Z-fari

In the not-so-distant future, there are parts of the country that are infested by zombies. These areas are walled off for the protection of the people, but these areas are so infested by the undead that it is impossible to completely wipe out the zombie scourge. There are brave troops, the Border Patrol, who patrol these borders and have the firepower to eliminate any zombie threat. This is the story of two of those Troopers and how it all goes terribly wrong.

From the Inside Flap

... Something had moved. There was nothing anywhere in the lab that should be able to move. The zombie was strapped in, and everything else was heavy and stationary. She turned slowly inthe direction she had noticed the motion, ready to scream. Then her gaze fell on the cube. "Willie" still lay, bloody and now gray, against the side of the cube.Allison looked closely,focusing her attention, on "Willie's" corpse. His finger moved! Allison Hays shook her head and blinked her eyes. And "Willie" moved his finger again. "Jesus, Mary, and Joseph," she swore to herself, "'Willie's' not dead!" She ran to her desk and called Dr. MacDougall. MacDougall rushed out of the elevator into the lab less that fifteen minutes later. His shirt was untucked, and its buttons were buttoned one button off. His shoelaces were flapping, and his hair was not even close to being combed. He ran to the side of the cube where "Willie's" body lay. MacDougall slid down the glass so that his face was just an inch or so higher than "Willie's". The doctor stayed there, face pushed against the glass for five minutes. And then for five minutes more.And then, he jumped to his feet and yelled, "It opened its eyes! It opened its eyes!! "Willie's" a zombie!!! A zombie!!!"

From the Back Cover

He looked through the Leupold Rifleman 4-12X40 mm scope that graced the top receiver and adjusted the focus, sweeping left and right, until he found his zombie. This one had long dark-brown hair sprouting from the edges of a shiny bald pate. It wore a light blue shirt that was once button-down, and a rep tie that might have originally been red with blue stripes hung limply from its collar. BeBe moved the scope so that he could see the rest of the zombie: one shoe off, one shoe on ("diddle-diddle dumpling, my zombie, John"), gray slacks with the seat worn away (probably from eliminating undead bodily waste - why did no one ever think that the brains and flesh that got eaten by the zombies would be digested by the zombies; it had to go somewhere). O.K. BeBe talked himself through the drill that Papa had taught him. The rehearsal he had performed for almost every hunt since his was young. Relax. Feel the target's presence. Try tosmell the target. (This might not have been a good idea for hunting zombies, but it was part of the drill) Breathe normally, in and out, in steady breaths. Clear your mind; think only of what you must do. Control yourself; you will only get this shot once. BeBe moved the rifle slowly and carefully so that the two lines that crossed in the reticle centered on the zombie's nose. When you are ready,take a breath, and let it out. Press the trigger. And, most importantly: the shot didn't "end" until after the bullet hit. Keep your head down and married to the stock through the shot.BeBe was a good shot. About a tenth of a second after the trigger broke, the zombie's head exploded like a hairy, gray watermelon. A hundred yards was about as close to a zombie as BeBe wanted to get.

About the Author

Stephen James Messenger is a public school educator who has taught at the elementary, secondary, undergraduate, and graduate levels. He earned a BA from Knox College, an M.Ed from Pan-American University, and an Ed.D. from the University of Houston. Dr. Messenger's interests include investigating Mexican folkart, British motorcycles, Dead studies, Jamband culture, and Community Music, telling and singing stories and songs, and learning and playing North American roots and Celtic music (he plays 6- & 12-string guitars, bass, mandolin, octave mandolin, banjo, saz, and bodhran). He writes escapist, darkly comedic novels, like Z-fari and Follet, and has edited and co-written a peer-reviewed textbook, Community Music Today (with Veblen, Silverman, and Eliot) along with numerous scholarly articles and chapters in academic journals.

Reviews

News