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Chasing a Cure (Book 1): Available Today!

Everyone’s lost someone to the outbreak, but Audra has a chance to get back the only family she has left.
With zombies roaming the country and survivors huddling in small townships, the cure developed by the Lysent Corporation is an afterthought. Too little, too late for most.
Not for Audra. She sees it as a chance to save her sister, Belinda, lost to her in this new world.
Unable to afford the pricey antiviral, she offers Belinda as collateral and signs up as a tagger, finding people’s wandering zombie family members to be cured. If she delivers on the steep tagging quota, Lysent will cure Belinda.
Or, so the corporation says.
Time proves the system is slanted against them and Audra entertains another offer – a cure in return for bolstering a rebellion. Audra will fight tooth and limb to reach her sister, but if she doesn’t successfully navigate the new world of the power-hungry and the dead, she could lose her to either side.

Chasing a Cure: A Zombie Novel is now live on Amazon. (Affiliate link)

That means you can grab your paperback or DRM-free Kindle ebook copy, today! And if you’re in the Kindle Unlimited program, you can even read it for free.

Would you start a revolution to save your sister?

Chase down zombies and hard choices in this page-turner that will leave you reeling.

The post Chasing a Cure (Book 1): Available Today! appeared first on RM Hamrick.

Chasing a Cure (Book 1): Chapter 1

*Download preview to your Kindle, Nook, other ereader through Instafreebie here.*

Audra looked past their makeshift shelter to the soft drops of rain. She knew it could devolve into a pop-up storm and bring down their hovel of fence sections and tree branches. But for now, it was almost pleasant. Audra imagined the place would not be much smaller with a collapse. The three inhabitants already crawled on top of each other. For a moment, she took a deep breath and appreciated the structure’s ability to hide them from the biters and the rain’s patter to mask her mom’s quiet groans and her older sister’s whimpers.

Now was as good of a time as any.

In the isolated wood with no wanderers in sight, Audra turned her attention to her mother’s leg. The pant leg had been cut to her high thigh weeks ago to dress the wound. It had been redressed several times now, but it was still difficult to separate the flesh from the dressing. Her dad’s quick actions stopped the bleeding at the scene, but now Audra wished upon everything it would bleed again. Instead a smelly, hot ooze had taken over. Dad was gone now, but Audra did not need his life’s wisdom to know the same incident that took his life would also take her mom’s.

As Audra cleaned the wound, her dark auburn hair fell over her green eyes, despite its sticky dirt and grease. Her mom allowed her to help today. A few days before, she had sent them away to cut out the dying flesh and drain the wound herself. She wanted to protect her twelve- and sixteen-year-old girls from the harshness of near-death, but Audra would have been able to handle it. She was always stoic, even before all this happened, never crying over scraped knees or unfair treatment. But still, her mother heeded that she did not need to be cutting dead tissue from a wound. Belinda lay in her mother’s arms, positioned away from the injured leg. The daughter gazed into her mother’s face, searching for comfort. She didn’t notice how warm her mother had gotten or what was unfolding around her.

It wasn’t even a bite.

It was just an infected cut, maybe from a poor machete swing. No one remembered in the frenzy of the attack. And wandering through the woods with no supplies, it was impossible to keep it clean. The cleaning and re-wrapping were a futile effort. No sterile sutures or bandaging, no antibiotics. They did not even have clean water. Audra assessed the wound one last time and decided. She met her mom’s eyes. The infection had not taken the grit from them. She nodded her agreement above Belinda’s head out of her sight. It was not supposed to happen this way. As a family, they had survived the initial outbreak. They were surviving. Their days had become routine, normal. Audra packed without a word to her sister, careful to hide items of comfort behind for their mother.

Now a new normal would take over.

It was not long before Belinda noticed the change in routine and her panic floated to the surface. It was never far. The mom held her oldest tight and gave her small kisses on her forehead. Belinda’s whimpers only got louder. Once again, the wounded mom looked to her youngest.

“Take care of your sister. You’re all she has left.”

Audra nodded her promise and continued packing supplies. The rain might stop soon and they would need plenty of time to set up camp before night fell.

