If you think you know what to expect in a zombie apocalypse, you'd better think again.
Blindness was just the beginning.
It was only when the virus progressed to Stage 2 that the true horror emerged. Ordinary people were being turned into mindless predators, and it didn't take Mason long to figure out their prey of choice.
He thought he'd had nothing left to lose, but now he is all that stands between a young girl and a gruesome fate, and he's sworn to protect her with his very life. They'll have to be smart, they'll have to be strong, and they'll have to be every bit as ruthless as the swarm, but even as Mason and Mackenzie battle their way from one horror to the next in a desperate flight through a world gone mad, they both know that their time is running out.
The virus isn't done yet. Stage 3 is coming, and things are about to get a whole lot worse.
Excerpt
"Who are you?" She breathed in the barest hint of a whisper.
For a moment, Mason wondered if he'd been wrong about the girl being blind after all, but though her eyes were a brilliant green and sparkled with intelligence, they were obviously as dead as stones.
"I won't hurt you," he hushed back to the girl.
The girl's expression didn't change, but she raised a single eyebrow and whispered with some suspicion, "If you wanted to hurt me, you would have done it already."
Before Mason could respond, there was a crash from somewhere off to the side, followed by a desperate scream. The girl flicked her gaze that way and drew in a short gasp of air, then the scream ended in a gurgle, and the girl turned calmly back to Mason.
"There's three behind you, you know," she said, almost indifferently.
Mason flipped a glance over his shoulder and saw three creatures fifty yards away, slowly wandering their way. Mason took two steps toward the girl, but when she backed away nervously, he stopped and whispered softly.
"Are you out here all alone? Where are your parents?"
Again, her expression remained unchanged. She held a tiny finger vertically against her lips, then pointed to the side.
"There's another one over there," she hushed.
Mason looked to where the girl pointed, and sure enough, a big male was stumbling awkwardly across the street, the sharp tip of a bone protruding from the man's shin, sawing through soft flesh with every step.
Despite the growing threat, the girl looked blindly to Mason and whispered as gently as a breeze, "Do you have any water?"
"No, I'm sorry," he hushed, "but I can find you some."
She turned her nose up suspiciously. "Can I trust you?"
"Do you have a choice?" Mason asked.
"Always," the girl replied with absolute conviction.
"You can trust me," Mason told her truthfully, one eye on the advancing creatures, "and you have about twenty seconds to decide whether or not I'm lying."
The girl nodded once, and it was decided. She held out her hand, Mason took it, and they both stepped into a side street, away from the gathering swarm.
Professional Reviews
5.0 out of 5 starsStage 3 - Brilliant intense, suspense fuelled apocalpytic adventure with believable main characters and story line
In my opinion this read was brilliant, with an intense narrative and suspense fuelled adventure, the main characters having to come to terms with a disgusting, rampant world wide virus.
From the introduction through to the finale it is a well constructed and fast paced. Believable characters in a detailed landscape, with depth to the various survival scenarios that play out for the main characters. As the horror of their situation unfolds the two main characters developing relationship in having to deal with their dire set of circumstances drove me from one page to the next wanting to find out more. The horror and gore is apt for the story. The depths of these characters did make them believable. Although I was enjoying the adventure I did not want it to come to an end either. Brilliant finale too and I liked the fact I did not see that coming. This is the first time I have read this authors work and Stage 3 left me in no doubt that I would want to read from this Author Ken Stark again.
Stage 3
Having just broken up with his girlfriend, Mason is all too willing to shut himself away and ignore the world for a week. But when he does try to resume his life, the world he awakens to is one where every move is fraught with danger. And death isn't necessarily the end.
The virus responsible for the danger is never fully explained but it doesn't need to be. It's origins aren't really important compared to it's effects. The main characters sketch them out briefly and in simple terms. The first sign of infection is the blindness that effects Mackenzie. The second stage is a ferocious blood-thirst typified by what Mason calls the wilders. And stage 3 is the creepers, where even normally wounds can't stop the attackers.
The main character, Mason, is misanthropic and bitter at the beginning of the novel. He fights to survive mainly by instinct, without much forward thinking. Once he meets Mackenzie, a young girl in the early stage of infection, and takes responsibly for her, he gradually begins to open up. Mackenzie's trust and vulnerability awakens a protectiveness in him and he agrees to help her look for her aunt, regardless of the risk involved.
