The Apocamish: Reign of the Amish Undead

By Stephen Hamlin

Solar flares reach earth, erasing electricity causing a tech-craved society to riot and loot major cities. The solar flares directly hit the peaceful Amish village of Upperton, turning the quaint folk into blood seeking zombies called Apocamishes.

A straight edge humble hotdog vendor named Felix Gomez outlasts the Apocamish invasion. Learning to survive and evade his foes, he raises a tenacious, musical zombie killing family. One day, the Gomez family discovers a city with electrical capabilities may still exist and go on a journey through barren wastelands, ferocious rivers, and turbulent seas of zombie hordes. All the while they sing, dance, and slay away as they show that life is always grand in Apocamish Land.

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookBaby
• Release date: Aug 19, 2015
• ISBN: 9781508911173

Book preview

THE APOCAMISH

BY

STEPHEN HAMLIN

Table of Contents

Chapter 1: Dawn of the Apocamish

Chapter 2: The Apocamish Mansion

Chapter 3: Journey Through Apocamish Land

Chapter 4: Zombarts

Chapter 5: Voices of the Woods

Chapter 6: Realm of Romarc

Chapter 7: The Apocamish of Upperton

Chapter 8: The Towers of Lights

Compositions

Chapter 1: Dawn of the Apocamish

Harper Yoder lifted his hoe high above his head, swung it deep in the ground and paused to glance at the beaming sunlight. He turned his gaze to the church. The town square’s bells rang to signal school let out. The field didn’t get finished, but he felt grateful for what he did accomplish.

Oh Lord, thank you for the strength you gave me today, Harper said, But please Lord, revive my mule’s spirits so this field will be tilled tomorrow! The diligent Amish worker wiped his brow with his pocket kerchief and returned to barn to clean up his daily work.

This was the Amish village of Upperton. It was the last and largest remaining Amish residences in the nation. Some years before, other Amish civilians migrated because the land’s produce greatly increased. Also, this unique Amish village remained isolated from the cities. A mountain range lay past a lake to the north, and a forest lay to the east and south. Miles of desert came from the forest and the nearest city. Needless to say, the Amish folks enjoyed abundance and a quiet lifestyle. Free to worship and live without the modern day material temptations.

Harper cleaned out his barn, put away his supplies and resisted the urge to take a long drought from the well. In his eyes, he preferred to wait a mere hour before tasting the refreshing beverage at suppertime. A smile came across his face as voices belted an old familiar tune from his cottage. Pleased his children learned this hymn in school he anticipated what other knowledge his children gained. A strange glimmer above his shoulder made him stop in his tracks.

Harper turned his head toward the sky as faint strange stream of purple, yellow and green wrinkled among the clouds. Eyes squinting and ears twitching to villagers groaning and he took his hat off and put it on his chest. The colorful streams of light came down in waves and fell closer and closer to the town. His racing eyes followed the waves and within seconds his head bowed down as waves reached the town church.

The waves hit the grounds of the church and spread in rippling rings all across the town, shaking Upperton. Mrs. Yoder opened the cottage door and Harper flew on top of her and the cottage floor. The Yoder family went unconscious along with the rest of the town.

The flashes of light soon disappeared not causing any physical damage. In the later hours of the night, no more calm noises of the lake’s waves swept the beaches. Screams, horrible wretched screams rang in the night.

The Amish of Upperton were forever changed.

In a large city called Lakesville leagues south of Upperton, worked a hot dog vendor named Felix Gomez. Felix was about six feet tall with olive skin, with a small bushy mustache, short black hair and he wore a black hat. A broad assortment of tattoos covered his body resembling variations of sun or symbols. One such tattoo was a dragon on his entire left arm with red, green, and blue scales with yellow and orange flames but had a sun face lay on its neck. Only one sun tattoo was on his face, underneath his right cheekbone. Only three tattoos did not fit the sun theme. These consisted of a turtle under his left wrist, a swordfish under his right wrist and his high school soccer number 44 his right-hand fingers.

