The Home: A Zombie Survival Short Story

Chris Stoesen

Aug 2015 · Chris Stoesen

About this ebook

 Three survivors are in desperate need of medication needed for one of their number to survive.  Having tried and failed to locate it at pharmacies and medical facilities, they turn to the one place left to them, an assisted living facility.  Knowing that before the rise of the undead, the facility took care of several patients with the same need, the survivors decide to risk everything on this one last chance.  Will they find the medicine that they need?  Will they find other survivors?   What happened to the patients during the outbreak?

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This book is the result of a conversation between friends during a summer writers challenge.  I was in the middle of attempting to get my mother into a memory care facility.  My friends were both sympathetic to what I was going through, but also helped me to laugh.  The second helped me more than I will ever know.

Given that two of the authors that I was conversing with having written books in the zombie genre, comparisons between some memory care facilities and the genre arose.  I can appreciate dark humor at time and this was one of them.  A parting comment at the end of the discussion resonated with me, “this could make a great scene in a story.”

It took a couple of weeks but the story did indeed come out of that conversation.  The thoughts that drove it were what would happen to people that need essential services once a major catastrophe like a zombie apocalypse occurred?  What would happen to diabetics that were dependent on their medicines?  What would happen to the elderly that are not able to help themselves any more?

Furthermore, the story had to have its lighter moments.  I have visited many nursing and retirement homes.  One of the authors described one of the funnier moments he had while visiting a home.  All of these elements started to congeal and this short story just flowed out from it.

This may not appeal to hardcore fans of the zombie genre.  There is little in the way of the typical blood and gore.  I had honestly hoped to have it included in a collection of stories but it took on a life of its own.  So here it is.

There are many worlds that already exist for zombie stories.  There are more flavors of them than Baskin Robbins has ice cream flavors.  I decided to adopt a world to base mine in.  Philip McClimon’s Nicole’s Odyssey: A Journey Through The Zombie Apocalypse and its prequel, Substation: The Last Stand of Gary Sykes are the basis of the world in which this story resides.

I hope that you enjoy this short story and will take a look at some of my other works.

This work is 7,000 words and 25 pages (paperback) in length.

Ratings and reviews

I really liked this one. Too short (of course), but you will enjoy the book. Has an interesting twist on zombies. The residents of the Home are not the main characters but give zombism a thought probing ideas.

There's really nothing redeeming about this story. The plot makes little sense, the characters are boring... This is a short story that needed an editor, some heavy revision, and a better grasp of how to create compelling dialogue, among other issues.

Good,but,wish it had been longer. 😊

About the author

 Chris is an amateur author with interests in both historical and fictional subjects. He was born in 1970 and raised by fantastic parents in Tampa, Florida. So all of his shortcomings are of his own making and not their fault. His single greatest achievement is being married to the same wonderful woman for over 23 years. He and his family, live in the Atlanta area.

Chris is relatively new to publishing on Amazon but so far has found it to be a pleasant experience. Most of his writing thus far has been related to Historical War Game Scenarios such as In the Name of Roma which is available on Amazon as well. You can find his other work on the web store of the TooFatLardies. This includes titles such as "This Land Divided," "With Fire and Sword," 'Rock the Casbah," "The Campaign For Greece" and "Call This a Ruddy Picnic?" His most recent book is "From Empire to Revolution" that covers the Austro-Hungarian and Russian Empires during World War One. 

The first fictional book in the Thomas Devareaux series is now complete and work has started on the second book of the series. He has also written The Home, a zombie themed short story.

He has some short stories and some potential stories that he is working on at the Amazon WriteOn site: http://goo.gl/Kq44ZU Please stop by and let him know what you think.

For more information on Chris' books please visit his website at http://chrisstoesenfiction.blogspot.com (just copy and paste into your browser). 

To get an email whenever the author releases a new title, sign up for the VIP newsletter at: http://chrisstoesenfiction.blogspot.com/p/mailing-list.html (just copy and paste into your browser).