A noise stopped her rummaging.

Belinda whined and her mother hushed her. Outside, one crept past, none the wiser of the lean-to in the rain. Audra watched from inside. The zombie’s jaw, unhinged and off-center, gathered water. The skin on his face swollen and distended from his time spent exposed. His pant leg caught on a root as he walked past. With his leg dragging, the mirror image of her mother soon wandering the woods came unbidden.

~*~

“Look, dude. I saw him first,” Audra shouted into the woods toward the man.

She caught side glimpses of him through the brush. He was easy to spot with a large green backpack slowing him down. Her first pursuer was directly behind her. All six feet of him seemed to lean forward from his ankles to reach her. A blood stain darkened the arm of his business suit. He was a perfect specimen besides a small tear at the corner of his mouth. Nothing a few stitches couldn’t fix. His shambling chase did not worry Audra. The man running alongside them in the isolated woods did. She stole another glance and tried to size him up. She did not recognize him or know his intentions, but he was trying to cut them off.

This newcomer could foil her plan to take off around a hill bend and come back behind the zom to tag him with her biometric reader. He could cut over to snipe her find. Whoever scanned first received Finder’s Rights. All was fair in the game of tagging, but that didn’t mean she wouldn’t be pissed. This was her find.

She would at least make it more difficult for him.

Audra picked up speed and teased her zom to follow. Soon they were moving at a quick pace. She could hear both men in the heavy woods trying to keep up, tripping, and bumbling. The backpack was too big for chases through the branches and brambles. No wonder he was trying to poach her find. And this was a good one. He looked like he came from a wealthy family. Someone could be looking for him.

She heard a big “Oomph” followed by a crash. One of them had tripped hard. Audra glanced back again. The zombie, nonplussed by the sound, still focused on her backside. With his visual and olfactory senses locked in, aural was less important. She veered to the left, away from their fallen pursuer. A minute later she looked back and saw no signs of him. She noticed her zombie’s shoe had fallen off. His black-socked foot stomped over rocks and sticks.

She did not want to damage the goods.

She took off into a sprint and disappeared behind a big oak tree. The zombie grunted in anger and continued in his same direction, not having enough reasoning skills to change his mind. As he passed the oak tree, Audra was ready with her silver handheld reader. She scraped the sharp comb along the back of the neck, above his falling suit collar. He turned, and she fended him off as she retracted the comb into the device for analysis. She elbowed him. When he twisted around, she kicked the back of his knees. He fell to the ground, face smashing first.

She sat on his back. Her foot contacted the back of his head, more to muffle his angry noises than to keep herself safe. She pulled out a prickly pear pad from her bag to munch on while she waited for the reader to analyze the DNA.

*BING, BING* came the beautiful sound, the sound of money.

“Let’s see who wants to pay for you, my friend,” she directed toward the zom underfoot with a renewed smile on her face. The thought of his torn mouth flashed into her mind. She should not push his face too far into the ground. He was worth money now, and the better his body, the better the payout.

The readout display had text stats on her find. Every person’s DNA had been cataloged for almost 25 years before the outbreak. And now it was used to determine if your corpse body would be awakened or if you would continue to roam the countryside a remnant of your former self. Today was her and Randolph Ludington’s lucky day.

Name: Randolph Ludington

Gender: Male

DOB: 5/29/2043

Status: Deposit paid

There were several potential status findings. No Inquiries, Inquired, and Deposit Paid. A deposit started the wake-up process – if, by process, you meant negotiation.

Audra punched the FOUND key as she settled onto her zombie seat. The usual survey followed documenting body condition, difficulty of capture (in this case, already captured), and distance from Lysent headquarters. Audra typed in the answers as she chewed on the end of the cactus pad. It was her last prepared one. She would have to be on the lookout for more.

It would take a while for Lysent to contact the depositor and negotiate a price. She surveyed her surroundings. Was the stranger still lurking around to snatch her zom? Technically now that she had pressed FOUND, she was the only one entitled to the corporation’s payout through Finder’s Rights. But there were always loopholes. If poaching was enticing earlier, it was now even more tempting. Any zombie with ‘No Inquiry’ status would be left to roam with a yellow serial tag on his ear. Audra’s attachment to him showed his value. It was time to find a camp, away from here and close to water.

