George L. Cook III's Blog, page 55

Thank you!

Thanks to all who purchased my book for making The Dead War Series Book 1 a success. Book 2 is on the way. Until then why not check out The Dead War Short Stories for 99 cents. More US Army vs zombies action! http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0080S7PGQ #zombies #thewalkingdead #horror #kindle

Free: A Dead War Short Story: Thompson

A Dead War Series Short Story THOMPSON

A free short story based on the book The Dead War Series which tells the story of the US Army's fight to save America after a zombie apocalypse.

http://www.scribd.com/doc/98059013/A-...The Dead War Series: Book 1

Free Excerpt: The Dead War Series Book 1

Hi this is George Cook author of The Dead War Series Book 1. I am thrilled to share with you a short excerpt from the book. Hope you like it and I hope it encourages you to purchase the book. Have fun reading.

The other door slowly slid upward. The sounds of the moaning became louder as the door stopped.



Richards   raised his pistol as the dead lumbered out of the tunnel and into the pit. They moaned loudly and their arms were outstretched toward the soldier.



Richards remembered the rules of “The Test”. You were allowed to take three of the dead out with your pistol but two kills had to be by hand to prove that you could defend yourself without a pistol.







There was no hesitation. Richards   fired. The blue bead of light slammed into the head of the first of the dead out of the tunnel.



The blast blew out the back of the lumbering ghouls head. Richards  quickly aimed his pistol at the second and fired. The blast caught the second of the dead in the side of the head sending it tumbling to the ground.



The remaining three were only about ten yards away now.



Richards  went down and one knee and aimed again.



Sergeant Patesh leaned forward. What the fuck was his student doing.



From across the pit Chen shot Patesh a confused look.



Richards  exhaled and fired again. Another of the dead fell to the ground. What was left of it’s head was a bloody mass.



The dead were only five yards away now. Richards  holstered his pistol and unsheathed his knife.



As one of the dead reached down at him. He lurched up ward ramming the knife through the chin of the dead woman.  The tip of the knife came out through the top of the dead woman’s head and she collapsed to the ground. Black fluid poured from her mouth.



Richards  spun away as the last of the dead reached at him. The fat dead man reached again. The soldier caught him by the arm and spun it into the wall. The dead man’s head hit the wall with a thud.



Richards  ran up behind the dead man and began to contiguously ram his head into the wall. Blood and black fluid flew into the air as the dead man’s head was smashed open. Soon the dead man’s brains spilled out and it slumped to the ground.. Now it was truly dead.



There was no danger of contamination from the blood as the virus or whatever it was that caused the dead to walk could only be spread by the bite of one of the infected dead.



Richards  looked at those above him who begun to clap their hands and cheer.



The door Richards  had walked out of opened back up. He stepped through the door where he was greeted by several men in black uniforms and black berets.



One of the men stepped forward holding a black beret in his hand. The beret had a flaming skull in it’s center front and the word Scout underneath.



Corporal  Richards took the beret and looked at it as Patesh entered the room.



Richards saluted.



Patesh saluted back and then handed Richards his Sergeant stripes, “Good job out there.”



Sergeant Richards smiled, “Thank you Sergeant.”



All Scouts automatically earned the rank of sergeant upon completion of their training which concluded with “The Test”



Patesh nodded and stepped back as the other scouts got in formation behind him.



“Raise your right hand.”, ordered Patesh.





Richards raised his hand.







Then the twenty men in the room began to recite the Scout’s Creed.

I will fight alone

But I fight for the many

I will never give up

I will soldier on

I will finish my mission

I will not fail

I am a SCOUT!

“You may now put on your beret, Scout”, said Patesh.

Richards put the beret and stood at attention.







Patesh smiled, “Welcome to the Scout Corp.”

