Дэвид Муди - Red Devils

It was more like the door to a bank vault than a prison cell, and inside it looked more like a hotel room than a gaol.

The relatively luxurious looking room had a single occupant. SS-Obergruppenführer Jakob Wolfensohn stood to attention, clicked his heels and saluted.

‘It appears we have a way in,’ Colonel Adams said.

Wilkins held Jocelyn tight as they watched the golden sun dip below the horizon. The grounds of Pocklington Hall were silent, as if every last man and woman were resting in preparation for the next fight. ‘Promise you’ll never leave me again?’ she whispered.

Wilkins looked deep into her beautifully clear eyes. He pictured them becoming clouded with infection. He pictured Jocelyn’s perfect lips drawing into a snarl and her teeth biting into his flesh. He pictured his wonderful fiancé transformed into one of those hellish creatures he’d fought in Bastogne and at Polonezköy, damned to walk the Earth in endless pain for all eternity.

‘No, my love, I cannot make such a promise.’

‘But you must.’

‘Not until the war is won, Jocelyn. Not until the world is rid of both the Nazis and the undead menace they have unleashed.’

‘But Robert, you’ve done your part.’

‘No, Jocelyn. My fight has only just begun.’

I was honoured to be asked to be a part of this project by Craig and Tim, who’d come up with the idea for the series in May 2015 while they’d been discussing the zombie genre at Crypticon Seattle. When the invitation came I said yes without hesitation.

Those of you who know my work will also know that this book is very different to the usual kind of story I write. My books are usually contemporary in their setting, and almost always feature a cast of ordinary people who find themselves thrust, usually through no fault of their own, into extraordinary situations. Wrong place, wrong time.

When I started researching and writing this book, it struck me how many millions of people found themselves in that exact situation during World War II: ordinary people, extraordinary situations. Sitting here now, enjoying a life of relative comfort and security, it’s easy to forget that, not too long ago, untold numbers of men and women were forced to make the ultimate sacrifice to protect our freedoms. As time goes on and we increasingly focus on the many issues of today, we can lose sight of the efforts and achievements of those just a few generations older than ourselves.

Writing this book brought a lot of things into focus for me. It left me with a new found appreciation and respect for those who lived and served through World War II.

I’m no history scholar or military buff, so I have taken numerous massive liberties with the facts (we’re writing about zombies after all!). Though the events of the Battle of the Bulge form a backdrop to this novel and to the entire series, the further we get from Tim’s excellent first novel, the more fantastic our story will inevitably become. This book is an adventure story at heart, one which might have been torn from the pages of a tattered copy of Boy’s Own back in the day, and I very much hope that you’ve enjoyed it.

I can’t wait to see what Craig has in store for us in BERLIN OR BUST!

DAVID MOODYgrew up on a diet of trashy horror and pulp science fiction. He worked as a bank manager 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 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, Pacific Rim) and Mark Johnson (Breaking Bad). Moody lives with his wife and a houseful of daughters and stepdaughters, which may explain his pre-occupation with Armageddon. Find out more about Moody:

www.davidmoody.net

www.infectedbooks.co.uk

CRAIG DILOUIEis the author of SUFFER THE CHILDREN (Simon & Schuster, May 2014) and the bestselling zombie novels TOOTH AND NAIL (START/Salvo Press, April 2010), THE INFECTION (Permuted Press, February 2011), its sequel THE KILLING FLOOR (Permuted Press, April 2012), and the RETREAT series with Joe McKinney and Stephen Knight.

He has also authored the CRASH DIVE series, a WWII submarine thriller; THE GREAT PLANET ROBBERY, a military sci-fi comedy; and PARANOIA, a psychological thriller.

As a technical writer, he has also written several non-fiction books about lighting and electrical design.

Craig blogs about apocalyptic and horror books and films regularly at:

www.craigdilouie.com

TIMOTHY W LONGhas been writing tales and stories since he could hold a crayon and has read enough books to choke a landfill. Tim has a fascination with all things zombie, a predilection for weird literature, and a deep-seated need to jot words on paper and thrust them at people. Tim spent time in the US Navy, worked for a major game corporation, an aeronautics company, and he has been in the IT field for the last 15 years as an engineer before becoming a full time author. He is an active member of Horror Writers Association, SFWA, and International Thriller Writers.

Tim resides outside of Seattle where he spends time with his partner in crime, Amanda, as well as 2 children, 2 dogs of various sizes and dispositions, and a near constant supply of overpriced and overcooked coffee beans.

http://timothywlong.com

THE HATER SERIES

HATER

DOG BLOOD

THEM OR US

THE AUTUMN SERIES

AUTUMN

AUTUMN: THE CITY

AUTUMN: PURIFICATION

AUTUMN: DISINTEGRATION

AUTUMN: AFTERMATH

AUTUMN: THE HUMAN CONDITION

STRANGERS

STRAIGHT TO YOU

TRUST

ALSO IN THIS SERIES

THE FRONT: SCREAMING EAGLES

by Timothy W. Long

THE FRONT: BERLIN OR BUST

coming soon from Craig DiLouie

Copyright ©David Moody 2017

All rights reserved

Cover Designed by Eloise J. Knapp

www.ekcoverdesign.com

Edited by Wayne Simmons

The right of David Moody to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organisations and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.

First published in 2017 by Infected Books

No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

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