Remedy
A Red Plague Novella
Red Plague Series 4
by Anna Abner
Date of
Publication: July 26th 2016
Publisher:
Mild Red Books
Genre:
YA Dystopian
BLURB
The red plague has devastated the
human race, turning billions of people into zombies with red eyes and an
insatiable hunger for human flesh.
Seventeen-year-old Callie Crawford is
used to fighting. She was an all-star wrestler in high school, and since 212R
destroyed her world, she hasn’t stopped fighting. When her high school
boyfriend Levi caught the virus, Callie saved him by keeping him chained in a
rural North Carolina barn, waiting for something to change.
Before 212R, Roman Duran was a
computer nerd, but since the virus, he’s become a guard in the survivor enclave
in Washington, DC. After volunteering for a rescue mission, Roman has been
belittled, robbed, and left for dead. He hasn’t saved a single person.
Until he stumbles across Callie.
Because she has a zombie on a short leash, and Roman is carrying a syringe full
of zombie cure.
Callie and Roman will face soulless
survivors and rabid zombies on their journey to save a single infected. Along
the way, Callie will have to choose between her past and a whole new future.
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Roman Duran ran a
step behind Jared and saw the moment the other man faltered on his wounded leg,
careening into a chain link fence. Without missing a step, he ducked under
Jared’s arm and forced him forward. The pack of infecteds was only two or, at
the most, three blocks behind.
“Here,” Pollard
Datsik, the third member of their trio, hissed, slipping around a block wall
and sprinting up a set of exterior stairs to an apartment above a liquor store.
Roman dragged Jared behind him.
While Roman helped
Jared to a sagging sofa, Pollard shut the door with a quiet click and peered
through the window, his breath a puff in the silence.
“Are they following?”
Roman whispered. “Are they swarming the stairs?”
Pollard stretched his
neck to see further, and then soft-stepped to the next window and stared at the
street below.
“I’m fine,” Jared
murmured unnecessarily. “I tripped. It won’t happen again.” He shoved Roman
away. “I just need a couple minutes.”
Roman didn’t buy it.
The injury in question was a jagged slash above Jared’s knee he’d earned
climbing a fence the night before. Though they’d stopped running long enough to
wrap it, Jared wasn’t as energetic as he’d been before the wound.
Separating from
Jared, Roman peered through a broken windowpane, blinking away the exhaustion
that had dogged him for the past couple of days. Without enjoyment, he chewed
one of their last handfuls of goldfish crackers, the food dry and pasty in his
mouth. Water was about to become a serious issue.
“I’m so thirsty,” he
complained in a whisper. “And dirty.” What he wouldn’t do for a clean, clear
stream of fresh water.
Roman glanced at his
companions, noting their equally stained and stinking uniforms. Maybe
volunteering to leave Washington, DC had been a crappy decision all around.
Maybe the veep should have sent older, more experienced survivors on her search
and rescue mission. Maybe his eighteen years on the earth weren’t enough for
this kind of mission.
A pack of infecteds
had caught their scent in Raleigh and hadn’t let go. Forty-eight hours without
sleep or rest. Two days of running, of hiding, of trying to lose the predators.
And now, they were out of food and water.
“What if we climb on
the roof?” Roman whispered. “We could wait them out.”
Pollard took the bag
of crackers from him and crammed a handful into his mouth.
“We’re out of water,”
Jared reminded them. “What if they trap us for days? No.” He shook his head at
the room’s closed door. “We could end up a lot worse than we are now. I say we
keep running.”
“Forever?” Pollard
scoffed. “There has to be a point where we say we can’t continue like this. A
point where we circle around the pack and head home.”
Roman wouldn’t call
Washington, DC home. But then he’d never called anywhere home. An orphan kicked
into the system after his mother abandoned him, none of the dozen foster and
group homes he’d lived in had ever been his home. And DC was no different. It
was a way station to somewhere else, no matter whether he had an apartment or a
job or a purpose. It still wasn’t home.
Roman had yet to find
his real home.
Swallowing dry
crackers, Roman double-checked the number of rounds for his M-16. When they’d
left the safety of DC’s walls, they each carried forty rounds for their
personal firearms. It had sounded like a lot at the time, but he was down to
nineteen rounds. The other two men had less.
For an entire day,
Jared had fired warning shots at their pursuers—a mistake, Roman realized
now—but the only result had been bringing even more infecteds into the pack, as
nearby stragglers were attracted by the noise.
