Plague Nation

Plague Nation
(Ashley Parker #2)

 
by Dana Fredsti
 
Titan Books, 2013
 
336 Pages
 
Young Adult
 

 

 
 
 
 
 
 
The coolest thing about Ashley Parker, Zombie Slayer, is that she carries a katana as well as her M4. This sequel to Plague Town is -not- a paranormal romance; it’s action-packed, and filled with squishy, zombie-gut goodness! We see Zombies used to demonstrate new weapons, and watch them killed with everything from a tanto to a pickaxe, sometimes a sledge hammer (“Thor’s Wee Hammer,”) and sometimes they’re even (yuck!) …stepped in.
 

Ugh. Kind of hard to ignore it when you step into the middle of a flash-fried rotten corpse. Just when you think things couldn’t get any grosser.

 
Targeted at younger women and chock-full of pop-culture references, this series reads like Charmed or H2O in Hell. (Any book that mentions the Ponn Farr finds a place close to my heart.)
 

“You watch the Walking Dead?” Simone said. “I’d have thought you were more the type for The History Channel, or perhaps old Star Trek marathons.”

“Know your enemy,” Nathan replied. “After Kyrgyzstan, [ A nod to World War Z] there wasn’t a lot on the subject that I didn’t read or watch. I also watch Game of Thrones and The Borgias. Those help me understand the DZN.”

 
The focus of the book is the Dolofonoitou Zontanous Nekrous (or DZN) and their crack team of “Wild Cards:” people who have survived zombie bites due to some genetic circumstance that it is hoped will offer a cure to the infected. But they aren’t just immune to the virus, they also develop heightened senses and unnaturally fast healing ability after the painful transition. While that means they can see in the dark, it also means they can smell the necrotizing flesh of the zombies, or as Ashley puts it, “the stinkathon.”
 
One of the scientists studying the Wild Cards is Simone Fraser (who “has the hots” for one Capt. Nathan Smith,) another is Dr. Phineas Albert. He’s the one responsible. It’s his vaccine for Walker’s Flu, his decision to push it out under falsified test data. It’s his vaccine that makes people rise from the dead.
 
Among the Wild Cards are Lil, an eighteen year old who just lost her mom in the zombie outbreak (and is discovered to be on anti-psychotic medication, which leads to dangerous temper tantrums in the field,) and Tony (“X-box”) and Kai, a pair of young pranksters. Then there are Mack , Gentry, and of course, Ashley Parker.
 
DZN Capt. Gabriel, (the love interest,) has been a real jerk since he and Ashley finally made it at the end of the last book. (She calls him a “douche” repeatedly, and then says “I couldn’t believe that three days ago he and I had engaged in hot monkey sex, and then fought the zombie swarm.”) It turns out the reason he’s so grouchy is that he’s off his meds. Meds for being a zombie, that is. He’s a rare “half-deader” who has been taking anti-serum to maintain his humanity. Otherwise he has to eat living human flesh in order to prevent his own body from rotting.
 
We see the humanity of the Wild Cards as soon as the action starts, when they are assigned to clear a trailer park of the undead. Amid tons of gore, Ashley ends up killing a baby, and [SPOILER] fun-loving Kai gets shot and killed by a freaked-out civvie.
 
We also get the character building scenes we love: a wise guy jerk makes a comment about Ashley and discovers the hard way that she’s got the chops to be a leader of the crack unit.
 
Along the way we are introduced to a new character, the psycho Griffin, or “Typhoid Mary” as the bad guys have nick-named him, some sort of carrier for the virus and a sociopath who enjoys infecting others –by making love to them if by choice– and then watching them turn.
 
Then the research center catches fire. Simone is nearly killed and there is a kidnapping attempt on Dr. Albert. It is obvious from the open doors and destroyed research that it was arson. The California DMZ now needs to find and “clear” a new base of operations. The nearest place with the necessary research facilities is San Francisco, Redwood Grove College (“Big Red”) no longer a viable lab.
 
In fact, it begins to look as if the entire outbreak was orchestrated. Could it have been a coincidence that the Walker’s vaccine was sent out to all the areas where there were DMZ outposts? Was San Francisco infected deliberately?
 

Citizens of Salt Lake City reeling at the sight of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, ripped to pieces mid-performance. So much for magic underwear.

 
On the way there, both of the DMZ helicopters go down, again victims of obvious sabotage, and the race begins. Dropped in the middle of zombie central, Ashley’s team begins working their way past the mile-long lines of vehicles migrating out of the city to rescue the second team, many of whom were wounded in the crash. They clear the nature conservatory where the second helicopter team has taken refuge, then shelter in a home near their target, UCFS Medical Center.
 
Then another character joins them, an energy bomb and parkour master named JT, who appears to be a valuable asset, though none of the team seems quite sure about him.
 
The final rush towards the Medical Center is fast-paced and deadly. Zombie action at its best. When the united DMZ unit finally reaches their objective, they find more than one painful surprise, and a whirlwind of change flies in their faces. The evil villains behind the arson and the vaccine distribution have the upper hand; it’s the perfect cliffhanger to get us drooling for the next installment.
 
The book makes fun of Episode Two [Star Wars], but then pretty much comprises the same transitional bridge for its own trilogy; (Plague World, forthcoming.) Sometimes I felt like the story could have been told in about half the space, but I found myself enjoying being in Ashley’s world, sharing her crushes and fears, her friendships and the action, looking at a world of horror that might still be salvaged and having the power to do something about it… if she can just hold her mind together in the face of children being pulled out of cars by undead ghouls.
 

A female zombie wearing a “Team Edward” T-shirt and jeans staggered out from a doorway, reaching for the nearest warm body, which happened to be mine. I automatically shoved the business end of my katana into its left eye, using my foot to brace against Edward’s sparkly white face as I pulled the blade back out, really wishing there was a way to do it without the nasty suction sound.
Shlorp!
Ugh.

 
I really looked forward to the short vignettes at the end of each chapter. Unrelated to the primary narrative, we are shown small, slice-of-life snippets describing how people first encounter the spread of the “zombocalypse”. Just like in a movie, we have privileged knowledge which lets us scream “No! Don’t open the door!” just as a poor, unsuspecting innocent opens it and lets one of the living dead take a big, juicy bite out of them. Some of the shorts are frightening, some are funny, and they add to the satisfaction of a good zombie thriller.
 
Note: There is a movie out there titled Plague Town (2009), but it is not related to the Ashley Parker novels.