What’s ‘100 Days in Deadland’ About?
The world ended on a Thursday.
In one day, the world succumbed to a pestilence that decimated the living. In its place rose a new species: vicious, gruesome, wandering zombies with an insatiable hunger for the living. There is no government. No shelter. No hope.
Still in her twenties, Cash has watched her friends die, only to walk again. An office worker with few survival skills, she joins up with Clutch, a grizzled Army veteran with PTSD. Together, they flee the city and struggle through the nine circles of hell, with nothing but Clutch’s military experience and Cash’s determination to live. As they fight to survive in the zombie inferno, they quickly discover that nowhere is safe from the undead…or the living.
Our ‘100 Days in Deadland’ Review
100 Days tells the story of Mia Ryan, an office drone who’s first experience in a zombie outbreak is killing an infected co-worker in her workplace restroom. From that point on, its pure survival as Mia and another co-worker fight their way out of the office and to the parking lot. With the citizens becoming violent as more people begin to turn, they choose to get out of the city. But, events transpire and they are forced to leave their vehicle and literally jump on a slow moving semi-truck.
The driver of the truck, Clutch, lets them in but with regret. As its been said in this genre, infection happens. With Clutch, Mia who has now been named Cash due to her apparel choice, finds out that her new best friend is prior service, has the trust but verify mentality, acts quickly and decisively when someone is infected and suffers from PTSD. Clutch lays down the rules to Cash, she can stay one day then she has to leave. As the outbreak increases and expands, Clutch reneges on his ruling and allows Cash to stay longer. He begins to teach her what she will need to know to stay alive in this changed world. Over time, they begin to work together foraging for supplies and looking for survivors.
A chance encounter results in a meeting with some neighbors who have both been bitten but haven’t turned yet. They insist that their son, Jase, go with Clutch. The boy refuses but then later shows up at their doorstep. The three form a good working relationship and begin fortifying Clutch’s house and farm. During one of their many foraging trips, they encounter survivors from the local military installation, Camp Fox, and members of the local militia. One group wants them to come to their base, the other has different designs on what they want from the trio.
100 Days in Deadland is a great adventure/survival story. It has some excellent plot development with true to life characters. But, there are some minor issues. In a conversation between Cash and Clutch, Clutch mentions the zeds have physical acuity. This is in a conversation regarding boarding up the windows at Clutch’s house. I’m leaning towards visual acuity as that would mean movement, light, etc., would attract the infected. Later, we have Cash checking the cartridge in her rifle. This is one of those operations that you’d be checking the chamber to see if you loaded a round not so much checking the cartridge. You’d only check the round or cartridge if you dropped it or were inspecting it for deficiencies. When Cash and Clutch decide to head to the military base, they get in a Hummer. There’s already five people in the Hummer counting the topside gunner. Its described as Cash and Clutch get in the back seat and look behind them to see two more soldiers. Unless this was the troop carrier version of the Hummer, which wouldn’t have a back seat or a roof top gunner, the other two soldiers were then squeezed into the rear cargo area. There’s only four seats in a hardback Hummer and not a whole lot of room. There are references to the .30 caliber on the roof. That’s going to be either a M240 in 7.62 which could be loosely referred to as the ’30 cal’ or its the M2 .50 which is the ’50 cal’. Up to this point, Clutch is focused on hitting the local surplus dealer’s warehouse and its mentioned that the military base sent all its used items to that location. Hate to point this out but, all government surpluses including military surplus, is sent to GSA not some local person who runs a surplus store.
Moving on to the mention of the soldiers carrying AR-15s. That would mean that they are armed with the semi-automatic only, civilian model of the military grade battle rifle more commonly known as the M16 or M4. If they’re regular military, National Guard, Reserves, etc., they would not be issued the AR-15. When Cash and Clutch reach the base, Cash shuffles her rifle around. Not a problem but, mentioned earlier in the book, she has been given a M24 from Clutch and that is known as a ‘long rifle’ meaning that inside a Hummer, there isn’t a whole of room to be moving that length of weapon around. Cash would be lucky to be able to stand the rifle up between her knees while she was seated. There is little possible chance she could maneuver that size of weapon in any way once she was inside. She also slides along the seat to get out on Clutch’s side of the Hummer. Not going to happen. There’s no bench seat in the back of a Hummer. Its two small seats separated by the large transmission hump. If Cash was to exit on Clutch’s side of the vehicle she would have to climb over said hump, try not to get tangled up with the gunner who is still in position, and then somehow get out the door while dragging her rifle with her. Not easily done and not recommended unless you have some time to wait while the person attempts to accomplish that evolution.
Overall, 100 Days in Deadland was a great read about survival in an undead world. Cash and Clutch made a good buddy story and their adventures through Chow Town and other locations will keep the readers involved in the story.
Where can you get a copy of ‘100 Days in Deadland’?
You can get ‘100 Days in Deadland’ on Amazon.
