Chasing a Cure: Drumming for the Dead, #2

By Gabby Gilliam

After her exile from Tomsk, Bree is joined by Tyler and Carly on the road out of the city.

 

Together, the children travel toward Moscow, hoping to find someone who will listen to them about the newfound cure.

 

Tyler's cure is only partially effective. It will kill husks, but he isn't sure if it can cure someone infected with the parasites before they become a husk.

 

Moscow's leader, Aleksandr, doesn't want to wait to find out. He injects Carly with parasites to motivate Tyler into creating a viable cure.

 

With Moscow's fully-stocked lab at his disposal, Tyler experiments all day with potential cures. Bree nurses Carly as best as she can, but Carly's symptoms continue to worsen.

 

Every day it's clearer that Tyler and Carly are both running out of time.

 

Dystopian horror from Gabby Gilliam.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Black Hare Press
• Release date: Jun 17, 2023
• ISBN: 9798223179825

Book preview

Chasing a Cure

Drumming for the Dead

Gabby Gilliam

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Black Hare Press

CHASING A CURE title is Copyright © 2023 GABBY GILLIAM

First published in Australia in June 2023 by Black Hare Press

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The author retains the copyright of the works featured in this publication.

All characters and events in this publication, other than those clearly in the public domain, are fictitious and any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

All rights reserved. No part of this production may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher and copyright owner.

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Edited by Jodi Christensen

Formatted by Dean Shawker

Cover design by Dawn Burdett

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Also By Gabby Gilliam

DRUMMING FOR THE DEAD

TROUBLE IN TOMSK

CHASING A CURE

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Trouble in Tomsk

An ancient parasite thaws from the permafrost, infecting its human hosts, and reducing them to mindless husks, attacking any living creature to create new parasitic hosts.

The remnants of humanity flee to the coldest regions of the Earth, where they build walls to protect themselves from the wandering infected—the husks.

Armed with her father’s shamanic drum, Bree settles in Tomsk, the largest city in Siberia, where she uses the beats of the drum to draw these husks to her; the steady beats mirroring the heartbeats of their hosts.

Arrested by the city’s patrol guards, she and her neighbour, Tyler, who is working on a cure, must convince the council that his serum can neutralise the parasites, eradicating the threat on humanity.

But the council aren’t ready to listen.

Dystopian horror from Gabby Gilliam.

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Chasing a Cure

After her exile from Tomsk, Bree is joined by Tyler and Carly on the road out of the city.

Together, the children travel toward Moscow, hoping to find someone who will listen to them about the newfound cure.

Tyler’s cure is only partially effective. It will kill husks, but he isn’t sure if it can cure someone infected with the parasites before they become a husk.

Moscow’s leader, Aleksandr, doesn’t want to wait to find out. He injects Carly with parasites to motivate Tyler into creating a viable cure.

With Moscow’s fully-stocked lab at his disposal, Tyler experiments all day with potential cures. Bree nurses Carly as best as she can, but Carly’s symptoms continue to worsen.

Every day it’s clearer that Tyler and Carly are both running out of time.

Dystopian horror from Gabby Gilliam.

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For my son, Oskar, who wanted a zombie story

Contents

1.Chapter One

2.Chapter Two

3.Chapter Three

4.Chapter Four

5.Chapter Five

6.Chapter Six

7.Chapter Seven

8.Chapter Eight

9.Chapter Nine

10.Chapter Ten

11.Chapter Eleven

12.Chapter Twelve

13.Chapter Thirteen

14.Chapter Fourteen

15.Chapter Fifteen

16.Chapter Sixteen

Gabby Gilliam

Black Hare Press

Acknowledgements

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Chapter One

I’d like to say I had a plan, or a general direction I headed toward, but I didn’t. When Tyler and I showed the council how effective the cure was, I hadn’t considered exile would be one of the repercussions. Whatever. The jerks on the council could stay sealed inside their deluded utopia. The walls wouldn’t keep them safe forever. Tyler’s cure could.

I hoped Tyler locked himself in his room and started making more of the cure right away. Maybe if he kept petitioning the council for an audience, they would finally admit the cure was what the city needed, what the world needed, to rise above the parasite infection.

Once I made it past the tree line and knew I was out of sight of the guards on patrol, I sat down on the side of the road to have a good cry. I had kept my composure in front of the angry mob of townspeople and Councilman Charles, but now that I was alone, I let my pent-up frustration and fear out all at once. When Tyler and I had brought them proof of a potential cure, they arrested us for endangering the city. We offered them salvation and they rewarded Tyler with a slap on the wrist and generously exiled me.

I wasn’t overly fond of Tomsk, but it had been home for the past few years, and offered conveniences the surrounding wilderness couldn’t. Like a bed. And a roof. And my woodstove. The council had sent me out here with nothing other than the clothes on my back and my drum. Though, in all fairness, I wouldn’t even have the drum if it hadn’t already been on the outside of the gate.

The drum was all I had left from my life before the husks. Before an ancient parasite infiltrated the human water supply and turned the majority of the world’s humans into mindless shells, my dad had made a drum from hide and sinew. He had taught me to use that drum. The beat lulled the parasites inside the husks. They’re compelled to follow it. As the tempo increases, it sends the parasites into a frenzy until the husk explodes. It’s a rather messy business, but it’s very effective. Until Tyler brewed his concoction, it was the only protection I had against the husks. Now, there was hope of eradicating the parasite completely. But that hope was back in Tomsk with Tyler.

The few belongings I owned were still in my apartment. I had no matches, no lighter, no way to start a fire once night settled in and the temperature dropped. I also had no food, and only my .38 to kill anything I might be able to eat. That meant six meals if I was lucky and took something down with every shot. I realized the council didn’t mean for me to survive this exile business. That whole choice between exile and execution was just a ruse to play at offering mercy.

Anger bloomed within my chest, the warmth of my fury spreading up my neck to my cheeks, drying the tears I had shed during my pity party. The council members were all a bunch of coddled cowards. Let them have their barricaded city. I didn’t need their walls to keep me safe. I had my drum, and I would harvest every husk on this miserable continent if I had to.

With renewed determination, I stood and brushed the dust from the roadway off my pants. I heard rustling in the underbrush off to my right, back toward the city gates. I whipped the .38 out of its holster and pointed it at the noise. The sound of the chamber cocking ricocheted off the surrounding trees and I flinched, though whatever was heading toward me was close enough that it didn’t matter if I’d given my position away.

I saw the mop of brown hair first, then the glasses. I sighed and let my arms relax.

You can’t leave well enough alone, can you, Mr. Wizard? I asked, holstering the .38. I could have shot you, you know.

He approached with his arms raised in surrender, even though I put the gun away. I’m lucky you didn’t, he said. I’m more of the shoot first, ask questions later variety.

Why are you here? I asked. I mean, no offense. I’m glad to see you, but you shouldn’t have come.

I couldn’t stay, he said. Not after all that.

But what about Carly? I asked. I shuddered to think of his sister left alone with their terrible Aunt Marlene.

Well… Tyler looked over his shoulder.

You’ve got to be kidding, I said, following his line of sight. I sat back down and put my hands to the sides of my head.

Hi, Bree, Carly said, waving her hand excitedly, like this was a serendipitous encounter.

Please tell me you at least brought some supplies, I said.

Of course we did. I’m not a complete idiot, Tyler said with a smile. I noticed he had a pack on his back and that Carly