HEARTLAND JUNK PART II: SANCTUARY

It came at you first like an unexpected chill breeze on a warm day. Most people never had a chance to figure out what was happening before it was too late. Only the lucky ones, the ones already ruined, like me, were able to defend ourselves.


The terrifying second installment of Heartland Junk, a zombie apocalypse serial novel!

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EXCERPT

Instinctively, I crouched into the wheat, letting the thin stalks brush my face. The people on the hill just stood there, unmoving. Staring. Had they seen me? I didn't think they had. In fact, I had a creeping suspicion that they couldn't see anything. This wasn't exactly what I'd expected, but it was close.

I lowered myself onto hands and knees and began crawling toward the row of dark shapes. Sunlight struck their left sides at such an extreme angle that the rest of their bodies were obscured in shadow, halfway between silhouette and nightmare.

I didn't have a weapon. I could feel my head clearing itself of hydrocodone, feel my limbs getting lighter by the minute. This was foolish. No, it was suicide. I crawled forward. I had to know. For everyone. For Rivet, for Jennie. For me. Damn it, I needed answers. Rivet was always right, in the end. It just took everyone else awhile to come around.

I scrambled closer, keeping my head below the ceiling of clear air above the wheat. Stalks bent and snapped beneath my palms, my knees, the rubber toes of my shoes. Every few seconds, I popped my head into the clear to see how close I'd come. And every time, the statuesque bodies loomed nearer, watching, waiting for something. Dark sentinels in the growing twilight. I could see now that they were turned away from me, all of them, facing south over the darkening field.

With startling speed, the sun dropped behind the treeline off to the left, sending shadows racing past me to reunite with their dark brethren on the opposite border. Its light still reflected on the high clouds overhead, filling that wide, endless sky with fire even while the ground sank into darkness. The line of people was now a true silhouette, outlined against the arc of gold clinging tenaciously to the distant hilltop.

They were just ten feet away now, the people. They hadn't reacted to my approach, hadn't turned from their eternal vigil, and I was now close enough to see why.

They were staked to the ground.