The Loss (Zombie Ocean Book 4) (37 page)
Read The Loss (Zombie Ocean Book 4) Online
Authors: Michael John Grist
She laughs but that hurts her a little, so she just smiles.
"I missed you," I say. She squeezes my hand.
"I'm here," she answers, in a faint and croaky voice. Though she's sick and she's been in bed for nearly two weeks, she still looks as beautiful as the day we first spoke in Sir Clowdesley.
She's here, and that's what matters.
I kiss her hand. The kids hug in. Outside, the rumble and grind of another elevator load rises up, and another hundred of the ocean are released from their prison, to trudge steadily east.
Did you enjoy The Loss?
I sincerely hope you'll consider leaving an honest review on Amazon and/or Goodreads. Thank you!
Book 5 in the Zombie Ocean series is coming soon!
In the meantime, your free Starter Library of 2 post-apocalypse thriller books is waiting. You only need to enter your email:
Now, page forward to read chapter one of Mr. Ruins, Book 1 in the Ruins War (included in the free Starter Library).
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
A big thank you to Advance Review Squad members Nicole Esquibel, Katy Page and Pam Elmes, who really helped improve the book by nailing down typos, spotting Britishisms (soya is the Brit version of soy? I had no idea) and pointing out redundancies. Thank you!
- Michael
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Michael John Grist
is a British writer who lived in Tokyo, Japan for 11 years, and now lives in London, England.
He writes dark surreal science fiction and fantasy, and used to explore and photograph abandoned places in Japan, such as ruined theme parks, military bases and underground bunkers. These explores have drawn millions of visitors to his website
michaeljohngrist.com
, and often provide inspiration for his fiction.
OTHER WORKS
Zombie Ocean
(zombie apocalypse)
#1
The Last
#2
The Lost
#4
The Loss
Ruins War
(science fiction)
Ignifer Cycle
(fantasy)
Short fiction
The Bells of Subsidence
- 9 science fiction stories
Bone Diamond
- 9 weird fiction stories
Non-fiction
Into The Ruins
- Adventures in Abandoned Japan
EXTRAS
Want more books by MJG?
If you enjoyed
The Loss,
look out for battles with the devil
in the sci-fi thriller
Mr. Ruins.
An EXCERPT follows.
Mr. Ruins
A mind-twisting thriller through the tsunami-ravaged future.
The Arctic ice is gone, blown apart in desperate resource wars. Global tsunamis have left the world an apocalyptic wasteland, and survivors cluster on lawless floating slums, living in fear of the next big wave.
Ex-marine
Ritry
isn't afraid. He lost more in the Arctic wars than anyone, and it left him numb. Now he works in the slums as an expert graysmith - diving into living minds to inject and erase memories - until he meets the shadowy
Mr. Ruins.
Ruins offers Ritry a better life, but demands a terrible price: his memories, his morals and his soul. Ritry must dive deep into his own mind to escape. There, in a terrifying maze where plastic soldiers man the trenches and a massive worm eats all invaders, the battle for Ritry's uniquely powerful soul will begin.
'Inception' meets 'Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind', packed with blood, twists and space marines of the mind.
MR. RUINS (EXCERPT)
The needle enters Mei-An's eye socket smoothly, nestling beside her bright white eyeball and passing back into her brain. She barely flinches, though I know it's uncomfortable as hell.
She's a pretty young half-Asiatic, maybe 28, and I can't imagine what she's doing out here in the skulks. She came in to my graysmithy building an hour ago with a hunted look in her eye, asking for a very specific inject: a hand-made combination of languages and vocational skills. It's plain she's running from something, but it isn't the job of a graysmith to ask questions.
I steadily depress the syringe plunger, injecting its silvery contents into her mind. It's dangerous stuff, enough to radically change her brain content and chemistry, but she doesn't seem too phased. A moment passes then I draw the needle out and lean back, giving her time to blink away the discomfort.
"How do you feel?" I ask.
"Shivery," she says. As her mouth opens I see the black tattoo on her tongue: DZ. The brand of Don Zachary, king of the skulks. OK then. "It's cold, like brain freeze."
I force a smile and study her, sitting there on the input tray of the bulky ElectroMagnetic Resonance machine. She's clearly strong despite her slight frame, and determined as hell. Her stark black hair is a stark contrast against the dive room's simple gray walls. Her long thin legs dangle down the EMR machine's side like a child's, though she's clearly no innocent. You don't get Don Zachary's brand and stay innocent for long.