Felix didn’t mind working in Lakesville and rode with leisure in his motorized hot dog cart. It had foldable green canopy at the center and a T-shaped lever above the back platform. Every day he set up his shop at one of the busiest intersections in this city.

This city was northeast of the coast with streams and canals enabling boats and barges to transport goods from farms to the cities and suburbs. In addition to these canals, the city also used subways, monorails, and trains.

The tall and elegant buildings contained thousands of billboards and signs. These billboards and TV screens displayed advertisements for TV shows and movies such as Bloodlight, Vampire Cops, Sex in Bluffton and Cyclops v. Porkchop. Advertisements also for motorcycles, boats, cars, and even everyday household products plastered the TV screens. Behind Felix played a looped advertisement on a gigantic TV screen of a bank building for the Hover Chair.

I’m Anthony Fransicapelly, maker of the Mover Scooter. There’s a new way to get off the ground with the Hover chair! That’s right! It’s time to get your seat off the ground with the hover chair! Now your chair can move without the use of wheels with the hover chair! Now you can forget about knocking into things like shoes, dressers or tables because you can hover over them. Get some luxury with your mobility. It’s only possible with the Hover Chair!

At midday, traffic got as crowded as rush hour traffic. Felix served a long line of customers, wearing his black hat and a punk band shirt with the logo THE TUMMS. At the time, a small bald businessman with small circled glasses ordered a hotdog with extra relish when---

BAM!

A van crashed into a taxi car. Flutter of horns beeped. Cars crashed into each other. After a brief moment, all the cars stood at a standstill.

Peculiar things occurred all around Felix. People hit their horns making no beeping sounds while the streetlights, billboards signs and TVs turned off.

People yelled many things such as,

Move you idiot!

Get out the way!

I can’t.

My car won’t start!

Hey mine’s not starting either.

Where’s my relish guy?

Huh? said Felix.

You forgot to put relish on my brat guy, said the bald customer.

Oh, sorry sir, said Felix. Something distracted me, as he lift his T-phone showing a blank black screen.

I’ll say. I repeated three times I wanted relish. Geesh. Hey my phone turned off. Hmph! It’s not turning back on! Hey what’s going on with the streetlights?

The power’s gone out, said Felix. That’s what distracted me sir.

Oh All right. Can I have my change?

Yes...wait. Felix pushed the button to open his drawer, but the register turned off too. So he reached for his key to unlock it and gave the customer his 67 cents back.

Storming away, the customer stuffed his face. Other customers seemed too busy looking at the mp3 players, phones, and watch-phone devices to order a hot Dog. They tapped the screen, took out their batteries and put them back into their devices or said commands such as,

T-phone. On.

T-phone Activate.

M-Watch. Respond!

M-Watch. Listen.

Cherry, call home!

Checking his own phone again, he still saw it didn’t work and he thought about the predicament of his do cart.  All his refrigeration and warming devices seemed broken too and it wouldn’t take long for his food and condiments to soon spoil because of the blistering heat.

Many stopped halfway across the street confused not sure if they should proceed crossing or return to the sidewalks they left. They also muttered to their phones and shouted in their cars. Inside the buildings, they kept flicking the light switches. Handicapped

Well forget this. I’m going home, said Felix. Excuse me. I’m closing shop. Hey I’m closing. I’m going home! Whatever! Idiotas. He whispered and exhaling saying, Ahh. He locked up the cart to a light post with a chain and he left hoping no one would steal it.

Felix’s trip home down fourteen blocks took much longer than the 40-minute hot dog cart drive. The congested streets forced him to navigate the crowds.

People continued pressing their car horns or taking out and re-inserting their car keys. Others talked to computer voices name Zulee or Dingo. They relied on these to help diagnose their car issues or call mechanics.  They said things as,

Zulee. Turn on car.

Dingo. Reverse car.

Zulee, call 911. Its an emergency.

I’m here in west 22nd. I’m stuck. Help. Help. My car is not on. Help.

Dingo. Turn on dammit. Activate.

Dingo. Dingo. DINGO!

Zulee! Zulee!

"Dingo!

Text home I’ll be late.

