Year of the Zombie (Book 8): Scratch (9 page)

‘Promise.’

‘What about Charlie?’

‘I couldn’t help her.
She’s okay now, though. She’s not hurting anymore.’

‘She dead?’ Holly asked.

‘Yes, she’s dead. Sorry,
love.’

‘I liked Charlie.’

‘Yeah, I liked Charlie.
She deserved much better. Shall we go home now?’

‘Yes, please,’ Ben said.

‘Cool.’

With a grunt of effort
Jody moved the bed away from the door then led her children downstairs,
distracting them from the wreckage and the blood and what was left of Charlie.
She found the keys to Gary’s 4x4 in a bowl on the kitchen table, and she drove
the kids out of the infected zone.

And they felt safe.

And they were safe.

***

David Moody grew up on a diet of trashy horror
and pulp science fiction. He worked as a bank manager before giving up the day
job to write about the end of the world for a living. He has written a number
of horror novels, including AUTUMN, which has been downloaded more than half a
million times since publication in 2001 and spawned a series of sequels and a
movie starring Dexter Fletcher and David Carradine. Film rights to HATER were
snapped up by Guillermo del Toro (Hellboy, Pan's Labyrinth) and Mark Johnson
(producer of the Chronicles of Narnia films). Moody lives with his wife and a
houseful of daughters and stepdaughters, which may explain his pre-occupation
with Armageddon.

THE HATER SERIES

HATER

DOG BLOOD

THEM OR US

THE AUTUMN SERIES

AUTUMN

AUTUMN: THE CITY

AUTUMN: PURIFICATION

AUTUMN: DISINTEGRATION

AUTUMN: AFTERMATH

AUTUMN: THE HUMAN
CONDITION

TRUST

STRAIGHT TO YOU

LAST OF THE LIVING

STRANGERS

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

YEAR OF THE ZOMBIE

KILLCHAIN by Adam Baker

THE PLAGUE WINTER by
Rich Hawkins

THE YACHT by Iain Rob
Wright

Z-HUNT by Mark Tufo

GERAINT WYN: ZOMBIE
KILLER by Gary Slaymaker

LITTLE MONSTER by James
Plumb

RIDE THE SERPENTINE by
Andre Duza

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