Euphoria-Z
Book
1
Luke
Ahearn
Genre:
Thriller/Zombie Apocalypse
Publisher:
Luke Ahearn
Date
of Publication: May 19, 2014
ISBN-13:
978-1497497382
ISBN-10:
1497497388
Number
of pages: 409
Word
Count: 118,099
Cover
Artist: Steven J Catizone
Book
Description:
Civilization
shuts down as throngs of speechless hedonists fill the streets in
deadly revelry. They feel only pleasure and never pain, even as they
are injured, maimed, and mutilated. Few people remain in the world
unaffected, left to witness the madness unaware that things are about
to get unbelievably worse.
Cooper
is among the few survivors of a conspiracy to depopulate the world.
One week ago, college was his biggest concern. Now he is on a
dangerous journey to find his sister as an ever-present threat of
nightmarish proportions engulfs the world, throwing him in the path
of some of the most malicious people that ever walked the earth.
Excerpt:
The
present, Monterey, California
“Fuck!”
The wiry, gray-haired old man felt his eyes go wide with surprise,
but he quickly got his shit together. Jasper scowled; now he was very
pissed off. He might stoop and shuffle when he walked, but he didn’t
take any shit.
Some
big fat bastard was bear-hugging him from behind. He could see white
mountains of wet flab before his eyes, and he smelled vomit. He felt
a massive wet belly and man tits pressing against his back. Large
folds of cold wet flesh engulfed him, and he shuddered at the
sensation.
He
hated hugs, especially from men, and hugs from big fat sweaty
bastards were absolutely unacceptable. He carried his best spiked
hammer, an old-school Craftsman from back in the day, before the
gooks were making them. He was just itching to use it. The fat
bastard was yelling something in his ear.
“I
love you! I love you, man!”
“Ahhh,
geez!” Jasper twisted out of the flabby cocoon and took a few steps
back. What he saw disgusted him. It was a giant fat kid, a head
taller than himself, who looked like a giant baby, all hairless and
soft. The kid was smiling like an idiot, and that made Jasper even
more pissed off. Food smeared the kid’s face and ran down his chins
in greasy streams between his man tits and over his belly. All Jasper
could think was that all that shit was all over his back. Now he
would have to burn his shirt and take a long, hot shower.
The
kid wore nothing but baggy white underwear soaked in sweat. Jasper
shuddered at the clammy coldness on his back. His flannel shirt clung
to him and felt like a cold, wet bathing suit.
“I
love you, man!” The big fat kid smiled as he came at him for
another hug.
“Ahhhh!
Fuck you!” Despite his advanced age, Jasper moved with an
efficiency and force that spoke of his many years as a carpenter. He
brought the spiked hammer down on the kid’s skull, and it collapsed
inward with little resistance. He liked the sensation of cracking a
head but hated wasting the time to do it.
The
kid dropped to the concrete like a wet sack. He was still smiling,
which made cracking his skull less enjoyable. Jasper wished he could
bash every asshole around with his trusty hammer. He looked around to
make sure another shithead wasn’t looking for a hug.
A
woman came at him, hooting so loud he could hear it over the crowd,
waving her tits at him. He took her out too, with an easy smack
between the eyes. He had enough of this shit. He cracked a few more
skulls for fun, but he got bored. It was always the same: an easy tap
to the skull and the moron dropped, still smiling.
The
streets were crammed with people, and they were all acting crazy.
Jasper just wanted to get home. It seemed everyone was congregating
downtown, streaming in from the surrounding neighborhoods. People
were walking in large groups, arm in arm, naked and clothed, dancing,
running, and hugging. It all made Jasper sick, just god-awful sick.
He
tried to go all the way downtown and almost got caught up in the
crowd. People were pushing and jamming each other into doors until
they cracked open. He heard the crash of large plate-glass windows,
but no one reacted. In fact, he saw people just getting pushed
through the windows in a wave. He could tell that people were getting
seriously injured and killed, and he just wanted to get the hell out
of there.
He
left at the right time. The press of the massive crowd smashed and
suffocated, ground and trampled, and killed many—and the party
continued to grow. No one screamed in panic or pain. No one yelled
for help or dialed 911. And no one stopped to offer assistance, an
apology, or true human interaction of any kind. Everyone was bent on
doing exactly what they wanted to do, and what anyone else wanted
didn’t matter to them in the slightest.
In
any place where people gathered for a good time, the crowds were
thick. The mall was packed, but the hospital was empty. The wharf was
so full that hundreds fell into the icy waters of the bay. The office
parks and businesses were dark and silent. Some groups formed parties
on random streets for one reason or another.
A
large majority of the city was empty, devoid of people. Most left
their homes and walked away, leaving doors unlocked and often wide
open. They would join a group and wander away.
There
were still a few souls hiding indoors who were anything but euphoric.
They watched with fear and horror the goings-on outside their
windows. Jasper had been one of these, but he needed his goddamned
pills and had to drive through all this crazy shit to get them. Of
course, when he got to the damn pharmacy it was closed. He had tried
to call ahead, but no one answered the phone. He was pissed. He
wanted nothing to do with this crazy shit. He didn’t want to see
any of it and certainly didn’t want to walk through it. He saw
quite a few people doing things he had only seen in his buddies’
dirty magazines. But there was one thing every single person was
doing: smiling like a retard with a lollipop—every single one.
At
first, he thought all the outlandish behavior was confined to idiots,
kids, and queers. It had to be some new drug to get them this nuts,
he thought. But too many people were acting bonkers, too many people
who just didn’t fit the behavior.
He
walked as quickly as he was able away from the crowd and back to his
car. He’d seen some shit in his day, but in the last few the world
had descended into pandemonium. There were reports that almost
everyone around the world was walking away from their jobs, no matter
how critical. Everything was grinding to a halt. Transportation,
communication—private or military, trivial or critical—everything
was just going belly up. Jasper had known this day was coming ever
since the blacks were allowed to vote.
And
the crooks in Washington didn’t know anything. They said it was an
unknown virus and creatively named it Euphoria-Z. Z because they
didn’t know what it was, only what it did. And their advice? Stay
indoors and away from crowds, bunch of geniuses.
Jasper
had never expected he would need to kill people, not since the war,
but in the last few days he had been forced to. The streets were
crazy, and he wouldn’t even be outside if he hadn’t needed his
pills. He felt as if he were the only sane person for miles. He
looked at his feet and wondered, only briefly, if something were
wrong with him? No, couldn’t be, he thought. None of this was
right. The world had gone crazy.
About
the Author:
Luke
Ahearn has over 20 years of professional game development experience
and has authored numerous nonfiction books on the topic. He ran his
own computer game company for ten years and currently owns
MasterWerxStudios, an animatronic prop shop in Monterey, CA.
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