Infection: Alaskan Undead Apocalypse by Sean Schubert is one of the few books in the genre that place the outbreak in Alaska. For most people, when they hear Alaska they unconsciously think that it’s always snow and cold. True, there are places in Alaska where snow stays year round but for the most part the state has sun, rain and even times when snow doesn’t cover the ground.
Keeping that in mind, Infection- Alaskan Undead Apocalypse follows the story of an eclectic group of survivors. We have children, doctors, officer workers and retail store managers to name a few.
The novel starts out mild and lulls the reader into a sense of complacency with a family vacation to Alaska. There’s the Houser family, Alec the older brother, Martin the middle brother and Julie the sister along with mom and dad Houser, and Martin’s friend, Danny Mahoney, all together to spend a nice vacation getaway in the wilds of Alaska. Picture and experience the melancholy feeling of hearing birds chirping, seeing fish jumping in the stream and deer and elk grazing in yonder meadow.
Then, as it must happen, the shit hits the fan when Martin, Danny and Jules find something that might have been encased inside a glacier but now is partially thawed out in the spring weather. This made me think back to the bodies that were shipped to Alaska following the Influenza outbreak in 1918.
Martin is unlucky enough to be bitten by whatever it is facilitating a mad race to the hospital.
Martin’s condition worsens until he dies. Or does he? He become reanimated and attacks people in the hospital spreading whatever he was exposed around for all to share. Give the gift that keeps on giving. The outbreak spills out from the hospital and we’re introduced to Neil Spencer, an office worker in a building a short distance from the hospital. Neil is the kind of guy who shows up early at work to start the coffee and have those few precious moments alone before the rest of the staff shows up. This morning, he’s witness to the erupting chaos caused by Martin and his biting frenzy.
Rescuing a fellow worker, Neil decides that retreat is the better part of valor for we all know that he who runs away lives to fight another day. Neil and Rachel, the rescued worker, head to Fred Meyer to stock up and then head for a safe location if there truly is one. It’s at Fred’s that they run into Meghan, the store manager who upon hearing the shit storm that is happening outside, helps them stock up and then joins their merry little band of survivors along with Danny, Jules and Jerry who have escaped the horror of the hospital now turned charnel house.
Thus that’s how Infection-Alaskan Undead Apocalypse continues. Unlike other works in this genre, there are no high-speed, highly trained soldiers that appear to save the day. It is utter chaos and well played by Sean Schubert.
The reader is thrown into the overall helplessness of an outbreak caused by a small child. An outbreak that occurs in a facility that is relatively safe, a place one would go for help not horror. From there the story spins off into separate plots as groups of survivors attempt to get out of the city and seek refuge somewhere far away from the undead horde.
One other nice twist is the authority figure that becomes mentally unstable. Kudos for that one as not everyone can handle that kind of stressful situation no matter how well trained they may be.
Two minor issues and I do mean minor. There is a mention of Blackhawk gunships. OK I can see that. The reference is to the UH 60 Blackhawk helicopter used by the military. Sure you can arm them with door guns making them armed troop transports but they don’t really fit into the category of gunship unless you’re referring to the BattleHawk which is a dedicated weapons platform.
The other item is pulling back the hammer on the machine gun. In this context it’s a weapon mounted heavy machine gun and they, unlike handguns, do not have a hammer to pull back. They have a charging handle on the side that chambers the first round in the linked belt.
Again, these are minor issues I just wanted to bring them to the attention of the writer so that they are aware of this. By no means do these issues detract from the overall reading enjoyment, it’s just me being anal about technical details regarding military equipment, vehicles and weapons.
I found Infection-Alaskan Undead Apocalypse to be a very entertaining read and look forward to the next book in the series.
Available on Amazon.
