Excerpt
The cold air was refreshing as she sprinted to her Ford Mustang in the parking lot. After she sat down in the driver’s seat, she opened Windows Maps on her cell phone to search for the address her evil handler had texted. Since Microsoft stopped supporting Windows Phone, she couldn’t use her voice to enter the address in the navigation app of her cell phone.
It felt weird to go unarmed, on a mission unknown, while the navigation calculated the best route from her current location. Whoever captured Harry held all the cards. At the moment, she had no other choice but to follow up on their instructions. She started the car and drove off. Luckily, there wasn’t much traffic on her way to the mansion.Since the pandemic, life was slow. People had more time on their hands, working from home, distracted by their kids and spouse. Eating more comfort food—watching TV all day, or in Sybil’s case, spending time with her pet rabbit, Max, and trying to avoid the news. She didn’t have a TV. Well, she did, but she used her 70-inch display as a monitor. It was connected to a Windows 10 laptop with an external soundcard attached to a Dolby digital surround set. Felicity installed the equipment and showed Sybil how to use her dinosaur cell phone as a remote control for the laptop.
The laptop offered her a safe window to the world. She had online meetings once a week, on Sunday night at eight, and sometimes she watched the news on CNN. Most of the time, she used the laptop to binge-watch streaming media. Prime video, Netflix, Disney Plus, and reruns of her favorite TV shows: Body of Proof, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and she loved movies starring Denzel Washington. My life during the pandemic.
She wanted to floor the gas pedal, but then she noticed a police car and she slowed down considerably. The police vehicle turned left at the intersection. She glanced over her shoulder. A truck came into sight, and a few more cars appeared on the street ahead of her. Morning rush hour was about to begin, even though she hadn’t expected it.
Sybil reached her destination in twenty-six minutes after she floored the gas pedal when she reached the outskirts of Boston. She had some time to kill, but she didn’t want to waste it by sitting in her car. So, she explored the area. The mansion didn’t stand out by itself. It was a wooden, two-story building, Victorian architecture style, late 1800s, set in a rural landscape outside Boston, normally a thirty-five-minute drive if she hadn’t gone way above all posted speed limits. Its shingles used to be white at some point.
She exhaled and contacted Vanessa Dogscape—an ATU data analyst, and currently married to her friend and coworker Felicity Walker. Perhaps Vanessa could help her—off the record. She didn’t want to involve the ATU. It took a while before Vanessa answered the phone.
“Sybil. You know what time it is?”
“I’m aware of what time it is. Look, I need your help. Harry’s been kidnapped by—I don’t know who. Anyway, they want me to do some errands.”
“My God!” Vanessa replied in a worried voice.
“I need you on this. But please, keep it off the record. I don’t want to endanger Harry’s life.”
“Sure. How can I help?”
“Perhaps you can pinpoint them somehow and get their location so I can kick some ass?”
“I need more intel before I can do anything,” Vanessa said.
“They contacted me via my cell phone and sent me a text message. Oh, and a picture of Harry’s battered face.” She gritted her teeth at the thought.
“Send the text message and the picture to me. And please activate the ATU app Felicity programmed three years ago for your Windows Phone, so I can tap into each conversation and perhaps ping their location while you talk to them. Are you sure you want me to help you off the record? It’s better to make this an official ATU investigation. At least, let me inform Jack.”
Sybil closed her eyes for a moment. If the criminals found out she had informed the ATU, it’d complicate things. Perhaps endanger Harry’s life. But then again, she sure could use all the help she could get. Otherwise, she wouldn’t bother Vanessa with it. Taking that into consideration, and the knowledge that Jack was a professional, Sybil agreed to Vanessa’s suggestion.
Despite the sun in a clear, blue sky, her body responded with a shiver that ran down her spine. She did not know what to expect as she stood near the abandoned mansion with its weather-beaten, cracked walls covered in pointless graffiti. But she knew she had to go inside as she sat down on her haunches, studying the rusty sword lying in the mud. She took a deep breath before she carefully touched its sticky handle. Blood! Clotted blood.
Her stomach gnawed at the sight. She smelled. It wasn’t human. She stared at the mansion as she heard a strange sound she couldn’t identify. Immediately, her old instincts kicked in—weird sounds coming from an abandoned mansion equals danger. She grabbed the sword in both hands, jumped up, kicked the battered door wide open and ran inside. It was time to act; this was no time to be cautious. Lives were at stake.
The wooden planks creaked under her feet as she rushed into the dark hallway. The sound of rasping breathing reached her eardrums when she entered a dark room with just enough light to see the overturned furniture and the bloodstained, fractured walls …
My Review:
When I started to write my review for Pandemic: Chaos is Bleeding I asked myself a couple of questions. Where to start? How to start? I decided the answer was at the beginning with the summary. When I read that summary I was blown away. I knew right then that I had to read this book as I love zombies. When I started reading Pandemic: Chaos is Bleeding I didn’t know exactly what to expect but what was between these pages was way better than I could ever have imagined.
I love books, TV shows, and movies with zombies and vampires but I have to admit that zombies are my favorite. I can’t ever seem to get enough of them. I really, really loved the new take on the zombies in Pandemic: Chaos is Bleeding. I liked that Pandemic: Chaos is Bleeding had both vampires and zombies living in the same world.
The characters, the world-building, and the descriptions are all so amazingly and brilliantly written. Imagine stepping into a world with zombies and vampires with current events that feel as if they were taken right out of today's headlines, which of course they were. It made me feel more like I was a part of Sybil, Harry, Catherine, and Jack’s world. Like I was right there beside them witnessing it all.
Pandemic: Chaos is Bleeding starts with Covid-19. Sybil has not been out of her home since the lockdown but she receives a phone call from an anonymous caller informing her that her friend Harry had been kidnapped. The caller explained to her if she wanted to see her friend again then she must do as she is told.
Sybil was then given orders to leave her home to retrieve a briefcase. Although she has not left her home since the pandemic began Sybil had no choice but to leave now if she wanted to save her friend. She never even hesitated.
Sybil is a vampire. Before the pandemic hit Sybil was an ATU agent (Anti-Terrorism Unit). In Pandemic: Chaos is Bleeding Sybil once again reprises her role as an ATU agent to save her friend.
Pandemic: Chaos is Bleeding is one of the best books I have ever read. I love everything about this little gem. I can’t wait to check out all the books that evolve Sybil and her world of fighting zombies and to hopefully dig deeper into Sybil’s world as a vampire. This is one book that I would surely love to see on the big screen!
Pandemic: Chaos is Bleeding is one of the most riveting novels of all time. It kept me hooked from the first page to the last. Pandemic: Chaos is Bleeding is one book that will take you on of the most thrilling ride ever! Once I picked it up there was no way I was going to stop reading it until I had read the last page and even now it still has its claws in me. I fear that it will for a very long time to come if not forever.
Pandemic: Chaos is Bleeding is definitely one book that I highly recommend! If you like zombie movies and or TV shows like The Walking Dead then trust me you will love Pandemic: Chaos is Bleeding! If you are into zombies like me then I suggest that you one-click your copy of Pandemic: Chaos is Bleeding today for one of the best zombie books ever written!
1 comments:
I'm glad you enjoyed reading my book, and thank you so much for your review 😊. I hope you don't mind I shared your review on my website (with an URL back to your site).
All the best,
Cynthia Fridsma
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