World
War Dead
by
TS Alan
Genre:
Apocalyptic Horror
World
War Dead is a four-part zombie novel, in which military and health
organizations around the world battle time and the undead in an
attempt to get valuable research data to the US Army Medical Research
Institute of Infectious Diseases at Fort Detrick, Maryland. There, an
antiviral for the Acute Reanimation Syndrome (ARS) virus is being
developed.
The novel has main characters from each region, two of
which are half-zombies, and all the stories are intertwined with one
another.
Part
I: War of the Dead
A zombified Marine lieutenant injected with
the antiviral is brought back to half-life but finds himself caught
between human and zombie, and reconsiders which side he should fight
on.
Part
II: Escape from the Dead
With
time running out, a European CDC security team faces insurmountable
odds against zombies and a hostile military faction attempting to get
their antiviral to an awaiting military transport plane that will
take them to a US military base.
Part
III: Call to Arms
A Canadian helicopter team arrives at a US
military outpost for an exchange to acquire a batch of antiviral but
finds themselves betrayed and stranded. Having learned of High
Command’s treacheries, a rogue team of Marines led by a sympathetic
master sergeant comes to the Canadians rescue. The master sergeant
hopes to enlist the Canadians, along with a brigade of half-zombies,
as part of a strike force to overthrow a forced labor camp in
Gettysburg run by the military.
Part
IV: War of the Dead
A former Army sergeant, who finds her
half-zombie condition has left her infertile, leads a discontented
group of half-zombies on a war against humanity and zombies alike.
Will the remaining military, the work camp survivors, and the
lieutenant’s half-mute brigade unite in time to stop the dissident
half-mutes from executing their elaborate plan of genocide, or will
humankind finally meet extinction?
When Keith Saunders awoke his skin was drawn and sickly like a corpse and his mind was blank, except for one driving thought: Meat — fresh meat. Atop of him was a reanimate corpse with a severe gunshot wound to its head; he pushed it off, rose and joined the others of his kind. The large group of reanimates bumped into one another as they aimlessly roamed the lobby.
Up and down, from lobby to maintenance tunnel level the errant freight elevator came and went, which attracted the attention of some of the reanimates, including Saunders. As the elevator door opened again, he and seven others stepped into the car, and it descended once again.
Part II, Chapter IV
Home Guard Corporal Jaakko Manninen was a seasoned soldier and had combat experience, but when he caught sight of the wretched face of the flesh hungry corpse of the young red-haired girl outside the driver’s window it frightened him beyond all reasoning. Manninen panicked. All he wanted was to get away from the horrid faces of the dead that surrounded him, the soulless ones that desired to rip him apart for a meal. Corporal Jaakko Manninen slammed his foot on the fuel pedal and the vehicle charged backward up the incline, thunking over the reanimates and rocking the vehicle, until Manninen lost control. The APC had somehow managed to make it to the top of the rise, right near the entry to the pen of the dead, when it veered left off the road, careened over a light pole, and then plowed into a medium sized tree. The back axle broke as it lodged on the fallen tree under its chassis, the APC’s rear end uplifted and the vehicle pitched to its left side at a precarious angle.
For a moment everyone in the crashed Patria was dazed from the impact and the abrupt halt. A moment was all it took for a swarm of reanimates to grab onto the stunned and semi-conscious Corporal Jaakko Manninen, who was partially hanging out the driver’s door that had been jolted open by the collision.
ECDC Security Officer Risto Paloposki was in the passenger seat of the crew cabin. He tried desperately to grasp onto Manninen as a myriad of corpse-like hands grabbed onto the corporal, but Paloposki could neither get a firm hold on Manninen with his left hand nor had he the ability get a second hand on the man to pull him back before the reanimates tore off Manninen’s left arm. By the time Paloposki unbuckled himself, Manninen’s head had been torn off and the reanimates were tearing at the mutilated man’s torso. As the security officer moved to exit from the cabin into the troop compartment, a loud crack from the downed tree resonated inside the vehicle. The truck jolted and pitched further on its left side as the earth under the vehicle’s left wheels slid down the slope.
Part III, Chapter V
Lance Corporal Peters interjected, “That the dead can talk!”
“Really? And how is it possible a biter can speak?” Bahr asked Jackson, doubting the lance corporal’s abrupt disclosure.
“It’s too complicated to give you the long of it, so I’ll give you the short,” Jackson told Bahr. “Whether by an act of God or a legitimate scientific occurrence, injecting the antiretroviral into the cornea of a zombie brings them back to a partial cognitive state.”