She leaned forward, moving from her rear to a kneel, pushing each knee into a shoulder. She inched the bartered handmade leather mask over his face, taking care that her fingers did not slip near his teeth. One bite and she would be infected and wandering the woods, too. Some taggers removed the teeth, and the awakened person would be given dentures afterward. Keeping him intact would yield a better payout. Audra tightened the lacing of the mask and finished with a Carrick bend like her father taught her. She got off the zom’s back and pulled up on the knot to bring him to his knees. The mask had an eye slot, but for now, she threw a small cloth sack on top to block his view and calm him. He could still smell her though. The mask muffled his noises, but his arms reached wide to find the source of the smell. She grabbed and bound his hands in front of him with soft, wide cloth to prevent injuries to his limbs. Prices dropped fast with amputations. The cure could not regrow limbs or extensive tissue. She hitched a long lead to his binding.

With his arms bound and his nickname chosen, Audra pulled the cloth sack off Randy’s head so they could walk without stumbling – too much.

Audra knew the Georgia woods, or what was left of Georgia. Really, the only townships this far south belonged to Lysent. The goal was a secluded spot where she could start a fire and have a nice campsite without being found by others. If she was stuck with Randy for a few days, at least she should be able to enjoy it. Sometimes she would travel with a zom toward Lysent before a negotiation’s end, but the date of his deposit was old. His family’s circumstances may have changed. She wanted to be out here if his deal did not go through. The land near Lysent was already well hunted. Besides, Randy was so demure, she could handle at least one other zombie if she found it in time. She was sure Randy would love another travel buddy.

Audra was stuck working for Lysent. Most of the time, money never exchanged hands between the corporation and herself. Audra had indebted herself to them as an indentured tagger. She could ask for a payout when she needed to buy items, but it lengthened her employment. It seemed like a never ending battle anyway, she incurred more debt each day.

Audra tried not to think about it.

Randy grunted as he caught on a high root that Audra missed. The rope gave a quick tug and Audra jumped ahead to miss his fall. Over the last two years, she had become adept at feeling the tautness and looseness of her lead. His cadence, the vibrations of his steps, his unfortunate scent all gave information to his escort. They walked eight miles plus another two to find a good camping spot. Audra controlled most of the conversation. She tried to guess Randy’s occupation before his unfortunate accident (Were you a stock broker, Randy?). His suit gave away that he was in the initial outbreak. Once people learned there was a disease sweeping the country that turned you into a cannibal, they stopped donning suits. She complimented him on his efforts to stay in one piece. Most of his colleagues had since decomposed beyond what was salvageable.

The conversation ended for a while as Audra set up camp. She tied him to a thick sapling, threw down her pop up tent, and gathered wood for her fire. After a small dinner, the sun set behind the trees and the woods darkened. She set her eyes on the fire, but kept her ears on the forest past the fire’s crackle and Randy’s shuffling. Was someone out there? Another zombie would be nice, another tagger would be bad, wildlife she was neutral. Any large predators had plenty to eat with the zombies walking around. They were easier prey.

“I wish we had marshmallows to roast, Randy. Do you remember marshmallows?”

Zombies required nutrition, but marshmallows wouldn’t cut it. The virus stimulated the brain’s hunger response only toward non-infected humans, as a way for it to spread through the bodily fluid exchange of bites. The virus attacked higher brain structures, leaving parts responsible for survival and basic movement functioning. The heart pumped. The lungs breathed. And the five senses seemed intact. But it all happened at a slower pace. The slowed breathing and heart rate diminished the amount of oxygen delivered to the body. The bodies began to look dead, sagging and decaying. With their bodies running at such low capacities, it took an extended amount of time for them to starve to death, over a year in fact by Lysent’s estimations. The cure couldn’t awaken the actual dead, only those infected with the virus.

Audra wondered when was the last time Randy had eaten.

~*~

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The post Chasing a Cure (Book 1): Chapter 1 appeared first on RM Hamrick.