Category: Deadland Rising

Deadland's Harvest By Rachel Aukes

27/4/2014

I'm really pleased to have the sassy Rachel Aukes on the blog today, talking about her newest book 'Deadlands Harvest' the sequel to the massively popular '100 Days in Deadland.'

I'm halfway through '100 Days in Deadland' at the moment, and I can be totally honest and tell you that it's brilliant. I can't say if i'll still feel the same at the end of it, but as of right now, I would highly reccomend it. **Review to follow**

Also, 'Deadlands Harvest' is on sale for ONLY 99c/77p so there really isn't any reason not to buy it. She's even given me a little excerpt to share with you to whet your appetite, so go read...really go read it and then BUY IT!

Raxchel Aukes is the bestselling author of 100 Days in deadoland, which was named one of the best books of 2013 by Suspense Magazine and one of the best zombie books by the HUffington Post. When not writing, Rachel can be found flyingg old airoplanes and trying (not so successfullly) to prepare for the zombie apocalypse. learn more about her at WWW.RACHELAUKES.COM

About the book:

Deadland’s Harvest

The seven deadly sins with a shambling twist.

The Bestselling Deadland Saga:

Book 1: 100 Days in Deadland: Amazon (USA) | Amazon (UK) | Barnes & Noble |

Book 2: Deadland’s Harvest: Amazon (USA) | Amazon (UK) |

Book 3: Deadland Rising: Coming Late 2014 |

It has been one hundred days since the zombies claimed the world. Cash, along with forty-two survivors, have found safety in the secluded and well-guarded Fox National Park. The leaves are changing colors, a beautiful, brutal reminder that winter is coming. As the survivors prepare for freezing months without electricity and not enough food, they learn of massive zombie herds several hundred miles north…and headed their way.

To save the park, Cash must find a safe place for the survivors to hide from the migrating herds. If Cash and her small band of volunteers don’t succeed before the zeds arrive, the Fox survivors just may become Deadland’s Harvest.

(Deadland’s Harvest is a journey through Dante Alighieri's classic tale on the seven deadly sins… retold zombie apocalypse style!)

Deadland's Harvest Book Cover

Excerpt From Deadland's Harvest

Chapter One“Cash!”

I tried to open my eyes, but they were glued shut. I opened my mouth to respond, but my tongue was too parched and swollen. I couldn’t even move through the shivers that racked my dew-drenched body.

“Cash! Damn it, where are you, girl? Cash!”

I willed strength into my arms to push myself up, but could barely lift my head.

I wanted to tell whoever was calling to me to be quiet, that the herd had disappeared only a few hours earlier. Instead, I could barely force out a rough, garbled syllable. “Here.” Trying to speak choked my sandpaper throat. Blood trickled from my cracked lips.

“Cash!”

The voice was closer and louder now, echoed by other voices, each one calling my name. I pried my eyes open, but the world remained a cloudy blur.

“Up here,” I called out louder this time, though the words still came out as only a coarse whisper.

With the last of my strength, I rolled over the backpack that had been propping me up on the angled roof, and let myself roll down. As I picked up speed, I clawed at the shingles to slow my descent, but it did nothing but scrape the skin from my fingers. I fell off the edge and plummeted to the ground ten feet below. Agony shot through my abused body, and I collapsed, my head hitting the ground with a thud.

A pleasant numbness followed, and crystalline stars glittered through my vision. They were the first things in over a day that I could see sharply. As the stars faded, I could make out a man-like shape moving toward me.

A gunshot fired, and the shape collapsed. The acrid stench of plague and rot hit me.

Zed.

Another shape approached, and I tried to kick away, but my limbs weighed a ton, my movements sluggish. Arms wrapped around me, holding me in a relentless grip. I whimpered as I waited for dull, broken teeth to shred my skin.

“Cash, I’ve got you. You’re safe now.”

Once the words sunk in, the tension in my muscles gave way, and I inhaled the fresh soapy smell of a man who’d recently bathed. Through my blurry vision, I could barely make out the blond clean-shaven soldier in full gear. “Tyler?”

“Yes, it’s me. I’ve got you. Everything’s going to be okay.”

I felt myself lifted off the ground and I held onto his shirt. My leg that had a gunshot through it throbbed with each sway of Captain Tyler Masden’s steps, but I welcomed the pain. It meant I was alive.

They found me!

It was hard to think, with black clouds drowning my happy thoughts as quickly as they came. I was jostled around and found myself laying on a cold hard surface. The rumble of a big engine starting reverberated through my body. My consciousness ebbed against the soothing engine vibration, but I didn’t mind. I was safe now.

“Holy shit, she’s alive.” I heard Griz’s familiar deep voice off to my left, sounding a million miles away.

“Here,” Tyler said, lifting my head. “Drink this.”

Something pressed against my lips. Cool liquid poured into my mouth and streamed over my tongue. I tried to gulp the water, but it burned, and I choked. I coughed out nearly everything I had drunk. When Tyler held the bottle to my mouth again, he only allowed a trickle of water to pass through. I took a tiny sip. Then another.

“You’ve been up on that roof for two days?” Tyler asked while I forced down the water my cramping stomach threatened to heave.

I tried to nod, but that sent more water dribbling down my chin and neck.

Tyler pulled the bottle away. “Whoa. That’s enough for now. You have to take it slow, or else you’ll get sick.”

“More,” I said, reaching for the water again.

Someone touched my calf, and I hissed. Pain from the gunshot wound burned up my leg, causing me to wince. Blackness tunneled my vision.

A whistle. “That’s a nasty infection. You’re damn lucky we found you when we did.”

“Hurts,” I muttered. I didn’t feel lucky. I felt like hell.

“Everything’s going to be okay,” Tyler said, rubbing my shoulder. “You’re safe now.”

“We’re safe. Doyle’s dead,” I said, finally able to get out more than one word just as I felt my body fade into a colorless place between day and night.

“I know. You did well,” Tyler said. “We drove through the area yesterday, but the place was still crawling with zeds.” A pause. “Damn. I’d just about given up on you, but Clutch was convinced you were still alive.”

My jumbled mind tried to process words that made no sense. Clutch couldn’t have said those words. It was impossible. That Clutch could’ve spoken anything was impossible. A vision of when I’d last seen Clutch cut through the clouds in my head. “But Clutch…”

Tyler gripped my shoulder. “Clutch is alive. And he’s pissed—we’re all pissed—you went after the militia on your own.”