[I walk past the Desert Road “Checkpoint Conrad” post, on the way to my next New Zealand appointment as a stringer for this collection of World War Z survivor stories. Dr Katie Mulcannon looks up from her laptop and welcomes me into her mobile assay lab.

Sit down. Okay, so where do I begin? I’m Dr Katherine Mulcannon, microbiologist and troubleshooter for the Republic of New Zealand National Unity Government, which means that I have strategic expertise in the area of zombie infection. (more…)

“Hey, nahnie, nahnie, hey, nahnie, nahnie, hey, nahnie, nahnie, nigh.”

She stabbed her bare toes at the dry, hard-packed dirt to get some purchase to turn her swing in circles until she would eventually let the chains spin her around as they unwrapped themselves.  But though she had the single-mindedness of a child, she seemed to forget what she was trying to do.  She’d freeze and the swing, turned only once, would quickly right itself.  Then she would sing the same chant in the same way and, using her toes, would turn the swing again. (more…)

Chapters 6 & 7 in the “Hunger” Series

Chapter 8

“Well, I think the whole situation is verruckt, fucking crazy.”  Horst crossed his arms and sulked in the back of the American deuce-and-a-half truck as it bounced along the road back towards Ornel.

Burkhardt rolled his eyes.  “Of course you do.  You’ve always been a complainer.  Do you know that?”

“Jah,” Rudi nodded impatiently.  “You’ve never been satisfied with anything the entire time I’ve know you, Horst.  What is the problem anyway?  I thought the whole idea was to surrender to the Amis or the Tommies and sit out the last few weeks of the war.  Well, we have and we’re still alive.  Mission accomplished!” (more…)

A shimmer of heat hung over the line of bush. Cicadas trilled endlessly. A slow breeze blew the foulness in from the west.

“They’re out there, just behind the line of bush,” Danville grinned like the Cheshire Cat. “We got people to shoot.”

“They’re not people,” Pa glowered. “You don’t say that in front of my son. It’s his first time and I don’t want it messed up for him. It’s enough with the churches already. Those things have got worms in their heads and there’s nothing there anymore. Just the flesh. No humanity. You hear that Vince?” (more…)

What do the dead want?  To the most casual observer to any apocalypse concerning the dead getting up and walking around, the usual answer is mindless hunger, just a dead body re-activated by a virus that propagates itself endlessly.  And I suppose they’re right, of course.  But there are always two sides to an argument, even if one side can’t articulate its statements anymore beyond the odd groan.  But what is hunger?  It’s a need, an imperative, a want.  And what is love if not the same thing? (more…)

SEQUEL TO LONESOME

One Month After The Darkness – Salvation

How many times have I been down this road and never noticed this place? It’s not exactly hidden, but I also haven’t been through here in years. I pull the pickup on to the shoulder, kicking up long undisturbed dust as I squeeze the truck to a stop. I step out, grabbing my 9mm and the keys before closing and locking the door. You can never be too safe; things just aren’t the way they used to be.

(more…)

Sally’s eyes are red rimmed. She stalls during the conversation. Something comes over her. Her date asks if she’s alright, why she looks so sad.

She responds and says that, “I’ve been crying all day.”But that’s not true, is it, Sally? She hasn’t been crying all day, but her eyes have continued to water. And it feels like crying, but there’s no emotion involved, no tender sadness. No warmth in her chest that rises up and pushes out the tears. Instead, they just flow, watering her irises. (more…)

London Bridge is broken down,

Falling down, falling down.

London Bridge is falling down,

My fair Baby. (more…)

1

Fouchet stared at the dusty road ahead, saw the combined shadow of him and his horse lengthen before them and dug his heels into the scrawny sides of the weary animal. The horse let out a high, thin whinny; it was nearing the end of its strength, the sides of its neck streaked with froth. Without proper rest it would not last more than a day, two if fortune smiled on its rider. But Fouchet had no time to waste; he spurred the mount onward in desperate hope of finding shelter for the night.

Lush green meadows and forests stretched unbroken for miles. It was a lovely, warm spring day, the fragrant breeze of the grass and flowers thick in the air; yet the unnatural silence cast an ominous hue over the idyllic scenery. No birds sang in the canopies, nothing rustled in the verdant shrubs. In a few hours the treacherous sun that shone so warmly now would sink into the tree-tops and darkness would descend, thick and impenetrable. He could not see in the darkness. They could.  (more…)

The damned are reinvigorated

in the twilight

their husks

suffused with a new and

unwholesome potency, (more…)

Dan was awake; he couldn’t sleep anymore, not since he was bitten anyway. He had known it was bad as soon as it had happened; late in the zombie heyday, just before the living had mobilised. Dan had slowly turned into what the news reports had warned him of. Just that one bite. Dan had prided himself on his fitness, and when one staggering corpse had come upon him, he had hit him with all his strength. That had been enough to send the rotting man down, but not sufficient to make the undead unconscious and as he passed the victim of whatever mutation or virus that had caused all this plague, the victim had bit him on the ankle. (more…)