A silvery tear beads from her eye and I dab it away with a surgical cloth.
"Let them settle for a few moments," I say, "then we'll dive."
She nods.
I leave her, exiting the spartan gray dive room to stand in the polished steel corridor alongside my assistant Carrolla. He's tall and shaven-headed, with features just shy of model-worthy. I think he must have had marine training, though he never fought in the Arctic skirmishes. Working here in the lawless skulks is his war.
He raises an eyebrow, and I know what he's thinking.
"She wants a dive," I say.
"I heard the Don crucified the last guy who crossed him," Carrolla says conversationally. "Nailed him to the tsunami wall. Does that sound like fun to you, Rit?"
I shrug. There are no shortage of legends about the Don. "I'm not turning her away."
"You fucking should."
"I'm fucking not."
"Don fucking Zachary," Carrolla mutters under his breath, "he'll pull your face right off."
I let it go, and we stand quietly for a moment, waiting. In Mei-An's brain the silvery inject will be spreading, starting to make connections and change the architecture of her mind.
"I need you tight on me for this," I say. "It's a bigger job than usual."
Carrolla nods sharply, like a marine. He's got discipline, I'll give him that.
We go back into the dive room together. Mei-An is sitting there like a dab of milk on a slate. Carrolla takes up position at the control panel by the EMR machine's large hollow hub. I sit on the stool before Mei-An and look into her artificially widened eyes. I offer my hand and she takes it. It's good to get the skinship started in small ways, to start our systems aligning.
"There are serious risks to this," I tell her, though I've already told her it once. "Potential damage to your memory, to your wits, to your personality. I'm good, but there's always a risk. I need to hear you say you're sure."
She nods. "I'm sure. I don't have a choice."
I understand that.
"Lie down on your side," I tell her, "facing me."
She does. I climb onto the tray and lie down beside her, face to face.
"It'll be OK," I say. "Carrolla."
Carrolla pushes the button to fire the EMR up. Inside the large ring hub at its head electromagnets start to whir and thump, forming a soupy electromagnetic static between us. The thumping gets louder and I can feel the tide rising. The input tray jerks into motion, drawing Mei-An and I into the machine's hollow heart.
Electromagnetic waves wash over us like an ocean, and I reach out with my mind to begin the synchronization of our thought patterns. Dimly I sense the outline of her brain, a hazy sphere of heat barely glimpsed through murky waters, transposed atop her face. I focus closer, building the bridge across which I'll pass into the outer reaches of her mind, then-
"Shit!"
It's Carrolla. I hear his shout tinnily through the waves, followed by a red flash splashing across my field of view, like blood in the water. Then I feel it, fuck. Her mental immunity is kicking in fast, the Lag, reaching out to take a bite. It's a goddamn shark out here, and already furious at the presence of the silver inject.
"Her cells are starting to cook!" Carrolla calls to me from above. "Get out of there, Rit."
I can't though, not with the inject still inside her like bloody chum to the Lag. If I don't do something fast it'll bite half her mind away just to get the foreign matter out. Now the only way out is through.
"Stress levels are up," Carrolla calls, barely audible over the thump of the EMR. "If you're not coming out then get it calmed!"
I gaze through the layers of thought into Mei-An's eyes, big dark staring spheres, and will her to calm down. I've dived deeper than this a hundred times before, and it never gets any easier, or safer, but I've always survived.
The Lag snaps up at me from within her head.
"Look at me Mei-An," I say as I tune my thoughts toward a stronger connection. "Look at my eyes, that's it."
She tries to nod but now she's losing motor control, making the movement uneven and jerky. She's terrified. I kick a leg at Carrolla to increase the cooling CerebroSpinal Fluid flow bathing her brain, because if it gets any hotter inside her skull her brain really will begin to cook.
"It's going to be OK," I say, then crank the wavelength of my thoughts all the way down to fully match with hers.
A rush of thought-data pummels me, hard bubbles rising through the water; the inputs and outputs of billions of her individual brain cells. I swim roughly through the barrage, able only to see the pattern of her mounting panic. Her whole system is in emergency mode. If I had a better EMR I could fix her through that, but this is proto-Calico, a floating slum built of old wreckage and flotation barrels, and I don't.