His ears perking up,
Roman rushed to the far window and scanned for movement. Was he crazy, or did
he hear a car engine?
Roman had left DC
wanting to help people, both infecteds and survivors. After running into
people, one worse than the last, his companions were nearly to the point of
abandoning the mission. But Roman hadn’t given up. Even though they hadn’t
helped a single person.
Between two rooftops,
he caught a glimpse of a fast-moving white Range Rover driving in a westerly
direction. A part of him wanted to catch up to the driver, but another part of
him, a starving and sleep deprived part, wanted the vehicle to pass them by and
disappear.
The sound of the Range
Rover’s engine quieted as it drove out of sight.
“Let’s try the
distraction method again,” Roman suggested. The last time they’d thrown empty
cans near the zombies, they’d been curious enough for Roman and the other two
men to escape. “It worked before.”
Their rescue mission
to Myrtle Beach could still be salvaged once they shook this pack. Unhindered
by the starving horde of infecteds, the three men could scavenge for food and
water, sleep safely in shifts, and cover ground at an easy pace. This running
for their lives, though, couldn’t go on forever. Without water and more
substantial food than goldfish crackers, he wasn’t going to survive much
longer.
“I’ll open fire,”
Pollard said, as if Roman hadn’t spoken, “and you two run for the cell tower at
the end of the street. I’ll meet you there.”
“Good plan,” Jared
said, “except you’re a horrible shot. I’ll do the shooting, thanks.” He stood,
trying to hide a wince of pain and failing.
Pollard clenched his
jaw at the insult. “Fine.” He grabbed Roman by the sleeve and dragged him
toward the door.
“You sure about
this?” Roman asked, still thinking his idea would work better than wasting more
bullets and hoping to find each other under a tower.
“Just run fast,”
Pollard said.
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Author
Info
Anna Abner lived in a haunted house
for three years and grew up talking to imaginary friends. In her professional
life, she has been a Realtor, a childcare provider, and a teacher. Now, she
writes edge-of-your-seat paranormal romances and blogs from her home in sunny
Southern California about ghosts and magic. You can connect with her online at
AnnaAbner.com.
Author Links:
INTERVIEW WITH ANNA ABNER
How would you describe your style of writing
to someone that has never read your work?
Thanks
for having me! My writing has been described as fast-paced and sexy. I like to
call my books: fun, sexy paranormals.
What mindset or routine do you feel the need
to set when preparing to write (in general whether you are working on a project
or just free writing)?
I have
a day job on top of writing, so I have to write whenever I have a free minute.
If I waited until I was in the right frame of mind to write, I’d never be
ready! So, I try to be open to the creative process at all times and in all
places, including at my daughter’s soccer practice or waiting at the doctor’s.
Do you take your character prep to heart? Do
you nurture the growth of each character all the way through to the page? Do
you people watch to help with development? Or do you build upon your character
during story creation?
Usually,
I start with a character in mind, so they’re always the most vibrant aspect of
any story for me. One of the first things I do is flesh out the characters and
give them goals, quirks, and a strong backstory. I adore my characters!
Have you found yourself bonding with any
particular character? If so which one(s)?
In
Remedy, Callie Crawford is a star athlete. In high school, I was more of a band
geek, so it was tough at first to get inside Callie’s head, but now I feel like
I understand where she’s coming from. Callie turned out to be one of my
favorite chicks.
Do you have a character that you have been
working on that you can't wait to put to paper?
Yes!
First, it was Ben from Elixir (Red Plague #1). Ben is a teenaged zombie
obsessed with redemption, and I fell hard for him. I couldn’t wait to write his
story and share it with readers. Now that Ben is out there in the world, I’m
equally excited to write Connor Beckett’s story in The Shopgirl’s Prophecy
(Beasts of Vegas #1). He’s a tall, sexy, broken young man on a suicide mission
in vampire central (AKA Las Vegas, Nevada). I hope you love him as much as I
do!
I got this one from a friend. If you could
have dinner with 7 fictional characters, who would they be?
That’s
such a tough question! Immediately, I think about Scout from To Kill a
Mockingbird and Huck Finn. Captain America and Bucky. Though they’d frighten me
in real life, I have to add my favorite paranormal romance characters: Zsadist
and Bella from the Black Dagger Brotherhood and Sebastian Wroth from Immortals
After Dark.
Thanks!
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