City of Brotherly Death

City of Brotherly Death Vampires, Revenants, and Zombies from Philadelphia

Excerpt from “One Last Favor” A mob of figures headed for the patient cubicles. In the next instant, the sound of bloodcurdling screams and tearing flesh assaulted her ears. Tara recognized the sound, having assisted with surgeries. Desatnick pulled out his gun and fired. His bullet flashed through an elderly man’s chest. Despite the bullet size, he did not bleed. No blood? Tara gasped at the sound, huddled against Chris’s shoulder. Doesn’t he have any? The man dug his finger into the hole and withdrew the bullet, loosening green pus. “Shit,” he muttered in a gravelly voice. He leaped at Desatnick. Before Desatnick could fire again, the figure snatched his gun and tossed it aside. Its bony hands wrapped around his throat and squeezed. Tara and Chris hugged each other, screaming. They’re dead, dammit, she kept thinking. What are they doing here? Maybe they picked up some virus that turned them into zombies. Just like in the Night of the Living Dead documentary she’d watched in her Literature class. They reeked like carrion. They were dead, after all. Dead people weren’t supposed to come back to life. Apparently, someone forgot to tell them that. The crunching of bones and smacking of lips were punctuated by ear-splitting shrieks. Something wet rolled into Tara’s knees. A glance at the floor gave her the source. Geysers of blood from Desatnick’s wounds sprayed the floor and flowed under the desk. If Scarlett was here, she’d fight. Tara nudged the doctor’s shoulder. “Chris,” she whispered through panting lips, “if we stay here, we’re good as dead.” Chris nodded with agreement; his shoulders trembling, green eyes wide and fearful. “You’ve got that right. But we need weapons. There’s a fire extinguisher on the left wall, by the cubicles.” Tara pressed her face against the desk panel, scanning the wall for a potential weapon. There it was, an extinguisher hanging by the first cubicle. “I see it,” she whispered. “Lucky for us, Desatnick insisted on keeping these things in every room. We’ve got oxygen tanks in the storeroom, too. Think we can grab some protection and run while these zombies are busy with Desatnick and his patients?” “I think we can if we go out the back, through the kitchen. That’s where I’m heading.” Tara eased from under the desk, followed by Chris. She snatched the extinguisher while Chris made a beeline for the storeroom. She sprinted to the hall, hugging the extinguisher under her arms, Chris ahead of her. Minutes later, strong, skeletal hands clutched her by the shoulders. Tara wrenched free, ripping the collar from her uniform. She walloped her assailant on the head. His skull cracked open, spilling fluid resembling Cream of Wheat. Tara spurted ahead, hoping to catch up with Chris, but he was gone. Clattering footfalls sounded behind her as three of the creatures chased her down the hall. Whirling around, she aimed the nozzle at her assailants. Gray smoke swirled, providing an effective screen between Tara and her attackers. She ducked inside a soiled utility room. The door had a combination lock, but such devices wouldn’t stop the walking dead. Where could she hide? If there were live humans around, these monsters would smell them. The laundry chute. No doubt their brains had rotted, and they’d never think to search the laundry room. Tara keyed in the combination and crawled inside the chute. Hands gripping the door rim, she dangled her feet. The drop had to be twenty feet. Pounding at the utility room door. Those creatures smelled her. Any second, they’d break in and see her fingers on the rim of the chute door. She let go, screaming all the way down. She landed on a mountain of dirty linen. Landing on that soft pile spared her from broken bones. She scurried away from the chute and nestled between bags of soiled clothes. Surely the dirty linen smell would camouflage her scent. She’d have to remain intact if she wanted to escape. Later, she would search for Chris Atkins and see if she could team up with him. He had become a good work buddy, someone she could trust with her life. For now, her best chance for survival lay in sitting tight and waiting until the beasts had either satisfied their hunger or given up to hunt somewhere else. A tall, wasted man dropped from the chute. She’d underestimated them. Hadn’t she told herself that combinations wouldn’t stop the dead? This one landed in the same laundry pile she had. Something had eaten away half of his gray-complexioned face. He slithered toward her, his hands outstretched. A brief look at the other stories Bad Seed – Disowned by her father, Susan drowns herself in work and booze after her fiancé dies in a car wreck. On New Year’s Eve, when her loneliness is at its worst, a battered corpse calls her name. Her fright turns to dismay when she recognizes him as a former employee whom she’d fired. Night Fighters – A terrorist group targets the Philadelphia hospitals. They hire Todd to lure victims. One day, he picks on the wrong person, never realizing that the dead have mobilized their own army against terrorists. Garden of Souls – Skeletal figures climb out of a patch of soil near Diane’s apartment building, terrifying Diane. She later learns that a family of five died in a hit-and-run accident near her home. Suspecting her ill-tempered boyfriend, she confronts him. But the dead victims have their own agenda.

