection. I was just another experiment to him. Now he’s dead. I cut right through his carotid artery; bled out in a couple of minutes. I’ve got to admit, I rather enjoyed the experience.’
‘Mrs. Weatherford?’
‘I let her go after I helped her drain everything from my wonderful husband’s account. I even signed over the land to her. He’s got nothing except the change of clothes in his luggage.’ Jan came farther into the room and sat down heavily on a chair.
‘You don’t look well, Jan.’
‘I don’t feel well, Zurgens. You see, I think I am one of Kinzer’s lucky five percenters. Fairly sure I’m going to be a full-time, bonafide, flesh eating zombie soon.’ She took a deep breath, stood and crossed the room. She reached up and pulled a dart gun off the wall.
‘What are you doing, Jan?’ Zurgens asked worriedly.
‘You know what zombies fear, Zurgens?’ She was checking the breech to make sure there was a dart inside, then she approached the cell. ‘No answer? Okay. Well, they fear being alone. That’s why they move in herds.’
‘What are you going to do?’ He put his hands up.
‘I’m patient zero, Zurgens, and you are going to be my number one.’ She pulled the trigger. The dart lodged deeply into Zurgen’s outstretched hand. When he awoke some time later, it was Darren that helped him up. The cage door was open as was the door to the building.
‘What the hell is going on? You’re bleeding. Do you have a new wound?’ Darren pointed to a dark red spot on Zurgen’s shirt.
Zurgens pulled it open to reveal that his left nipple had been completely bitten off.
‘What the fuck?!’ Darren stared at the shredded skin.
Zurgens felt sick to his stomach and had the type of headache usually reserved for the morning after a Tequila binge.
‘Get the truck, Darren. Find a way to get the fuck off this continent. Find yourself a bunker, get to your buddy’s basement. The fury of hell is coming and it will be led by a woman scorned.’
***
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Mark Tufo was born in Boston Massachusetts. He attended UMASS Amherst where he obtained a BA and later joined the US Marine Corp. He was stationed in Parris Island SC, Twenty Nine Palms CA and Kaneohe Bay Hawaii. After his tour he went into the Human Resources field with a worldwide financial institution and has gone back to college at CTU to complete his masters.
He wrote the first instalment of the Indian Hill trilogy in college. It sat in his garage until July 2009 when he published it on Kindle. He has since written the internationally acclaimed Zombie Fallout series and is working on more zombie books.
He lives in Maine with his wife, three kids and two English bulldogs.
ALSO BY MARK TUFO
THE ZOMBIE FALLOUT SERIES
ZOMBIE FALLOUT
A PLAGUE UPON YOUR FAMILY
THE END...
DR HUGH MANN
THE END HAS COME AND GONE
ALIVE IN A DEAD WORLD
’TIL DEATH DO US PART
FOR THE FALLEN
AN OLD BEGINNING
THE BOOK OF RILEY: A ZOMBIE TALE (BOOKS 1-4)
INDIAN HILL SERIES
ENCOUNTERS
RECKONING
CONQUEST
FROM THE ASHES
INTO THE FIRE
LYCAN FALLOUT SERIES
RISE OF THE WEREWOLF
FALL OF MAN
CALLIS ROSE
DYSTANCE: WINTER’S RISIING
THE SPIRIT CLEARING
TIM SERIES
TIMOTHY
TIM 2
TIM 3: SLICED, DICED AND CUBED
A SHROUDED WORLD (with John O’Brien)
WHISTLERS
ATLANTIS
ABOUT THE YEAR OF THE ZOMBIE
My first novel, STRAIGHT TO YOU, was released in 1996 and promptly disappeared from view. 500 copies were printed, and I still have a couple of boxes from the original print run in my garage! The experience taught me several valuable lessons about writing, most notably that both the hardest and most important task for a new author is to find people to read their work. In those dim and distant pre-Internet, pre-ebook days, that was no easy task.
When it came to releasing my second novel, AUTUMN, in 2001, I was already making my first tentative steps online. It struck me that the easiest way to get people to read my book was to give it to them for free, so that was what I did. And with no real plan or design, my first zombie novel generated around half a million downloads, a series of sequels, a radio adaptation and even a (not so great) movie starring Dexter Fletcher and David Carradine.
Self-publishing was frowned upon in 2001 (and still is today in some quarters), so I decided to take a different approach. I talked about ‘independent publishing’ instead, and I set up INFECTED BOOKS, my own publishing company. I hit the market at just the right time and managed, through luck more than judgement, to capitalize both on the sudden growth of ebooks, and also on the massive popularity of zombies.
In the fifteen years since AUTUMN was published, zombies have become a global phenomenon. In the same decade and a half, the publishing industry has changed beyond all recognition. Back in the day, myself, Brian Keene and David Wellington were just about the only folks putting out zombie fiction. Now that’s changed and there are many brilliant zombie authors delivering the goods. I thought the fifteen year anniversary would be a great opportunity to celebrate both the enduring appeal of the living dead and the massive success of zombie authors worldwide.
2016 is Infected Books’ YEAR OF THE ZOMBIE, and over the course of the year you’re going to be treated to brand new zombie novellas by some of the very best in the business. Check www.infectedbooks.co.uk at the beginning of each month for each new release.
David Moody
January 2016
ALSO AVAILABLE FROM INFECTED BOOKS
YEAR OF THE ZOMBIE
KILLCHAIN by Adam Baker
THE PLAGUE WINTER by Rich Hawkins
THE YACHT by Iain Rob Wright
STRANGERS
LAST OF THE LIVING
ISOLATION
THE COST OF LIVING
STRAIGHT TO YOU
AUTUMN: THE HUMAN CONDITION
TRUST
by David Moody
GIRL IN THE BASEMENT
by Wayne Simmons
VOODOO CHILD
by Wayne Simmons and Andre Duza
FIND OUT MORE AT WWW.INFECTEDBOOKS.CO.UK
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