by Perrin Briar
“Maisie, my baby,” Chris said, kneeling down to embrace her.
Chris’s skin was pale, and his eyes were less vibrant and lively than before, distant and lonely. He looked tired and worn. He looked up to find Sharon and Emily standing over him. He stood up wrapped his arms around them both.
“I missed you,” Chris said. “And I love you. All of you.”
Sharon touched Chris’s face.
“Welcome back,” she said, and she kissed him with a hunger and passion she hadn’t felt in years.
“Everything’s going to be better from now on, I swear,” Chris said. “I’ll protect you from harm forever.”
“What happened to you?” Sharon said.
Chris looked at Maisie and smiled.
“Nothing much,” he said. “Come on, let’s go inside.”
Maisie caught sight of Squadron Leader Ryan Phillips standing beside the helicopter. Vasquez waved from inside the cockpit. Maisie smiled and waved at them both. Phillips nodded back. The family headed into the house, shutting the door behind them. The helicopter took off and flew away.
The two kids chasing one another came running around the corner. One of the kids, out of breath, slowed. He brushed his hair back with his one good arm. Something flickered out the corner of his eye.
He approached a dead body lying in the gutter. A flap of skin on its face twitched like the body was trying to smile. The boy approached it, raised a finger to poke at it, when the cheek burst open and a rat leapt out.
The boy’s hand snapped out, lightning fast, and seized the rat, holding it in his torn hand. The rat kicked, its sharp claws cutting deep furrows in the boy’s skin. The boy didn’t even flinch. He squeezed the rat tight until there was a crack and the rat’s head flopped to one side. Blood seeped from the rat’s mouth and eyes.
The boy groaned lightly under his breath, his eyes rolling back, so they were almost completely white, blood vessels showing at the corners. He licked his lips.
The boy looked up, smiled, and chuckled.
Enjoy the Z-Minus trilogy?
Then You’ll love Z-Minus 4!
You can buy Book Four using the links below:
US, UK, Canada, Australia
Once infected, the virus shuts down organs, kills nerve impulses and even reprograms the way we think. The virus becomes us. But the process takes eight hours. If you only had eight hours left to live, what would you do?
In response to the Ebola epidemic in West Africa, a Special Forces team is sent on a military exercise to curtail future outbreaks. But when they encounter infected civilians, they soon discover they’ve entered a real-life nightmare, and must put their training to the test.
Those links again:
US, UK, Canada, Australia
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Perrin Briar is the author of the popular Blood Memory, Z-Minus and Swiss Family RobinZOM series. He makes his online home at www.perrinbriar.com. You can connect with Perrin on Twitter at @perrinbriar, on Facebook at facebook.com/perrinbriar and you should send him an email at [email protected] if the mood strikes you.
ALSO BY PERRIN BRIAR
Have you read them all?
In the Z-Minus series
Book Four
Once infected, the virus shuts down organs, kills nerve impulses and even reprograms the way we think. The virus becomes us. But the process takes eight hours. If you only had eight hours left to live, what would you do?
In response to the Ebola epidemic in West Africa, a Special Forces team is sent on a military exercise to curtail future outbreaks. But when they encounter infected civilians, they soon discover they’ve entered a real-life nightmare, and must put their training to the test.
Buy it: US UK
In the Blood Memory series
Season One
Haven’s crew discovers a body floating at sea. With a six-year hole in his memory, Jordan remembers nothing of the Incident or the creatures that have claimed the land as their own. He joins the crew in their daily struggle to survive in a harsh new world where every meal is live or die.
But when a shipwreck forces them from the safety of the sea the crew soon discover their pursuers aren’t the only monsters out to get them.
Begin reading it free: Blood Memory: Book One
Buy the complete season: US UK
Season Two
The survivors embark on their journey to the Indian Ocean. They make their way around the coast of France, Spain, and the Strait of Gibraltar. And every step of the way they hear rumors of a new power rising in the west from a source that sounds very familiar.
Buy the complete season: US UK
In the Swiss Family RobinZOM series
Book One
Trapped aboard a ferry destined for their new life in the Philippines, the Robinsons learn of the virus sweeping across the planet. Early symptoms include a hacking cough, shortness of breath, and deathly pale skin. The exact same symptoms shared by a fellow passenger.
Read it free: The Swiss Family RobinZOM: Book One
Book Two
Marooned on a stranded island, the Robinson family must learn to survive in their new alien surroundings. They forage for food, filter water, and face dangerous predators. But they're about to discover they aren't the only ones to have survived The Long Journey disaster...