“And you know this how…?” Bahr asked, wanting further clarification.
Jackson had crossed the threshold of the barely believable and stepped into the Twilight Zone with his confirmation that the dead could talk. Now he just had to convince his men along with the Canadians that he wasn’t insane and that the reanimates could truly speak. Although his admission was absurd, how much more ridiculous would it be to truthfully disclose how he knew the dead could speak? That wasn’t a question that needed pondering. His men needed to know the truth before they went to Fort Detrick.
“I know this because I had a hand in it,” Jackson revealed with a serious tone.
Part IV, Chapter III
It was to be a long trip back to where she had started, and the arduous journey only made her hate for the living and the reanimated dead fester and grow more deeply. When first rejected by the ungrateful humans, who she had helped to save, she blamed the reanimates for the humans’ fear of her kind. She had once been a zombie, so it was understandable the trepidation a half-dead could invoke in fearful humans. As time passed at Fort Detrick the rejection began to embitter her. When 1st Lt. Saunders decided it was time for the zombie menace to be eliminated, Brooke had been assigned to lead one of the combat teams. At first destroying reanimates was cathartic for her, and put purpose back into her life. After all, she was a soldier and though she could no longer comprehend all the intricacies of being a Systems Supervisor for the 114th Signal Battalion, she still knew how to kill. However, after a month of zombie eradication it had grown tiresome, and it had only temporarily distracted her from her growing hate for humans. She decided that soldiering and cleansing the countryside of the reanimated dead gave her no meaning in life. Brooke discovered she was not the only one that felt this way. There was dissension amongst her group and she wasn’t the only one that felt that the humans had wronged her kind. Brooke was the first that wanted to leave, and Saunders knew that keeping someone confined to Fort Detrick was almost like what Mound had done to the survivors at Camp Hope. Saunders gave Brooke her freedom and thanked her for her service. However, freedom had not given her the emotional connection to her human past that she desired.
As the days passed and her abhorrence and resentment grew for humans, she began to punish the living, first by leading the reanimates to where they could be found and watching the death struggle while reveling in the pain and suffering the living experienced being ripped apart and devoured. It was entertaining and broke the boredom in her travels. However, it was soon not enough and she began to take her hate directly out on the living, butchering and devouring their flesh, feeling pleased from the sensation of its texture and nourishment. Even eating the living did not alleviate her ache for an unfulfilled life as a half-dead. If she could never become fully human again, then perhaps she could at least find a way to be more human.
-
What are your top 10 favorite books/authors?
Watchers by Dean Koontz, The Jewel in the Skull by Michael Moorcock. Daybreak-2250 A.D. by Andre Norton. There will be Time by Poul Anderson. The Planet of the Apes by Pierre Boulle. The Works of Edgar Allan Poe Complete and Unabridged. The Complete Works of O. Henry: The Definitive Collection of America's Master of the Short Story. Cabal by Clive Barker. The entire Frankenstein series by Dean Koontz, and Mister B. Gone by Clive Barker
What book do you think everyone should read?
Watchers by Dean Koontz
How long have you been writing?
Since I was in elementary school, but not consistently until 2001.
Do the characters all come to you at the same time or do some of them come to you as you write?
Basic characters all come out at once. Then the other characters come out as needed.
What kind of research do you do before you begin writing a book?
Places and military references are heavily researched.
Do you see writing as a career?
Still working on it.
What do you think about the current publishing market?
I would probably not do another indie publisher, unless it was a lucrative deal with marketing behind it. My first publishing deal was a disaster, not only for myself but for many of the other others who were signed to the publishing house.
Do you read yourself and if so what is your favorite genre?
I do, when time permits. I enjoy horror/suspense.
Do you prefer to write in silence or with noise? Why?
Silence. I find the story flows better when I can concentrate on it. As much as I love music, it can be a distraction to my writing.
Do you write one book at a time or do you have several going at a time?
One story at a time, though I do plot out other stories along the way.
If you could have been the author of any book ever written, which book would you choose?
The Princess Bride by William Goldman.
Pen or type writer or computer?
Pen and paper by the side of my bed for when I wake up during the night with an idea I don’t wish to lose. But story creation is done on my computer.
Tell us about a favorite character from a book.
The character that was the most pivotal in the entire creation of World War Dead – Marine Corps Lt. Keith Saunders. In life as in half-life, he is driven by doing what is right, the moral thing, even if it means sacrificing his life for the greater good. He is certainly not a perfect man or Marine, but tries to be the best person and warfighter he can be.
