Authors: Jonathan Maberry
Dust & Decay
| Dust Decay |
| Benny Imura [2] |
| Jonathan Maberry |
| Simon Schuster Books for Young Readers (2011) |
DUST & DECAY
Also by Jonathan Maberry
Rot & Ruin
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Special thanks to some real-world people who allowed me to tap them for advice and information, lean on them for support, and in some cases shove them into the middle of the action. My agents, Sara Crowe and Harvey Klinger; my editor, David Gale, and all the good people at Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers; experts Dr. John Cmar, of Johns Hopkins University Department of Infectious Diseases, and Alan Weisman, author of
The World Without Us
(Thomas Dunne Books); fellow YA authors Nancy Holder, Michael Northrup, Heather Brewer, and Maria V. Snyder; the King of the Zombies George A. Romero; and cadaverine experts Ellery and John Griswold.
An imprint of Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing Division
1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, New York 10020
This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or
real locales are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and incidents are
products of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or locales
or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Copyright © 2011 by Jonathan Maberry
All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form.
is a trademark of Simon & Schuster, Inc.
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Book design by Laurent Linn
The text for this book is set in Augustal.
Manufactured in the United States of America 2 4 6 8 10 9 7 5 3 1
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Maberry, Jonathan.
Dust & decay / Jonathan Maberry. — 1st ed.
p. cm.
Summary: In post-apocalyptic America, fifteen-year-old Benny Imura and his friends set out into the great Rot & Ruin hoping to find a better future but are soon pitted against zombies, wild animals, insane murderers, and the horrors of Gameland.
ISBN 978-1-4424-0235-5 (hardcover)
[1. Zombies—Fiction. 2. Survival—Fiction. 3. Bounty hunters—Fiction. 4. Brothers—Fiction.] I. Title. II. Title: Dust and decay.
PZ7.M11164Dus 2011
[Fic]—dc22
2010050305
ISBN 978-1-4424-0237-9 (eBook)
Quote from
’Salem’s Lot
by Stephen King used by permission of the author.
All rights reserved.
This one’s for Don Lafferty, Arthur Mensch, and Sam West-Mensch.
And—as always—for Sara Jo.
—J. M.
PART TWO: DOWN THE ROAD AND GONE