Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Groaning for Burial: The Carrion Men Chronicles
    Groaning for Burial: The Carrion Men Chronicles
    Groaning for Burial: The Carrion Men Chronicles
    Ebook105 pages1 hour

    Groaning for Burial: The Carrion Men Chronicles

    By Kenneth James Crist

    ()

    Read preview

    About this ebook

    Kenneth James Crist's haunting tales describe a new gut wrenching America, adapted to the presence and tastes of the undead, where love, death and motorcycles still matter but make us ask a familiar question: Are the good times really over for good? His voices you recognize, the prose natural, as if a family member is telling you the story; and in that, makes what is being described all that more disturbing.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHekate Publishing
    Release dateSep 24, 2019
    ISBN9781912017881
    Groaning for Burial: The Carrion Men Chronicles

    Related to Groaning for Burial

    Related ebooks

    Dystopian For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Reviews

      Oct 25, 2019

      Reviews
      6 min read

    • Article

      Letter to My Son

      Jul 4, 2015

      Letter to My Son
      30 min read

    • Article

      When the Checkpoints Come

      Mar 19, 2020

      When the Checkpoints Come
      6 min read

    • Article

      Trump Sky Alpha

      Feb 5, 2019

      Trump Sky Alpha
      16 min read

    • Article

      Woman About Town

      May 26, 2022

      FOR THE PAST YEAR, I’ve been writing a book about women and fame in the noughties. It’s a compellingly strange decade to look back on. At the time, I was highly prone to paroting the utopianism of tech libertarians — the internet would make everythin

      4 min read

    • Article

      On Ants, Life, And Spinsterhood

      Jul 30, 2018

      A note on entomology: A type of ant has been discovered that engages in suicide bombing. This ant, the Colobopsis explodens of Borneo, wriggles so hard when threatened that its body breaks, releasing a toxic slime that repels predators. The ant, of c

      5 min read

    • Article

      Come the Renaissance

      May 20, 2020

      I’VE escaped from the Abbey. Am I skipping up the drive back to the house, swinging my guitar case and trilling I Have Confidence in Me? Not so much. Bit more Fidelio, if I’m honest: creeping, wan, unshaven, shielding my eyes from the unfamiliar sun.

      3 min read

    • Article

      Books

      Mar 25, 2024

      Books
      5 min read

    • Article

      The Mop Closet Of American History

      Jul 11, 2019

      "They were quiet, and just staring, blankly," she said. "There were just blank stares and no expressions on their faces." Welcome to hell, as presided over by U.S. Customs and Border Protection. This image bears deep reflection. It doesn't change. Ch

      4 min read

    • Article

      Three Poems

      Jul 1, 2020

      The purpose of being alive is to carry a sequence of code.And so, being adopted, I’m part of a plot, a sleeper cellin enemy territory, quietly working against the systemfrom within. It’s fall, I’m on an ancestry website signing up for a DNA kit,becau

      4 min read

    • Article

      Fourteen FROM DARK TO LIGHT

      Apr 8, 2020

      Fourteen FROM DARK TO LIGHT
      5 min read

    • Article

      Then the Birds Began to Die

      Jul 22, 2021

      Then the Birds Began to Die
      8 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for Groaning for Burial

    0 ratings

    0 ratings0 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

      Book preview

      Groaning for Burial - Kenneth James Crist

      Author

      GROANING FOR BURIAL

      BY KENNETH JAMES CRIST

      Cover Image by A.F. Knott

      Copyright © 2019 Kenneth James Crist

      All Rights Reserved

      Hekate Publishing First Edition, 2019

      ISBN EPub and Mobi 978-1-912017-88-1

      Hekate Publishing US

      74 John Drive

      Farmingville, NY 11738

      anthony_knott@hekatepublishing.com

      https://www.hekatepublishing.com

      No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior consent of the publisher.

      This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events, or business institutions is purely coincidental

      DEDICATION

      This collection is dedicated to my friend and fellow editor, Cindy Rosmus of Bayonne, New Jersey, a true Lady and an honest critic who never failed to tell me what was good and what could be better…

      PREFACE

      There are zombies, and there are zombies.

      In the beginning, we had the no-frills kind, like in Romero’s Night of the Living Dead, shuffling through the graveyard, looking for live lunch. The past decade brought us The Walking Dead. After the world, itself, is in ruins, zombies became an everyday obstacle. If you want to survive, it’s you against them.

      In real life, you’d think we know better. Once, at an old job, at an emergency evacuation drill, one coworker asked, But what . . . if there’s a zombie apocalypse? He was dead serious. This was Jersey City, New Jersey. If you Google Zombie Apocalypses, one of the first articles to show up was, 5 Scientific Reasons a Zombie Apocalypse Could Actually Happen. The world, not just horror film buffs, takes zombie attacks seriously.

      In Groaning for Burial, Ken Crist explains how the Great Plague is the result of Al Qaida. Those infected flew all over the world, spreading the pestilence. How in 45 days, 300 million people had succumbed to the deadly infection and it was just getting a good start. In six months over two billion were gone. By then, the infected dead were rising and infected the weakest humans they could find.

