Author: Frank Tayell
Publisher: Createspace
Publication Date: February 15, 2014
Pages: 198
Source: Kindle/Bought
Billions died during the global civil war that followed the outbreak. Anarchy took grip. Chaos ruled. The world collapsed. In Britain, the evacuation failed. Nowhere is safe from the undead.
Three months after the outbreak, Bill Wright has found safety in a ruined Abbey in southern England, but he is still alone. All he has for company are the files sent to him before the outbreak by the shadowy Washington fixer he only knows as Sholto. On those, he believes he has found the origins of the undead, and the vast conspiracy in which he discovers he played an unwitting part.
He needs answers, and knows the only place they will be found is at the facility that created the virus. With the wasteland infested with zombies, travelling there is not easy. Motorways, reinforced during the evacuation, now form a barrier of living death, forcing him west, towards a stately home he once knew as a child. There he rescues a woman, Kim, and together they rescue two children. But as they meet more survivors, he discovers that there are more dangerous things than the undead in the British wasteland.
Review: I loved this book as much as the first! This series really pulls you in! I really enjoyed how there was a bunch of changes Bill had to deal with and adjust to. It was interesting being in his head and reading about how he felt about those changes and how he was dealing with the adjustments. I also loved seeing more of his planning on where to go, how to get stuff, how to help save others, etc. He is pretty quick on his feet with improvising plans when needed. I'm impressed. I honestly don't think I'd have as quick of thinking as he does most of the time, especially with hordes of the undead right on my tail. Speaking of hordes, we actually get a number of hordes throughout the book.
The book description is definitely right when it says he discovers things more dangerous than the undead. You know what's more dangerous? Other humans. While not everyone becomes a cold, killing machine, there are some people that let that type of living and thinking overtake them. Bill encounters two of these people in the beginning when he's out riding on his bike looking for supplies, surveying the motorways, and determining his next moves. What's worse is these people he encountered not only were pure killing machines, but they also locked another human being up. Not bitten or infected in any sort. Just locked her up in chains just cuz they could. She didn't fit in with the thinking and instead of letting her leave, just locked her up. It really makes you wonder how far gone some people are when they will just kill anyone or lock up anyone just because they can, even in the middle of an apocalypse! Luckily Bill ends up being able to save the woman, named Kim, and she ends up being a big part of the story going forward. :)
One thing I have to say I liked was how Kim picked up with the journal writing when Bill was sleeping or unable to. She wrote out her parts of the story, how she helped him survive things. It was so cool seeing her do that because she knew Bill would want that and appreciate that.
Later on in the story Bill helps save another group of survivors, but they too seem to have ulterior motives. It never came out and showed it until the end of the book, but you could sense it. The way these people attacked Bill over his past work involving the evacuation plan, how they talked behind Kim & Bills back about escape plans, how they always seemed like they were trying to get rid of them or get them killed. They just gave me a bad feeling from the moment Bill brought them back to the Abbey and they proved it right. And I just knew what they did at the end in the escape from the Abbey was 100% sinister. They are definitely shady people.
I have to say, I was actually surprised a bit by the ending. For most of the book we see Bill thinking about how and when he'd get the chance to go to check out the facility where the virus was made, and stored. Eventually he does get there, but not for the reasons he originally was go for. Surprisingly, the lab was deserted save for one person who seemed to get there just weeks before Bill did. When this person started talking to Bill, I knew right away who he was. I wasn't expecting the twist in the story this person revealed. I had no inklings about what this person revealed but yet it does seem like it could possibly be true. I'm excited to see how this revelation plays out in the next book.
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