Author: Jean Bauhaus
Publisher:
Published: 2012-12-09
Total Pages: 394
ISBN-13: 9781481175968
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Hannah cradled the newborn in one arm and looked down at the iron skillet in her hand, at the droplet of red dangling from the bottom, about to fall. It broke free, and her eyes followed it to the floor, saw it splash onto the linoleum tile. That bright spatter brought her back to her senses, and suddenly she became aware of the infant screaming as only brand new babies can, of the blood on her face, neck and hands, already turning sticky as it dried, and of her mother. Their mother, lying on the floor with her skull caved in.She gripped the skillet. "Shhh," she said absently to the baby. She waited.Her mother didn't get up again.Hannah breathed a sigh of relief, then sucked it back in sharply as the grief of what she'd done hit her like a swift kick to the gut. She dropped the skillet and spun toward the sink. Her last meal hit the drain as the skillet hit the floor. She stayed bent over the sink for a long time, retching even after her stomach had given up everything it had to give. Finally, she rinsed her mouth out, then grabbed a rag and wet it down before shutting off the water.She slid to the floor, still hugging the baby to her chest. Dried blood and fluid from the birth still coated him, and he'd gotten more of their mother's blood on him during the fight. Hannah hummed an absent-minded lullaby as she wiped him down. Then she tossed the bloody rag in the sink and leaned over to pull a fresh towel from a nearby basket. She swaddled the baby and held him tight, and for the first time since taking his first breath, he stopped crying."Noah," Hannah whispered, tears burning her eyes and the back of her throat as she cradled her newborn brother. "They wanted to name you Noah."She lifted her gaze from the baby to her mother's disfigured corpse, and her cries took over for the baby's. She didn't know what to do next. She wasn't sure what was happening. And she didn't understand how the whole world had gone to utter hell before the day had even begun.When the dead roam the earth in search of human flesh, Hannah Jordan and her infant brother Noah take refuge in their family's backyard bomb shelter. Months later, they emerge to find a world still overrun by zombies and ruled by vampires. These new self-styled "protectors" of humanity keep their food supply "safe" inside interment camps all over the world.Hannah and her brother are quickly rounded up and taken to such a camp, where Noah is taken as a hostage to keep Hannah in line; but in this stark new reality, infants like Noah are a rarity. He draws the attention of vampire Alexandr Konstantin, a doctor, scientist and lone champion of human rights who wants to use Noah's pure, untainted blood in his vaccine research. Alek pulls strings to take Hannah and Noah back to his own camp at an abandoned Army base, where humans live in safety and co-exist with vampires in peace.For a little while, life is good. But when the ruling class of vampires decide they like things the way they are, they order Alek to shut down his research, and his commune, and turn those under his protection over to the interment camps. As Alek, Hannah and the commune's other residents prepare to do battle to defend their home, a breach in the base's defenses lets the zombie horde into the camp. As all hell breaks loose around them, can Alek and Hannah develop that vaccine in time to give what remains of humanity a fighting chance? And if they do, what will it cost them?