Back Jacket Blurb William Penn never suspected that his beloved Philadelphia would turn into the city of brotherly death. But that’s what’s happening in Philadelphia and other major cities. And it’s only going to get worse. The dead are coming—revenants, vampires, and zombies—people who have scores to settle with the living. So padlock your doors and pack up your guns and survival gear. If the dead passed because their funds, administrators, or heartless caregivers prohibited lifesaving treatment, they will come back seeking revenge. Their anger makes them hungry for flesh. So very hungry. Even vampires won’t be immune to the terrors of revenants and zombies. The collection of 12 tales will keep you awake at night and make you wonder if you’ll ever be safe again. Alexis – Vampire Edric, takes pity on an abused little girl, Alexis, and adopts her. When Alexis matures into a woman, his love develops into possessive obsession, and he kills her in a fit of anger. But some people just won’t stay dead. A Lesson on Suffering – Viola, a home health aide, specializes in eldercare abuse, especially after she suffers a back injury. One day, she goes after the wrong person, and the woman’s son, who happens to be a vampire, commandeers an army of walking corpses to go after Viola. Lorraine’s Life Preserver – Lorraine cares for her elderly father, but no matter how hard she tries, she can’t please him. Her relatives come down hard on her, especially her niece, who is after the family’s money. Her niece tries to kill Lorraine by withholding her asthma medicine. Instead, she meets a Good Samaritan, a vampire, who turns her to save her. Now endowed with immortality, Lorraine pays a visit to her family…. Bad Seed – Disowned by her father, Susan drowns herself in work and booze after her fiancé dies in a car wreck. On New Years Eve, when her loneliness is at its worst, a battered corpse calls her name. Her fright turns to dismay when she recognizes him as a former employee whom she’d fired. Night Fighters – A terrorist group targets the Philadelphia hospitals. They hire Todd to lure victims. One day, he picks on the wrong person, never realizing that the dead have mobilized their own army against terrorists. Garden of Souls – Skeletal figures climb out of a patch of soil near Diane’s apartment building, terrifying Diane. She later learns that a family of five died in a hit-and-run accident near her home. Suspecting her ill-tempered boyfriend, she confronts him. But the dead victims have their own agenda. Death’s Dividends: Leila, a nurse, grieves when her boss cuts off her friend’s life support treatment when the patients’ insurance expires. Her friend Anna dies because she didn’t have the funds to pay. Instead, Anna comes back to life and forms an unholy alliance with Leila. The hospital’s administration made a huge investment in death, and now Anna, Leila, and their army of the dead are ready to pay out dividends. My other tales include “Alexis,” in which a revenant comes back to haunt a vampire. This goes with my biography: All of these stories have appeared in small press magazines. “Alexis,” “A Lesson on Suffering,” “Rebirth,” and “Lorraine’s Life Preserver” appeared in Margaret Carter’s The Vampire’s Crypt. Margaret doesn’t publish the magazine any more, but she turns out great vampire tales. Her website: www.margaretlcarter.com. The other tales have appeared in magazines such as Outer Darkness, The Midnight Gallery, Explosive Decompression The Black Abyss, Prohibited Matter, Classic Pulp Fiction Stories, and The Ultimate Unknown.

