A Short Sample of Horror-Comedy “Dead Heat”

Happy Friday everyone! I hope you all have a great weekend. Halloween is just ten days away now. Who doesn’t like a little scare mixed in with a little comedy? Before you get back to watch Shaun of the Dead or Cockneys Vs Zombies, I would like to tell you about my own zom-com, Dead Heat with a little sample for your enjoyment.

The trio had been running for about three kilometres through the woodland, along dirt and gravel tracks, over hills and had fallen behind their colleagues by some considerable distance. Mike was slightly ahead of them; at the top of a slope littered with boulders, he stopped running and waved down his two friends. ‘Hey is that a blue flag up on that rock?’ he pointed to his left.

‘Yes,’ replied Jim. ‘That must be the first Dye Station?’

‘Looks like it. We should check it out.’

The ground was thick with ferns and they pushed their way through, following an overgrown path leading behind the rock. The trio stopped when Mike shouted. Just beyond the brush in the middle of a clearing was the apparent dead body of a runner, a hole where the stomach used to be, a zombie kneeling over the corpse and thrusting lumps of flesh into his mouth. The corpse had the sensor tags attached and the timer chip – which had a gnaw bite – lay next to the foot.

‘The fake body parts have been good, but that’s damned clever,’ said Tony, ‘it’s amazing what they can do with prosthetics these days. What do you think he’s really eating?’

‘He’s probably not eating it,’ Mike replied. ‘Look, he turns to the right. I bet he’s putting it in his mouth and spitting it out again.’

‘I’m seriously impressed. Look at him going at it like a Uruguayan footballer,’ said Tony.

‘So, what are we going to do to get up there?’ Mike scratched his head.

‘Climb over him,’ said Tony.

Mike spread his arms wide. ‘We can’t. He’ll take a life by grabbing our ankle sensors as we pass over him. He can get all three of us without moving.’

‘Okay, so what are we going to do?’

‘Oi mate,’ Jim snapped his fingers at the zombie, ‘come on out the way so we can get our paint and you can carry on doing, or eating, whatever it is you’re doing or eating. I mean, what are you eating anyway?’ he stepped closer to the zombie and bent down.

The zombie looked up, snarled and returned to feeding.

‘Woah! We’ve got an enthusiastic one here!’ exclaimed Jim. ‘Poor bastard, most actors don’t make much do they? I think the Royal Shakespeare Company rejected this one so he must be starving.’ Jim leaned forward. ‘Don’t worry mate, you’re earning your money’s worth today! You’ll be playing Iago this time next year.’

‘Why are you talking to him as if he doesn’t speak English?’ asked Mike.

Dead Heat, exclusively available on Amazon Kindle.
Click here to go straight to the buying page.