I was riding along, my zombies in front of me and my packhorse trailing behind, when I came to a cut in the narrow road.  High banks covered with grass rose up on both sides.  The zombies started between the banks, then suddenly I heard gunfire.  Someone on top of one of the banks was firing short bursts.

Two zombies fell with headshots but the herd kept going without slowing down, and then the gunfire paused.  I released the packhorse, drew my shotgun and spurred my way up the bank.  I figured the shooter was reloading, and I wanted to flush him out before he opened up again.

I knew more or less where he would be, based on sound and the angle of fire down to the fallen zombies, but I couldn’t find him.  I rode around for a while with no luck, and then I heard a yelp and reined to a stop.  My horse was standing on a mound of grass.  I thought it must be some kind of animal’s nest, until the mound moved and a voice yelled, “Get off me, ya freakin’ dead-head!” (more…)

[Wellington is one of the Southern Hemisphere’s success stories. I traipse up the stairwell, showing my smartcard to the guards. Across the hall, Colonel Robert Maguire sits up in bed, ravaged by the rad dose that he received during enforcement of New Zealand’s controversial ‘triage’ policy]

I know that there are some people out there who hate me, mostly those who lost family within the Australian theatre of World War Z. Unlike other states that enforced a cordon sanitaire, such as South Africa and Israel/Palestine, we had a sea border to control and protect and a long coastline. (more…)

Four of my zombies shook off their hobbles during the night, so after I finished eating and shaving I set out to round them up. I went on foot, because the herd was in a small field and I knew the strays couldn’t have gone far in the surrounding trees.

I found three of the zombies a few yards into the trees and led them back to join the rest, then I went looking for the fourth. It took awhile but I finally found him deeper into the woods, and when I saw him I got a hell of a shock–a bear was standing in front of him and eating his guts. (more…)

The radio in the small bunker crackled to life with the sound of soldiers under fire. Down in the valley an American combat patrol had been ambushed by a machinegun and was pinned down, unable to move. The tension quickly mounted in the bunker as five field artillery soldiers stood waiting to take an enemy location sent by the soldiers in contact and turn it into firing data for the howitzers to hammer the enemy with 105mm high explosive artillery shells. The artillerymen did not have to wait very long.

“FIRE MISSION!” shouted the sergeant in response to the buzzing alarm of the battlefield computer in front of him.

“FIRE MISSION!” parroted back four soldiers, their voices loud in the cramped confines of the sandbag and plywood bunker they used as the fire direction center. (more…)

Sam Minitz opened his eyes in that spasm of mobilized desperation which sometimes helps claw back to wakefulness from a nightmare too awful to be borne.

But the tension was still pressing down on his body like an armor of leaden plates; he could hardly move as yet, only groan desperately at the menacing figures all around.

It took endless seconds for his brain to catch up with his waking. When it did, the looming monsters and intruders resolved into mere dark folds in the drapes. He was alone in his room, alone in his apartment.

Just him, tightened like a coil ready to snap. (more…)

I entered the studio apartment, flicked on the lights, and turned on her oven. I was still drunk, but needed to maintain, so I opened the bottle of wine and set it on the coffee table in front of the black velvet couch that sat beneath heavy draped windows letting in little of the overcast day. The microwave dinged and she stepped out, steam coming off her body as she stood in the center of the room, a dead look on the face of my zombie whore. It took a minute for her to cool down from the microwave, so I grabbed two glasses from atop the dresser next to the bed and poured them half full. I sat on the bed, balancing her glass on top of the thick umber comforter that contrasted with the gray walls, and I unbuttoned my uniform jacket, letting out a deflating breath, wincing a bit. I took the pillbox from my pocket and washed two capsules down with the wine. (more…)