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    The Patient Z Files
    The Patient Z Files
    The Patient Z Files
    Ebook85 pages1 hour

    The Patient Z Files

    By Annie Reed

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    About this ebook

    Whether you call them zombies or the infected or creepers, one thing's certain -- the undead have changed the world forever for the survivors in these five stories of the zombie apocalypse.

    The first story in Annie Reed's popular zombie series and the title story in this collection, "Patient Z" centers on a homeless woman who raids the wrong recycle bin late one night, unleashing a future she never imagined. In "Bait," a former party girl faces the toughest decision of her life when she and her traveling companions discover a child tethered to a roadside sign. A young boy traveling the Oregon coast alone finds a friend in "Jessie" but discovers that friendship in this new world of the infected comes with a heavy price. The petty thief of "Ella and Mo" runs into a whole different kind of child survivor when he robs the wrong house in Las Vegas. And appearing in this collection for the first time is Annie's brand new story "Zombie Parade," a harrowing tale about survival in a New York City overrun by the undead.

    "The appearance of a new Annie Reed story is a treat. Try one and you'll be hooked." -- Dave Hendrickson, author of CRACKING THE ICE, forthcoming from WestSide Press

    "Annie Reed draws a pitch-perfect portrait of the Nevada desert and peoples it with folks so real I want to drive out by Vegas and try to find the Forty Winks Motel and check up on how everyone's doing. Its quiet voice and fast pace weave together to make any reader care." -- Cindie Geddes, Editor, Lucky Bat Books (reviewing Annie Reed's story ONE SUN, NO WAITING)

    "A friend recommended the works of Annie Reed. I was not disappointed. In fact, if her other shorts are as good as this one, I plan to read many more." -- Carol Davis Luce, author of NIGHT GAME (reviewing Annie Reed's story CHANGELING)

    Author Annie Reed is a prolific, award-winning writer whose stories have been published in numerous science fiction and fantasy anthologies, as well as in Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherThunder Valley Press
    Release dateSep 26, 2011
    ISBN9781465804303
    The Patient Z Files
    Author

    Annie Reed

    Award-winning author and editor Kristine Kathryn Rusch calls Annie Reed “one of the best writers I’ve come across in years.”Annie’s won recognition for her stellar writing across multiple genres. Her story “The Color of Guilt” originally published in Fiction River: Hidden in Crime, was selected as one of The Best Crime and Mystery Stories 2016. Her story “One Sun, No Waiting” was one of the first science fiction stories honored with a literary fellowship award by the Nevada Arts Foundation, and her novel PRETTY LITTLE HORSES was among the finalists in the Best First Private Eye Novel sponsored by St. Martin’s Press and the Private Eye Writers of America.A frequent contributor to the Fiction River anthologies and Pulphouse Fiction Magazine, Annie’s recent work includes the superhero origin novel FASTER, the near-future science fiction short novel IN DREAMS, and UNBROKEN FAMILIAR, a gritty urban fantasy mystery short novel. Annie’s also one of the founding members of the innovative Uncollected Anthology, a quarterly series of themed urban fantasy stories written by some of the best writers working today.Annie’s mystery novels include the Abby Maxon private investigator novels PRETTY LITTLE HORSES and PAPER BULLETS, the Jill Jordan mystery A DEATH IN CUMBERLAND, and the suspense novel SHADOW LIFE, written under the name Kris Sparks, as well as numerous other projects she can’t wait to get to. For more information about Annie, including news about upcoming bundles and publications, go to www.annie-reed.com.

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      Book preview

      The Patient Z Files - Annie Reed

      THE PATIENT Z FILES

      Annie Reed

      Published by Thunder Valley Press at Smashwords

      Copyright 2011 by Annie Reed

      www.annie-reed.com

      Cover illustration Copyright Andreas Gradin | Dreamstime.com

      Cover layout by Thunder Valley Press

      Smashwords Edition, License Notes

      These stories are licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person. If you're reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

      TABLE OF CONTENTS

      Introduction

      Patient Z

      Bait

      Jessie

      Zombie Parade

      Ella and Mo

      (If you would like to jump directly to the story, just click on the title)

      ~ ~ ~

      Introduction

      I have a confession to make.

      I'm not a big fan of zombies.

