Shawn Chesser has 17 audiobooks on Listento.it, narrated by 2 narrators, with an average listener rating of 4.8★ across 74 ratings. The most-rated is Trudge.
Trudge
Summary
For Cade Grayson, husband, father, and former Delta Force operator, that one warm sunny Saturday in July - to be labeled Z-Day by some anonymous person probably long dead - began like all the others before and none since. With his daughter, Raven, and wife, Brook, away visiting her parents in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, Cade hopes his immediate future holds nothing but an easy chair, Mariners on the tube, and paring down a honey-do list a mile long. But those hopes were quickly dashed and his life forever changed when news broke of a clash in downtown Portland between soldiers from the Oregon National Guard and hundreds of anarchist protesters suddenly turned violent and, by one anchor's account, blood-thirsty and cannibalistic. As the first waves of injured bystanders, guardsmen, and rioters arrived at hospitals, it became apparent that a deadly new disease had been unleashed on the population. Whether the virus was naturally occurring or an escaped lab experiment, Cade hadn't a clue and wasn't especially concerned until he learned of its unprecedented virulence, unusual method of transference, and the fact that, according to the news, it brought the newly dead back to life, semi-mindless, and with an insatiable desire to feed on the flesh of the living. Armed with this new information and now seeing the bigger cities such as Washington, D.C., New York, and Los Angeles rocked by the rapidly spreading scourge, Cade ignores the volley of contradictory edicts drawn up by the White House and set into motion by FEMA and DHS, dusts off his tools of war, and loads his truck with supplies. Unable to get ahold of Brook and Raven, and unwilling to leave them at the mercy of some distant politician's inability to hold the nation together, he begins an impossible 3,000-mile journey across a reeling United States with presumably millions of infected in his path and only one acceptable outcome: find Brook and Raven alive - or die trying.
©2011 Shawn Chesser (P)2015 Shawn Chesser
Soldier On
Summary
For Cade Grayson, father, husband, and former Delta Force operator, life has changed drastically over the course of 48 hours. He's watched the dead inexplicably return to life before his very eyes. He's lost many people near and dear to him, most dying unfathomably horrible deaths at the hands of the dead who have seemingly overnight taken over the big metropolis - their numbers and hunger for human flesh growing exponentially with each passing hour. After having been forced to kill his reanimated neighbors in self-defense and then surviving the perilous overland journey from his home in Portland, Oregon, Cade finds temporary refuge inside the wire of a Special Forces garrison on the outskirts of Salt Lake City, Utah. But his stay is short and he decides to strike out alone, resuming the search for his missing wife, Brook, and 11-year-old daughter, Raven, the only way he knows how - with a laser-like focus and full speed ahead. So in the early morning hours on day four of what might be the United States and perhaps the entire globe's extinction-level event, he slips out Camp Williams' back gate riding a specially modified off-road motorcycle. Armed and resupplied and with only a satellite phone connecting him to the crumbling world, Cade soldiers on eastbound - locked and loaded - with Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, his small family's last known whereabouts, dead set in his sights. Meanwhile, 400 miles away in Colorado Springs, Colorado - the new capital of the United States, President-by-succession Valerie Clay works round the clock with what's left of the military to gather together the resources and scientific know-how necessary to stop the Omega Virus' rapid spread and, starting with Colorado Springs, rid the country of the multitudes of walking dead. Will the 1900 miles and the millions of dead in Cade's path succeed in keeping him separated from his family? Will mankind find a foothold against the dead and turn the tide of war? Cade Grayson, locked and loaded, is determined to find out.