On this routine route home, Felix cut through an outdoor mall where he sold left over hot dogs. People stood on escalators refusing to budge thinking these escalators would turn back on. Inside the stores, lines of customers didn’t move because they also stared at their phones while others argued at cash registers about their credit cards.

Come on! I just used this card at Plucky Shoes, shouted a customer.

What’s the holdup, I gotta get to my daughter’s recital!

On the latter half of his route home, the city operated more on trains and monorail carts. People stuck high in these monorails waved their hands for help. Albeit a sunny day, without the lights from the billboard screens, everything seemed dark.

Felix reached his apartment and it appeared residents did not make it home due to the major power outage. He walked into the apartment and many people waited for the elevator. Sultry and in no mood to wait he stomped passed them saying dumb buffoons.

At this point, he didn’t care the building’s air conditioning didn’t work. His sweat-drenched clothes stuck to his back since his walk back home. Relieved to reach his apartment 1218 to see his wife, he put his hand on the doorknob and-

Felix! Is that you?

Tiara came running to the door and embraced Felix. Oh Felix. I was so worried. We have no power and everything I wanted to cook is spoiled. The fridge smells atrocious! All the street lost power too!"

Felix stared at his wife admiring her curly brown hair with hues of red and green eyes.

Calm down my Tiara. Yes, my phone also turned off, and everything in this city is down too. I left my hot dog cart and walked all the way home. Are you all right?

Yes, I’m fine dear.  It’s just a hot.  I’m hungry…I want to drink and I’m irritated.  Would have been better if there was watermelon in here.  I didn’t want to walk too far you know, to find a payphone might have taken me hours.

Once my hot dog car turned off, I was finished. I didn’t want to stick around and waste my time. It’s so strange. No matter how many places I walked past every electronic device didn’t work. I can’t believe a power outage effected battery devices too.

Well what are we to do?

Wait.

But our food, and-

Yes but people will wake up. They may be stuck in their trance for days, stuck in their cars, or on the sidewalks but soon they’ll realize they are hungry and tired. I can’t imagine this lasting forever but nothing like this happened before. We only have so much food but I’m afraid if we go out at the wrong time we might get caught in a riot.

Yes dear, but we don’t have adequate food, I must-

Shh shh, my dear. I promise I’ll protect you. Listen-we must wait. Tonight, he said walking to the dresser. We stay- He pulled out a dresser shelf underneath their flat screen TV and took out a Magnum 45. Inside.

Felix!

Tranquilo. Felix whispered while checking the streets below he wiped his Magnum 45 with a tan polishing cloth. My family held on to this for five generations.

Now listen. I have not seen or heard anything from the Regional Corps during this craziness. Our devices aren’t working and nothing in the city works, so how can their guns work too? Their weapons and those who are allowed to use weapons won’t be working but this beauty here, always works. He held up the gun smiling. "So we wait. We stay inside; ration what we have until its safe to go out. We wait for them to wake up. We wait for the hysteria to begin. I know the Regionals won’t be able to protect us. Sooner or later those buffoons will wake up-and we don’t want to get caught in any riots. Understand?

Yes Felix...I

Don’t.  Come over here.  She walk over and he reached out his hand to her face put it on his chest and embraced her with his other arm.  I promise it will be fine I’m sure things will turn on soon anyways.  We will stay in the living room tonight.  I want to keep a close eye on the door and the window.

Vale, comprendo. She sighed. I wish I could drink.

Our baby doesn’t

Si, can you drink for me? I know you’ve been straight edge for a while now but can you?

Ha no, no dear. No thank you.

Pshh whatever. It would calm me down.

No it won’t. I will.

"I know...I love you.

"Y tu mi amor. Toda será bien.

Felix and Tiara waited 84 hours before anything in the city changed. Many people still quarreled, still talked to their phones, and remained in lines. Other people however began to explore and walked around. Some people gathered around the street signs looking for buttons. Others went to ATMs and tried to put money or cards into them. Those who got out of their cars and tried to fix them ran into a predicament.

If a problem happened, people relied on their phones to scan a bar code to diagnose the issue. Not knowing to hit a switch to pop their car hood up, and tried to lift their car hoods off by putting footing one foot on the fender.