      In my family, my daughter is the zombie fanatic. Well, maybe fanatic is too strong a word, but she does like zombies. Everything from the shuffling undead of the original George Romero films to the sprinting infected of 28 Days Later. She even has a zombie-of-the-month calendar. I've watched the movies -- well, most of them -- along with her, and while I've enjoyed them, I never really connected with zombie stories in any particular way.

      Then along came The Walking Dead.

      Oh, my, what a show! I really have to tip my hat to Robert Kirkman, writer and creator of The Walking Dead, and the entire team at AMC. For the six episodes of the show's first short season, I sat riveted to my seat, tense the entire episode. See, I cared about the survivors, each and every one of them, and they didn't all make it. That's the kind of stuff that ties my heart into little knots and gets me thinking what if.

      Shortly after that, I began writing the stories in this collection. I didn't exactly plan it that way, but one Saturday I was channel surfing when I came across the movie 2012 on cable. I watched the destruction of Los Angeles and Yellowstone and Las Vegas. A little while later when I sat down to write, out came the first couple of lines of Patient Z, the first story in this collection, and I realized I was writing a zombie story. My first. My daughter told me it was about time.

      The stories in this collection are all about survivors, both good and bad, young and old, and all of them altogether too human. From the very first survivor, the street person of Patient Z, to the odd couple of Ella and Mo, they live in a world where people who should be dead -- whether they're called the infected or creepers or zombies -- aren't, and civilization has fallen apart. You won't find any romance in these pages, although you will find affection and a kind of love. You'll also find cowardice and heroics, friendship and revenge, and most of all, a deep-seated need to stay alive even when things that used to be people want to eat you.

      As I write this, Halloween is about a month away. Today we had the first fall chill in the air, the kind that reminds me winter will be here soon. It's the perfect season to read a zombie survivor story and be grateful you still have heat and food, and you don't need to board over your windows so the undead can't break the glass and get inside.

      Thunder Valley Press is putting together several five-story collections of my short fiction. The collections all feature stories centered on a topic or genre, like this one. As long as Thunder Valley keeps wanting to publish these collections, I'll keep writing the stories. Who knows, there might even be a second volume of zombie survivor stories in my future. After all, I didn't plan on writing enough stories for even one collection, but that's the fun thing about writing -- the stories can take me anywhere. I hope you enjoy going along for the ride.

      --Annie Reed

      Reno, Nevada

      September 25, 2011

      ~ ~ ~

      Patient Z

      The Mayans got it wrong. So did George Romero.

      The world didn't end in 2012. It didn't end in 2013 either. The beginning of the end started on a quiet summer night in September of 2014 in an unremarkable corner of suburbia miles away from the nearest shopping mall. If Madge had known what she was about to set in motion, she would have gone dumpster diving in someone else's trash, but when you're homeless, a glass bottle looks like nothing more than recyclable cash, not a plague waiting to happen.

      The little stoppered bottle was stuck in the corner of a trash bag in the tenth recycle bin Madge raided that night. Every other week, city workers picked up recycles along with regular garbage. Most people put their garbage and recycles out the night before, either too lazy or too busy to do it in the morning. Madge used to be too busy, too. Not anymore. These days, Madge had all the time in the world to rummage through recycle bins like she was making a late night trip to the bank , only instead of withdrawing cash, Madge lifted aluminum cans and glass other people threw away.

      Madge had her neighborhoods memorized. She knew which houses recycled and which ones didn't. She knew the every other week collection schedule better than most of the residents. Raiding the bins was her full-time nocturnal occupation. While turning in her finds didn't net her a lot of money, she made enough to keep herself in beer and the occasional bottle of cheap wine, neither of which the soup kitchens provided along with their free meals and the obligatory heaping helping of save your soul for dessert.

      She found the stoppered bottle in front of a two-story house surrounded by a six-foot chain link fence. The dirty yellow recycle bin sat next to the garbage can at the base of the gated driveway. A padlock made sure nobody messed with the gate, and the yard was guarded by a thick-necked Rottweiler. Most things except garbage were locked up these days, but not too many people had dogs anymore. At least not dogs they let outside at night.

      The dog growled when Madge rolled her shopping cart close to the driveway. After she got close enough for the dog to catch her scent over the pungent odor of her cartful of recycles, the dog's growl turned into a needy whine.

      Madge had made friends with the dog weeks ago by feeding it scraps through the fence. Turns out the dog just wanted a friend.

      Some guard dog you are, Madge muttered. I'd have fired you, that's what I would have done.

      Fired him, like Madge's last boss fired her for not doing her job. She didn't blame

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