©2011 Shawn Chesser (P)2015 Shawn Chesser
Gone
Summary
"A gut-wrenching, hard hitting series that will leave you breathless." (John O'Brien, best-selling author of the New World series) "Shawn Chesser is a master of the zombie genre." (Mark Tufo, best-selling author of the Zombie Fallout series) "Through a combination of tight, well-structured plots and fully realized characters, Chesser has emerged as one of the top indie writers in the business." (Joe McKinney, two-time Bram Stoker Award winner and best-selling author of the Dead World series) Outbreak - Week 1 Presidents, premiers, entire governments disappeared instantly, like a fragile house of cards in a hurricane. Some hid deep underground or holed up in fortified strongholds, but most were swallowed up by the dead, never to be heard from again. For Cade Grayson - doting father and patriotic Delta Force operator - the past week has been the worst dealt to him by life during his short 35-year stint on planet Earth. Following a hashed-together kill or capture mission that saw Cade and the newly formed Pale Rider team travel to Northern Utah to confront a band of escaped convicts turned cannibal, he returns to the compound in rural Utah with a grim task: Bury three more of his people in the already crowded hillside cemetery. With Zs flooding the valley to the east, and Chinese PLA scouts probing inland from the west, Cade immediately guns up and leaves the wire with his daughter, Raven, in tow. His new mission is twofold: to infuse Raven with as much survival knowledge as possible and to find a close friend who has gone missing and feared dead. But while Cade and Raven are away, the Eden group’s ranks are further thinned when two more of their own disappear. Will Cade find outside the wire all that he is searching for? Will Raven emerge from the crucible intact? Caught between the proverbial rock and a hard place, will the remaining Eden members learn what has happened to the missing...or will they be Gone forever?
©2018 Shawn Chesser (P)2018 Shawn Chesser
The Promise
Summary
"Shawn Chesser is a master of the zombie genre." (Mark Tufo, best-selling author of the Zombie Fallout series) "Through a combination of tight, well-structured plots and fully realized characters, Chesser has emerged as one of the top indie writers in the business." (Joe McKinney, two-time Bram Stoker Award winner and best-selling author of the Dead World series) Army veteran Lee Riker is staying in an Atlanta shelter and supporting himself with the odd carpentry job when his sister, Tara, summons him home to Middletown, Indiana, for the reading of their mother’s will. Hopeful that the unknown sum of money included in his portion of the inheritance will be sufficient to bring an end to his latest run of bad luck and trouble, Riker boards a Greyhound bus in Atlanta with his duffel bag, less than $200 to his name, and a secret he must protect at all costs. Riker makes it to Middletown only to learn his sister has recently witnessed a gruesome death. Insisting she saw the victim rise from a pool of his own blood to attack the Samaritan rendering aid, Tara floats the idea that the man may have been a zombie. While the siblings are comparing what Tara thinks she saw to the conflicting stories about the event being reported on the news, the emergency broadcast system is activated and they find themselves under order to report to one of three newly established quarantine centers. With this unexpected turn of events looming over their heads, and as a result the reading of the will likely postponed indefinitely, Riker informs Tara of the promise he made to their mother on her deathbed months ago. A promise whose details leave Tara nearly as confused as those of the grisly attack haunting her every thought. A promise that Riker insists is worth ignoring the government edict in order to fulfill. A promise that requires the Rikers to leave town even as shadowy forces seek to seal it off from the rest of the country - a tall order they soon learn will be easier said than done. Edited by Monique Happy Editorial Services 107,000 words
©2018 Shawn Chesser (P)2018 Shawn Chesser
Allegiance
Summary
Allegiance picks up two days after A Pound of Flesh left off. Outbreak - Day 15. With an estimated 99 percent of the United States' population having already succumbed to the rapidly spreading Omega virus, and countries and cities worldwide teeming with the dead, the struggle to survive the zombie apocalypse continues unabated in the high desert of Colorado. Having just returned from a hastily thrown together secret mission that saw Robert Christian - the self-proclaimed President of his "New America" - snatched from his mountain redoubt and delivered kicking and screaming to the justice awaiting him at Schriever Air Force Base, Cade Grayson, father, husband, and Delta Force operator, is horrified to learn that during his absence the base had been compromised, putting his family in harm's way. Its inhabitants still reeling from Pug's act of terror, and recently rocked by an undead outbreak inside the wire, Schriever no longer seems an island of safety surrounded by a sea of dead, but more like a shadowy prison, danger lurking within its walls. So, with the Z-infested cities of Denver and Aurora to the north and 100,000 flesh eaters inhabiting Pueblo to the south, and all hope of a cure for Omega dwindling faster than the world's population, Cade uses a mandated two-day stand down to fully weigh out his options. With each passing day, he finds himself warming to Brook's stance that they pull up stakes and put the acres of squat buildings and fenced-in concrete in their rearview mirror for good. With his allegiance walking a tightrope between family and flag, will Cade appease Brook and move the family to Logan Winter's compound outside of Eden, Utah? Or will he lobby her to allow the family to stay at Schriever, so that his Delta Team - still recovering from the recent loss of soft-spoken Sergeant Darwin Maddox and the Unit's longtime commander General Mike Desantos - will not find themselves undermanned and outgunned should another important mission crop up? Or will the talented Mister Murphy - of Murphy's Law fame - throw a monkey wrench into the equation and alter the best laid plans of mice and men?
