Exclusive Excerpt from Plague Nation

Plague Nation is Dana Fredsti's sequel to the zombie novel Plague Town, and continues to follow Ashley Parker fighting the zombie threat. The book is now available in the US, and will be available in the UK next week, and we've been provided with an exclusive excerpt to share with Daily Dead readers.

Synopsis: "The undead have been defeated in Redwood Grove, CA, but reports of similar outbreaks are coming in. What seemed to be an isolated event is turning into a pandemic.  The last thing Ashley Parker wanted when she went to college was to join the military, but she is one of a select few who are immune to the virus. Gifted with enhanced speed, strength, and senses, she’s recruited by a shadowy international organization that’s existed for centuries, its sole purpose to combat the zombie threat.

Dark secrets begin to emerge, and when an unknown enemy strikes, Ashley and the other zombie hunters—known as “wild cards”—embark on a desperate mission to reach San Francisco. If they fail, the plague will sweep the nation unchecked. And the person she cares for most may die. Or worse."

Exclusive Excerpt from Plague Nation

By Dana Fredsti

Chapter Three

 

The rear exit led to the end of the alley, with Partyrama's back entrance right across the way. The alley was clear, and the door unlocked. But I tried not to get optimistic.

Partyrama was a typical tchotchke store, with merchandise divided into sections for holidays, themed parties, and weddings. The first thing we saw was the “Hold Your Own Luau!” aisle, with plastic leis, tiki torches, brightly colored dishware, and tropical themed cutouts. Next to that was a “Princess Party” aisle, sporting everything you needed for precious royalty between the ages of three and thirteen. “Pirate Cove” themed stuff was right next to it.

Kai stooped over and picked something off the floor.

“Eye-patch, anyone?”

Our footsteps crunched on scattered plastic beads from a fallen display. An end cap of frothy net tutus lay toppled to one side.

“Nothing will remain but the bare earth soaked in putrefying flesh!” Tony picked up one of the tutus, then shook his fist skyward.

“Hell of the Living Dead,” Kai said, sounding bored. “Try again.”

I rolled my eyes. The boys were playing “name that zombie movie” again. We'd watched a slew of them, ostensibly as part of our training. Hell of the Living Dead had featured a mercenary doing a soft shoe routine with a green tutu slung over his neck, just before getting ripped to pieces by third world zombies.

Tony frowned, and thought about it for a moment.

“'He took a poo and it stank,'“ he offered.

“Dead Set.” Kai responded, without missing a beat. “Pippa.” He shook his head again. “Next you'll be all ‘ein, zwie, die’ and expect me to be stumped.”

“Can you two please focus on the job at hand?” I snapped. “Like, checking to make sure there aren't any zombies wandering around?”

Kai delivered a snappy salute in my direction.

“You got it, Ash.” Spinning on his heels, he wandered off down the St. Patrick's Day aisle, crowbar dangling loosely from one hand.

“Jeez frickin' Louise,” I muttered to myself.

“Don't worry Ash.” Tony patted me condescendingly on the shoulder. “He'll be fine. You just need to chillax, y'know?”

I smacked his hand.

“No, I don't know. And you can tell me to chill, or you can tell me to relax. Do not friggin' tell me to 'chillax'!”

Tony pouted. “Hey, we totally kicked ass against the swarm at Big Red. So how can a few stragglers be a problem?”

“Weren't you listening? Professor Fraser said this shit could be going nationwide. Maybe even global.” He was really starting to piss me off.

Tony shrugged. “We'll deal with that if and when it happens.”

I narrowed my eyes.

“Let me paraphrase one of your favorite movies, Tony, with words you can hopefully understand. Don't get cocky.”

As I stalked off down the Pirate Cove aisle, I heard him mutter, “Yeah, whatevs.”

I swear, I was gonna kill him, if a zombie didn't take care of his cocky ass first. He and Kai could drive a saint to homicide, and I was far from sainthood. Gabriel must hate me, I decided. Why else would he stick me alone with both of them at the same time?

Suddenly Kai’s voice broke through the stillness.

“Ash! X-Box! Check this shit out!”

Instantly the urgency in his words had me running down the aisles, pulling my tanto out of its sheath, Tony close on my heels. We found him in “Miscellaneous Party Fun,” hunkered down by a display of—

“Silly String?” I stared at him in disbelief.

“Why didn’t you say so in the first place?” Tony slapped a hand against his forehead. “Now if we only had a wheel barrow and a holocaust cloak....”