Buy the Dead War Series Book 1 here: The Dead War Series

The Dead War Series: The short stories 4 zombie short stories for 99 cents

The Dead War Series: The short stories 4 zombie short stories for 99 cents http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0080S7PGQ

These 4 short stories are companion pieces to the book The Dead War Series: Book 1 available for the Amazon Kindle here: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B006RY6JSU

These four stories will answer questions readers had after reading the book, The Dead War Series: Book 1

Questions like:

How did Private Smith wind up in the US Army?

How did the dead wind up locked inside the boarded up church?

How did the soldier Thompson wind up being eaten by one of the dead?

The four stories included are:

The Dead War Series: THOMPSON

The Dead War Series: CHURCH

The Dead War Series: ZOMBIE KILLER

The Dead War Series: SAFE ZONE

Bonus: Why I hate fast moving zombies by George L. Cook III

Interview with author George Cook

1) What is your name and bio?

My name is George Cook. I live in Hillside NJ and am active in politics as well as being an author. I currently am president of my local board of education. I served in the NJ National Guard from 1991-1994. I have been writing since I was ten years old. I love science fiction and horror. I am a NY Giants, Syracuse Orange Basketball, Michigan Wolverines ( football ), and NY Yankee fan.

2) What is your book title, synopsis, and where can readers find it?

The name of my Kindle Book is the Dead War Series, Book 1.

The US Army doesn't run from any enemy, living......or dead! In the year 2053 the dead walked. Mankind was caught off guard at first but within six years mounted a massive military assault on the dead. These are the stories of some of those men and women that fought back.

The book is available at Amazon for $1.50 : http://www.amazon.com/dp/B006YEKJXO

3) Where do you come up with your ideas?

The idea for The Dead War Series came from the fact that I am prior military and also that I love the AMC show The Walking Dead. I love military action adventures and I wanted to combine that with a zombie apocalypse type story.

4) What books/authors do you like to read?

On the Kindle I have brought books in the zombie genre by many independent authors such as The Plague by M. Scott Burgess, Deadlocked by A.R. Wise, Contagion by L.I. Albemont, and of course World War Z by Max Brooks.

5) What's your next writing project?

I am currently working on a horror story titled Gargoyle which is a homage to the old monster movies that used to come on TV on a Saturday afternoon. Once that's finished it's right back to writing The Dead War Series Book 2: Abomination.

The Dead War Series: Safe Zone a Dead War Short Story. Free at Amazon

The Dead War Series: Safe Zone a Dead War Short Story. Free at Amazon http://www.amazon.com/dp/B007PVBKP6

The war against the dead rages on. Sergeant Richards and other scouts have been very busy as army brass is planning something big. They have been working for hours without any sleep. A near death encounter forces Richards to get some rest in a "safe zone". Once there he realizes that there may be something worse than the dead. Hopelessness.

Thank you all!

THANK YOU ALL!

Thanks to all of you that helped make The Dead War Series: Book 1 my best selling ( http://www.amazon.com/dp/B006YEKJXO ) book ever in just 3 months. It has hit the magic number of sales for me to start writing book 2. I am know writing Book 2: Abomination and hope to have it to you by the end of April.

If you think the action was great in the first book you just wait to Sergeant Richards and a platoon of US Army soldiers meet up with Duncan's mercenaries , a group of escaping children, and hundreds of the dead at the hospital in search of " The Abomination".

Thank you all again so much! George L. Cook III

Interview with Sergeant Richards, hero of The Dead War Series.

Interview with Sergeant Richards, hero of The Dead War Series. ( WARNING: Explicit language )

Today we are here with Sergeant Richards the hero of The Dead War Series. We will ask him a few questions about the early days of the war and why he became a special forces scout. TDWS refers to the blogs title The Dead War Series..



TDWS: Sergeant Richards you have been lucky enough to survive this long in The Dead War. Why is that?



Richards- Because I’m afraid.


TDWS: Afraid?



Richards: Yes Afraid. It’s amazing how fear can keep a mother fucker alive. Many think of fear in a negative way but a scout soon learns that it helps him stay alive.


