Happy Friday!
Ahhhh! It’s time! Time again to start sharing the second book in the Zombie Shark Highway universe with new readers! I won’t always send chapters straight to your inbox, so I won’t overload your email. I will update readers in our regularly scheduled Authorstrator posts about the latest chapters and link to them in their dedicated “LCC” section so you can find them easily. But since this is the occasion of the drop of the first chapter, an email seemed like the right way to let you know.
What’s the deal with LCC? I never intended to write another book in the ZSH universe, but then, somehow, this one just kind of spilled out of me. This was in my Wattpad days, and readers were asking for a sequel to ZSH. I don’t know why a story about zombified sharks turned into a story about resurrected killer saber tooth tigers, but I’m glad it did because it was an absolute blast to write. This was one of those rare instances in my writing life where I wasn’t worried about plausibility or continuity. The ridiculousness was the point! But in the midst of all the crazy prehistoric zombie saber tooth action, real characters who I actually cared about, emerged. Because the story only works if the MCs believe it, right? You won’t find much winking at the camera here. The threat is real. And its got really really big teeth.
A bit about the story:
When luxury cruiseliner The Silver Queen finds giant, parasitic saber-tooths onboard, it's up to the captain's son to save both the ship, and all of humankind.
*****
Sixteen-year-old Eidon Miller thinks his summer aboard his dad's Alaskan Cruise Ship is going to be boring - but when the ship comes across a lifeless vessel and they are forced to rescue the lone, bloodied survivor, things turn from boring to deadly. First the sea begins to boil beneath the ship. People start turning up dead - and then Eidon finds massive, bloody paw prints on deck. Something has awakened beneath the boiling sea and released monsters - giant, parasitic Sabertooths - that had been extinct from the earth for centuries. They've come out of the sea, onto the Silver Queen -- and they are hungry for blood.
** Book 2 in the Zombie Shark Highway universe **
If you haven’t read ZSH (which you can find here) not to worry! This book is a stand alone adventure and while it occupies the same world, the characters are new and unconnected.
I will be posting a new chapter every Friday until we’re done! But if you want to read ahead, the downloadable ebook for paid subscribers is on the way. In the meantime, paid subscribers can access the ebook for ZSH here.
And without further ado, I give you saber tooth zombie mayhem on the high seas. Happy friday!
ONE
The ship would sink.
Dr. Troyer knew that with certainty. The heat that made the sweat stream from his pores and seared his nostrils told him that much. The magma would melt away the Hydra's hull like butter.
It was their own fault. They'd come to the ice to dig. And dig they did. What they uncovered beneath it - an ancient volcanic vent - was hell-bent on their destruction.
Ironic, that the research icebreaker's undoing would be fire.
The heat had already taken the lives of most of the souls on board. It would come for him eventually.
But the forty-three-year-old paleontologist couldn't worry about that now. Yes, that danger would come. But the fire wasn't the only thing they woke from beneath the ice. A greater danger was stalking him through the bowels of the Hydra - an ancient threat with a thirst for blood and the stench of Troyer's fear in it's nostrils.
As silently as he could, Troyer raced down the dark, smoke-filled hallway. His lungs twitched, a cough tickling his throat, demanding relief. But he didn't dare. They'd hear it. He could barely see through the stinging in his eyes but he knew the Hydra like he knew his own home. He'd lived here for over a year now - he knew the galley wasn't far. But that wasn't the question. The question that frightened him was how far behind was the creature?
And more worrisome still, where were the others?
They'd uncovered five over the course of their dig. Five of the most impressive and complete specimens Troyer had ever seen. Not just treasures for his own career, but indeed for the entire academic community. Stupid now, the dollar signs and stars he'd had in his eyes the first time he'd seen them. That hippy lunatic, Melvin - the marine biologist who'd bullied his way onboard, raving about sharks that came back from the dead - had warned him this would happen. He wondered if Melvin had managed to get away in the chaos. He'd been running for the bridge the last Troyer had seen him.
If only Troyer had listened to the raving pony-tailed scientist when he'd had the chance. He would give up everything he owned now - his reputation, the career he'd spent decades crafting - if he could send the creatures back to the icy prisons he'd freed them from.
A feral hiss - a guttural spit from deep inside a cavernous throat - echoed down the hallway. Time was running out.
Frantically, Troyer ran his hands along the wall - the smoke was too thick to see through now -and felt the seam of the galley door. Relief swelled in his chest, and he found the handle, flinging the door open and closing it tight behind him.
Inside, the smoke was thinner, the crew's half-eaten supper of canned ravioli spilled across the table tops, utensils scattered across the floor - and blood, thick globs of congealed dark red -stained everything.
But the bodies -
Troyer swallowed the bile burning the back of his tongue -
The bodies were gone.
The muffled bellow of the creature sounded through the door. It was out there. Searching. Troyer peeked through the round kitchen window, and saw it - the glint of its ivory man-shredders, gold in the light of the flames. It swished its head from side to side, furious to have lost its prey.
It wouldn't take long for it to figure out which way he'd gone.
Troyer picked his way over the gory mess, to the back of the kitchen where he saw it, the reason he'd run to the galley, beckoning him to safety -- the walk-in fridge. He'd lock himself in. Hide until the beast gave up the search. He'd deal with the fire later. All that mattered now was hiding from those teeth, that ghastly fanged smile that glinted for human flesh.
Troyer pushed aside the overturned table that stood between him and the fridge.
A sound from behind him froze the blood in his veins.
A deep rumbling purr, like marbles falling through a wood chipper.
One of them was inside.
Troyer glanced to the far corner where he'd sat and eaten his meals with Dr. Wright and Melvin -- and saw the ankles of a man poking out from the shadows. Dr. Wright. The legs jerked and there was a sickening sound of wet, the slurp of a giant tongue being sucked back inside a razored mouth.
Troyer closed his eyes, tears spilling down his cheeks, as the creature let out an explosive hiss.
This was it. His discovery would be his end.
And just before the creature's fangs tore into Dr. Troyer's ribcage, before it added his blood to the smeared mess on the floor of the galley, before it feasted on the meat of his bones --
Troyer prayed the flames would devour the evil he and his team had unleashed.
Before it could feed on anybody else.
Thanks so much for reading!
The next chapter of Lava Cat Cruise Ship drops next Friday. Me-OW!