With the power outage issue, not many people had answers. No one these days carried tools. Technicians did own tools but this being a distinguished era their tools only came in battery charged toolsets.  They pulled the wires out and kicked to open the fuse boxes but after getting these open they didn’t know what to do next.  This was because they couldn’t rely on their tech tablets to give them instructions about which wires to check.  Thus all

While the people in crowds dosed off, barely able to give commands to their phones, there were those trying to fix things and getting upset.  These people were tired.  Hungry.  Mad.  Irritated that they missed hours of Dancing Elites, Quiz Quiz Trivia, Teen Sugar Mommas, and Trending Updates with M. Bee.  That’s when the rioting began.

It began with two teenage boys both standing in front of a shoe store and messing with their broken phones.  One took a last look at his phone and chucked it at the shoe store window.  The glass broke and the other boy threw his phone and broke the glass too.  Both jumped through the window to steal some shoes.  A couple with a six-year-old boy and an infant girl stood across the street. The women gasped. She took the baby out of the stroller and gave it to her husband. She picked up the stroller, ran over to the boot shop and threw it into the shop window.

"Honey!  The husband yelled.  He gave the baby to his son and followed his wife into boot shop to just seconds later come out with the stroller over his bald head.  He ran over to a barbershop and threw the stroller into the barbershop’s window.  Took a ticket a number and sat down on a bench.  The old barber still tried to get his clippers to work and a man still sat dozing with half of his affro uncut.

Commotion spread in the streets with rioters throwing objects into store windows. Most of these stores remained opened because they couldn’t close as the doors relied on electronic fingerprints. Less people carried keys and preferred to use electronic fingerprint door locks.

People grabbed anything and everything to break into these shops. Once the rioters took shopping carts, they knocked as many products and provisions of the shelves as the cart could hold. The rioters mowed down the oblivious ‘asleep’ customers with their shopping carts.

Rioting progressed with people getting more rambunctious and angry over the power outage. This led to groups of rioters breaking down lampposts signs or pulling and ripping out the wires and chords the electricians and technicians messed with. Some groups took this abundance of chords and pulled down shop doors and even statues of Regional leaders and historical figures.

Felix and Tiara remained resilient and resourceful by relying on their remaining provision of beans and bread. They cooked some things by making small fires on the scaffold ladders outside their window. In order to make fires he broke his dining room table and some wooden drawers. He had no interest in getting caught up in the rioting. Many people fought for these provisions and he would not let his pregnant wife be harmed by leaving their apartment.

So Felix and his wife stayed huddled in their apartment away from t the rioting. Felix always kept his Magnum 45 close and loaded.

Now this power outage didn’t affect Lakesville alone but everywhere in this region. The beams of light hitting the Amish providence of Upperton were solar flares bringing two immediate effects. First the solar flare’s waves went into the ground disrupting the magnetic field and eliminated electricity in all man-made devices. The second effect left a more devastating mark for the Amish of Upperton.

Solar flames contain harmful radiation, which mutates human blood. This blood brings about a hunger. A hunger for blood. A hunger for flesh.

The Amish hit by these solar flares, only craved for one thing now. Their priorities no longer included a hard day of labor nor their faith nor their daily worship They still liked to build and cook but besides these hobbies only one thing warmed their hearts.

Blood.

They desired man flesh.

Moans, high-pitched squeals rang along with the church bell.

Guttural groans muttered, Bloood.

Mahan.

Flesh.

These became the cries of the Amish zombies. No longer did these souls yearn for love, honest work, and faith in their lord. Temperate, patient, and peaceful, used to be the traits of this once peaceful community. Now their hearts brewed anger and aggression yearning for flesh and willing to do anything for it.

Thus began the dawn of the Amish undead.

Four days later the rioting left a shell-shocked Lakesville. Broken windows, chords, electrical lines, strung all over the streets. People uprooted lampposts, electrical poles, and statues and thrown them into the courtyards. TVs screens, phones, and other devices were wedged in many half broken windows. Garbage, food, and paper littered the streets along with small fires in the streets not flooded. The flooding occurred because the power outage disrupted many canal’s river flow. Majority of the man made-canals had been constructed to link many rivers with advanced dams gates. Some canal dam gates either opened or closed but stopped halfway to cause flooding or dried up parts in the river. Personal boats and barges crashed into dam walls, or got taken to the streets.

