“Doc! We need your help! Doc!” Naveen yelled for the first time that I could remember. It took a few seconds before Doctor Mark snapped into his medical training mode and knelt to help us with Michelle.
Michelle’s eyes fluttered for a moment then closed, they had lost the struggle to stay open. I wasn’t sure if she was still alive. I blacked out or more accurately spaced out. I took a break from the bullets and blood and stood to remove myself from the improvised trauma unit. This was a seriously shitty day.
Nick pulled me by my arm and led me to the fitting rooms. Tailyn watched as we disappeared from the group. I looked down at my sweaty arm. It wasn’t sweat on my arm. It was covered in Michelle’s blood.
“Baby girl, are you okay?”
“Huh.” Nick brushed my stray hairs behind my ears.
I looked down at the two guns in his waistband and then looked into his wild eyes. “No, I’m not okay, people are dying. Brandon is dead and I didn’t even get to know him.”
The tears broke free and started to conquer my eyes with fierce abandon. Nick grabbed both of forearms and held them much too tightly.
“Jesse please, we don’t have time for this.”
“I have the right to fucking cry!” Or did I? I questioned my tears like I had questioned my sanity since this deadie takeover.
“This is not a fucking novel. There is no Stephen King. There is no time for character development. This is reality. We are in a zombie fucking apocalypse. There is no time for meet and greets. Who you were doesn’t matter. Survival is all that matters. It’s a miracle that you are still alive after being bit and all the crazy bullshit that happened today. Don’t waste your time on the what ifs.”
Calm seeped into me. His speech soothed me as much as his gray-blue eyes burned into me.
“Survival, killed or be killed.” I said what came to my jumbled and confused tear-filled mind.
“Fuck yes.” Nick said vacuously without his normal passion. Maybe his humanity was disappearing just like the human race. Maybe he was changing and part of it is my fault. I am the one that crushed his spirit and made him doubt himself the day I was bitten.
“Baby girl, we will find Kait. I promise we will find her.”
Even though the chance was slim I believed Nick when he said it. The only problem is if we happen to find Kait what condition will she be in? I know Bolt well enough to know he is the real deal. He is a mean, heartless bastard. He is the same man that kidnapped Kait. I same man that tied Courtney to a pole and left her for dead. He shot an old man right in front of me for no good reason. He had girls chained up and he used then as sex slaves. He is the reason Brandon is dead. I don’t want to think of what will happen to Kait. I fled the monster but Kait is a kid.
Nick and I returned to the others and Tailyn hadn’t moved from her space. The doctor and Naveen were working on Michelle. Tinkerbell was on the floor huddled in a corner. Nick pulled his Glock as we heard the store gate opened.
“It’s us! Don’t shoot!” Joe’s voice greeted us before we could visibly see him.
We waited as Malik and Joe entered the back room. Joe was first to notice Michelle’s lifeless body on the floor bathed in blood.
He spoke my line. “What the fuck just happened?”
***
Author’s Notes from Deadies: Run For Your Life
As a teen I was mesmerized by fashion magazines. I admired the fashion models in the pages and actually knew all their names. They were my paper dolls. I never wanted to be a model. I was 5’6” and a behind the camera type of girl. As a youth I always love to write. I knew I would write as a profession or as a hobby. I digress. There was something alluring about fashion models. Models are being paid the big bucks to be made and dressed up. The concept for this book came from a very simple question I asked myself while thumbing through the pages of Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Edition. What would a supermodel do in a zombie apocalypse? Modeling doesn’t really give you any survival skills that I can think of. So I figured I would surround the model with everyday people, she would probably never come into contact with otherwise and just see where the story takes me. That’s how the character Franjessca Bordeaux (Jesse) materialized. The character Nick came from the fact that I always have car trouble and how nice it would have been to have a boyfriend that was a mechanic. The zombie story has been done time and time again. I felt I could put a different spin on things. As far I know there has never been a swimsuit, lingerie model thrust into a zombie apocalypse. In the world of make believe anything is possible.
Author’s Notes for Deadies 2: In Search Of Blood
The first Deadies book, Deadies: Run For Your Life was my first time taking a crack at the zombie fiction genre. My friends and family know I am fanatically loyal to the vampire fiction genre. Zombies are completely new to me. I am sorry to write that I had never actually read a zombie book, novel or comic until after I wrote Deadies:RFYL. Starting from scratch made the experience fascinating and rewarding. The ultimate plan of this book is to offer realistic twists and turns. As a writer I want the reader to NOT know what will happen next. Just like Deadies:RFYL, there are plot points to help move the story to an unforeseen cliffhanger. My style of writing has no denouement. With that being said, I love to write lines that foreshadow future events. So if you were to reread this book you can see that some lines are not just random dialogue they are clues to future events. Thank you for purchasing Deadies 2: In Search of Blood. I have already started on Deadies 3: Darkness Falls.
Author’s Notes for Deadies 3: Darkness Falls
It’s me again. I tried something different this time. I started this book off by writing from the point of view of the character Nick Norris. Anyone who has read my vampire series The First Blood Novels knows that this is my normal practice. I write in different voices. It’s a writer’s brand of schizophrenia. I thought this would be a good time to take a glimpse into the mind of our zombie killing hero and leader of our small group of survivors. I hope this installment wasn’t predictable. I know different writers have many goals when concocting a story but my number one goal is to avoid predictability. I’m not that deep. Sure I know there are supposed to be setups, conflicts, rising action, a climax, and resolutions etc. As a reader I just want to be entertained by words. I want the readers of my novels to be entertained and shocked by my written words. I personally don’t want to get it right or figure it out. I want to try to figure it out and be completely wrong with my brazen assumptions of where the story is headed. Who wants to be right all the time? I myself hate knowing what will happen next. It takes the fun out of the story. The more you write the better you get at it. My second Deadies book is better than the first. If you read them both I’m sure you would agree. So I’m still working on my craft. I hope you enjoyed reading Deadies 3: Darkness Falls. I love this Deadies series. I have become a diehard lover of the zombie fiction genre. Please enjoy! Friend me on Facebook. You can never have enough friends or fans.
Other works by this Author:
Birth (A First Blood Novel)
Afterbirth (A First Blood Novel)
Connect with me online:
www.krystelllake.com
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Deadies: Book 1, 2 & 3 Page 23
