Ledger looked at him. “Seriously.”
“Yes,” said Church, “but I make no promises. Finding you here was a stroke of odd luck. Maybe I’ll get lucky and find some other people.”
Ledger knew who he was talking about. Church had been in love with a strange and dangerous woman named Lilith. She’d been on a mission in the Middle East when things fell apart, and he’d had no word of her since. Ledger was pretty sure he was going to try and find her.
They sat in silence for a long time as the stars turned overhead.
“The world is still alive,” said Church. “That’s something.”
“Yeah,” Ledger said. “That really is.”
Behind them, from one of the other houses, there was the music of a Spanish guitar and the sounds of people laughing.
Mr. Church leaned back in his chair and smiled up at the sky, his eyes closed. Joe Ledger laced his fingers behind his head, leaned back, and listened to the laughter. How rare and beautiful a thing it was. Around him, the world did not appear to be broken at all.
THE ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE CHRONOLOGY
The Joe Ledger series is first, beginning with PATIENT ZERO. Not all of the books deal with zombies. A character named Sam Imura (older brother of Tom Imura) is introduced in book #4 as the sniper on Echo Team, Joe’s special ops squad. The Joe Ledger series (so far) includes:
JOE LEDGER/DEPARTMENT OF MILITARY SCIENCES
Patient Zero (2009; St. Martin’s Griffin)
The Dragon Factory (2010; St. Martin’s Griffin)
King of Plagues (2011; St. Martin’s Griffin)
Assassin’s Code (2012; St. Martin’s Griffin)
Extinction Machine (2013; St. Martin’s Griffin)
Code Zero (2014; St. Martin’s Griffin)
Predator One (2015; St. Martin’s Griffin)
Kill Switch (2016; St. Martin’s Griffin)
Dogs of War (2017; St. Martin’s Griffin)
Deep Silence (2018; St. Martin’s Griffin)
JOE LEDGER—ROGUE TEAM INTERNATIONAL
Rage (2019; St. Martin’s Griffin)
JOE LEDGER SHORT STORY COLLECTIONS
Joe Ledger: Special Ops (2014; JournalStone; short story collection)
Joe Ledger: The Missing Files (2012; Blackstone audio collection)
Joe Ledger: Unstoppable (2017; St. Martin’s Griffin; anthology, various authors)
DEAD OF NIGHT and FALL OF NIGHT are set fifteen years after the Ledger series. They are also the official story of how “First Night” (the zombie apocalypse from Rot & Ruin) happens. The books in this series include:
THE DEAD OF NIGHT SERIES
Dead of Night (2012; St. Martin’s Griffin)
Fall of Night (2014; St. Martin’s Griffin)
Dark of Night (2016; novella; JournalStone; with Rachael Lavin)
Still of Night (2018; JournalStone; novella and short stories; with Rachael Lavin)
NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD
The movie, written by George A. Romero and John Russo, takes places approximately two days after the events in Dead of Night.
SHORT STORIES AND NOVELLAS
There are various short stories and novellas that bridge the gap between FALL OF NIGHT and ROT & RUIN. They are included in various anthologies and in my short story collections. The titles are:
Concurrent or directly after FALL OF NIGHT:
Hot Time in the Old Town Tonight
Chokepoint
Fat Girl with a Knife
Jack and Jill
Sunset Hollow
A Christmas Feast
Valley of Shadows
First Night Memories
Lone Gunman (included in the anthology, NIGHTS OF THE LIVING DEAD, which I co-edited with George Romero—writer/director of Night of the Living Dead. George was a huge fan of DEAD OF NIGHT and asked me to write a story that officially connected my series to his movie.
Saint John (origin of the villain from books #3 and #4 of the ROT & RUIN series)
Two to five years after FALL OF NIGHT
The Wind through the Fence
Jingo and the Hammerman
Overdue Books
Back in Black (with Bryan Thomas Schmidt) (a Joe Ledger/Tom Imura crossover)
Dead & Gone
In the Land of the Dead
Rags & Bones
Hero Town
Tooth & Nail
Then there’s the ROT & RUIN series, which takes place fourteen years after the events of First Night. Then a new series spins off from that one, BROKEN LANDS.
THE ROT & RUIN SERIES
Rot & Ruin (2010; Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers)
Dust & Decay (2011; Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers)
Warrior Smart (2015; graphic novel; IDW publishing)
Flesh & Bone (2012; Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers)
Fire & Ash (2013; Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers)
Bits & Pieces (2015; Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers)
Broken Lands (December 2018; Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers)
Lost Roads (December 2019; Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers)
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
JONATHAN MABERRY is a New York Times bestselling author, 5-time Bram Stoker Award-winner, and comic book writer. His vampire apocalypse book series, V-WARS, is in production as a Netflix original series, starring Ian Somerhalder (LOST, VAMPIRE DIARIES) and will debut in 2019. He writes in multiple genres including suspense, thriller, horror, science fiction, fantasy, and action; and he writes for adults, teens and middle grade. His works include the Joe Ledger thrillers, Glimpse, the Rot & Ruin series, the Dead of Night series, The Wolfman, X-Files Origins: Devil’s Advocate, Mars One, and many others. Several of his works are in development for film and TV. He is the editor of high-profile anthologies including The X-Files, Aliens: Bug Hunt, Out of Tune, New Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark, Baker Street Irregulars, Nights of the Living Dead, and others. His comics include Black Panther: DoomWar, The Punisher: Naked Kills and Bad Blood. He lives in Del Mar, California. Find him online at www.jonathanmaberry.com
Rachael Lavin is a LARPer, cosplayer, part time forest witch, full time nerd. Call Center representative by day, she rejects this reality and replaces it with her own. When she’s not writing, she can be found hunched over her sewing machine, taking pictures, or running around the woods with foam swords. When she’s not living in a fantasy, she resides in Hamilton, NJ with her boyfriend and a large number of fish.
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