Kai grinned. “You killed my father, prepare to die.”

I restrained the urge to shove a can of the stuff down each of their throats. Taking a deep breath, I turned to Kai.

“What, may I ask, is so awesome about Silly String?”

“Navy ordinance disposal teams used it in Iraq, to find trip wires,” he replied. “Spray some of this shit, it catches on one of the invisible wires, and there you go.”

“Great,” I said. “But zombies don’t set trip wires.”

“It’s also highly flammable.” Kai tucked a couple of cans into his knapsack and held one can aloft dramatically. “Light a match near this shit and you’ve got zombie barbecue.”

“Seriously?”

He nodded.

“Yup. Couple of kids at a party found out the hard way.” He looked at the can, examining the ingredients. “I'm surprised it's still even for sale.”

Something crashed to the floor in the back of the store. All three of us straightened up, staring back into the shadowed depths of the Wedding section, where something clumsily moved toward us. We heard the plaintive moan about the same time as the graveyard stench hit us.

“I got this.” Kai darted behind the counter and snatched up a cigarette lighter. Before I could smack it out of his hand, he pressed the button on the Silly String and clicked the trigger on the lighter, sending a jet of flaming string toward the corpse that was lurching in our direction. Its tattered clothing quickly went up in flames.

Just great.

“Oh, shit,” Kai said. Zombie flambé still staggered in our general direction, rebounding off the shelves and igniting a bunch of Pretty Princess tiaras.

Shoving Kai out of my way, I moved forward and thrust the business end of my tanto into one of its eyes. It crumpled to the ground and I proceeded to stomp out the flames on both zombie and the tiara display before they spread any further. The smell of scorched plastic mingled with the stink of burnt, rotting flesh.

I glared at Kai.

“No more Silly String.”

“You got it.” He tossed the can and lighter aside.

 

#  #  #

 

“What the hell is going on?”

The three of us turned as Gabriel strode down the aisle toward us, his expression reflecting the pissed-off tone of his voice.

Swell

“Kai was demonstrating the efficacy of Silly String against the enemy... sir. “ I kept my voice as neutral as I could, but I guess the sarcasm of the “sir” snuck through my limited acting ability, because the look Gabriel shot us could have started another fire.

“I can't believe you three.” He shook his head in disgust. “Can't you take things seriously, even for a few minutes?”

Tony and Kai exchanged sheepish looks. I, on the other, hand, walked straight up to him until we were toe-to-toe, and glared up at him.

“In case you haven't noticed, sir—” I didn’t even try this time. “—we have a dead zombie here, which would intimate that Team A takes our mission very seriously. The fact that Lando chose to utilize an unorthodox weapon would show that he's capable of thinking outside the box, if the occasion necessitates it.”

Out of the corner of my eye I saw Kai and Tony look at me with new appreciation as I piled on the bullshit. Gabriel, on the other hand, did not look impressed.

“The occasion didn't necessitate it. This was just sloppy work.”

Since I actually agreed with him, I kept my mouth shut. But that didn't stop me from chanting “douche” over and over in my head.

“Is that clear?” He glared at the three of us.

The Wonder Twins nodded. It hurt my neck and my pride to do so, but I did the same.

“Good,” he said. “We’re done for the day. Debrief in Room 217 in an hour. Don’t forget to mark the doors.” Turning on his heel, Gabriel strode out of the store without a backward glance.

This time I didn't even appreciate the sight of his retreating butt; I just wanted to plant my foot on it and push hard. Really hard.

I couldn’t believe that three days ago, he and I had engaged in hot monkey sex, and then fought the zombie swarm. Together. At some point between our victory and now, something had gone wrong. Or, more specifically, something had definitely gone fubar with Gabriel. Maybe it was his meds, maybe something else, but whatever it was I didn't know whether to be worried or pissed off. So I went for both.

“Sorry, Ash.” Kai put a hand on my shoulder. He sounded sincere, so I resisted my first impulse to shrug it off.

“Yeah, okay,” I turned and faced him. “Just... no more shit like the Silly String, okay?”

Kai and Tony both nodded, expressions too solemn for comfort. But at least they were trying.

 ---------

This excerpt is part of the Plague Nation blog tour, celebrating the release of Dana Fredsti’s new novel. For the opportunity to win a copy of the book, simply tweet:

“I would like a copy of Plague Nation @TitanBooks @danafredsti #plaguenation”.

To learn more about the book and the tour, visit: www.titanbooks.com/plaguenation