©2013 Shawn Chesser (P)2016 Shawn Chesser
In Harm's Way
Summary
In Harm's Way, book three in the Surviving the Zombie Apocalypse series, picks up on day eight where Soldier On: Surviving the Zombie Apocalypse left off. Outbreak - Day Eight After running and gunning across much of the western US, Cade Grayson, former Delta Force operator, is finally reunited with his wife, Brook, and daughter, Raven. Hours after arriving at the relative safety of Schriever Air Force Base in Colorado Springs, the new Capital of the United States, Cade is approached by the new president, Valerie Clay. Her request is simple: she appeals to the patriot in him to rejoin the unit that he left for civilian life 15 months prior and once more go into harm's way, taking the fight to the enemy. Meanwhile, Duncan Winters, Vietnam-era aviator, finds himself stranded in Springs along with BLM firefighter Daymon Bush. Both men arrived with Cade and were promised transport back to Eden, Utah. Duncan longs to be reunited in Eden with his brother, Logan, a survivalist/Doomsday prepper. Daymon, with no surviving family, knows only one thing for certain: he doesn't want to remain trapped behind the wire inside of a huge government-run military base. Mere days after Washington, D.C., is overrun and the sitting president goes missing, Robert Christian, billionaire kingmaker who has been waiting in the wings for a world-changing event such as this, marshals his group of mercenaries led by former Navy SEAL Ian Bishop. Their mission: to control what remains of the United States by any means necessary and ultimately reshape the country to fit their warped vision for a new world order. Will Cade accept President Clay's overture and embark on a new high priority mission alongside his friend and mentor, Delta Commander General Mike Desantos? Will Brook Grayson continue to hone her newly found survival skills and successfully train her 11-year-old daughter, Raven, to defend herself against the undead threat?
©2012 Shawn Chesser (P)2016 Shawn Chesser
A Pound of Flesh
Summary
A Pound of Flesh, book four in the Surviving the Zombie Apocalypse series, picks up on day nine where In Harm's Way: Surviving the Zombie Apocalypse left off. Outbreak - Day Nine Reeling from a surprise attack, and with two fires burning out of control, Schriever Air Force Base goes on high alert. Former CDC Scientist Sylvester Fuentes, the apparent target, is killed along with others. Destroyed in the conflagration was the Omega antiserum Fuentes had been working to perfect and just hours prior had tested successfully on one of the recently infected. Meanwhile, returning prematurely from a mission to set off two nukes in the path of an advancing horde of living dead numbering several hundred thousand strong, and with his Delta Force commander Mike Desantos infected and dying from the Omega virus, Cade Grayson is forced to do something no friend should have to do. As the low rumble of the two nuclear detonations signaling the mission's likely success rolls over Schriever, Delta Force Captain Cade Grayson begins formulating a plan that will send him hurtling on a collision course with the parties responsible for the terrorist attack. Six hundred miles away near Eden, Utah, Duncan Winters hopes to ride out the apocalypse in his brother Logan's remote compound. In Jackson Hole, Wyoming, the New American capitol, Daymon Bush, former BLM firefighter, bides his time with one burning desire: to find his girlfriend Heidi even if it eventually kills him. Will Cade successfully lobby President Clay and embark on a new mission in order to extract his pound of flesh for the loved ones he has lost?
