Chapters (91)
- Author’s Foreword
- Part One: Hot Time in the Old Town Tonight
- DURING THE OUTBREAK
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- — 11 —
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- — 17 —
- Part Two: Fat Girl with a knife
- DURING THE OUTBREAK
- — 1 —
- — 2 —
- — 3 —
- — 4 —
- — 5 —
- — 6 —
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- — 8 —
- Part Three: Orc Night
- — 1 —
- — 2 —
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- — 4 —
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- Part Four: Still of Night
- — 1 —: THE SOLDIER AND THE DOG
- — 2 —: THE WARRIOR WOMAN
- — 3 —: DAHLIA AND THE PACK
- — 4 —: THE SOLDIER AND THE DOG
- — 5 —: DAHLIA AND THE PACK
- — 6 —: THE WARRIOR WOMAN
- — 7 —: THE SOLDIER AND THE DOG
- — 8 —: DAHLIA AND THE PACK
- — 9 —: THE WARRIOR WOMAN
- — 10 —: THE SOLDIER AND THE DOG
- — 11 —: DAHLIA AND THE PACK
- — 12 —: THE WARRIOR WOMAN
- — 13 —: THE SOLDIER AND THE DOG
- — 14 —: DAHLIA AND THE PACK
- — 15 —: THE WARRIOR WOMAN
- — 16 —: THE SOLDIER AND THE DOG
- — 17 —: DAHLIA AND THE PACK
- — 18 —: THE WARRIOR WOMAN
- — 19 —: THE SOLDIER AND THE DOG
- — 20 —: DAHLIA AND THE PACK
- — 21 —: THE WARRIOR WOMAN
- — 22 —: THE SOLDIER AND THE DOG
- — 23 —: DAHLIA AND THE PACK
- — 24 —: THE WARRIOR WOMAN
- — 25 —: THE SOLDIER AND THE DOG
- — 26 —: DAHLIA AND THE PACK
- — 27 —: THE WARRIOR WOMAN
- — 28 —: THE SOLDIER AND THE DOG
- — 29 —: DAHLIA AND THE PACK
- — 30 —: THE WARRIOR WOMAN
- — 31 —: THE SOLDIER AND THE DOG
- — 32 —: DAHLIA AND THE PACK
- — 33 —: THE WARRIOR WOMAN
- — 34 —: DAHLIA AND THE PACK
- — 35 —: THE WARRIOR WOMAN
- — 36 —: HAPPY VALLEY
- — 37 —: THE SOLDIER AND THE DOG
- — 38 —: THE SIEGE OF HAPPY VALLEY
- — 39 —: THE WARRIOR WOMAN, THE SOLDIER, AND THE DOG
- — 40 —: THE SIEGE OF HAPPY VALLEY
- — 41 —: THE WARRIOR WOMAN, THE SOLDIER, AND THE DOG
- — 42 —: HAPPY VALLEY
- — 43 —: THE WARRIOR WOMAN, THE SOLDIER, AND THE DOG
- — 44 —: HAPPY VALLEY
- — 45 —: THE WARRIOR WOMAN, THE SOLDIER, AND THE DOG
- — 46 —: HAPPY VALLEY
- — 47 —: THE WARRIOR WOMAN, THE SOLDIER, AND THE DOG
- — 48 —: THE SIEGE OF HAPPY VALLEY
- — 49 —: THE WAR
- EPILOGUE
- — 1 —
- — 2 —
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- The Zombie Apocalypse Chronology
The smell was too strong to have traveled far, and within a couple of minutes I came upon the big dog standing just inside the shadowy woods on the edge of a clearing. His ears twitched as I came up behind, but his eyes were set and fixed on what was inside the clearing. The smell was much stronger here, and now I could tell that there was more than one kind of rot troubling the air. The sweetness of human rot and the stranger, muskier stink of zombies undergoing their ultra-slow process of decay. The closer I got the more of that I smelled.
As I crept up behind Baskerville, I could hear sounds, too. Moans, but oddly muffled, and some creaking, rasping sounds. And the buzz of flies. Hundreds of them. Thousands.
Baskerville and I peered through a break in the leaves and stared into the mouth of hell itself.
— 17 —: DAHLIA AND THE PACK
— 17 —
DAHLIA AND THE PACK
Dahlia stood at the edge of the big clearing. Neeko stood facing her across the open space, and several of the others were there as well. A skinny black girl named Bailey; Pepe, a squat, broad-shouldered Chicano; and one of the last kids from Dahlia’s old school, Skye. The interior space of the clearing was filled with all kinds of devices rigged by Mr. Church. Pieces of logs balanced by ropes, camouflaged pits, trip wires, and dozens of small targets made from paper plates dripping with fresh white paint. Control wires snaked out in all directions, each of them held by other members of the Pack. Scattered throughout the clearing were bundles wrapped in cloth or old newspaper. Weapons or other tools.
The exercise was a bitch. Dahlia and the others had taken a real beating during it several times over the last few weeks. She could still feel the bruises. And it was never the same way twice. So far none of them had gotten all the way through. There were no set rules except Church’s expectation that everyone did it and anyone participating in the exercise try to get all the way through. No quitting.
Church did not give his combat or survival exercises names, but Neeko always did. He called the drill with blindfolds and Sharpies “Ghosting.” This was the Arena.
“On deck,” called Church. He stood just inside the wall of shadowy trees.