CHAPTER 50
IN DEATH’S OTHER KINGDOM, WALKING ALONE
Forty miles away.
Chase’s corpse trudged along the forlorn highway. Slimy, jaundice-colored patches had grown over its wounds. The fetid smell of decay wisped from them.
Hungry. Ever hungry. It had to have meat. It was driven to search this road, the same road that Maddy and her family had taken.
Quick as light, a single image interrupted the perpetual static playing in the zombie’s mind: a dark-haired girl.
“Maddy!” cried Chase from a vast universe of emptiness.
The black static took over again. So did the hunger.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
One novel written and well into a second. Writing something like this is a wild experience and I’m now hooked on it. Sick? Without a doubt.
I am thankful for my good friend, Victor Methos, for encouraging me to get started and for providing me with invaluable guidance along the way. He went above and beyond to help me, including sharing his methodologies and pointing me to resources he has used in his prolific writing career.
I’m fortunate to have exceptional friends who strayed far from their preferred genres to read not just this novel, but multiple iterations of it. To Angie, Sarah, and Tonya: Thank you for your extraordinarily valuable commentary.
You’d think a mother-in-law would give feedback that bordered on cruel. I got quite the opposite from mine. She was boundlessly supportive, and her enthusiastic encouragement was downright touching. Thank you, Anne.
My brothers are brilliant and were very candid (helpfully so). T. Joel, T. John, and T. Andrew pointed out places I could make the story better and brainstormed with me when I got stuck. Their shorthand comments through several drafts told me volumes: “cheesy”, “moustache twisting”, “boring”, and “Holy Crap!” were among my favorites. To my three brothers: I can’t thank you enough.
To my nephew Jordan, who shared his incredibly keen insights with me which were well beyond his (at the time) 17 years of age: I’m so impressed with you.
My editor, Joann Dominik, is a card-carrying genius. She is a magnificent talent, and this novel is remarkably better because of her. She told me up front that if she didn’t make me angry during the process she wasn’t doing her job. She pushed me really hard but I couldn’t get upset at her. Her comments across drafts were not only spot on, they were frequently hilarious. I looked forward to every mark up. Thank you, Joann!
Lastly and most importantly, I’m grateful for my amazing and beautiful wife, Lauren. She is the bright spot at the center of our family, and carries a special kind of love and energy wherever she goes. I’m truly the luckiest man on the earth to have her in my life.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Jonathan grew up in the heart of the Rocky Mountains, spending the years of his youth fishing, hunting, camping, and skiing in the highest peaks in the Wasatch Mountain Range. In summers he lived at his Grandad’s ranch in California, where he experienced the rugged life of a true cowboy.
As he got older, his life took a “tragic” turn toward civilized life, earning a degree in psychology, then a Masters degree from Duke University.
He spent twenty years in the jungles of corporate America successfully fighting his way to the top of some of the world’s biggest companies. He called the effort more psychologically exhausting than any challenge he faced in his multiple wilderness excursions.
The best part of his corporate career was the opportunity to travel to over thirty-five countries, many of which were economically disadvantaged and politically charged. Those years were filled with frequently dangerous, but always interesting adventures.
After years of corporate life, Jonathan decided to return to his roots, relocating his family to his hometown. Now he splits time between introducing his wife and four daughters to the wilds of the Rocky Mountains and weaving his many thrilling experiences into the storylines of his novels.
Table of Contents
SYNOPSIS
TITLE PAGE
COPYRIGHT
DEDICATION
CHAPTER 1
CHAPTER 2
CHAPTER 3
CHAPTER 4
CHAPTER 5
CHAPTER 6
CHAPTER 7
CHAPTER 8
CHAPTER 9
CHAPTER 10
CHAPTER 11
CHAPTER 12
CHAPTER 13
CHAPTER 14
CHAPTER 15
CHAPTER 16
CHAPTER 17
CHAPTER 18
CHAPTER 19
CHAPTER 20
CHAPTER 21
CHAPTER 22
CHAPTER 23
CHAPTER 24
CHAPTER 25
CHAPTER 26
CHAPTER 27
CHAPTER 28
CHAPTER 29
CHAPTER 30
CHAPTER 31
CHAPTER 32
CHAPTER 33
CHAPTER 34
CHAPTER 35
CHAPTER 36
CHAPTER 37
CHAPTER 38
CHAPTER 39
CHAPTER 40
CHAPTER 41
CHAPTER 42
CHAPTER 43
CHAPTER 44
CHAPTER 45
CHAPTER 46
CHAPTER 47
CHAPTER 48
CHAPTER 49
CHAPTER 50
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
The Hollow Men (Book 1): Crave Page 21