©2012 Shawn Chesser (P)2016 Shawn Chesser
Drawl: Duncan's Story
Summary
Outbreak - Day One Like a fragile house of cards in a hurricane, Presidents, Premiers, entire governments and their ruling bodies disappeared instantly. Some had ensconced themselves in deep underground bunkers or remained holed up in fortified strongholds, but history would tell that most had been swallowed up by the dead - never to be heard from again. On that last normal Saturday in July, while an unknown virus indiscriminately wreaks destruction and death to all four points of the compass - a chain of events at a rally in a downtown square gets Duncan Winters to thinking that Portland, Oregon may not be immune to the quickly spreading carnage. But seeing is not believing until that initial veil of normalcy bias - a person's natural tendency to underestimate both the possibility of a disaster and its possible effects - is lifted and long-dormant survival instincts forged and honed in Vietnam begin to awaken within him.
©2016 Shawn Chesser (P)2017 Shawn Chesser
Home
Summary
Outbreak - Week 1 Presidents, prime ministers, entire governments disappeared instantly, like a fragile house of cards in a hurricane. Some hid deep underground or holed up in fortified strongholds, but most were swallowed up by the dead, never to be heard from again. Having lost both parents just weeks apart - one to Omega, the other to a brutal beating inflicted by Chinese PLA soldiers - 12-year-old Raven Grayson finds herself in the nation’s new capital, battling loneliness and crushing depression, all while trying to find her place among her fellow transplanted Eden survivors. Stumbling across a seemingly senseless act of destruction wrought on something near and dear to her, Raven follows the trail of clues left behind. A trail whose terminus offers up a revelation that suggests the life of a very important person may hang in the balance. With a litany of new laws to navigate, and an indifferent chief of police standing in her way, if Raven is to bring the perpetrators to justice, she must dig deep and apply every skill she has learned in the crucible that is the zombie apocalypse. What should she do with the evidence she uncovers? Will she adapt and improvise when one pulled string starts unraveling everything, heaping upon her more trouble than she can handle alone? Or, will the training she has received since the dead began to walk be insufficient for her to overcome all that the infamous Mr. Murphy has in store for her? Come along and find out how our transplanted survivors fare in their new home away from home! Praise for Surviving the Zombie Apocalypse: Home: "A gut-wrenching, hard hitting series that will leave you breathless." (John O'Brien, best-selling author of the New World series) "Shawn Chesser is a master of the zombie genre." (Mark Tufo, best-selling author of the Zombie Fallout series) "Through a combination of tight, well-structured plots and fully realized characters, Chesser has emerged as one of the top indie writers in the business." (Joe McKinney, two-time Bram Stoker Award winner and best-selling author of the Dead World series)
©2019 Shawn Chesser (P)2020 Shawn Chesser
District
Summary
Outbreak - Day 1: Presidents, premiers, entire governments disappeared instantly, like a fragile house of cards in a hurricane. Some hid deep underground or holed up in fortified strongholds, but most were swallowed up by the dead, never to be heard from again. Cade Grayson - husband, father, patriot - discovered two undead enemy soldiers on American soil, and soon the official call to duty came directly from the President herself in a transmission beamed by military satellite to Cade's refuge in rural Utah: It was time to take up arms in defense of his country once again. Valerie Clay’s hard-to-fathom video footage, showing thousands of enemy soldiers establishing beachheads all along the West Coast, made it impossible to resist. He was a former US Army Delta Operator and he had to come to the aid of his dying country. If he and his team failed, it would leave America more vulnerable than ever - not only to the zombie scourge roaming the countryside, but to her enemies both foreign and domestic. While Cade is away, the Eden survivors learn a devastating secret: The dead have recovered from the effects of an early season snowstorm. They are everywhere. Worse, someone capable of unspeakable violence has been systematically stripping nearby towns of everything worth taking. Will Cade and his team survive their mission to halt the enemy’s push inland? Will the Eden survivors find the supplies they need for the upcoming long and brutal winter? And will they survive (are they prepared to survive) an encounter with those responsible for the grisly crimes against humanity? Discover who has what it takes to survive the zombie apocalypse...and who doesn’t.
