Dawn of Flora

Author Note: This 50-page novella is a standalone short story that bridges into an upcoming main novel. While this book captures the immediate chaos of the outbreak, the forthcoming main story will dive deep into a unique, semi-scientific explanation behind the origins of the zombie apocalypse. As a sudden, violent apocalypse fractures civilization, two strangers on opposite sides of the country must navigate the opening hours of the undead outbreak, completely unaware that their paths are destined to cross. In the densely populated Northeast, a young woman watches her worst nightmare come to life. Haunted by the horrific sight of humans devouring each other, her anxiety spikes as the metropolitan power grid completely fails. Plunged into total darkness she must master her paralyzing fear of being eaten alive to make the cold, calculated decisions required to survive as the days bleed into weeks. Meanwhile, in the American South, a dangerous man faces the outbreak from a terrifyingly helpless position. Awaiting trial for nearly beating a person to death, his violent past is shrouded in mystery, but his lethal instincts are now his only asset. Locked behind bars as the infection rapidly breaches the facility, he must find a way to escape both his cell and the locked-down building to save his family. As both characters fight through raw terror to secure a future, this fast-paced novella sets the stage for a grander epic—introducing a world where survival is only the first step toward uncovering a dark, engineered truth.