Zusatztext The Ghost has got the goods. Stephen King Informationen zum Autor David Dunwoody lives in Utah with his wife and their cats. Other stories from the Empire universe can be found in The Undead , The Undead: Flesh Feast , and The Undead: Headshot Quartet , all from Permuted Press; as well as Read by Dawn II from Bloody Books, and at www.empirenovel.com. Klappentext Originally published: Permuted Press! 2008. CHAPTER ONE Still Life, Blood on Asphalt May 1, 2112 Atherton was dying and he knew it. With every weak beat of his heart, he felt his life ebbing out onto the road. He wasn't sure where he was wounded or how. Didn't really matter. He was lying a few hundred yards from the overturned town car, which rested against a smoldering military Humvee. The road was supposed to be secure, but they'd requested an escort anyway. It was the escort that had flipped and crashed up ahead of them, and Atherton had swerved the town car but not quickly enough to avoid a collision. He angled his head toward the wreck and looked for signs of life. None. Was he the only one ejected from the vehicles? It figured. Thirty-four, in his prime, handsome swatches of gray just beginning to show in his hair. It figured he would die now, alone. At least he would be prepared for death, could breathe his last words as he felt it coming over him. A pale horse walked around the wreck and came toward him. Upon it was a rider and Atherton knew his name was Death. He wondered if Death looked the same to every soul he claimed. For Atherton, at least, it was the traditional black robes, with a hood casting a shadow over the specter's face. As he drew closer and dismounted, Atherton saw his white face and black eyes, like marbles set in clay. Have I already died? he asked. Not yet, Death answered dispassionately. He stood over Atherton, blocking out the noonday sun, and surveyed the landscape. The silence was unbearable. Would Death just wait there until Atherton bled out? I work for the senator, he coughed. The senator? Death frowned. Moorecourt. He was in the town car, Atherton explained. I amwashis aide. The senator isn't dead, the specter murmured. The others? They are. I don't understand. Atherton could taste blood on his lips and gums. His head was swimming from the heat, and he forced himself to concentrate on speaking. You just got here. But they're already dead? I don't normally collect souls myself, Death replied. I merely mark their passing. Only in extraordinary circumstances His monotone voice trailed off. He was eyeing the wreck. All the while his ghostly steed stood silently. Why did we crash? Atherton croaked. Fate? Was there such a thing? Did Death have a contemporary who wrote the endings of human lives in a great book? Or was it just an accident, a fucking accident? He wasn't sure which possibility offended him more: for some emotionless sentinel to decide that he should be torn open and dumped onto burning asphalt in the middle of nowhere, or for shitty driving to be his undoing. There was a body in the road, Death said. The soldiers drove over it, believing it was dead. It wasn't. Death's gaze was fixed on the wreck, and he reached a chalk-white hand into the folds of his robes. It was an undead? Ignoring the question, Death pulled his hand out, and with it a massive scythe, far too long to have been concealed on his person, the curved blade catching the sunlight and throwing it into Atherton's eyes. He groaned and rolled his head to the side. That's when he saw it. The lone undead shambled around the town car and stopped. It could see them both, Atherton realized. Its hands and face were caked with blood, not its own. Must have been in t...

Autorentext

David Dunwoody lives in Utah with his wife and their cats. Other stories from the Empire universe can be found in The Undead, The Undead: Flesh Feast, and The Undead: Headshot Quartet, all from Permuted Press; as well as Read by Dawn II from Bloody Books, and at www.empirenovel.com.

Klappentext

The year i s 2112.T he crippled U.S. government and its military forces are giving up the century-long fight against an undead plague. Born of an otherworldly energy fused with a deadly virus, the ravaging hordes of zombified humans and a nimals have no natural enemies. But they do have one supernatural enemy: Death himself.Descending upon the ghost town of Jefferson Harbor, Louisiana, the Grim Reaper embarks on a bloody campaign to put down the legions that have defied his touch for so long. He will find allies in the city's last survivors, and a nemesis in a man who wants to harness the force driving the zombies--a man who seeks to rebuild America into an empire of the dead. Hailed as "A MACABRE MASTERPIECE OF POST-APOCALYPTIC ZOMBIE GOODNESS" on the Library of the Living Dead podcast, Empire brings stunning new twists to a shattering and unforgettable scenario of the not-too-distant future.

Zusammenfassung
The year i s 2112.

T he crippled U.S. government and its military forces are giving up the century-long fight against an undead plague. Born of an otherworldly energy fused with a deadly virus, the ravaging hordes of zombified humans and a nimals have no natural enemies. But they do have one supernatural enemy: Death himself.

Descending upon the ghost town of Jefferson Harbor, Louisiana, the Grim Reaper embarks on a bloody campaign to put down the legions that have defied his touch for so long. He will find allies in the city’s last survivors, and a nemesis in a man who wants to harness the force driving the zombies—a man who seeks to rebuild America into an empire of the dead.

Hailed as “A MACABRE MASTERPIECE OF POST-APOCALYPTIC ZOMBIE GOODNESS” on the Library of the Living Dead podcast, Empire brings stunning new twists to a shattering and unforgettable scenario of the not-too-distant future.