This is the first installment of the "Dwellers of the Night" trilogy.
The disease comes suddenly, without warning, and without mercy. It is an airborne germ that enters the human system through the respiratory tract. Through the capillaries of the lungs it enters the bloodstream, immediately attacking the brain. Its presence in the human body is marked by bleeding through the capillaries in the face; the capillaries rupture, causing bleeding through the nose, eyes, and ears. In the brain, the germ attacks and destroys the cortex; in the process, the victim becomes ridden with dementia and hysteria before slipping into a deep coma. Over a period of three days, the germ exponentially replicates in the brain, gaining the power and prominence to stimulate the brain stem. The victims come out of their comas, though now they are only shells of what they once were: personality, emotions, and thoughts are absent. All that is left is what appears to be a human being, though it is a mindless body, an organism of primal instincts and impulses, driven by an insatiable hunger and a thirst for survival, clinically insane. They are murderous fiends who only come out at night. They are not the “living dead”; rather, they are, simply, sick humans—sick beyond deliverance.
This first installment of the "Dwellers of the Night Trilogy" details the arrival of the disease and the effects of the plague. It follows a single man in his struggle to survive, both physically and emotionally. It is a story of tragedy, hope, and love.
Excerpt
The road twists and turns, thick trees resplendent with the last dying leaves of autumn lining either side. There are no parked cars, as the plague struck after dark, when the park had been closed to the public. Empty picnic tables are acknowledged by the trucks headlights, then forgotten just as quickly and given over once more to the impermeable darkness. This is the reign of the dark-walkers, and nothing but flesh and blood is remembered: skyscrapers, fountains, parks, vehicles, statues and gardens and computers and televisions, all of this means nothing. Fossils that will decay and break down, and millions of years later, the next sentient beings will study the Old Age, when Homo sapien ruled, and they will study their lives and books will be published on the topic, and there will be a scholarly work entitled "The Decline and Fall of Homo sapien: the Rise of the Dark-Walkers". Volumes will be written on the Age of Mankind, and a single chapter shall be dedicated, mayhaps even a footnote, to the carnage that struck the planet on August 11, 2011.
Jack London’s cousin writes a heartwarming, young adult story about the glory of life. It is also a heart-pounding adventure to a new and strange world.