I'm finishing up my next project, a novella about zombie rats titled Ratpocalypse. I hope to publish it this spring. In the meantime, here's a preview of the lightly edited prologue. Enjoy
Prologue
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It started five years ago with the first reported outbreak of the zombie virus near Wuhan, Hubei Province, China.
Within three days, the outbreak spread to the surrounding provinces. Beijing prohibited domestic and international flights in and out of China.
Two days later, the virus erupted in Mongolia,
Siberia, Kazakhstan, and Myanmar. Air travel worldwide was suspended.
By the end of the first week, every nation reported
instances of the zombie virus.
By the end of the second week, the virus had infected
all of society. Billions were turned from the living to the living dead. Major
cities collapsed within forty-eight hours. The virus then moved to the suburbs.
Fortunately for mankind, it did not reach the countryside for several weeks,
providing safe havens for those fleeing the outbreaks and allowing enough time
for mankind to mount an effective defense and eventually halting the outbreak.
Nine months after the first reported case, pockets
of humanity began to fight back, exterminating the living dead and slowly
retaking lost territory. The discovery in Boston of a zombie virus vaccination
that prevented those being bit from turning into the living dead provided the
advantage mankind needed to wage war against the living dead. Several nations,
including the United States, opted to isolate the major cities rather than
retake them, realizing the risks far outweighed the minimal gains. The government-in-exile
in New Mexico made the decision to wait several years, let the hordes in major
population centers rot away, then cleanse the cities of the once-human
detritus.
Ten months ago, the last of the living dead in North
America outside the isolation zones was eliminated. No outbreaks occurred since
then. News from around the globe, though minimal because of the loss of
satellite communications, indicated other nations had achieved the same level
of success.
For the survivors in the United States, a sense of
ease settled over the rural populations. Then began the struggle to rebuild
their lives. Townships sprouted up, and people lived as their ancestors had
generations ago—growing their own food and producing the materials they needed
to survive by hand. Civilization slowly returned to normal.
What no one foresaw was the new nightmare about to
unfold.
Animals had remained immune from the zombie virus.
Millions had been bitten or devoured by the living dead, but none had
reanimated. Within months of the initial outbreak, major population centers had
been overtaken by colonies of rats, in many cases numbering in the millions. With
humans gone, and with no trash to feed on, they burrowed into apartments and homes
in search of anything edible. Little remained. Once the typical sources of food
had been devoured, they began feeding off carcasses of the living dead that had
succumbed to time and starvation, and sometimes on those still staggering along
the streets. Inspection teams sent into Chicago, Los Angeles, and New York City
reported rats stripping the bodies clean, which would make the humans’ job
easier when the decision would finally be made to reclaim the cities.
However, in Boston, an unforeseen event occurred in
a possible yet highly improbable scenario.
The zombie virus species jumped from one of the corpses
to the rat feeding off it.
Once the rat morphed into the living dead, it began
consuming the only other available food: the rest of the colony. The virus
rapidly spread among the rodent population, creating a colony of several
million zombie rats in desperate need of food. With nothing left in Boston to
feed on, the colony had only one option.
To migrate out of the city in search of sustenance.
