Kindle Edition
Amazon
Official Ken Stark Website
Category:
Horror
Publisher: Severed Press
ISBN-10: 1925597792
Pages: 307
Copyright: Jun 19, 2017
ISBN-13: 9781925597790
Price: $3.84 (eBook)
In this sequel to 'Stage 3', the world has gone mad and one woman stands alone. It's every man for himself, but those are odds she can live with.
The virus swept through humanity like wildfire.
Millions went blind in the first few hours, but blindness was just the beginning. It was only in Stage 2 that the real terror emerged. As the virus ate into the brain, it destroyed everything human, leaving in its wake a creature that knew only one thing; the need to feed.
And the world was torn apart.
In San Francisco, those few who remain amid the swarms measure their survival from one terrified heartbeat to the next. But for Sarah, there is reason to keep going. A pretty little girl with big green eyes and a tangled mop of curly red hair is counting on her, and she's not about to let anything in Heaven or Hell stand in her way.
But those wild, ravenous things aren't the only monsters in this new world of the damned, and even as she fights her way home across a besieged city, she knows it's only going to get worse.
The virus isn't done yet. Stage 3 is here, and it might just be the beginning of the end.
Excerpt
Just then, a pair of figures appeared from a doorway far down the block. It was a man and woman; young, frightened, dressed in mismatched clothing as if they'd thrown on whatever was at hand before fleeing into the streets. They moved furtively at first, bent at the waist and tip-toeing cautiously. The man was in the lead, guiding the woman along with their hands clasped tightly together. The woman's head was on a swivel, but her eyes alit on nothing. She was obviously blind and being led by the other. But if the man still had his vision, he was doing a piss-poor job of leading them to safety.
Jim Lambert made as if he were about to call out to them, but Lucy clamped a hand across his mouth, said, "Don't you fucking dare!" and all he could do was acquiesce with a horrified nodding of his head.
The man and woman took several wary steps across the sidewalk, then they stopped so the man could assess the wild things all around them. He leaned close to the woman and whispered something in her ear, and she gave a scared little nod and allowed herself to be guided toward some perceived safety on the other side of the street. Maybe they were making for the apartment building across the way, Sarah considered. Or maybe the man's car was parked against the far curb. Or maybe, she decided grimly, just maybe they wanted to be anywhere else but precisely here. Either way, they didn't get far. As they stepped off the curb, they came too close to an overturned garbage can and the woman's foot inadvertently sent an empty beer can skipping and skidding across the pavement. And all at once, every creature within twenty yards rushed at the sound, growling and snarling like wild dogs. The young couple tried to retreat, but the woman tripped over the curb and fell to her knees, and when she cried out in sudden shock and pain, she effectively sealed their fates.
The alphas were on them within seconds. One of them thundered into a parked car and was stopped short, but a big man in a bloodied suit and tie all but dove on the woman. He clawed his way up one leg until he was on top of her, then he tore her blouse away in a stroke and began to claw away great swathes of pale, white flesh. When the woman's screams died away in a wet gurgle, her companion tried to run, but two others descended on him before he'd taken a dozen steps. They were a slim-built male and a little girl no older than seven, but the virus that fuelled their madness gave them both the strength of lions. The male raked his claws at the sound of the man's footfalls and managed to grab a handful of jacket. The man squealed in terror at the touch and spun around to throw feeble punches at his attacker, but then the girl crashed into his legs, howling and clawing and gnashing her tiny, perfectly-white teeth. The poor man flailed away at them as he tumbled awkwardly back, but he may as well have been fighting the wind. As his shirt rode up to reveal a bare crescent of skin, the girl sunk her dainty little teeth into his belly, and soon enough, the man lay still a widening pool of blood.
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