On a Long Forgotten Road

By S.R. McKenzie

What would a crazy man do if the world ended, and became as crazy as him? Would he feel at home? Would it destroy him? Or would he destroy it?

I wrote this considering all the other stories about zombie apocalypses, and end of the world crap. But I wrote this from a completely different perspective, and not about the horror of the world around the main character, but inside the horror main character. 

To the main character, the world had already ended for him, he nothing left but his own bleak, miserable existence. He had already given up on human contact, society, and living like a normal person. The way he was living before and after the apocalypse was identical, carbon copied... except for all the raging, running, madness filled zombies.

As the world destroyed itself, the more it makes sense.

• Language: English
• Publisher: S.R. McKenzie
• Release date: Oct 12, 2017
• ISBN: 9780995172012

S.R. McKenzie

I am from Regina (Sask. Canada), but now live between Kelowna and Vancouver. I have more than a few children, and I am 36 years old.  I hate talking about myself, it's my least favorite subject. All I will say about myself is that in the poem by Frost "The Road Not Taken", I took neither path. I went right through the forest and created my own path, and have the scars to prove it.

Book preview

Table of Contents

On a Long Forgotten Road

Years later I went back to Iraq, and I found the guys who did that to me.

Forward

What would a crazy man do if the world ended, and became as crazy as him? Would he feel at home? Would it destroy him? Or would he destroy it?

I wrote this considering all the other stories about zombie apocalypses, and end of the world crap. But I wrote this from a completely different perspective, and not about the horror of the world around the main character, but inside the horror main character. 

To the main character, the world had already ended for him, he nothing left but his own bleak, miserable existence. He had already given up on human contact, society, and living like a normal person. The way he was living before and after the apocalypse was identical, carbon copied... except for all the raging, running, madness filled zombies.

As the world destroyed itself, the more it makes sense.

I took alot of inspiration from the movie and book, The Road, which was beautiful in its vague descriptions of the current world and the main characters. But really hits home what survival looks like, and what the evil inside people can be, when faced with extreme challenges.

Another huge inspiration was the Nine Inch Nails Quiet Album & Further Down the Spiral album, huge fan! 

Lastly, the biggest inspiration came from a few short scenes in the movie The Beach. When the main character, Richard, isolates him from the camp, and is living alone in the wilderness. Richard goes through a psychotic episode brought on by hunger, depression, and his indifference to the people around him. It’s incredible because it shows him, briefly, becoming a monster in a world that doesn’t make sense.

This is an incredibly personal story for me. I have lived in this world for brief periods in my life, and know what it’s like to be alone, isolated, hating society, and wanting it all to end.

On a long forgotten road, in the middle of butt-fuck-no-where, burned out and abandoned cars are scattered all over the road, leading to a narrow bridge. Half way down the bridge is a raised platform of broken road, bout 4 feet apart. It’s like the bridge broke in the middle, and half raised up and half fell down, can’t believe the fucker never fell apart!

A half dozen, heavily armed, but hungry and tired looking men weave their way towards the wall at the middle of the bridge.  They look like harden military guys, tough mother fuckers, not to be trifled with

They are caution, and take their time, covering all their angles, and watching each other’s backs. The world ended almost a year back now, and those fucking creature’s things have ravaged the cities, the towns, and are now moving to the countryside, looking for their next meal.

This crew of guys are looking for salvation, and a safe place. They have found both, but it will never last, salvation is only at the end of a bullet.

These guys look like they have been out there for a long time, searching for food, supplies, ammo, gas... a home. They look like badass mother fuckers, but there are only tough mother fuckers left now, all the pussies and good people are dead.

These assholes look tired, weak and ready for a rest, plus they stink, it’s probably been weeks since they found a hot shower, I remember that, fucking sticky balls. They look very well armed, each carrying a big backpack, probably has some, water, medical supplies, but they are probably running low.

They all look like harden military types, probably what is left from a swat team  from the big city, but they ain’t in the big city anymore, they are in the middle of no-where, my kind of place.

There are no visible buildings for miles, and the road and this broken bridge is the only thing in the entire horizon, which is exactly why we are all here, and why they have found us.

I REMEMBER WHEN THIS whole shit storm started, I was a different person then, but we changed, we all change. As the world got crazier, I got less crazy, everything started to make sense, and the monster inside me grew bigger and bigger.  It was almost a year ago, and I was just existing, not living.

Staying in an abandoned building in the industrial part of town, the area where lots of homeless vets end up.

I had an entire building to myself, I was king of my castle, and at least that’s what I thought...

I would make runs into town every week or