When there's no more room in Hell

by Luke Duffy

Summary:

Mankind is on the brink of extinction. A deadly plague sweeps the globe like a tsunami causing the dead to rise and prey on the living. When there?s no more room in Hell is a horror/action set in a post apocalyptic world filled with suspense, drama, humour, grief and action.

While one brother fights his way home through the horrors and confusion of a savage landscape from the ?Meat Grinder? that is Iraq, the other finds himself as the leader of a rag-tag band of survivors striving to survive against the onslaught of the dead.

This is the first in an intended series of three and depending on the reception, there could be more to follow.

Synopsis:

The story begins in 2014. Civilization finally begins to lose its struggle and descends in to ruin. Three years earlier Egypt, Libya, Syria and Yemen erupted in to civil war. The following year, terror attacks during the London Olympics left thousand?s dead and the western armies of America and Great Britain found themselves at war with Iran, while Iraq and Afghanistan broke down in to anarchy. Soon, North Korea and China joined the fight, causing the West to lose its grip on the East.

The many natural disasters of the past decade also come in to play, giving the reader an overall feeling of impending doom. Famine, Pestilence, War and Death are gripping the human race by the throat and many, really do believe the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse have arrived. As armies and navy?s fought each other for control of the land, sea and air, a plague began to take hold in the southern hemisphere within the borders of Africa and South America. Continually mutating and of unknown origin, the flu like virus causes villages and town?s within the third world to become mass graves. The world seems more preoccupied with the numerous wars and the problem goes on ignored until, the virus begins to reanimate the dead.

The heart of the story centre?s around two brothers as they both struggle to survive from opposite sides of the globe. Marcus had joined the ?Circuit? (Private Security) in Iraq, in the hope of making more money in less time. He and his men find themselves abandoned within the city of Baghdad and left with little choice than to try and make their own way home. Fighting through cities and border crossings, they struggle against all odds to travel the thousands of miles that separate them from their loved ones.

At home, Steve has taken on the responsibility of looking after what survivors he can gather, including Marcus? young family. With the world turned on its head, Steve finds himself at the gates of a Safari Park in a remote area, looking for a safe place for him and his daughter to stay while the world around them slowly dies. There he meets other survivors including Gary, the Park Ranger who he develops a close bond with as they both try to take control and secure the safety of their families and friends.

Steve and other?s such as Jake, a gay communications expert, find themselves having to put their lives on the line as they venture out in to the brutal new world, infested with the dead and dying. Other characters become pivotal to the story, such as Lee, a childhood friend of Steve. Though he is far from stable and completely unpredictable, Steve can rely on him as an ally and he proves time and time again why he is a vital part of the group.

Helen, a nurse who, witnessed the massacre and atrocities by the roving dead at the hospital where she worked, fled from the maternity ward as shambling, lurching corpse?s chased after her. She finds herself alone and vulnerable on the road where, Steve finds her as he searches with his daughter and his brother?s family for a secure place to hide. Later, a relationship develops between the two.


Tony, a policeman who struggled all his life with his inner demons, see?s the end of the world as an opportunity to shrug off the shackle?s of society and its opinion?s of what's right and wrong and indulges his self and act?s out his degraded and sick urge?s without having to worry about the consequences.

Another individual, one that I believe to be important to the story, is Andy. To start with, he is a successful and prosperous playboy with the world at his feet. But, in an unfortunate twist of fate, he become?s infected. Throughout the book, chapters are dedicated to Andy and what he is experiencing as he travels the roads and town?s and slowly deteriorates. What he is feeling, seeing and remembering, all come in to play; giving the reader an insight in to existence of the dead. Unknown to the reader, Andy is one of the first characters portrayed in the book. Fifteen year?s further on, while sitting on a hillside, Steve begins to wonder about him as he watches the rotted and emaciated corpse of Andy trying to negotiate the grassy bank below him.

During their journey across Serbia, Marcus and his team are captured and tortured by a renegade group of Serbian soldiers commanded by a man who refers to himself as ?Vlad the Impaler? on account of his method of how he dispatches his foe?s. Marcus manages to free his men after a vicious and bloody fight to the death with his captor. After fighting their way across Europe, he and his team find themselves being hunted by French militia and trapped in an ambush. The first book finishes with the team charging the enemy as they attempt to break free of the ambush and leaving the reader unsure of who survives until they read the next one.

I have deliberately gone in to the detail of many of the events. Describing the sights, the sounds and the feeling?s of what the people are experiencing. Many of the books on this genre that I have read tend to give a rough brushing over of what happens to a body when it is dead or how it actually feels to be in battle. I have forcefully indulged these matter?s, with gruesome but necessary explanations of how it would feel to be bitten by another human being, of the nerves before a fight and the sick sinking sensation followed by euphoria afterward, the sounds of bullet?s and explosion?s close by and the effect they have on a person. A conscious effort has been made to keep the dialogue as genuine as possible. The intelligence, social standing, sensitivity and even the age of individual?s are reflected in what they are saying and how they are saying it throughout the story. Also, humour, which is an integral part of human nature, is brought to the fore on many occasions. Whether it is the black humor of the soldier or the innocent joking of the children, it all helps to give a diverse perspective of the narrative.

I have included overview chapters to enable the reader to grasp the scale of what is happening and the effect it is having on the rest of the world. Some, come in the form of an objective and extracted narrative and others, are given as news reports and government announcements outlining details and situations across the world.
I have refrained from making any reference to the previous movies and literature of this genre in the hope that it would give the characters more believability in their reactions and how they deal with matters as well as the overall effect the plague has on civilization. In ?When there's no more room in Hell? there is no such thing as George A. Romero and the concept of the dead returning to life, is completely alien and as a result, all the more horrific.

http://www.amazon.com/When-theres-more-room-ebook/dp/B005Q18MHQ/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1318074356&sr=1-1