©2016 Shawn Chesser (P)2018 Shawn Chesser
Mortal
Summary
Mortal, Book Six in the Surviving the Zombie Apocalypse series, picks up immediately where Allegiance: Surviving the Zombie Apocalypse left off. Outbreak - Day 16: With an estimated 99 percent of the United States' population having already succumbed to the Omega Virus and been reanimated to form roving hordes of flesh-eating monsters, two groups of survivors struggle against long odds to survive the zombie apocalypse. Returning from a mission to secure the brain power necessary to replicate an antiserum that has successfully brought one Omega-infected man back from the brink of death, the stealth helicopter carrying Captain Cade Grayson and his small team of Delta Force operators responsible for successfully pulling off the daring feat goes missing. Fearing that the helicopter has gone down in the zombie-infested countryside somewhere near Pierre, South Dakota, the life - or death - of the men may depend on a decision made by Major Freda Nash, 500 miles away. Will she send all available resources to search for the missing Ghost Hawk and the eight men aboard? Or will she be forced to put her personal feelings aside for the good of mankind and shift the focus solely to seeing that the aircraft carrying the scientists rescued from the NML, Canada's answer to the CDC, makes it safely back to Schriever AFB? Meanwhile, awaiting Cade's return at Schriever AFB, Brooklyn Grayson and daughter Raven are making final preparations to leave Schriever for the compound near Eden, Utah, when a soldier shows up on their doorstep, unannounced and bearing heartbreaking news. 400 miles northwest of Schriever, Logan Winters, his brother, Duncan, and a group of survivors newly arrived from Jackson Hole struggle to adapt to life at the Eden Compound - forced to deal not only with the threats posed by the insatiable dead, but also with a group of marauders hell-bent on taking everything they hold dear. Our survivors find out, up close and personal, who is mortal, and who will survive to fight another day.
©2013 Shawn Chesser (P)2016 Shawn Chesser
Abyss
Summary
Outbreak - Day 1: Presidents, premiers, entire governments disappeared instantly, like a fragile house of cards in a hurricane. Some hid deep underground or holed up in fortified strongholds, but most were swallowed up by the dead, never to be heard from again. a·byss [?'bis] NOUN A deep or seemingly bottomless chasm. A wide or profound difference between people. The regions of hell conceived of as a bottomless pit. A catastrophic situation seen as likely to occur. For Cade Grayson - doting father, faithful husband, and patriotic Delta Force operator - the above definitions are much more than mere words following a dictionary heading: They all make up his new reality. Following a successful mission to the nation’s former capital, Cade returns to the compound in rural Utah to find his life irrevocably altered. Five days later and still reeling from the catastrophic event that pushed him physically and mentally to the edge of the metaphorical abyss, Cade sets out to fulfill a longstanding promise: escort his daughter, Raven, outside the wire to begin the long process of honing the skills she will need to survive the zombie apocalypse. But things happen while they are away that put the integrity of the compound and the lives of its survivors in jeopardy. After unknown entities make a surprise appearance outside the Eden compound wire, and suspicions arise among the survivors that one of their own may not hold the group’s best interests at heart, Cade sets out on a new mission saddled with many more questions than he has answers for. Will Cade find outside the wire all that he is searching for? Will the Eden survivors discover a traitor in their midst while Cade is away? Most importantly: After looking into their own personal abyss, will the denizens of Eden ever be the same? Discover who has what it takes to survive the Zombie apocalypse...and who doesn’t. 128,000 words. Edited by Monique Happy Editorial Services
©2017 Shawn Chesser (P)2018 Shawn Chesser
Warpath
Summary
