VS Note: This week’s snippet is from my scifiromance with zombies!
The group is workin their way through the devastated city, trying to escape:
Twenty or thirty infected a street over, Cody reported a few minutes later. Mesmerized by a fire.
Damn, we need to go in that direction. Jeff was plainly irritated at the new obstacle. We’ll go two blocks further and then cut over.
Melly thought she was in good physical shape but she was already feeling the strain of all the walking in her calves and thighs. She didn’t want to ask for a break though. She wanted to get as far away as possible from the infected in the vicinity. Time enough later to sit and rest a bit and drink some water. As they finally made the turn to go east as Jeff wanted, she was distracted by a stray cat which erupted from the building she was passing and ran under her feet. Instinctively she screamed as she fell, landing on a stacked pile of looted goods, which toppled into the street with a crash. Melly lost her balance and fell to her knees with a painful thump.
Jeff yanked her to her feet at the same moment as Cody said, That did it. The sound has attracted their attention. We need to run, lady and gentlemen.
The captain kept his iron grip on her arm, drawing her with him as he sprinted through a side street, his men in a loose formation around them. Behind her she could hear the moaning and growling of the horde growing louder. Zach fired a long blast into the front line of the shambling creatures before rushing to keep up with the others.
Another group ahead, sir. We’re going to be cut off and surrounded.
Not missing a beat, Jeff turned into an alley which took them in a direction perpendicular to the two approaching groups of infected. Milly had a terrible stitch in her side and was breathing in huge gasps when she came to the end of the alley, which was closed off by a barred gate. “We’ll be trapped,” she said in a panic, glancing behind her to see the first infected swarming into the mouth of the alley.
Cutting through the lock now, Trent said.
The rusty gate swung open with a screeching sound that seemed to inflame the infected into moving faster. Jeff shoved Melly through, two of the soldiers at his back. Weld it shut.
A blaster sizzled and she checked behind her to see the wave of infected slam into the barrier, their eyes glowing, reaching clawed hands through the bars. More were piling up behind.
Won’t last long, sir, Trent reported. The weight of the crowd behind is going to force it open eventually.
We go up, Jeff said.
At the end of the alley there was a large container for trash and Zach and Cody were already standing on the closed lid. it. As Melly ran toward them, she saw Zach make the leap to catch the edge of a hanging ladder fire escape above them and draw himself up to safety. Cody joined him and both men pivoted to face the alley.
“I—I can’t climb that,” she said in between gasping breaths when she arrived at the trash container. “It’s too tall.”
“No problem.” Before she knew what he was doing, Jeff left her side, leaping to the top of the bin and reaching back for her. Trent boosted her into the captain’s grasp and she got her footing on the top of the shifting container with a gasp. Big hands spanning her waist, Jeff lifted her and literally threw her in the direction of Zach and Cody above, who caught her hands as if she was a circus aerial performer and yanked her onto the small balcony with them.
“Climb as if your life depends on it,” Cody said, pushing her in the direction of a rickety ladder attached to the side of the building. Head for the roof. We’ll be right behind you.
Jeff and the other two soldiers plainly couldn’t get onto the balcony where she stood unless she moved. There wasn’t room for extra people. The three men stood on the trash container lid and fired at the oncoming horde of infected. Cody and Zach added their firepower from above. No matter how many of the infected the barrage mowed down, more came from behind, scrambling awkwardly over their fallen comrades in their mindless resolve to get at the living prey in front of them.
Convinced she was abandoning Jeff and the others and hating the necessity to follow orders rather than stand and fight beside them, Melly scrambled up the ladder as rapidly as she could, praying the rusty fastenings weren’t going to come out of the wall and plummet the ladder and her into the crowd below. The rungs vibrated under her hands as one of the soldiers began to climb and she tried to redouble her pace. Terror gave her strength. She wished the antigrav units could lift them all to safety but as Jeff had explained to her, the devices were for controlled descent only, lacking the impeller which would allow free flight. Cursing whoever decided not to give the veterans the top of the line equipment, she kept climbing. Finally she reached the roof and maneuvered herself over the lip of the façade, sprawling on the surface beyond like a boneless sea creature. Her legs were jelly and her arms felt paralyzed. She rolled onto her back, gasping.
Cody who’d been climbing behind her was first to arrive and wordlessly he tugged her out of the way so the next man could climb to safety. Melly leaned against the utility vent where he’d left her and tried to control her racing pulse. She struggled to get to her feet, desperate to know if Jeff and others were okay. Evading Cody’s outstretched hand, she went to the parapet and leaned over, relieved to find the captain and the other two soldiers well on their way to the roof. The infected had reached the tiny balcony, climbing on the pile of bodies but didn’t seem to understand how to climb a ladder.
“You all right?” Jeff came straight to her, taking her by the arm and pulling her away from the edge.
“I’m so sorry,” she said, tears streaming from her eyes as emotion flooded through her body. “It’s all my fault for making the noise when I fell over the damn cat.”
“The important thing is we’re all okay and in a relatively safe place. Live to fight another day and all the associated inspirational talk.” He grinned. “You’ll do better next time. We had it rigorously trained into us how to stay silent at all times—I know you’re doing your best for us, doc.”
ARRIVAL (PLANET OF LAST RESORT BOOK ONE) by Veronica Scott
Melisande “Melly” Jericho is a newly licensed medical doctor, returning to her home planet to practice family medicine. She hasn’t been home in years and is excited to see her friends and family again. But when her shuttle lands, the spaceport seems deserted and she can’t get her handheld to connect to the network to call for help. Stranded on the landing pad far from the terminal, she joins forces with the only other passengers to arrive, never dreaming they’ll all soon be plunged into a life-or-death situation.
Jeff Pearson, retired Sectors Special Forces captain and his friends have come to colony planet Randal Four to take up ranching. He’s attracted to the curvy doctor as soon as he sees her on board the shuttle to the planet and hopes he can at least get her com details and maybe set up a dinner date before he and his team leave the city to reach their waiting ranchland. His tentative plans come to a crashing halt as a strange horde of moaning, growling people emerges from the terminal, headed in their direction with clearly murderous intent.
Jeff, Melly and the others make a desperate run to escape from the mob and begin an adventure the likes of which none of them could ever have predicted. As they struggle against overwhelming odds to survive, evade the infected, escape the city and reach her family home, the attraction and trust between the two grows ever hotter. But so does the danger and the mystery of what happened to the people of Randal Four.
Planet of Last Resort is book one in a new scifi romance series set in the Sectors. This book will end in a Happy For Now situation for the two main characters; however the series arc will continue and the challenges and dangers will not be resolved in this book. Melly and Jeff will find some of the answers they’re seeking with more mysteries to solve.
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Book two TAMSYN is up for preorder on Amazon and Apple!
The story of one small town on a remote colony planet and the rising zombie apocalypse…
Busy running her ranch outside Rosewater, Tamsyn Wendover doesn’t pay much attention to the goings-on in town. But when one of her ranch hands is bitten while trying to help a child, she’s drawn into the mysterious flu outbreak spreading over the planet. As the deadly flu worsens, striking the town and the ranch, the chaos intensifies and Tamsyn is drawn into the desperate fight for survival.
Author’s Note: This 20K novella is a prequel to the events in book one, mostly occurring prior to the arrival of the main characters on the planet in ARRIVAL. There’s no romance in this novella although Tamsyn does meet the man she’ll fall in love with later as the story goes on in upcoming books. Tamsyn will be a continuing character in the adventures on the Planet of Last Resort.
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