      My God, could this really happen?

      When Ken Crist writes zombie fiction, you lose track of time. In early morning, you don’t hear birds chirp outside, because in this post-apocalyptic world, there are no birds. Fighting for your life at the Zombie Five-and-Dime means blowing out the brains of the dead woman you love . . . as her worm-ridden face smiles at you.

      And sex . . . How could zombies and sex be related? But At the Zombie Cathouse, drooling zombie chicks work as hookers! Crist’s story gives a new meaning to the phrase would screw anything that moves. And it works.

      Having yourself a Zombie Little Christmas is almost possible, in this new, cheerless world. With Sinatra singing in the background, and zombie fighters smoking stale cigarettes, there is still some love left, to go around. Life is still worth living, to this small group, who needs eyes at the back of their heads, as you know what’s coming.

      And it’s not Santa Claus.

      I won’t spoil this collection for you. Just warn you to keep all lights on, while reading. If they go out, pray it won’t be for long.

      Zombies move fastest in the dark.

      CINDY ROSMUS

      ANTONY:

      Blood and destruction shall be so in use

      And dreadful objects so familiar

      That mothers shall but smile when they behold

      Their infants quarter'd with the hands of war;

      All pity choked with custom of fell deeds:

      And Caesar's spirit, ranging for revenge,

      With Ate by his side come hot from hell,

      Shall in these confines with a monarch's voice

      Cry 'Havoc,' and let slip the dogs of war;

      That this foul deed shall smell above the earth

      With carrion men, groaning for burial.

      —Julius Caesar, 1601, Wm. Shakespeare

      IN THE BEGINNING . . .

      They rejoiced in their cunning and in their determination, knowing only their own aims and agenda. Believing themselves Blessed by Allah, they moved forth with their plans, created their mutant microbes, infected their carriers and sent them forth into the world of the Infidel. The sickness spread, slowly at first, but then increasing exponentially, rather than at a linear rate.

      Al Qaida operatives called the United States the Great Satan and to much of the world, the way of life, the incredible richness, the obesity and sloth of its citizens, naturally gave rise to resentment and jealousy. So when the great plague began, spreading from St. Louis, Chicago, Dallas, San Diego, New York and Atlanta, many in other less fortunate countries secretly rejoiced. The USA was getting theirs at last.

      But the airlines fly worldwide and those who were infected often showed no symptoms for several days or even weeks as the pestilence invaded their cells and grew. The first outbreak outside the United States was in Naples, nine days into the beginning of the end. From there it was just a short hop to Rome, on to Milan, into Paris and Bordeaux, through the Chunnel and into London and on and on…

      In 45 days, 300 million people had succumbed to the deadly infection and it was just getting a good start. In six months over two billion were gone and it appeared it was slowing somewhat.

      There were already reports by that time of the dead beginning to rise and walk the Earth, even reports of the walking dead attacking and killing sickly humans, taking them down, speeding the process of the disease. Most of these reports were ignored as being the ravings of those caught up in the throes of suffering. Hindsight is always 20/20, and in retrospect, the wire services and CNN should have probably paid better attention…

      Tony Milwaukee and the Land of Real

      Anthony Jarvis—Seattle and Bellingham, WA

      Choppers turned out to be my life. They were real. Something I could get my hooks into. Something I could do that didn’t require a lot of education. A lot of smarts, yeah…but it’s not the same thing.

      I never did much in school. It wasn’t that I was stupid. Actually, maybe I was too smart. Seemed like I only did well in things I liked. Science and shop, biology, ‘cause I could dig animals. Nothing more honest and up front than animals. Even botany wasn’t too bad, because plants are honest too and pretty fascinating. A lotta my designs later on were based on plants and animals.

      Math? Sucked as far as I was concerned. And English? Hah! Forget it…I couldn’t tell a gerund from my ass. Didn’t apply myself in too many areas. Dropped out at the start of eleventh grade. Flipped burgers, washed cars, the usual shit.

      I think I was a product of my environment. I know, you’ve heard that shit before, but let me explain…

      See, I grew up at a time when every fucking thing you could imagine was being handed to kids. They weren’t earning it, in any way, shape or form. There were no kids who could remember when there wasn’t TV or computers, X Boxes and Nintendo, air conditioning and two cars in every driveway. It was just the way we grew up. Our parents wanted so badly for us to have all the advantages that they fucked us up by not letting us see all the hard work and hard times that went into making us comfortable.

      Public school education was a joke. Most kids couldn’t tell you a damned thing about history, any of the great wars. Most didn’t know dick about their own government, how it worked and the vision of the Founding Fathers. They made a lot of noise about their Constitutional Rights, but they didn’t really understand them.

      And when they got out of school, and they were suddenly in the real world, what did they have? What did they know? Only the nerds they had spent all their time laughing at and fucking with were making it, because they’d paid attention and knew

      Enjoying the preview?
      Page 1 of 1