ExcerpTuesay - Barbara Custer

I welcome author Barbara Custer today with her excerpt of Dark Side of the Moon. Now I'll have Pink Floyd in my head all day!
Barbara Custer

Excerpt of Dark Side of the Moon



Six days after her mother’s funeral, a crash jarred Becky out of a restless sleep. The Mylar balloons, cradled around her cheeks like soft, invisible hands, blocked her view. She shoved them aside and saw her mother standing in the doorway against silver puddles of moonlight. The crash came from her banging open the door.

Her mother stood there, a skeletal figure, still wearing her pink satin gown. Its sequins glimmered. Wisps of gray hair crowned her skull; her chin jutted whitely. “Becky, get up,” she said, her neck tendons creaking. “I’ve got to show you something.”

Becky glanced toward Steve. He was a vague hump under their quilt, asleep. No nightmares or insomnia troubled him, God bless him. She looked back at her mother, who was dead and yet not dead. Why...what did she want?

“We have unfinished business,” her mother said.

It’s only a nightmare, Becky told herself. But she felt compelled to get out of bed; Mom’s eyes were on her.

She slipped from under the covers and swung her feet onto the floor. The powder blue rug felt soft as a kitten’s paw. The balloons whispered behind her. The dream seemed so real; she told herself to keep a safe distance. She did not want a walking corpse to touch her, even if it was her mother.

But she did follow. They crossed the hallway into the living room. She felt cold caresses from her balloon tree by the closet. “Put on your coat and boots,” her mother said. “It’s cold outside.”

“Sure.” Nostalgia crept in. She thought about the times she used to take Mom shopping. Her throat constricted. She struggled for the next breath. “I’d better get my keys.”

“We’re walking. After you hear and see what I’ve got to show you, you won’t be in any condition to drive.”

The warm feeling fled. Stark terror filled the hollow places in her body. She halted.

“You need to know,” her mother added, “because you’re going to have a baby.”

Pregnant? She didn’t think so. Although no symptoms troubled her, Dr. Fitzpatrick had found abnormalities in her blood that he couldn’t explain, even after she got a bone marrow aspiration. Because Mom suffered so much grief from her husband, Fitzpatrick went along with her request to hold further testing on Becky. He advised Becky against having children and prescribed the pill. During the last few months, she and Steve had been discussing plans to adopt.

Her stomach cringed at the absolute terror that filled her. Her mother’s limbs were cold cobwebs of bone and discolored skin, but Becky couldn’t resist the urgency in her eyes. She slipped into her winter clothes and followed her mother out to the porch.

She didn’t like this dream one bit. The softness in her rug, the caresses from her balloons, the wind sweeping the narrow street, the jingle of keys in her coat pocket. Once off the porch, her boots crunched over dead branches. Another little detail that made this nightmare seem real.

“Don’t you wonder why gruesome murders are happening in our city? Harry’s so-called friends say people from outer space killed these people. They’re right.”

Space aliens? Never mind. I’m only dreaming.

A small tree branch poked Becky’s right shoulder, and she winced. Up ahead, her mother glided like a shadow, her feet not making a sound. They were approaching a fork. The right fork led to Preacher’s Corner; the left fork to...oh, my God, this is real.

“The universe is strange,” her mother said. “Most extraterrestrials want to learn about us, but some act as predators. Thaddeus will go out of his way to help someone, but he’s made a lot of enemies.”

Uh, oh, here it comes. The truth about Thaddeus.

After taking the left fork, they took a straight path deeper in the woods. The ground dissolved into a cold, gelatinous solution under her feet, grabbing and holding with ugly sucking noises. Her feet slipped. She grabbed the branches to steady herself.

She kept telling herself she was dreaming.

It wouldn’t fly.