Buy it: US UK
Book Three
The Robinsons are rebuilding their lives after surviving the recent zombie onslaught. They've rebuilt their treehouse, fixed the water supply, begun to farm again, and carry out dangerous scouting missions to sweep up the last of the zombies. Just when everything is going well they each catch a terrible illness. They're in a race against time to discover their illness's cure before it's too late.
Buy it: US UK
In the Skip series
Book One
The clock tower is the center of the town of Time. It counts down the hours, minutes and seconds of every passing day. But unbeknownst to the local inhabitants, it is at the center of a great deal more than that. It is the center of the universe and controls time itself. But it is old and beginning to break, sending the world’s inhabitants skipping forward and back through time.
Can two teenagers on the run collect all three replacement clock pieces scattered across the world before the clock tower, and time, breaks for good?
Read it free: Skip: Book One
Book Two
Elian and Jera head to the Rumble Jungle, the Haunted Forest and Land’s End for the replacement clock pieces. Each has been entrusted to ancient and powerful guardians less than willing to hand them over. Can Elian and Jera pass their tests and save the world?
Buy it: US UK
Book Three
Elian must recruit the help of his former crew to steal the third and final clock piece, housed in the Ascar’s private museum. In their escape, Jera is injured. Elian must return to the one place he fears most of all: home.
Buy it: US UK
In the Sink series
Book One
A sinkhole is a natural phenomenon. It can happen anywhere, anytime. It drinks lakes dry, consumes jungle
s, and even demolishes entire mountains. You may have seen one in your street. But these things aren’t lost. They’ve simply been moved. Things are forgotten on the surface all the time. Beneath the crust, they’re always remembered.
A forgotten world. A lost world. But not for long.
Buy it: US UK
Standalone Novels
Keeping Mum
When modern-day Scrooge Hetty Loveridge saw the opportunity to exploit an inheritance tax loophole for her children, she took it. She need only live seven more years. One week shy, she keels over, dead.
With their inheritance at stake, Peter and Kate get more than they bargained for as they attempt to fool the tax-man into believing their mother is still alive.
Buy it: US UK
Square
They beat him. They broke him. They stabbed him. They murdered him. If they did that to your loved one, would you forgive them? Or would you get Square?
Tony Green was recently released having served a four-year prison sentence for murder. With the support of a loving fiancée he attempts to prevent the next generation from following in his own footsteps. But old habits die hard, and the allure of the underworld is hard to resist.
Buy it: US UK
Copyright © 2015 Perrin Briar
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the author except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
Published by Perrin Briar.
Cover design by James at goonwrite.com.
Want to know more about Perrin Briar’s books?
Visit www.perrinbriar.com.
Table of Contents
Z-MINUS I
DECEMBER 2013 Statistics from the World Health Organisation
MAY 2014 Statistics from the World Health Organisation