A big group of rioters congregated on the outskirts of Lakesville. A youthful male speaker with tattered clothing with star tattoos on his neck stood on a top of a triple deck bus. He held a broken speakerphone to illustrate nothing electrical worked.

We tore down this city! What has the Regionals done to us?

Nothing! yelled a fellow girl rioter.

Yes nothing! They can’t stop us. They can’t control us! They are nowhere to be found. Did they even help us?

No, responded the crowd.

Our time is drawing near, said the speaker. Others are in the streets still ‘asleep’ while we are awake. We are angry! Lets stick it to the regionals!"

Burn em! Let em burn!

Drown them!

Hang them!

I don’t care where they are hiding, yelled the speaker. We’ll march straight to the Regional Tower! For years they claimed to provide us with all we need. Where are they? I don’t know about you but I’m fed-

Hey who’s that, screamed a girl. She pointed her finger towards the end of the street. The speaker peered over his shoulders. The crowds shifted to the side of the bus to see the approaching.

The Amish of Upperton arrived riding in a line of buggies.  Men wore black or straw hats along with their white shirts and black suit coats.  The women wore white or blue bonnets and black or blue dresses with white aprons. Beside buggies approaching, horse riders galloped on the bridges. They lead wagons filled with lumber or animals such as cows, pigs, mules, dogs and chickens. Their forlorn faces, drooping with dark patched eyes.

The rioters twitched and grouped closer together.

Are those the Amish, asked a man.

What are they doing down here, asked another.

Yes they seem different. How did they go through such a drastic change without electricity?

The buggies approached the triple-decker bus. A tall Amish male stepped off the reign of his horse. He approached the front of the triple-decker bus while his body swayed.

The speaker stared down at this newcomer. He stuttered at first but asked,

May I help you sir.

The Amish male stared at the speaker. At first he stood swaying teetering to both sides, hands wide open at his sides and his lips closed.

I-uh. stuttered the man speaker. Anything I may help you with sir?

The Amish man drew his mouth open not loosening his gaze. He moaned with a low wispy voice Ohh while starting to drool falling down his chin into his dark black frisky curly beard. Reddish green boogers started coming out. He clenched his fists.

Anything I can help you with? Riiight ok. He turned to the crowd raise his speakerphone and started to talk to them trying to avoid his new guest. He said, Now we must act. Forget any luxury and protection the regionals provided us with! We must ac--ahh!

The crowd screamed in horror to what they witnessed next. The Amish man leapt to the top of the triple-decker bus. Teeth sunk into the speaker’s star tattooed neck. Jaws clapped the speaker’s whole body around like a dog swinging a bone.

Rioters gasped their hands over their mouths terrified. Some glued to the sight of the speaker being swung by the murderous Amish man enjoying his feast. After a lifetime the attacker let the speaker loose. He tumbled down the side of the bus and crashed in front of the crowd. He convulsed as his body flopped like a fish on the pavement. A green mark swelled around his neck, spreading up his face and down his neck. Aghast, some rioters stood transfixed while others ran. Ran for their lives but running didn’t help them.

Many of the Amish zombies ran towards them while others yelled at their zombie horses. They scoured down the streets, as they were fast, violent, cunning and not the typical slow zombies. Also possessing abilities to leap, sprint, and operate their buggies to cut off their prey. Often times they picked up their prey and threw them to the ground or at a walls several times before feasting. They also maintained excellent reflexes and could wield weapons like crowbars, axes, hatchets, hoes, and pitchforks and used them to pick apart and decimate their perplexed prey. A band of individual horse riders carried long two-by-fours pointing down and charged at the triple-decker bus. The two-by-four sticks hit and toppled the bus over rioters who didn’t budge.

Amish children ran to the wagons holding animals and opened the gates. They let loose the dogs, pigs, chickens, sheep and zombie