In the crucible that is the zombie apocalypse, Cade Grayson, father, husband, and former Delta Force operator has forged new friendships and tempered old ones. In those same metaphorical flames, he has seen blood spilled, loved ones perish, and dealt his own brand of justice. Now, three weeks after a world-wide viral outbreak has left the United States in ruins and transformed most of her population into walking corpses hungering for the flesh of the living, he finds himself at an Army Forward Operating Base on the outskirts of Grand Junction, Colorado. With only a set of GPS coordinates to go by, Cade must deliver his small family and a trio of young people from the distant outpost, across hundreds of miles of Utah's sun-baked high desert, to the promise of safety. Meanwhile, eagerly awaiting their arrival at the Eden compound, Duncan Winters goes about the grim task of burying the recently fallen. With each shovelful of dirt he deposits on the bodies of kin and friends, his insatiable desire to strike back at the people responsible tugs him ever closer to the edge of insanity. With the dead hunting and moving in herds of ever-increasing size, will Cade and his group survive the running of the gauntlet?
©2014 Shawn Chesser (P)2017 Shawn Chesser
Ghosts
Summary
Cade Grayson, father, husband, and former Delta Force operator collected his fair share of ghosts as the Omega virus ravaged the United States, turning the majority of her population into mindless automatons hungering for human flesh. Wearing incredulous stares, the faces of those ghosts - dozens of men, women, and children he was unable to save during his many forays into the Z-infested wasteland - visit him nightly during the early morning hours when defenses are dulled and REM sleep has him in its firm grip. For others who lost contact with loved ones during the frantic first hours and days of the Omega outbreak, their ghosts manifest in the nagging possibility that a wife or child or mother or sibling may still be alive out there, somewhere, struggling to survive amongst the multitudes of walking corpses and roving bands of murderous breathers. So as the Eden survivors prepare their rural Utah compound for the coming fall and winter they find that the herds of dead patrolling the nearby State Route aren't their only enemy. Idle time seems to be giving power to their ghosts. And with each perceived whiff of familiar perfume, or flash in the side vision of a familiar form that proves to be nonexistent, the lure of wanting to know their fate begins to affect some of the group adversely. Even after attaining a modicum of closure in the high country of central Idaho, Duncan Winters continues to seek solace for his loss at the bottom of a whiskey bottle.
©2015 Shawn Chesser (P)2017 Shawn Chesser
Frayed
Summary
Frayed: Surviving the Zombie Apocalypse Edited by Monique Happy Editorial Services 139,000 words Frayed, Book Nine in the best-selling Surviving the Zombie Apocalypse series, picks up three weeks after Ghosts, Book Eight, left off. Outbreak - Day One Like a fragile house of cards in a hurricane, presidents, premiers, entire governments and their ruling bodies disappeared instantly. Some had ensconced themselves in deep underground bunkers or remained holed up in fortified strongholds, but history would tell that most had been swallowed up by the dead - never to be heard from again. Since that last normal Saturday in July, the Omega virus has indiscriminately delivered destruction and death to all four points of the compass - the latter having recently been visited upon former Delta Force soldier Cade Grayson and the small group of civilian survivors making their home in the subterranean compound near Eden, Utah. In the three weeks since mounting a brash rescue mission to a zombie-infested Los Angeles and returning home to find lives of loved ones hanging in the balance, Cade has occupied himself with runs outside the wire to procure supplies necessary to ride out what the Farmer's Almanac predicts will be a long, cold winter. As Cade and his team seize an unforeseen opportunity provided by the plummeting temperatures, he quickly realizes they are in a race against time - and nature's fickle whims. And as they all labor to make the most of this gift horse, little does he know, even as Old Man Winter covers the valley with the first snow of the season, the infamous Mister Murphy is about to hurl a wicked curveball his way. Because like the fabled butterfly effect - a single action from the past is about to set in motion a chain of events that could at once spell doom for Eden as a sanctuary and scatter the entire group into the wind. Come along and see if our tenacious little group will survive the zombie apocalypse for one more precious day.
