The Wave | #OpenNovellaContest2020

It only takes 2.4 seconds for a radio wave to reach the moon.

After 4.5 hours, the wave reaches Pluto; by then we'd already lost Seattle.

In 4 years the signal can make it to our nearest star, Proxima Centauri; by then the dead had taken over the United States of America.

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My name is Fernie, and I've never seen a zombie. Not alive anyway. I've seen the destruction they leave behind, the families they break apart, and the world they left us. I wasn't alive when they walked among us, but I'm here now to pick up the pieces. A one-man-cleanup crew destined to save the world-or the fifty-mile radius of the world I grew up in.

Apart we survive, but together we thrive. That's what The Wave has taught me. It's told me stories, sang me songs, and spoke of our history. I want to rebuild what we lost, but I can't do it alone. The Wave will help me find others, there has to be others.

My name is Fernie, and I've never seen a zombie. I don't know about the world my great-grandparents grew up in, but I sure know it was bigger than fifty-miles.

It's been nearly a hundred years since the world ended, how far do you think the wave is now?

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How do you outrun the living dead? For three brave teenagers, the answer lies in their homes. One off the coast of what was once Alaska, one high in the mountains of South America, and another separated from them both by an endless sea. Alone they only have fragments of the history of their planet, but together they can discover where they came from. Join Fernie, Naira, and Kupe on their crusade to rebuild the world. While mountains and oceans may separate them, the waves that travel across the sky unite them.

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mediocre cover art by yours truly <3
OpenNovellaContest2020 entry
inspired by prompt 41. "Yes son, zombies used to be a thing."