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As Zombiepalooza draws to a close, David McAfee offers  One of Four - a short horror story that has nothing to do with zombies. It's like the palette cleanser of Zombieaplooza, but it's still definitely horror.  As you may recall from the giveaway earlier in the month, David McAfee is the author of 33 A.D . and Grubs , a novella that gave me nightmares. For more info about him or his books, please check out his site: mcafeeland.wordpress.com One of Four - along with fifteen other stories - is included in McAfee's horror anthology, Pound of Flash . It also has bonus material from David Dalglish, Daniel Arenson, and Michael Crane. ______________________________________________________ “You know who I am, Father.” It isn’t a question. The priest looks at me, his youthful eyes brimming with idealistic forgiveness, and nods. “I know who you claim to be,” he says as he steps past the nurse – a burly bitch named Swanson - and starts to close the door behind him. “I wouldn’t do th...

Today's short story is courtesy of William Esmont - author Self Arrest . His latest book, The Patriot Paradox , just came out. For more information about William Esmont or his books, please visit: williamesmont.com ____________________________________________________ Scott Atkinson pulled into his new parking spot at precisely 6:45 AM. Morning sun bled through the tall pines at the far end of the lot. Birds sang. The asphalt was still damp from last night's rain. He grinned. Looking in the mirror, he congratulated himself. Lead security officer. Who would have guessed? Seventeen years after the zombie uprising, it was hard to believe the world was almost back to normal. Scott was one of the lucky ones. Fresh out of high school and unable to land a job, he had chosen to cool his heels in the Arizona National Guard, to see the world, maybe even bag a few terrorists if he got lucky. Life had other plans. When the zombie plague exploded out of Honduras, his unit was activated and ...

Freedom is a ghost story - but a decidedly different kind of one by Maria Rachel  Hooley.  She's also kind off to contribute THREE ebooks of her novel The River for a Zombiepalooza giveaway! More info about The River and how to enter follow after her story. ____________________________________________________ The light bulb buzzes, flickers, and dies. Buzzes, flickers, and dies. The bathroom faucet drips--plink, plink, plink. The toilet won't shut off. It runs constantly. The kitchen is filled with dirty dishes piled with rotting food, a feast for the roaches. Dirty steak knives pile upon each other like metal pick-up sticks, and even in the faulty fluorescent lighting, the glare of blood on the serrated steel can't be ignored. I wander from the kitchen toward the bedroom, but I won't go inside. Period. I haven't in the six months I've been trapped here. Since I was alive. From the doorway, I see the bed, and the same pillow--the one I bled out on. ...

Our short story today comes from David Michael, author of Nostalgia . If you enjoy this story, be sure to check out his site: www.gunsandmagic.com . ________________________________________________   Ross's memory was fine, and his eyesight and hearing were still in working order, at least on the right side. It was his sleeping that the long years had robbed him of. He used to be able to fool himself and lay abed for the recommended eight hours even if he wasn't so much sleeping as zoning out, meditating on the back of his eye lids while Marjorie puttered about the house in her morning rituals. Now, though, he didn't have the patience. When the sun came up, when Marjorie started her morning ritual--especially when Marjorie started her morning ritual--he couldn't even pretend to sleep. How many years could one person do the same thing over and over? The dusting was the part that Ross most couldn't understand. From one day to the next, dust didn't have time to ac...

 Zombiepalooza has the pleasure of having a short story from J. Dean. J. Dean is author of the fantasy novel The Summoning of Clade Josso: The First Descent into the Vei n, and other various stories, many of which are found on smashwords.com. He can be reached through http://enterthevein.blogspot.com ______________________________________________________ The door interrupted the silence with two heavy thuds, causing Aunt Sarah to jump from her living room chair. Eric looked up from the multicolored, interlocking columns and stretches of blocks that served for his protective fortress, keeping the mammoth one-eyed teddy bear from slaying the green army inhabitants within the plastic walls. “They’re back!” He called, a joyous grin spreading the corners of his mouth. Melissa set the Shakespere book aside, careful not to bump the kerosene lamp as she did so. “Calm down!” She scowled. “You knew they would be.” The little brother bounded off the floor, oblivious to his sister’s dou...

For Zombiepalooza, author Jason Letts contributed his YA short story Angela and the Zombie Village . For more information about him and his Powerless series, visit his site: www.powerlessbooks.com __________________________________________________ Somewhere along the east coast, a rabble of zombies built their community in the grime and muck of a shrouded marsh. Between black, muddy huts, rough passageways were carved into nature’s wallowing world away from the light. They gave their disordered colony the unimaginative name of Zombie Village, a place where they could exist in peace without the interference of humans. In this town, the zombies went about their undead business, which would seem completely incomprehensible to any human who laid eyes on it, though no human ever had. Zombies are essentially anomalies of nature, trapped in animation long after they should have been laid to rest. Only people who die on All Hallow’s Eve with an intact body become zombies. Morticians and morgue...