The Common Cold (Book 2): A Zombie Chronicle-Cabin Fever (26 page)
Read The Common Cold (Book 2): A Zombie Chronicle-Cabin Fever Online
Authors: David K. Roberts
Tags: #Zombie Apocalypse
“Not many.”
“Well, don’t send any
more of them to us. We will repulse them with maximum force. One of those sent
to rescue us was collecting the ears of dead people. He had a string of them
around his neck.
Very fucking Universal Soldier.”
“That can’t be right.
Which one?”
“One with a uniform and minus a head.
I don’t know,” The voice sounded pissed and exasperated, making Ethan glad
no-one knew where he was. “All I want to say to you is this, leave us alone. We
are doing just fine without you sending us your psychopaths.”
Ethan looked pained and sighed quietly; no-one ever
appreciated the things he did for them, even in his personal life his mother
shunned all the effort he’d put into making her twilight years more
comfortable; he only hope she enjoyed the new reality, he wouldn’t be there to help
her through it - the only thing warming him was that maybe she’d finally appreciate
what she no longer had.
He turned to his commanding officer. “What
sh
…” he began before the words caught in his throat. Stacey
was staring at him through nacreous pupils; small rivulets of blood ran from
the corners of his eyes, giving his face a sad, yet somehow malevolent
appearance. His face was hard to recognise at first, the skin pulled taut and
mouth drawn back into what would be a familiar grin, if only the underground
worker had but been to the surface at all during the crisis and seen what was
going on. “Sir…”
“
Gaagh
,” was all he got in reply,
as if Stacey had been admonishing him once again for not using his first name.
Ethan panicked at first and pushed his wheeled office chair
away from the apparition. Then he caught sight of his own reflection in the
glass in the partly opened door to the office. He put his hand to his face in
wonder; he looked just like his commander. Feeling his own taut and strangely
smooth skin, he ran a finger around his mouth, fascinated by how large his
teeth felt.
Picking up the headset he pressed the PTT switch and sent a
final message.
“
Ccchhg
aargh
,” before releasing the switch to receive a reply.
“Hello? Hello? Say again? Is there anybody there? Hello…”
Then nothing.
To Be Continued …
on the Book:
A couple of reviews to the first part of this series spoke
of wanting to know more about what had caused the apocalypse. There was a
direct reference to the cause in the first volume, but to clarify I added a
more full description of the cause in this volume - I hope this pleases those
who want to know! This attempt to lasso a meteorite is real and is being funded
by the current administration in the USA. And guess who is responsible for this
project?
NASA, of course.
I do like a certain amount
of realism in my books; I think it lends itself to the adventure knowing that
it could really happen. If you want to know more about this, click
Huffington
Post
. At the end of the article you will see a particularly arrogant
statement by a NASA official that ‘we’re smarter than the dinosaurs’. A
flippant remark perhaps but let’s hope it doesn’t bite us on the arse.
There are two interesting incidents that prompted my use of
an LRAD in the story. Firstly reading this newspaper article gave me the idea
about annoying zombies with music:
Then I discovered the LRAD as a delivery mechanism.
Combining it with Kylie Minogue seemed to be cruel and unusual punishment at
first but then I thought, ‘what the hell’ and decided to go with it. If you
would like to know more about the LRAD, visit this
YouTube video
. It is
quite an eye-opener. I do not know if it is possible to boil heads with sound -
I don’t see why not - but it does lend an interesting and novel approach to the
massive zombie problem that we would be faced with in the following day, months
and possibly years following an apocalyptic state.
Towards the end of this chronicle I include a rape scenario.
I did not do this lightly but feel it has, unfortunately, a ring of reality about
it. As it makes me feel uncomfortable to write about this subject, I prefer to
allude to such an act of this nature rather than describe it, especially as
this is an adventure book suitable for a wide variety of ages. I do not
consider rape to be at all acceptable in peace or a war-like situation; in the
latter I include an apocalypse. Naturally there are people in the world who
will always find an excuse to abuse women or other vulnerable people during
trying times. As far as I am concerned, there is only one end for these despots
and their acolytes who have chosen to see it as a perk or as a weapon to be used
against their opposition; you will see my characters are no exception to my
feelings on this score and I ensure they receive justice in whichever form is
available at the time, and for all of these types of perpetrators I will have
no mercy. Go Angelina Jolie and William Hague!
from the Author:
I
hope you enjoyed this book; I have endeavoured to make the subject matter
believable (as long as you believe in zombies). I have even been through some significant
pain in the production of this sequel - I actually listened to Kylie Minogue’s
‘Can’t get You
Out
of My Head’, just so that you don’t
have to.
Occasionally,
due to human error, some grammatical errors may go unnoticed during the editing
process, which believe me is intensive. If you do find anything you would like
to share with me, please feel free to
email
me.
Also
you can visit me on my website,
http://www.david-k-roberts.com/
,
or
Check
out my Zombie Blog on
http://www.zombies-worldwide.com
I am
also on
Twitter
under
@dkr54
. Please feel free to follow me.
The Common Cold: A
Zombie Chronicle (1st in Series)
Available
Worldwide
Return of
A
King: A Zombie Chronicle
Available
Worldwide
Fierce Alchemy
Available
Worldwide
The Animus Portal
Available
Worldwide