Retribution is finally done and set for an August 1st release!
Maddie is my kinda girl. She's tough, feminine and even when afraid does what needs to be done. It's always tough saying goodbye to characters, probably why I have such difficulty in ending a series.
If you've been reading you know she started out as a 14 year old girl who hated science and everything related to it until one day when the unthinkable happened.
With the whole apocalypse thing and zombies trying to eat her and the group she's with they've travelled over seas and lived through some extremely treacherous times.
No matter what, the humor was always there and it gives the entire series a light heartedness that makes it memorable. It's more like Zombieland than The Walking Dead.
I had a ton of laughs writing the story and learned a lot developing a story in a genre I wasn't real familiar with. Writing horror for kids is different than for adults. I had to watch my words and their words. That's where the humor comes in. I'd also never dabbled in sci-fi or post apocalyptic fiction. It was a first and I'm proud with how it turned out.
No spoilers here! Read the series. Try the game and see which character you are, share your results on social media and feel free to comment below. Click here to play.
Book 1 Premonition is now free!
Book 2 Infection is at .99 through August 1st.
Book 3 Retribution is on pre-order for .99! That will only last through release day August 1st!
Excerpt: (one of my favorite parts. Hehe!)
Two dead zombie eyes stared at me. I knew that was more a reflex. It couldn’t see me. Its long gray hair hung limp on its shoulders as it clicked its tongue, blood dribbling from its mouth on its way towards me. Its drip drag stagger-walk was impressively quick. A flowered sundress covered in sprays of blood, chunks of human skin clung to the fabric.
On the floor behind her was a man in a black robe. His mouth was in an O as he screamed, “No!”
I swung the blade of the katana towards her dirty, slimy neck when she came within a few feet of me. It nearly connected then something I’d never seen, nor imagined, happened. The zombie blew apart from the inside out. I was glad my teeth were gritted as I’d have had a mouth full of deader if I hadn’t. Chunks and blood sprayed the walls. It was a definite ten on my disgusting scale.
Chunks of her blew into the man’s mouth. He gagged and spat to rid his body of the nasty zombie meal. His face met mine and he scooted backwards on the floor. His eyes barely visible through the zombie mess covering it. I moved closer to him. He was living. “Are you hurt?”
“You killed her!” he growled. “You are a murderer!”
What? I hadn’t expected that one and I hadn’t killed her; she blew up like one of Deavers’ grenades. “I didn’t kill her. She was infected and there’s no cure. Did she bite you?”
“You killed my wife.” He continued sliding backwards.
That’s when I noticed it. The beam from my flashlight caught the silver barrel of a gun, only a couple feet from him. I moved towards him. “Don’t think about or you’ll be dead like your wife.”
He scooted again and I moved quicker now and jabbed the end of the katana’s blade into his chest. Keeping it centered on him, I side-stepped and kicked the gun. It flew across the floor.
“Get up!” I ordered with a sneer.
He pushed his back against the wall and slid up it. His short, dark hair was coated in zombie film. I jabbed the blade lightly into his chest so he knew I meant business. When I did, it slid through a hole in the dark robe hanging around his shoulders. “Did she bite you, Professor?” I didn’t know what else to call him and it looked similar to a graduate’s robe.
His Adam’s apple bobbed as he swallowed. “That makes no difference. Go. Go now!”
Well, this wasn’t going well. The patter of rain stopped, meaning the worst of the storm was over. I glanced over the hallway. A collar of sorts clung to the wall in the muck. I grabbed it. “You’ve been keeping her alive, treating her like a pet?” That was sick. Really sick and morbid.
He narrowed his eyes into tiny slits. A chunk of deader flesh dropped from his forehead. “She was my wife.”
The memory of my father turning seemed like a million years ago but it was still fresh in my head. I knew he was turning and that I should kill him, but I didn’t. Instead we tied him up. This guy did the same thing. He put a collar around her neck. I brought the katana to my side. “I don’t want to kill you and I didn’t kill her. She exploded. I’ve never seen that before. When did she turn?”
“In the beginning. The very beginning.”
That begged a lot of questions like how did you get her past the military? What has she been eating? Was that why her drip-drag was so quick?
The rain stopped and I was on a mission. “We have to go.”
“I’m not going anywhere with you.”
I rolled my eyes. I needed some answers and he would provide them. “Yes, you are. Remember I have the weapon and you don’t. I also have your wife’s collar and I bet it’s a shock collar. The kind used for training dogs.” I smirked.
“Fine,” he seethed.
I lifted the katana towards his chest again and spread the cloth of his robe. What I saw didn’t surprise me. A set of round, fresh, human-deader teeth marks. I lifted the collar towards him with my free hand. “Put this on just in case.”
Reluctantly he grabbed the collar and wrapped it around his neck. The motion caused a chunk of flesh to fall from his robe, revealing a name tag.
“You first, Mitchem.” I read the tag.
For the next hour we steadily walked towards the marina and I pried all sorts of information from him. He was a Duval County judge. That explained the black robe. He and his wife were visiting family in Gainesville when the end of the world went down. She was exposed immediately but didn’t turn until a couple days later. Dumb luck saved them from the military. They’d spent the night in their RV deep in the woods. When he woke up the next morning his wife, Gloria, was eating their Pomeranian. I imagined large puffs of fur stuck between her teeth and chuckled.
“It’s not funny!” he growled.
He was wrong. It was funny. In this new world I had to find humor where I could and that was hilarious. However, I stopped laughing out of respect and let him continue his story.
“I tied her up with bungee cords and glanced a peek out of the window. I would have waved my hands and let them take me, but they’d have killed Gloria. I couldn’t have that. A soldier approached the RV, I stood inside with my gun loaded and waited. A radio voice came through, “Need help now! Surrounded by them.” That was it. They never returned and I got us out of there.”
Copyright Elle Klass 2018 Retribution
