J. L. Bourne - Day by Day Armageddon

Praise for J. L. Bournes
Day by Day Armageddon

There is zombie fiction and then there is crawl-out-of-the-grave-and-drag-you-to-hell zombie fiction. Day by Day Armageddon is hands-down the best zombie book I have ever read. Dawn of the Dead meets 28 Days Later doesnt even come close to describing how fantastic this thriller is. It is so real, so terrifying, and so well written that I slept with not one, but two loaded Glocks under my pillow for weeks afterwards. J. L. Bourne is the new king of hardcore zombie action!

Brad Thor, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Last Patriot and The First Commandment

Day by Day Armageddon is a dramatic spin on the zombie story. It has depth, a heart, and compelling characters.

Jonathan Maberry, Bram Stoker Awardwinning author of Ghost Road Blues

Day by Day Armageddon claws at the readers mind. Bournes journal is a visceral insight into the psyche of a skilled survivor.

Gregory Solis, author of Rise and Walk

by
J. L. Bourne

Introduction by Z. A. RECHT

This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the authors imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

Copyright 2004, 2007 by J. L. Bourne.
Originally published in 2007 by Permuted Press

All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever. For information address Pocket Books Subsidiary Rights Department, 1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020.

First Pocket Books trade paperback edition September 2009

POCKET and colophon are registered trademarks of Simon & Schuster, Inc.

For information about special discounts for bulk purchases, please contact Simon & Schuster Special Sales at 1-866-506-1949 or business@simonandschuster.com.

The Simon & Schuster Speakers Bureau can bring authors to your live event. For more information or to book an event contact the Simon & Schuster Speakers Bureau at 1-866-248-3049 or visit our website at www.simonspeakers.com .

Editing and interior design by Travis Adkins

Manufactured in the United States of America

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available

ISBN 978-1-4391-7667-2
ISBN 978-1-4391-7727-3 (ebook)

For more information about Permuted Press books and authors, visit
www.permutedpress.com .

by Z. A. Recht

Ive been a zombie fan for years I can safely say that Ive spent more than half my life as a hopeless addict to anything and everything undead. Id go out and buy a book or a movie just because it used the word zombie somewhere in the title. Needless to say, this method of shopping left me with some horrible disappointments (Night of the Zombies) and some french-fried gold (Redneck Zombies).

Most of these were the result of pure happenstance. Id be out looking for one thing, and stumble onto my beloved genre. Nothing can sidetrack me like zombiesso, with that established, youll understand why, several years ago, I vanished off of the face of the planet for one full day. Phone calls went unanswered. E-mails went unresponded to. Im pretty sure I forgot to eat. I know I didnt forget to chainsmoke. I never forget to chainsmoke.

Anyway, the reason behind this sudden withdrawal into my own little universe was the discovery of this amazing online chronicle of one man trying to stay alive in a world overrun by the undeadand get this: it wasnt just some fanfic. It covered the main characters journey day by day by agonizing day, from the very start of the undead infestation all the way through to one of the most nail-biting cliffhangers Ive ever come to. I am, naturally, talking about Day by Day Armageddon.

I forget where I stumbled onto the link that led me to J.L. Bournes chronicle of the zombie apocalypse, but I distinctly remember spending the next seven or eight hours reading from the very beginning all the way through to his most recent post. Im a faster reader than that, but I was so into the story Id stop every now and again to go over to the forum and see what other people had been saying about the entry I was on. I took that story and twisted it like a wet towel to get every last little drop of exposition I could out of it, and when I finally reached the end, it was too lateI was hooked. I am sure that there are crackheads out there who have similar stories about how they first got started. I had discovered the well-kept secret of zombie fiction on the internet thanks to Day by Day Armageddon. My first step was to register on Mr. Bournes forum and start chatting it up with fellow zombie fans.

I should point out that up until that point my penchant for the undead was something that my friends in real life merely tolerated; suddenly, I was surrounded by people who actually encouraged it. They talked about the things I always liked to think about but never had anyone to discuss with: what gear would be best in the event of a zombie apocalypse, long-term survival planning, and always, always, always being prepared for the unexpected. All of which is, of course, sound advice no matter who you are, zombie fan or no.

So I bounced from forum to forum. I even dared to stick my head into a couple of politics threads, which is somewhat similar to shoving your hand into a pile of red-hot coalsYou know its going to burn, and you know it was a stupid thing to do in the first place, and for the life of you, you cant figure out why you did it. I neednt have worried; I was like a coin circling one of those donation funnels. I just had to give it a little more time and sooner or later Id end up where I was supposed to be. That turned out to be the fiction board. Here were dozens of other stories of life in an undead world. I delved into them and tore through them. Funny thing about zombie fiction unlike food, the more you consume, the hungrier you get. Pretty soon I decided I couldnt just read the works of others. I was going to have to start my own little ongoing serial. So I set out to write what was supposed to be a novella called Pandemic, about a virus called the Morningstar Strain that sweeps the globe andnaturally zombifies its victims.

It got a positive response, so I kept adding to it. Pretty soon it had grown out of my control. It had reached novella length and had kept on going. I took it to its own site, made sure I kept a banner on the links page pointing people back to Day by Day Armageddon, and continued to add to it. Skip ahead a couple of years and Pandemic has become Plague of the Dead, a fully-fleshed out and published novel with two sequels in the works, and when you get down to the nitty-gritty, its all because I stumbled onto Day by Day Armageddon and discovered the genre.

This story has everything that makes the genre near and dear to the hearts of its fans: stoic survivalism, slow, shambling undead, ever-present danger, a delightful sense of the gruesome and macabre, and of course, equipment lists.

Whether youre a true deadhead or just passing through the genre, this is one of those books that manages to grab your attention and keep you reading for no other reason than to find out what happens nextand that is the mark of a book worth reading. I say, any book that keeps you reading to find out some terrible secret, or keeps you turning pages because whats happening sickens you and you want it to endthose books arent telling a story thats a riproaring good time. Those are the ones thatll leave you with an empty sense of apathy and disillusionment when you finish them.