Given that the bulk of the story is carried by Mason, the author spends a good amount of time exploring his inner thoughts. He moves from initial reluctance to engage with anyone to growing affection for Mackenzie and a fierce (in one case homicidal) desire to keep her safe. At the same time, there is the knowledge that Mackenzie's infection will progress and he will be forced to kill her . All of this serves to give Mason much greater depth than might otherwise be expected.
Stage 3 features a limited cast. Beyond Mason and Mackenzie, after the outbreak takes hold there are only three speaking characters. The author uses each of these to illustrate how different people could respond to a potential apocalyptic event. One clings to hope and tries to support others, one is ready to give in to despair and one sees it as an excuse to indulge their darkest impulses. The way these are written makes them very believable.
There's a great deal of action and brutality in Stage 3, which is to be expected but it reads very well. If you'll forgive the choice of words, I devoured the book, reading most of it in a single day. For fans of horror or zombie fiction, I would recommend this wholeheartedly.
A Spine-chilling Apoclyptic Thriller you'll be hard-pressed to find better
Mason, as his friends call him, is a very skeptical, rational man. He has lost his faith in humanity, and that could mainly be due to his lost love, Beck. He’s on his way back from vacation, one that was supposed to be with Beck, on a flight that is too much time for his liking. He fell asleep and woke up to an unforeseeable nightmare for everyone, including the pilot and co-pilot have been rendered blind. Though, with his help, the plan is able to land without a hitch. But something isn’t right, and Mason can’t quite put his finger on it. However, he still has a week let of vacation time, and he decides to go home and lock himself away from the world for the rest of the luxury time he has.
When he finally has to go back to work, he finds the world he wants so desperately to get away from has gone to hell in a handbasket and the fight for survival is on. Though scared and in a state of disbelieving, Mason gets through some sticky situations. While he’s not the type to care about other people, when he finds a little red-headed, big green-eyed girl, about the age of ten, his heart is turned around. The irony is the world he really didn’t care for, has now become a place he no longer recognized. But this little, seemly frail, survivor is able to capture his heart within a half a day. The two need one another and become more like family than acquaintances. Little Mackenzie (Mack) is blind. Mace, as she calls Mason, believes she has been infected with the sickness that has turned the world into a living hell, but he can’t leave her and, to be honest, he doesn’t want to. What will happen when these two unlikely friends set off to find Mack’s Aunt Sarah in a world of people who have become savage, vile, shells of who they once were?
Ken Stark has created a spine-chilling thriller that embraces both the fear and suspense within the reader but also strikes their compassion and sensitive side. He has created relatable characters that take his reader’s a new height of experience. It’s more than just experiencing a good horror/thrill story, but become enthralled and part of that story. Your pulse will accelerate, your heart will race, and, at times, your eyes will fight to keep a tear from falling. You will be hard-pressed to find a better story for this particular genus of stor
This is an edge of the seat read from its dramatic opening, through its cityscape of horrors, and on to its compelling ending. Our hero, Mason, is on the rebound and this amplifies his natural disinterest in other people. We meet him as a reluctant hero on an aircraft with blind pilots, but heroics are not his thing and he spends the next week in self-indulgent isolation. Even at this early stage, we know that something is far from right, yet Mason has to emerge before it begins to register. When he does he’s in trouble up to his neck, yet he rationalises the situation, thinking that things can’t be that bad. He quickly finds out how wrong he is.
Ken Stark then takes us on a hellish journey, at first all about Mason, but very quickly about Mackenzie – a 10 year old, sight-damaged child. Mature beyond her years, she increasingly gets into Mason’s heart. Maybe for the first time in his life, he puts himself second and commits to helping Mackenzie in her quest to be reunited with her aunt. The girl’s inherent humanity slowly forces Mason to modify his attitudes and we’re left with some real optimism for him and the girl he’s chosen to protect at all costs.
Ken handles the frequent conflict situations brilliantly with each situation having its own particular – and in the spirit of the genre – gruesome challenges. You really do wonder what can possibly go wrong next!
This is a great book, well written, and full of engrossing exploits, all heavily flavoured with the central characters’ imperative to survive whatever is thrown at them. Highly recommended read.
Grab those side-irons, saddle up and join former Civil War sharpshooter Luther Henry for a ride into pure terror, western-style…think ‘Wild Wild West’ meets ‘The X-Files’.
