by Mark Clodi
Epilogue
The stream tumbled over the rocks behind the Mike's club, babbling like a first grader playing the part. It takes a long time to die when no major arteries are nicked. A trail of blood wept from Jeff's body down past various insects thrilled with the sudden, unexpected red bounty, and ultimately it ran into the stream. The sun set. The persistent noise from the Mike's Club died to almost utter silence, slowly the birds stopped chirping, leaving only the babbling stream. At last the blood stopped flowing, with a great heave and an exhalation like air leaving an untied balloon, Jeff's body grew still. Nothing broke the noise of the stream. Then, slowly, very slowly Jeff's head lifted off of the broken piece of concrete it was resting upon. He rose quietly and shoved David's body off of him. The body held no interest to Jeff, it was dead and black, no color at all. Above him, near the top of the ravine, beyond a short stairway leading to the loading dock door stood a lone guard watching the night with a pair of binoculars. Jeff couldn't smile, not yet, but he recognized instinctively what prey looked like when he saw it.
Author's Note-
First I have to say, I am rather fond of author's notes. It is a chance to break out of telling a story to say whatever I want. I feel pretty confident doing so because, hey, who reads "Author's Notes" anyway? I look at some of the writer's I admire and they always seemed to have these notes at the end that I rarely read, until one day I started reading them. Usually the information was of only trivial interest to me. Who cares how you came up with your character "Ted"? Or that the book was written on a bus ride from L.A. to New York? Just give me more "Ted"! Now! Now! Now! These days I do tend to read the author's notes, I see it as a sign of my growing maturity. Oh and I find most of them interesting too.
"Undead Advantage" started life as "The Ballad of Hank and Juan" which was shortened to "Hank and Juan" then the title search got left to stew for awhile until I did the editing. The book does not really end; it just comes to a stopping point where I know it can be left to the imagination on how things go from here. I could write more on the group, but I don't think there will be an "Undead Advantage II". Hank and Juan will be looked in on from time to time, especially a decade and a half after z-day, but for now their story is finished.
This book was the second one I started and the third one I finished. Between starting it and finishing it I wrote "Found" and I cannot imagine why I did things that way. I have always been one who jumps around with different writing projects, then looks in surprise at those I have finished, wondering "Now just how did that happen?" Please don't misunderstand me; I usually do a great deal of plotting out what is going to happen and how each book will end, I just don't write them all at once. I am settling into a pattern where I am getting closer to that goal, to focus on a single item at a time, but I am not there yet.
I write zombie books because I like writing about zombies, not because I have any illusions that my works are great world literature. The point of fiction is just to give the reader a bit of a break from a 'normal' life and if I did that, then I did my job.
Thank you for reading!
Mark Clodi
June 16th, 2009
Revised July 3rd, 2010
Table of Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 5
Chapter 10
Chapter 15
Chapter 20
Chapter 25
Chapter 30
Chapter 33