The Decline of Morality and Impact of Violent Media on Impressionable Minds in a Post-Zombie Society E-Book

Nathan Allen

• Herausgeber: BookRix
• Kategorie: Abenteuer, Thriller, Horror
• Sprache: Englisch

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2021

Beschreibung

School’s out. It’s a hot summer’s day, and a group of suburban teenagers look for new ways to kill time and fight off boredom. While the boys want to test the limits of their invincibility by attempting a dangerous skateboarding stunt, the girls just want to escape the heat and go home.

Then a zombie stumbles into the neighborhood.

A short prequel to The War on Horror II: Return of the Undead Menace.

Leseprobe

The Decline of Morality and Impact of Violent Media on Impressionable Minds in a Post-Zombie Society

By Nathan Allen

Copyright 2020 Nathan Allen

Smashwords Edition

Cover by Mindbomb Design

http://www.machine-room.com/

[email protected]

Thank you for downloading this ebook. You are welcome to share it with your friends, family, frenemies and foes. This book may be reproduced, copied and distributed for non-commercial purposes, provided the book remains in its complete original form. Thank you for your support.

Author’s note

The following is a short prequel to The War On Horror II: Return Of The Undead Menace. It began life as the opening chapter for that novel, however the more drafts I completed the longer it grew, and I was eventually faced with two choices: either edit it down to a reasonable length (i.e. cut it in half) or remove it completely. I settled on the latter option – the events here are only tangentially connected to the rest of the story, and leaving it in meant it would have taken too long for the main narrative to get underway.

If you are yet to read either of the War On Horror novels, hopefully this short will pique your interest and you may feel inclined to check them out. If you have read WOH II, this story explains how the mess from the first job played out.

Consider it a deleted scene, or a previously unreleased bonus track.

Thanks to everyone who has taken the time to read my work over the past few years, and for all the great feedback. Every review posted helps enormously.

Chapter 1

The sound of an approaching engine prompted Nicholas Gustav and Tyson Mueller into action.

School had been out for less than a week. It was one of those blazing hot summer days where the air shimmered and the sun’s intensity doubled by the hour.

The vehicle came into view; a white Mitsubishi Eclipse SUV. A large gas-guzzling road-hogging unit, with numerous places to latch onto without the driver noticing. Ideal for their needs.

Nick had his phone at the ready. He commenced recording. Tyson remained crouched behind a parked Ford Fiesta, waiting for the right moment. He gave Nick the signal.

This was to be their most ambitious stunt to date. The plan was for Tyson to skate out and skitch onto the back of the passing Eclipse. He would hold on until he had built up sufficient momentum on the downhill slope before letting go and propelling himself up the makeshift ramp they had set up – a flimsy wooden board resting atop some stolen milk crates. If everything went to plan, and if physics and gravity played their part, he would clear the eight foot chain link fence surrounding the local tennis club and land on the grass on the other side, and he and Nick would have the next instalment for their YouTube channel.

Their channel – BugNutz – was still in its infancy, and had been created more or less by accident. Tyson had filmed Nick’s botched attempt at boardsliding down a stair handrail that ended with a painful and messy (but hilarious) face plant. The video was posted online for Tyson to share with his friends, and they soon forgot all about it. A couple of weeks later the clip gained unexpected traction when it was liked by a famous motocross rider, and it had now received over fifty thousand views. This fleeting brush with fame inspired them to create more in a similar vein. The most successful of these had Tyson riding his BMX off Nick’s roof and into his swimming pool – 20k views, 100+ comments – but they needed to up their game if they wanted to step into the big leagues.

The Eclipse drove past, slowing down slightly as it took the bend.

Tyson threw down his skateboard. A couple of quick pushes and he had drawn level. He reached out and latched onto the SUV, staying in a crouched position. The young wife behind the wheel, returning from her weekly brunch with girlfriends, remained oblivious to the extra passenger she had hanging off her rear spoiler.

He gathered speed and prepared himself for what was to come.

Until the last possible moment, at which point he lost his nerve and let go. The SUV disappeared down the road. Tyson rolled for another few seconds before coming to a stop.

Nick appeared with his arms outstretched. “Bro, what was that?”

“I don’t know about this,” Tyson said.

“That was the perfect opportunity! You had the speed. There was no other traffic around. You coulda pulled it off, easy!”

Tyson scratched the back of his neck. “I don’t think I woulda cleared it.”

“So? It doesn’t matter if you don’t. Sometimes it’s better that way. The ones where we stack get twice as many views as the ones we land.”

“Yeah, but ... this one seems a lot more dangerous than all the others.”

“You’ll be fine,” Nick said. He was trying to sound encouraging and keep his frustrations from boiling over. “The grass on the other side is soft. It’ll be like landing on that spongy stuff they build playgrounds on.”

“It’s not the landing I’m worried about. It’s the barbed wire along the top of the fence.”

“That’s not barbed wire. It’s the same wire the fence is made out of, just sticking out at the top.”

“Whatever it is, it’s still sharp and it’ll still cut me if I land on it.”

“Hey, injuries are a part of the whole package. I gave myself a concussion with that first video. That’s the cost of greatness. If you eliminate all risk, there’s no reason for anyone to watch or share the video.”

“Nick, he said he doesn’t want to do it. Don’t try to force him.”

The interjection came from Carissa. She and her friend Nadine had been watching from a nearby nature strip.

“I agree, it does look really dangerous,” Nadine added.

“Hey, if I wanted to hear an opinion from you two I would have asked for it, alright?” Nick said.

He was growing weary of Carissa and Nadine already. He had asked them along today purely as a tactical manoeuvre; Tyson was less likely to wimp out if there were girls around to impress. But instead, the opposite had happened. All they had done so far was complain about the heat and point out the risks associated with what they were doing. It was beginning to have an effect on Tyson, too. Seeds of doubt had been planted in his mind. He would usually do whatever Nick told him to, but now he was having second thoughts and coming up with excuses.

“You know what I think your problem is?” Carissa said.

“No, but I’m sure you’re gonna tell me anyway,” Nick said.