Ashes of the First Night

In the silent decay of a crumbling city, the world's first night of the undead begins not with screams, but with whispers-cover-ups, experiments, and betrayal. Ashes of the First Night is the grim, ground-level introduction to the zombie apocalypse that will later engulf the globe in the UPCOMING book of Red Horizon.

The story centers on Reed Mallory, a battle-scarred veteran turned homeless drifter. Once a respected soldier, Reed returned home from Afghanistan not to medals, but to a broken body and the ultimate betrayal: his wife had left him for his closest comrade, James Griffin-a fellow soldier who not only survived by stepping on others, but rose to prominence while Reed was cast aside. Now, as strange reports of violence and sickness spread across the city, Reed finds himself on the streets again-but this time, it's not poverty that threatens him. It's the end of the world.

With the outbreak erupting in real time, Reed crosses paths with a ragtag group of survivors, including a teenage street-smart drug runner, a conspiracy theorist who believes this is all part of a government plot, and others who will each play a role in shaping the chaos to come. While government scientists and shadowy agents scramble behind the scenes-some to contain the truth, others to exploit it-the virus spreads far faster than anyone expected.

What begins as one night of terror becomes the spark for global catastrophe. By the time the sun rises, the world has already changed.