The Beginning of the End: Zombie Zero: The Short Stories, #2

By J.K. Norry

Hope dwindles as the world dies...

Prologue Prequel is a memory from the mind of a certain general that first encountered zombies years ago. When a top secret experiment goes horribly wrong, only he stands between the world and outbreak.
John's Stones are his last chance at redeeming himself. Caught between the world of humans and the mind of the monster, John might be able to make a difference; or he may be throwing stones at a hurricane.
Tina's Bedside has become a place for her husband to sit and watch her grow old. The zombie apocalypse requires his attention more than she does, and Tina finds her own grim solution to the problem.
The Beginning of the End is the second volume in the Zombie Zero short story collection. It details the events preceding humanity's last stand against the cataclysm documented in Zombie Zero: The First Zombie.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Sudden Insight Publishing
• Release date: Aug 19, 2016
• ISBN: 9781944916978

J.K. Norry

Jay Norry, aka J.K. Norry, is the multi-genre author of several books, many blog posts, and a few short stories. He wrote his first book in his early twenties. After sitting on the manuscript for almost ten years, Stumbling Backasswards Into the Light was finally published via a small press in January 2012. Jay wrote his next book shortly after, and published Demons & Angels (Walking Between Worlds, Book I) in December 2014. Since then he's written a lot of books. Jay is currently traveling all over the USA in an RV with his wife and their furry princess. When he's not busy writing, Jay enjoys ticking items off his unending to-do list, drinking good scotch, and dreaming up future writing projects. Learn more about Jay at jaynorry.com

Book preview

BOE_Ebook_Cover.jpg

Zombie Zero

The Short Stories

The

Beginning of the End

Zombie Zero: The Short Stories

The Beginning of the End

Copyright © 2016 by J.K. Norry

Cover Art: Sean Harrington

Cover Design & Author Photo: Dawn Marshall/Dear23

Publishers note:

This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form by any electronic or mechanical means including photocopying, recording, or information storage and retrieval without permission in writing from the author.

ISBN-13: 978-1-944916-97-8

ISBN-10: 1-944916-967-0

www.SuddenInsightPublishing.com

Indie publishing for the Indie Author

Zombie Zero

The Short Stories

The

Beginning of the End

J.K. Norry

Foreword

The Year of the Zombie continues with The Beginning of the End. If you don’t care about the order these come in, neither do I; the short stories can be read in any sequence you like. If you want to read these in the order they are intended to be read in, there are two books you should have read at this point.

The first is Zombie Zero: The First Zombie. It is the main story in all of this, offering up the deeper meaning of this popular monster. Like a tall tree sprouting, this story had many branches. Rather than publish one huge meandering volume, we decided to make eight smaller ones. Six of those are the short story books, one of which you are reading right now. The other two are that main trunk I mentioned, which will reach its full towering height in Zombie Zero: The Last Zombie.

The other book you will want to have read at this point is The Sickness Spreads. It’s the first volume in the Zombie Zero short stories.

The main reason for this sequencing is because it fleshes out the story in the first book best this way. Things go a whole new weird direction in the last book, but we’ll talk about that when the time is right. Now, let’s talk about these short stories, and assume you’re all caught up.

But first, my usual disclaimer: the introductory matter and messages between the stories are not something you need to read, if you don’t want to. When my favorite authors write long forewords, afterwords and between-story commentary, I love it. Some folks don’t, and I understand. If you are here for zombie stories, I’m happy to say we got the goods! Look for the three pages that say ‘Prologue Prequel’, ‘John’s Stones’ and ‘Tina’s Bedside’, and read from there. You won’t offend me by not being interested in anything but the stories, if I won’t offend you indulging readers like me.

With that out of the way, let’s talk a little more about how this whole thing came together. It wasn’t long ago that I expected to be writing fantasy for some time to come. When 2015 was wrapping up, I took a good long look at all the stories vying for my time and attention. What cried out the loudest, to my surprise, were the zombies.

About the Short Stories

First things first: there are no spoilers here, nor will there be in any of the in-between matter. I’ll assume you’ve read the previous story in this book, but nothing else. I hate spoilers, and I wouldn’t do that to you.

I will tell you what chapter these stories tie into in the book, but only by number. I’ll also tell you that the characters in these short stories do play feature roles in Zombie Zero: The First Zombie; I share that because it is my reason for releasing this set as the second volume. If you’ve read the book, these will provide some more back and between stories. If you haven’t read the book, no worries; these stories stand alone, even when they weave together.

When a whole world is falling apart, there are a lot of things going on. My primary focus was on the main story, at first; then these others began to speak to me, and I knew I had to write them. All eighteen of them. At first, I thought it would be fun to just share them with newsletter subscribers as bonus content. Cool idea, right?

Then the stories started taking shape, and I knew they couldn’t just live at my secret society’s secret online headquarters. I needed to share these with the world, and let folks who liked the book have access to them. It was kind of rude to assume that everyone knew about the secret society, or wanted an e-mail from a weirdo like me every week. Also, these weren’t just filler content; they were great stories. The more they complemented the book, the more I knew they had to see print.

The first thing that came to mind when I realized these would be best as six smaller books were my childhood summers. I remembered the sci-fi and horror magazines that I used to devour as a young teen; they were often small enough to fit in your pocket, the stories printed on thin paper and the covers graced with unusually compelling art. They had the wildest stories in them, often by different authors; and the cover art, though fantastic, never seemed to have anything to do with any of the actual stories.

I loved the thought immediately: I could use the same basic formula, only make it my own. Good thing we had picked the right artist. I’d like to tell you a little about him, and how much he made this all come to life.

Ode to Sean Harrington

I hope you had a good long look at that cover, whether you got the print or ebook version. Take a minute now, if you want; it’s totally worth another look, and I’ll be here when you get back.

That art is by Sean Harrington. I gave him descriptions of the stories,