I am announcing the publication of a new zombie e-book, Those Lazy Sundays, available now on Amazon for all Kindle products, and free for Amazon Prime members. I originally published a very early draft of this right here on Homepage of the Dead, and the original story is still available in the Members Section (as are its sequels). For those who read the original story, this is a novel length version, and there are significant changes between the novel and the original story, so it is well worth reading if you enjoyed the story here.
Buy the book here!
This will be the first of what will likely be 4-5 books in this series.
I will be posting a preview chapter here this evening. Or, you can go to Amazon and read a preview there! I love feedback (honest feedback, the good, the bad and the in between), so feel free to contact me here or via Amazon with comments.
Summary
The year is 2012, the place is the quiet countryside of Vermont. On a lazy fall Sunday afternoon, six students decide to take the scenic route through the New England countryside on their way home from a college retreat. After hitting a pedestrian who was mysteriously standing in the road, two decide to stay with the horribly mutilated victim while their friends speed into town for help.
As the sun goes down, the two students begin to realize that something isn't quite right with their victim, while their friends find that the idyllic village of Allentown has become a wasteland of death... and undeath.
Gripping and horrific, Those Lazy Sundays depicts the zombie outbreak at its infancy, showing how a few normal people coming from a life of affluence, stability, and security, deal with the hard reality of death, and a life that might not be returning.
-- -------- Post added at 08:10 PM ---------- Previous post was at 07:37 AM ----------
As promised, here is a chapter preview:
“REALLY ANDY, ARE you okay?” She felt as worried as she sounded.
“I’m fine honey, really,” Andy replied. “I’m just tired. It’s been a long day. And sort of a messed up one, if you know what I mean.”
Sarah sighed. She’d gotten tired of waiting, and called his cell phone. She'd dialed a dozen times before she got through, but eventually it rang, and Andy picked up. He’d sounded like a man waking up with a hangover when he answered.
“Really hon, don’t worry. Tomorrow morning we’ll be back on the road and headed home.”
She thought about contradicting him, but decided against it. They’d all have time to talk about the future later.
"The dentist office have a phone?" Sarah asked. “These cell phones won't last forever, and I bet you don't have your charger. I know I don't."
"Nope," Andy replied. "Didn't really have time to grab it when I was running from those psychos. But yeah, I think there's a phone here, let me look."
She could hear him rustling papers in the background, then flipping through a book of some sort.
"Got it." She grabbed a piece of paper and pen that had been dumped on the floor when Kyle and Brent had moved the desks, and jotted down the number. She gave him the number to the police station as well.
"It's hard to get through on the phones," Sarah said. "That office have a computer or anything? We could stay in touch on Facebook or IM."
"Yeah, but I don't have the password," Andy replied. "Tried it. No luck."
"Damn," Sarah swore.
"But I got a TV here," Andy said. "So I've been watching the news at least."
"That's better than us," Sarah replied. "We've had to keep up with things on the net."
"You hearing anything from friends? Your parents? Anything?" Andy asked.
"Yeah," Sarah replied. "So far they're fine."
"Good to hear."
“I love you Andy,” Sarah said.
“Love ya babe,” Andy replied. “I’m going to catch some sleep. There’s a crazy comfortable dentist chair with my name all over it.”
Sarah laughed. “Well stay put. Don't do anything stupid like you'd normally do. Like, taking off with the van, for example.”
“I may head out for a night on the town, but I won't be out too late. And don't worry, I'll keep all the hotties off me.”
“Funny,” Sarah replied.
“You know I’ll be careful. Night, hon.”
The phone disconnected. She’d feel better when Andy was sitting next to her again, and she could look him in the eye and know he was okay.
While she was chatting on the phone, and Kyle and Mary were busy scouring the news, Brent had gone to the back of the police station and opened the rear door, which led into the storage room. Sarah approached the open door and peered inside.
Her mouth dropped open, but she managed to stifle a yell. The rear door to the outside was ajar, revealing the dark alley behind the police station. The steady rain was splashing onto the floor just inside the doorway, leaving a dark stain on the cement that reminded her of the blood stain on the road around the man they had run over earlier that afternoon ˗ the second in an incredible series of events that she was still struggling to wrap her mind around.
For now, she was trying to wrap her mind around why the door was open ˗ and why Brent was missing. Had he decided to take off? Leave them to their fate? He'd be ditching his own brother, but then, she could tell they weren't the best of friends. They hadn't said anything directly, but she could tell there was an unspoken tension there, something between them that had probably been festering for a long time.
And maybe that caused Brent, who seemed like the less reasonable one of the pair, to say the hell with everyone else, and head out on his own, while he still had the chance.
Sarah walked across the room, around a couple of police barriers and unmarked boxes, and cautiously approached the open door. She paused in the doorway, the cold rain spraying across her face and body, and looked out into the night. The alley actually was more of a four-way intersection, with a real narrow alleyway running left to right, and the main, wider alley running straight from the back of the police station, the whole setup the product of four buildings built nearly on top of each other, back to back.
Sarah leaned out from the doorway and looked to the left and then to the right, seeing nothing but the brick outer walls of the other two buildings and the police station, and the falling rain. She stepped outside, the full brunt of the rain now coming down on her. She took a few steps forward. Her heart was pounding, and she wanted nothing more than to turn around, get back inside, and lock the door. Instead, she took another step forward, and then another. She crept down the alley, being careful not to make too much noise.
A figure, little more than a silhouette visible in the darkness, appeared around the corner in front of her. This time, Sarah couldn't stop herself letting out a short yell of surprise. She spun around and made a dash for the door.
"Hey!" the voice from behind her was hushed, but audible. "You trying to get us killed?"
Hard footsteps behind her picked up, and she turned just in time to see Brent a few steps away.
"Me?" Sarah asked, letting her voice get too loud again.
"Yes!" Brent whispered. "By doing shit like that! Come here!"
He motioned for her to follow, then started walking back down the alley. She hesitated, then hurried to catch up. Brent stopped at the end of the alley, his shoulder pressed against one of the brick walls. Sarah stopped beside him, slightly behind, most of her body hidden by his. She peered around the corner.
In the daylight it would have looked like nothing more than a narrow street with a mix of small commercial buildings and houses. In the darkness, though, it looked more sinister, the sharp angles of the old-style colonial houses looming out of the darkness, blurred by the rain. The street was mostly deserted, a couple of moving shapes visible further down the street, too far to notice the two living people hiding in the alleyway.
"It's quiet," Sarah whispered. "Like we talked about. They're all out front."
Brent nodded.
"Yeah, but look." He pointed in the opposite direction down the street from where they were looking. Sarah could barely make out what he was pointing at ˗ in the dark, it almost just looked like wind-swirled rain. But as her eyes focused, she could faintly make out human shapes ˗ and it looked like more than a couple.
"What're they doing?" she asked, still whispering.
"If I was going to guess, I'd say those fuckers have found someone else hiding in a house or a building, like us. Once they figure out someone's inside, it's like they just don't fucking stop. They just clump up around people."
"But what do they want?" Sarah asked. "What are they doing to do? Kill people? I don't get it."
Brent, staring off into the distance, almost mesmerized by the undulating shapes in the darkness, shook his head slightly.
"Maybe they're just hungry," he said.
Sarah frowned. "What's that mean?"
He looked at her. "Just screwing around. Who the hell knows."
"Well, if they are hungry, they're not going to find much in there," she gestured back towards the police station. "We ate everything that was there."
Brent turned around completely this time.
"Not everything."
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