Last of the Living

INTRODUCTION

INTRODUCTIONI’ve been writing about the living dead (and variations thereof) for a long time. In fact, going back through my dusty records recently, I discovered the handwritten notes which became the very first draft of AUTUMN dated 1997. Whilst I’m still a huge fan of our undead friends, after six AUTUMN and three HATER books (not technically zombies, I know, but there are a lot of similar themes) I’ve feel like I’ve said all I wanted to say. It’s time for a change of direction. This collection of stories represents my remaining zombie output. In fact, I’ll go as far as to say this collection will be my last word on zombies for the foreseeable future.

The stories printed here are unconnected, and each has their own ‘rules of the dead’. I’ve included a brief introduction before each one to set the scene and give you a little background. I’m still an ardent fan of the zombie sub-genre. The living dead are, as far as I’m concerned, the most adaptable and terrifying of all monsters. You can drop them into pretty much any situation with ease, then sit back and watch chaos ensue. And why are they still so damn frightening after all these years? I think there are any number of reasons, not least their physical closeness to us. I’m not talking about zombies being in the next room or right outside your door, I’m talking about how easy it would be for us to become them. The strongest survivor might last years, but they’ll always be walking that delicate fine line between the living and the undead. A single scratch, one drop of infected blood, a bite that just breaks the surface of the skin... that’s all that separates you from the end of the life you know and a hellish eternity spent walking the planet until your physical body finally fails you. Grim, eh?

Let’s hope when the zombie apocalypse begins (and admit it, we’re all secretly hoping it happens), that you and I don’t fall at the first hurdle. Like many of the characters you’ll meet in this book, here’s to us both being one of the LAST OF THE LIVING.

David Moody

September 2014

UPDATE: 2021

For the record, I didn't last long. I keep finding more to say about zombies. In 2016, I got together with a host of other authors and produced THE YEAR OF THE ZOMBIE - twelve months, twelve original zombie novellas. In 2017, I joined Craig DiLouie and Tim Long to write about Nazi zombies in World War II in THE FRONT, and after that, I wrote three more HATER novels. As I'm updating this introduction, I've just released AUTUMN: DAWN, the first of a new trilogy, and am currently working on INFERNO - book two in the new series. After LAST OF THE LIVING was published in 2014, I thought I was done with the living dead. I was so wrong!