They arrived at a clearing. The moonlight illuminated a patchy profusion of weeds surrounded by chain-link fencing. Nicholas and his school chums used to play baseball here until something—Becky didn’t recall what—had gone sour. Her mother stopped at a gate overgrown with barren vines. The gate squealed. Becky followed her mother through the tangled weeds. She heard the faraway drone of cars on Convent Way, and water splashing below her feet.

Water? How did she know it was water?

Her mother stopped before a manhole cover and pried the lid. It came up with grating sounds. The full moon sailed from behind the stringy clouds, illuminating a ladder. Its rungs disappeared into a pitch-dark abyss. Becky trembled with a horror that she couldn’t understand.

Her mother looked at her with solemn eyes. “You are frightened. I love you dearly, but you need to make educated decisions about your child.”

“I’m not...” Becky’s voice died in her throat. She cleared her throat and tried again. “Tell me about Thaddeus.”

“He called his breed Kryszka. They look human, but they’ve got pointed teeth and red eyes. We met after George and I had our worst fight. George broke three ribs and cut me, Becky.” She pitched her voice to a soothing low murmur. “Thaddeus brought me to his clinic to treat my injuries.”

“What clinic?” Becky fought the dread that threatened to swallow her. “What is Thaddeus’ real name? Why didn’t you go to a hospital?”

“I did, but the clerk there gave me a hard time about money. Thaddeus happened to be there…I think he was observing human interaction. He offered to treat me without charge and make the beatings stop. I was hurting so bad, I might have said yes to the Devil himself.

“I couldn’t pronounce his real name, so he let me call him Thaddeus. He was very gentle with me. Loneliness blinded me to our differences, and God help me, Becky, we had an affair. I loved him, but I still had Nicholas to consider. He was only five. I contemplated an abortion; but I didn’t want to add murder to my sins.”

Now, pity crept in with the fear, and Becky longed to hold her mother and make everything all right. She cupped her hand against her mouth. Her cheeks felt cool. “Are you saying that I am part extra-terrestrial?”

“You’ve got the Kryszka physique and telekinesis, but you inherited my love for the Lord. Sending me money, looking out for your students and Harry...you remind me of myself when I was young.”

Her mother climbed down the ladder now, her skeletal face grim in the moonlight. Becky’s mind began to slip. Her thoughts were a yammering cycle of you’ve got to scream yourself awake, it doesn’t matter if you wake Steve, scream yourself awake...

Becky tried to work up a scream, but only a thin whisper of air came.

She bent over the opening. The manhole, wide enough to accommodate two adults, was pipe-dark. A stench of rotting tomatoes wafted from the gloom.

“Come down here, Becky.” Her mother’s voice was a thin whisper. “You need to see for yourself.”

“I don’t want to,” Becky protested, but her limbs moved, one after the other, and carried her down the ladder. She stood beside her mother, knee-deep in mud, one hand leaning against a paneled door. Her fingers glided over smooth metal.

“This door is a gate to their underground city,” her mother said. “The Kryszka use mind over matter to open it. I think you can open it with yours, Becky.”

“Underground…what?” Never mind, she’d do anything to end this nightmare. She concentrated. The panel rolled open like a gaping, toothless mouth.

At first what looked like a red, gauzy curtain obscured her surroundings. Its rancid smell made her eyes water. As the haze cleared, Becky made out buildings—it looked like ten, lined with portholes and illuminated by pinkish lights overhead. Splotches of dried maroon mud crusted the grass surrounding the buildings. The buildings looked like someone spray-painted them with purple and gray glitter. As she watched, two more portholes opened across the front of one structure. Glassy fluid oozed down the opening, forming a pane. The slanted roof of that building reached toward the lights.

The mud puddles stretched, widening to the right, where an immense spider web hung over a pool of crimson liquid. Bodies dangled from its thick white strands, blood dripping into the pool, some half-eaten, and others alive. A metal harness bound each person, looping around the waist and under both arms so that the body lolled forward in a half-bow. The live prisoners thrashed at their ties. Harsh wind carried the stench of carrion and rattled the skeletons on the web.