TDWS: Interesting. How were things early on here in Newark when the virus or whatever it is broke out?



Richards: It was weird here in Newark. We knew it was happening but it was happening at such a slow pace at first that many didn’t take it that seriously. In New York and Philly it was tearing through the populace but here it crept up slowly until that one day it just exploded.


TDWS: That one day. What was it like?



Richards: It was crazy. I thought the world was ending. It spread so quickly that we on the police force were caught completely off guard. We were literally overwhelmed in hours. We couldn’t even protect ourselves let alone the citizens. Many of the people committed suicide, some alone but others in huge groups.


TDWS: Why so many suicides early on?



Richards: One thing the scientist did realize was that the virus didn’t reanimate those that were already dead. It could only be passed on by a bite from the dead to the living. Many decided they would go out on there on terms.


TDWS: Why didn’t you consider killing yourself?



Richards: Who said that I didn’t?


TDWS: How did you go from wanting to kill yourself to joining the army?



Richards: a year into this shit I hooked up with a few former cops and their families. We actually made a little safe enclave in an old forgotten school that was boarded up. We were able to hold off the dead but I started to feel like we were just surviving not living. Eventually the dead got in and after me and others escaped we heard rumors about the army recruiting. I was tired of running so I decided to join up. The rest is history.


TDWS: What was it like fighting the dead?



Richards: A fucking mess. The sergeants and officers who trained us were battle tested having fought in the African Conflict but they taught tactics that were of use against the living. The sheer number of the dead was also a major problem. The first year we thought our unit was named retreat because we heard the word so much.

TDWS: Do you enjoy killing the dead.
Richards: At first yes. I felt like I was taking revenge for everyone that they had killed including my family. But soon you start to realize that it’s not really revenge.
TDWS: How so?
Richards: Think about how can it be revenge if you are putting some poor bastard out of his misery? By killing them we are putting them at rest.

TDWS: What unit were you first assigned to?



Richards: Bravo Company 22 Battalion, better known as the Newark Hellcats. I was assigned to the second platoon under Sergeant Ridley. She’s a tough bitch and I mean that in a nice way.


TDWS: What happened to them?



Richards: Last I heard they are still going strong. They are taking forward positions in the war here in Newark. It’s been almost a year since I have seen them though. We were a good unit. I liked it there.


TDWS: So why become a scout?



Richards: Wasn’t my choice. None of us were exactly volunteers. We were selected by our company commanders and sent to Fort Dix for training. But this time we were trained by soldiers who were battle tested against the dead.


TDWS: What’s it like? Being a scout I mean.



Richards: It’s weird. You learn to stay alive on your own and when you encounter the dead you sometimes wish you had help but you have been fighting alone so long you don’t trust anyone but yourself.

TDWS: How is it when you are fighting alongside other troops?

Richards: Hard. I have to remember that they are friendlies with me and every creature moving is not trying to take a hunk out of me.


TDWS: Have you killed friendlies before?


Richards: To be quite frank with you, yes. I have had to and to kill other humans who are not so friendly.


TDWS: Humans that are not that friendly?



Richards: You know cannibals, warlords and their play armies, shit like that. Hell, I prefer dealing with the dead. At least I know what their agenda is.


TDWS: You are painting a bleak picture. Do you think we can win this war?



Richards: Early on I would have said no and I honestly believed that just surviving another day was a victory. I remember early on that we all thought it would be like some “28 Days Later” shit and that the daed would all just drop and it would be over. We soon realized that’s not going to happen and once we really started to fight back I saw something starting to return.


TDWS: What is that something?



Richards: Hope. As long as we have hope and keep fighting we will overcome the dead. We will rebuild our world.


TDWS: I guess that’s a good note to end our interview on.



Richards: Okay. I have a war to go fight anyways.

Buy The Dead War Series for Kindle here for $1.50: The Dead War Series: Book 1