Last night was an amazing night for me. I have wanted to see the release of my novel A Shadow Over Ever for a long, long time and it’s amazing to finally have it out.Here is a sample from deeper in the book, when things are established and the true danger is becoming apparent.
This scene is my little homage to DAWN OF THE DEAD and sets two of the characters, brothers Terrence and Cloot against a mall full of the living dead. The world is changing, you see, due to a war between Heaven and the first children of Eden and the war is taking its toll on all of existence.
(this is from an earlier draft of the book so don’t mind any grammar bumps, they’ve been fixed!)
Fifteen minutes and about a hundred pounds of weaponry and ammo later the three of them, Terrence, Cloot, and Warren a.k.a. Flyboy, re-enter the fray. They are all three armed with as much as they can carry, which for Warren is the small squirrel rifle Cloot had been carrying, but are ready for a war, though Warren looks rather queasy under the bright mall lights. Before them await the dead, the smell of their rot filling the hallway, suffocating their minds. They must have heard the three inside the store arguing because as soon as they left Kill World they found themselves all but surround already by them. And as the three of them prepare for combat the dead approach slowly, tightening their circle and readying for an attack. The three men level their weapons. Beneath the sound of the shuffling they can hear the screams coming from the underwear store. The dead though, they make no sound. The only sound they make is the sound of their movement, which sounds like paper being rubbed together, and it is a chilling sound. And slowly do they approach, their limbs stiff, bodies frail, one two falling apart as they approach. And on seeing them Warren lets loose a pathetic whimper and retches onto himself, washing his overalls in orange, dropping the gun, and falling limply against the wall. Terrence and Cloot turn to him, eyes wide, pulled from their own fear by his falling, and suddenly they realize that it’s too late to do anything else but fight. And on come the dead, their arms reaching out, their bodies moving slowly, so slowly, their jaws opening wide in soundless moan. And behind them come the screams of the trapped people again. And within Terrence and Cloot lay trapped their screams.
“Pick up that goddamn gun Flyboy, get it, get it goddammit…”
“I…no, no…I can’t…”
“You can and you will goddammit. Too late to run chicken now. You got no choice. None of us got any other choice. Fight or die, that’s the choice we gots. ‘Cause them fuckers there don’t care ‘bout you but to kill you. You wanna die motherfucker? If you do wanna die then we’ll do it for ‘em and save you the pain and get you outta our goddamn hair. ‘Cause if you ain’t gonna fight yer a liability to us and we ain’t gonna have that.”
Terrence raises his rifle and aims it at Warren’s head; taking dead aim on his quivering face. Once, a few days ago, he would barely have done this as a joke but now, after the Calling Station and the baby, there is no turning back. Cloot looks away, uncertain what to do anymore, looking instead to the dead coming closer to them as he raises his own handgun.
“No, don’t look away brother. You need to see this. This is war. This is…this is war…and in war there ain’t no thing as prisoners…close yer eyes Warren, just close yer eyes…”
The Spooky World of Chris Ringler 