What made you want to become an author and do you feel it was the right decision?
My imagination dictated I write. Yes, it was the right decision because I can’t afford therapy.
A day in the life of the author?
If you asked me this question pre-pandemic I would have said most days I would be going to my regular paycheck job. If there was down time, I would write at work. Luckily the boss allows me, especially since I put him in World War Dead. This would be a rinse and repeat. It wasn’t unusual for me to work three weeks straight without a day off. On my days off I would write as much as I could. However, my job is gone, most likely until a vaccine is realized. So, I rise around 10 A.M., go for a walk, come back and watch the news as I have my first coffee. Then onto writing. I write until I can’t write anymore that day. Average is 1 P.M. to 7 P.M. But some day’s it isn’t unusual for me to write until 11 P.M. if I got a good flow going.
Advice they would give new authors?
First, find a good editor. Not just one who will just edit the product, but one who will give you advise and thoughts on the story. One who will bounce his/her ideas off you. Most importantly: You’re never an aspiring writer. If you write, you’re a writer. Don’t get discourage by rejection e-mails. Everyone gets rejections. I’ve gotten plenty on stories I’ve later sold.
Describe your writing style.
It is heavy in description and my plots move forward minute by minute.
What makes a good story?
A story that draws the reader in, and makes them love or hate your characters. Remember, stories don’t always have to be thought provoking or filled with social commentary. However, they do need to be entertaining.
What are you currently reading?
Nothing at the moment since I am working on my next story entitled, Five for the Apocalypse. But when completed, next on my reading list is High Bloods by John Farris. It was given to me by a dear friend.
What is your writing process? For instance, do you do an outline first? Do you do the chapters first?
I don’t do an outline per say. More like bullet points for the plot movement and names of characters.
What are common traps for aspiring writers?
I don’t believe in the term “aspiring writer,” unless the person is just thinking about becoming a writer. If you write, you’re a writer. But a trap to any writer if self-doubt. You only fail as a writer if you don’t try. Even if no one likes your story, you’ve still written it. So, you are a writer and you’ve succeeded because you wrote something. The only failure is not writing. So, your story sucks. So what? Put it away, write something else. Don’t start doubting your ability. Just write another story, then another. You’ll eventually get published and maybe even get paid. Keep writing and writing. That’s what a writer does. Now go back and look at your first story. Was it as brilliant and well-written as you thought back when you first wrote it? Probably not. I can attest to this. In my early writing days, I had some good concepts but poorly executed stories. But I was a young writer and still learning the craft. If it a good concept then rewrite that story. Stay true and believe in yourself. You will get published, it just takes time.
What is your writing Kryptonite?
Lack of sleep. That kills my creativity every time.
Do you try more to be original or to deliver to readers what they want?
I write what I imagine. I have never been one to write for a certain genre of reader, like Harlequin publishing. I don’t do cookie cutter, though writer make a good living doing Harlequin novels, I have read.
If you could tell your younger writing self anything, what would it be?
Don’t take a break in you’re writing. Keep going and you’ll find success a lot sooner.
What’s the most difficult thing about writing characters from the opposite sex?
I’m not a woman. I don’t think or act like a woman. I can only go by my experiences with women. And then I have a woman read my story and see if I got it right, usually not. So, I listen to my female friends and then adapt.
How long on average does it take you to write a book?
8 -12 months.
Do you believe in writer’s block?
Yes. It happens to me. Just days you can’t seem to get what’s in your brain onto the page. And it sucks. But there’s always tomorrow.
Author
and Co-Founder of ZombieEducationAlliance.com.
TS
Alan is an American author of horror, supernatural fiction, and
suspense, but also frequently incorporates elements of fantasy,
science fiction, mystery, and satire. Alan has published two novels,
and six short stories.
Alan
was born outside Buffalo, NY. He is the son of divorced parents. He
was educated at Williamsville South High School, Niagara Community
College and the State University College at Buffalo.
Alan
is an author of contemporary horror/fantasy. He is most known for his
zombie stories. His first published novel was The Romero
Strain (2014), which was published by Books of the Dead Press.
His sequel The Romero Strain: The Dead, the Damned, and the
Darkness was independently released in November 2017.
As
influences on his writing, Alan lists Clive Barker, Dean Koontz,
Stephen King, Edgar Allen Poe, and O. Henry, among others.
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Thank you for posting all of this to your great blog. Much appreciation.
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