It’s Z-Day. What Are YOU going to do?

I’ve come to the conclusion I’ve spent far too long thinking and writing about the inevitable zombie apocalypse (ten years and counting, actually). In that time I’ve had ample opportunity to consider what I’d do if the unthinkable happened and the dead dragged themselves back onto their unsteady feet to hunt out the last of the living. I have to admit, my preoccupation with the undead has reached a pretty extreme level: we moved house this summer just gone, and I had to stop myself and take a step back when I realised I’d genuinely been considering ‘zombie-preparedness’ as a key factor in choosing our new home (I wish I was joking here, but I’m not). Just for the record, in case you were wondering, we’re safe: we’ve moved to a newly built estate which isn’t that easy to find, yet which is close enough to civilization to make quick supply runs feasible, and there’s only one entrance road which will be pretty easy to block and guard, and there’s a strong metal fence around the whole area, and our house is on a hill, and I’ve identified a number of safe fall-back locations nearby if the estate gets overrun and… and I digress.

You see what I mean though? It’s easy to get carried away thinking about what you’d do when the dead return to walk the Earth.

If you ask most people, I think they’d give you the usual generic survivor spiel about how they’d handle things. They’ll tell you how they’ll find themselves a secure base, stock up on weapons and supplies, and ride the crisis out, gleefully dispatching any walking corpses foolish enough to stagger into range.

But they probably won’t.

You see, I think the reality would be very different. I think most people would take one look at the news, realise what was happening, then fall apart. I’m guessing a lot of survivors will probably be found quaking under their duvets on Z-day +1. Just take a second to imagine the emotional trauma… through no fault of your own, you’ve probably just lost everything. Society is in tatters, crumbling around you, and you’re going to have to fight constantly just to get through each new day. Oh, and that animated corpse scrabbling incessantly at your door, desperate to get inside and feast on your flesh, might be someone you used to know. You might be about to meet a painful, gory fate at the hands of your lover, your parent, your best friend, one of your kids…

So if this is the case, why are almost all zombie tales about gung-ho survivors?

I guess the problem is that watching people fall apart doesn’t necessarily make for an interesting zombie story. Conversely, though, I’d argue that an all guns blazing, blood and guts-laden zombie killing spree doesn’t make for a particularly exciting story either. I think the best zombie tales are those which steer away from the usual clichés.

My AUTUMN series is, for the most part, about normal people trying to deal with the aftermath of the Zompoc. When the first few books came out, I took a lot of flack for that approach because people were expecting a more ‘by the numbers’ zombie survival tale complete with square-jawed heroes and copious gallons of blood. So when I sat down to write the fourth novel – AUTUMN: DISINTEGRATION – I decided to have a little fun. I wondered what might happen if there were two groups of survivors located near to each other – each completely unaware of the other’s presence – one that’s survived the traditional zombie story way (by hacking and slashing and looting and burning etc.), and the other by playing it safe and staying quiet and out of sight. Both groups have managed to survive so far, so who has the better approach? When circumstances force them to try and survive the apocalypse together, who accedes power to whom?

I’m not going to tell you what happens, of course (because Gollancz would kill me – they’re releasing a new edition of DISINTEGRATION today), but I think the outcome will surprise you. It surprised me!

Ultimately, though, if I’ve learned one thing about life among the undead, it’s to expect the unexpected. I think that when push comes to shove, the living are going to be as unpredictable and dangerous as the dead, perhaps even more so.

So what will I be doing come that fateful day when the dead rise? Well I think I’ll wait and see where everyone else is heading, then quietly disappear off in the opposite direction! Either that or you’ll find me sitting things out in our lovely new zombie-proof home!

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: David Moody was born in 1970 and grew up in Birmingham, UK, on a diet of trashy horror and pulp science fiction books and movies. He worked as a bank manager and as operations manager for a number of financial institutions before giving up the day job to write about the end of the world for a living. He has written a number of horror novels, including AUTUMN, which has been downloaded more than half a million times since publication in 2001 and has spawned a series of sequels and a movie starring Dexter Fletcher and David Carradine. Film rights to HATER were snapped up by Guillermo del Toro (Hellboy, Pan’s Labyrinth) and Mark Johnson (producer of the Chronicles of Narnia films). Moody lives with his wife and a houseful of daughters and stepdaughters, which may explain his pre-occupation with Armageddon. His latest novel – TRUST – is currently being serialised online at www.trustdavidmoody.com.

ABOUT THE BOOK: “Forty days have passed since the end of the world began. Billions of people were killed in less than half a day and now the entire world is rotting. Everything is disintegrating… Survivors are few and far between in this deadly environment, and those who are still alive are forced to deal with a nightmare situation: the scale of the devastation is unprecedented. The shadowy landscape is swarming with the dead, their decaying bodies deteriorating day by day. Limited by their appalling physical condition, the only emotions they are able to display are anger, rage and hate and yet, remarkably, they are becoming more controlled. They are becoming self-aware, and they will defend themselves at all costs.

 A group of eleven men and woman have managed to survive against the odds, protected by the geography of the land and sheltering in a derelict block of flats. They have been surrounded for weeks, but they have always been in control. Until now. For the bodies are advancing. The situation is changing.”

DAVID MOODY ONLINE: Website | Blog | Facebook | Twitter | Goodreads

GIVEAWAY!

David is kindly giving away THREE (3) sets of the first four books in the Autumn series: Autumn, The City, Purification and Disintegration.

For entry into the giveaway please answer the following question then fill out the form below: Which Kill Bill star had a cameo in the movie adaptation of the first Autumn novel?

This giveaway is Open to All and ends 31st October 2012

Oops! We could not locate your form.

YOU MAY ALSO LIKE:

REVIEW: Autumn: Purification by David Moody

Zombie Challenge 2012 – Carolyn’s Progress!

REVIEW: Autumn by David Moody

REVIEW: Autumn: The City by David Moody