The Rising (Without Zombies)

With Pride & Prejudice & Zombies 2 hitting stores tomorrow, I thought it was time for me to jump on the bandwagon and pick my own public domain novel to enhance with zombies. Then I thought, y’know, everybody else is doing this with public domain novels, so to be different I should use a fully copyrighted novel. And everybody else is adding zombies, so I’ll subtract zombies. Therefore, I proudly present Brian Keene‘s zombie classic The Rising (Without Zombies).

The Rising (Without Zombies)

by Brian Keene and Jeff Strand

Nobody scrabbled for an entrance to his grave. His wife, naturally, was not there either, considering that she was deceased and not nearly as ravenous for Jim in death as she’d been in life. No faint, soulless cries drifted down through ten feet of soil and rock. It was actually rather peaceful.

The kerosene lamp cast flickering shadows on the cinder block walls, and the air in the shelter was stale and earthy. His grip on the Ruger tightened, despite the complete lack of danger. Above him, Carrie did nothing, since–as previously mentioned–she was deceased and therefore lay quite still in her adequately sealed casket.

She’d been dead for a week. Even if she were reanimated, which would never happen, no doubt rigor mortis would prevent any noteworthy muscle movement. Maybe she’d twitch a little bit, but nothing major.

Jim sighed, breathing in the dank air. He lifted the metal coffeepot from where it sat on the heater and poured himself a cup. The warmth felt good, and he lingered there for a moment, before regretfully turning the heater off. To conserve fuel, he only ran it to heat up his meals. The brief comfort only made the damp chill stronger.

The lack of noise continued from above.

Jim wasn’t quite sure why he lived down in this shelter, considering that everything in the outside world was pretty much fine. It seemed kind of silly most of the time, to be honest, and several times he’d thought to himself Maybe I should get out of this miserable underground shelter, take a dip in my Jacuzzi, and check out some Internet porn.

And so he did.

Above him, the newly risen moon shined down upon the world, staring at a mirror image of its cold yet still completely alive self.

– The End –

If you want the zombies back, buy The Rising here.

Then pad out your shopping cart with Dweller.