Joe McKinney - Flesh Eaters

Raves for Joe McKinneys Dead City

A rising star on the horror scene!

FearNet.com

Dead City is much more than just another zombie novel. Its got heart and humanitya merciless, fast-paced, and genuinely scary read that will leave you absolutely breathless. Highly recommended!

Brian Keene

Joe McKinneys Dead City is one of those rare books that starts fast and never ever lets up. From page one to the stunning climax, this book is a roller-coaster ride of action, violence, and zombie horror. McKinney understands the genre and relies on its strongest conventions while at the same time adding new twists that make this book a thoroughly enjoyable read.

Jonathan Maberry, multiple Bram Stoker
Awardwinning author of Patient Zero

The pace never lets up as McKinney takes us through the zombie apocalypse in real timeevery second of terror is explored in depth as the world goes to hell.

David Wellington, author of Monster Island

Dead City is an absolute must-read for zombie lovers, but McKinneys excellent storytelling makes it a great read for anyone who loves the thrill of a gruesomely delicious page-turner.

Fran Friel, Bram Stoker Awardnominated author
of Mamas Boy and Other Dark Tales

Dead City is a zombie tour de forcethe story moves along at breakneck speed and never lets up. Joe McKinney knows how to toy with readers emotions, masterfully capturing the essence of humanity in the face of unspeakable horror.

Amy Grech, author of Apple of
My Eye and Blanket of White

Joe McKinneys Dead City is a tense, thrill-a-page nightmare, written with great passion and authority. Surely one of the best zombie novels ever set down in blood.

Lisa Morton, twotime Bram Stoker Award winner

Dead City wastes no time jumping straight into mile-a-minute thrills and gruesome action. This seminal zombie novel culminates in a heart-wrenching finale, and I found that as the undead hordes multiplied, so too did my respect and admiration for author Joe McKinney. If you like your thrillers served with an extra helping of intensity, youre going to love Dead City !

Joel A. Sutherland, Bram Stoker Award
nominated author of Frozen Blood

Dead City is an action-packed, pedal-to-the-metal zombie novel that never loses sight of its humanity. McKinney uses his background as a homicide detective to bring a level of realism to his vision of the apocalypse that is both urgent and frightening. A timely nightmare that you will not put down. I cant wait to see where this series leads.

Gregory Lamberson, author of Personal
Demons and Johnny Gruesome

McKinney writes zombies like hes been gunning them down all of his life.

Weston Ochse, author of Empire of Salt

Dead City is a full-throttle page-burner that torques up the terror and does not let up. Youll want the shotgun seat for this wild ride. Bring a crash helmet.

J. L. Comeau, www.countgore.com

Welcome to Joe McKinneys Dead City universe, a relentless thrill ride where real characters do bloody things on nightmare streets. Break out the popcorn, youre in for a real treat.

Harry Shannon, author of Dead and Gone

Dead City is a well-written and compelling first novel. A scary, fast-paced ride, full of hair-raising twists and turns that keep the reader spellbound. Do yourself a favor and snag a copy.... Thank me later.

Gene ONeill, author of Taste of
Tenderloin and Deathflash

Fast-paced, entertaining... five headshots out of five.

D. L. Snell, co-author of Demon Days

A fantastic tale of survival horror that starts with a bang and never lets up.

Zombiehub.com

FLESH EATERS

JOE MCKINNEY

PINNACLE BOOKS
Kensington Publishing Corp.
www.kensingtonbooks.com

All copyrighted material within is Attributor Protected.

Table of Contents

This novel takes place in and around Houston, Texas, which is a real place. The Houston in this novel, however, is not. I have treated the city, its environs, and its institutions fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual incidents, or to any person living or dead, is purely coincidental.

The Author

Life is the new wealth.

Max Brooks, Closure, Limited

CHAPTER 1

Eleanor Nortons earliest memories were of hurricanes. As a little girl, she had seen Rita and Ike and Jacob rip Houston apart, their winds shearing off her neighbors rooftops and sending them sailing away like kites. She remembered her family huddling like frightened animals in the hall closet, her mother trying to be brave but still squeezing her so tightly shed left bruises on Eleanors skin. Then, in high school, shed lived through Brendan and Louis, storms that carried shrimp boats ten miles inland and blanketed the city with ocean water that dappled like molten copper in the morning sun. She still carried memories of water moccasins gliding past the top of the swing set in her backyard and pickup trucks floating like rafts down her street and grown men on their rooftops, crying without shame for all that they had lost.

She never outgrew that fear of storms. Even now at thirty-five, a mother of a beautiful twelve-year-old girl, a wife to a wonderful man, a looming hurricane could still reduce her to jelly. The wind and the slashing rain and the overwhelming floodwaters touched some deep atavistic impulse inside her to run for shelter. Cataclysmic storms were a fear many Houstonians lived with, though most never talked about it. But now, as she stood in line at the Wal-Mart, she could sense her own terror mirrored in the scurrying anxiousness of nearly everyone around her. Like her, they just wanted to buy their water and batteries and cans of Sterno and get home to their families before the storm made landfall. Waiting in line like this was maddening.

Eleanor had been doing fine in the days leading up to Hurricane Hector. She was working in the Houston Police Departments Emergency Operations Command, attending all the briefings, and bringing home what she learned to her family, making sure they were ready. The ritual of getting prepared had helped to keep the fear at bay. But that morning, when she left for work, the sky had been a bloody red, and all the terror shed felt as a child came back in a flood. Shed gone to workand tried to work, she really didbut she was distracted and irritable. Captain Mark Shaw, her boss, had noticed. He noticed everything; and, in truth, it hadnt been hard to tell what was going on with her. She kept returning to the main window, the one that looked out over the green lawns of the University of Houston. Outside the sky was changing from a horror-movie red to a windy, sodden gray, and she couldnt take her eyes off it.

Captain Shaw, who, despite his reputation, was not without mercy, sent her home.

Youll do more good with your family anyway, he told her. We got this. Go on home.

Really? Youre okay with me leaving? she asked.

Its no big deal. Everything that can be done has already been done. Nothing else to do here but ride it out. You can do that at home just as easily.

I really appreciate this, Captain.

He dismissed her with a wave of his hand.

Ill see you in the morning, he said. Worse comes to worst, and we get some bad flooding, Ill send a boat by for you.

And so shed gone to Wal-Mart for a few last-minute things, her fear mounting as the wind picked up and the sky grew darker. When she finally made it through the checkout line and walked outside to the parking lot, the gray sky above her was limned with an eerie chemical green. The air was dense as a wet towel against her skin. She swallowed nervously, ducked her head against a gusting breeze, and rushed to her car.