©2015 Shawn Chesser (P)2017 Shawn Chesser
The Plan
Summary
What would you do if you saw the zombie apocalypse coming and had time to prepare? Where would you go? Who would you take with you? Who could you trust? Following their flight from zombie-infested New York and flush with cash from a recent inheritance, Army veteran Lee Riker and his sister Tara are holed up with their new friend Steve-O in a multi-million-dollar Miami Beach waterside mansion. Hope for the best, plan for the worst. Having witnessed firsthand the emergence of a virus that brings the newly dead back to life and hungry for human flesh, the trio are holding out hope the government will sterilize the flashpoints of infection, and eventually achieve full containment of what the Centers for Disease Control are reporting as the fastest spreading virus mankind has ever seen. But hopes are quickly dashed and worst fears are realized when the aptly named Romero virus shows up on their doorstep, forcing them to flee the tropical paradise with little more than the clothes on their backs and a semblance of a plan. A plan whose few firm details Tara is afraid to divulge lest doing so jinx it for them all. A plan Riker knows from experience will likely not survive first contact with the enemy. A plan that will require teamwork and a whole lot of luck if they are going to survive to see it through.
©2019 Shawn Chesser (P)2019 Shawn Chesser
The Precipice
Summary
"A gut-wrenching, hard hitting series that will leave you breathless." (John O'Brien, best-selling author of the New World series) "Shawn Chesser is a master of the zombie genre." (Mark Tufo, best-selling author of the Zombie Fallout series) "Through a combination of tight, well-structured plots and fully realized characters, Chesser has emerged as one of the top indie writers in the business." (Joe McKinney, two-time Bram Stoker Award winner and best-selling author of the Dead World series) With the zombie apocalypse in full swing, army veteran Lee Riker, his younger sister Tara, and their new friend, Steven “Steve-O” Piontek survive a grueling 2,000-mile trek from the shores of Florida to the deserts of New Mexico. After outfoxing the National Guard and staying ahead of a rolling shutdown that began in New York and swept across the country at a dizzying pace, Riker’s band finally make it to their ultimate destination only to come face to face with true evil. Days have passed and Lee Riker has a date with the court. When he calls to confirm, he gets a recording: “You have reached Santa Fe Police and Fire. Shelter-in-place order is in effect for Santa Fe proper and the surrounding communities.” Before ending the call, he hears five words that at once chill him to the bone and confirm to him the city and its first responders have fallen to the walking dead: “You are on your own.” With fuel and food running dangerously low, and yet another promise that needs fulfilling, Riker leads a small group of survivors into the belly of the beast. Meanwhile, at Trinity House, their home in the hills outside of Santa Fe, Tara unearths a secret that’s been hiding in plain sight for nearly three decades. As Riker and company fight to make it out of the city alive, a deed from his past sets into motion a chain of events that, by the end of the day, may lead to one or more of the survivors ending up dead - or worse: undead. With the United States and the rest of the world in the grip of the zombie apocalypse, will Riker find the answers he seeks? Will Tara make sense of her new discovery? With danger lurking around every corner, will Steve-O learn the skills necessary to survive in the zombie apocalypse? Or will the living dead push them all to the edge of the precipice? Come along and find out!
©2020 Shawn Chesser (P)2020 Shawn Chesser