JULY 2014 Statistics from the World Health Organisation
SEPTEMBER 2014 Statistics from the World Health Organisation
OCTOBER 2014 Statistics from the World Health Organisation
Z-MINUS I
5: 56AM
6: 23AM
7: 14AM
7 HOURS 55 MINUTES
Z-MINUS: 7 HOURS 44 MINUTES
Z-MINUS: 7 HOURS 21 MINUTES
Z-MINUS: 6 HOURS 58 MINUTES
Z-MINUS: 6 HOURS 47 MINUTES
Z-MINUS: 6 HOURS 31 MINUTES
Z-MINUS: 6 HOURS 16 MINUTES
Z-MINUS: 6 HOURS 2 MINUTES
Z-MINUS: 5 HOURS 33 MINUTES
Z-MINUS: 5 HOURS 14 MINUTES
Z-MINUS: 4 HOURS 50 MINUTES
Z-MINUS: 4 HOURS 39 MINUTES
Z-MINUS: 4 HOURS 21 MINUTES
Z-MINUS: 4 HOURS 9 MINUTES
Z-MINUS: 3 HOURS 36 MINUTES
Z-MINUS: 3 HOURS 12 MINUTES
Z-MINUS: 2 HOURS 45 MINUTES
Z-MINUS: 2 HOURS 28 MINUTES
Z-MINUS: 2 HOURS 2 MINUTES
Z-MINUS: 1 HOUR 51 MINUTES
Z-MINUS: 1 HOUR 45 MINUTES
Z-MINUS: 1 HOUR 32 MINUTES
Z-MINUS: 1 HOUR 16 MINUTES
Z-MINUS: 0 HOURS 56 MINUTES
Z-MINUS: 0 HOURS 16 MINUTES
Z-MINUS: 0 HOURS 0 MINUTES
3: 56PM
4: 23PM
4: 36PM
4: 51PM
4: 59PM
5: 07PM
5: 24PM
NOVEMBER 2014 Statistics from the World Health Organisation
Z-MINUS II
FEBRUARY 2015
6: 12am
6: 32am
7: 35am
8: 43am
9: 17am
10: 52am
11: 21am
12: 03pm
12: 23pm
12: 37pm
12: 51pm
1: 13pm
1: 27pm
1: 41pm
1: 47pm
1: 58pm
Z-MINUS: 7 HOURS 42 MINUTES
Z-MINUS: 7 HOURS 32 MINUTES
Z-MINUS: 7 HOURS 21 MINUTES
Z-MINUS: 7 HOURS 5 MINUTES
Z-MINUS: 6 HOURS 49 MINUTES
Z-MINUS: 6 HOURS 40 MINUTES
Z-MINUS: 6 HOURS 29 MINUTES
Z-MINUS: 6 HOURS 4 MINUTES
Z-MINUS: 5 HOURS 48 MINUTES
Z-MINUS: 5 HOURS 35 MINUTES
Z-MINUS: 5 HOURS 26 MINUTES
Z-MINUS: 5 HOURS 8 MINUTES
Z-MINUS: 4 HOURS 53 MINUTES
Z-MINUS: 4 HOURS 37 MINUTES
Z-MINUS: 4 HOURS 31 MINUTES
Z-MINUS: 4 HOURS 22 MINUTES
Z-MINUS: 4 HOURS 11 MINUTES
Z-MINUS: 4 HOURS 0 MINUTES
Z-MINUS: 3 HOURS 51 MINUTES
Z-MINUS: 3 HOURS 39 MINUTES
Z-MINUS: 3 HOURS 30 MINUTES
Z-MINUS: 3 HOURS 19 MINUTES
Z-MINUS: 3 HOURS 12 MINUTES
Z-MINUS: 3 HOURS 3 MINUTES
Z-MINUS: 2 HOURS 57 MINUTES
Z-MINUS: 2 HOURS 46 MINUTES
Z-MINUS: 2 HOURS 37 MINUTES
Z-MINUS: 2 HOURS 23 MINUTES
Z-MINUS: 2 HOURS 8 MINUTES
Z-MINUS: 2 HOURS 5 MINUTES
Z-MINUS: 1 HOUR 58 MINUTES
Z-MINUS: 1 HOUR 45 MINUTES
Z-MINUS: 1 HOUR 32 MINUTES
Z-MINUS: 1 HOUR 14 MINUTES
Z-MINUS: 1 HOUR 10 MINUTES
Z-MINUS: 1 HOUR 7 MINUTES
Z-MINUS: 59 MINUTES
Z-MINUS: 49 MINUTES
Z-MINUS: 41 MINUTES
Z-MINUS: 27 MINUTES
Z-MINUS: 17 MINUTES
10: 10pm
10: 24pm
7 HOURS 42 MINUTES
Z-MINUS III
FEBRUARY 2015 Dr Victoria Kahn’s journal, February 17th
11: 17pm
Z-MINUS: 6 HOURS 47 MINUTES
Z-MINUS: 6 HOURS 42 MINUTES
Z-MINUS: 6 HOURS 32 MINUTES
Z-MINUS: 6 HOURS 28 MINUTES
Z-MINUS: 6 HOURS 12 MINUTES
Z-MINUS: 6 HOURS 9 MINUTES
Z-MINUS: 5 HOURS 56 MINUTES
Z-MINUS: 5 HOURS 47 MINUTES
Z-MINUS: 5 HOURS 44 MINUTES
Z-MINUS: 5 HOURS 37 MINUTES
Z-MINUS: 5 HOURS 33 MINUTES
Z-MINUS: 5 HOURS 18 MINUTES
Z-MINUS: 4 HOURS 53 MINUTES
Z-MINUS: 4 HOURS 41 MINUTES
Z-MINUS: 4 HOURS 37 MINUTES
Z-MINUS: 4 HOURS 17 MINUTES
Z-MINUS: 4 HOURS 3 MINUTES
Z-MINUS: 3 HOURS 52 MINUTES
Z-MINUS: 3 HOURS 27 MINUTES
Z-MINUS: 3 HOURS 15 MINUTES
Z-MINUS: 3 HOURS 8 MINUTES
Z-MINUS: 2 HOURS 57 MINUTES
Z-MINUS: 2 HOURS 43 MINUTES
Z-MINUS: 2 HOURS 17 MINUTES
Z-MINUS: 2 HOURS 7 MINUTES
Z-MINUS: 1 HOUR 55 MINUTES
Z-MINUS: 1 HOUR 42 MINUTES
Z-MINUS: 1 HOUR 33 MINUTES
Z-MINUS: 1 HOUR 21 MINUTES
Z-MINUS: 59 MINUTES
MARCH 2015
APRIL 2015
MAY 2015