T-minus 2 days to DEADLINE.: seanan

T-minus 2 days to DEADLINE.

[Note: As today is Sunday, and the book is actually released on Tuesday, I'm going to leave yesterday blank, and just keep posting from here.]

Atlanta, Georgia. July 30th, 2014.

The bedroom walls were painted a cheery shade of rose petal pink that showed up almost neon in the lens of the web camera. Unicorns and rainbows decorated the page where the video was embedded; even the YouTube mirrors that quickly started appearing had unicorns and rainbows, providing a set of safe search words that were too wide-spread to be wiped off the internet, no matter how many copies of the video were taken down. The man sitting in front of the web cam was all wrong for the blog. Too old, too haggard, too afraid. His once-pristine lab coat was spattered with coffee stains, and he looked like he hadn't shaved in more than a week.

"My name is Dr. Ian Matras," he said, in a calm, clear voice that was entirely at odds with his appearance. "I am—I was—an epidemic researcher for the Centers for Disease Control. I have been working on the issue of the Kellis cure since it was first allowed into the atmosphere. I have been tracking the development of the epidemic, along with my colleague, Dr. Christopher Sinclair." His breath hitched, voice threatening to break. He got himself back under control, and continued, "Chris wouldn't sanction what I'm going to say next. Good thing he isn't around to tell me not to say it, right?

"The news has been lying to you. This is not a virulent summer cold; this is not a new strain of the swine flu. This is, and has always been, a man-made pandemic whose effects were previously unknown in higher mammals. Put bluntly, the Kellis cure has mutated, becoming conjoined with an experimental Marburg-based cure for cancerl. It is airborne. It is highly contagious. And it raises the dead.

"Almost everyone who breathes air is now infected with this virus. Transmission is apparently universal, and does not come with any initial symptoms. The virus will change forms under certain conditions, going from the passive 'helper' form to the active 'killer' form of what we've been calling Kellis-Amberlee. Once this process begins, there is nothing that can stop it. Anyone whose virus has begun to change forms is going to become one of the mindless cannibals now shambling around our streets. Why? We don't know. What we do know is that fluid transmission seems to trigger the active form of the virus—bites, scratches, even getting something in your eye. Some people may serro-convert spontaneously. We believe these people were involved with the Marburg trials in Colorado, but following the destruction of the facility where those trials were conducted, we have no way of being absolutely sure.

"Let me repeat: we have been lying to you. The government is not allowing us to spread any knowledge about the walking plague, saying that we would trigger a mass panic. Well, the masses are panicking, and I don't think keeping secrets is doing anybody any favors. Not at this stage.

"Once someone has converted into the...hell, once somebody's a zombie, there's no coming back. They are no longer the people you have known all your life. Head shots seem to work best. Severe damage to the body will eventually cause them to bleed out, but it can take time, and it will create a massive hot zone that can't be sterilized with anything but fire or bleach. We have...God, we have..." He stopped for a moment, dropping his forehead into the palm of his hand. Finally, dully, he said, "We have lied to you. We have withheld information. What follows is everything we know about this disease, and the simple fact of it is, we know there isn't any cure. We know we can't stop it.

"Early signs of amplification include dialated pupils, dry mouth, difficulty breathing, loss of coordination, personality changes..."

***

Please return to your homes. Please remain calm. This is not a drill. If you have been infected, please contact authorities immediately. If you have not been infected, please remain calm. This is not a drill. Please return to your homes...

When will you Rise?

fullcontactmuse

May 29 2011, 16:45:43 UTC 6 years ago

New comment

Oh, that sent chills down my spine reading that.

Good thing he isn't around to tell me not to say it, right?

Good on him, but no good deed goes unpunished.

paradisacorbasi

May 29 2011, 16:51:49 UTC 6 years ago Edited: May 29 2011, 17:55:39 UTC

Aw, Chris. I liked Chris.

But yay on Dr. Matras. Go man, go. Fight the power.

And where are my manners? Thank you!

chaoticgoodnik

May 30 2011, 00:56:07 UTC 6 years ago

I liked Chris too. Hey, maybe I can still like Chris if Ian is just trying to make it clear that he did this without Chris's consent/foreknowledge. But probably not.

loki_dip

May 29 2011, 16:53:51 UTC 6 years ago

Deadline turned up yesterday. :D Despite the fact it's not released here until June 5th.

trialia

May 29 2011, 17:45:08 UTC 6 years ago

It's not? Amazon gave me a due date of May 31st on my dispatch email.

6 years ago

wendyzski

seanan_mcguire

I writed you a song...But I filkded it.

admnaismith

May 29 2011, 16:58:32 UTC 6 years ago

Because, in this world, some people deserve to be immortalized in song....

Youtube of the original song here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CwEvOQ4HXB4&feature=related

Note the people surrounding the man in the chair and raising their arms at the end. I envision a similar crowd doing the same around Stalnaker, but with a somewhat different posture and tone of voice...

Stalnaker
Lyrics by

admnaismith
May be sung to "Starmaker", from the TV show FAME
Inspired by Mira Grant's Newsflesh series

Here...as I watch the people die
And they rise right up again
I keep asking myself why
Those stupid kids let the virus out...

They were convinced it was a noble deed
A little bit crazed and high on weed
To believe what they read...by...

Stalnaker....News faker....Muckraker
They're rising now...

You...if you hadn't told your lie
They'd have left that lab alone
I keep asking myself why
And if we might have escaped Kellis-Amberlee

Now, when we have to count the cost
Of our civilization lost
We're wondering if you knew
It would all begin with you

Stalnaker...Life taker...Earth shaker
They're coming now...

Now...as I watch the plague go by
How I'd like to run away
Leave this compound far behind
But I know I'd only last for a couple of days

Bob...did the zombies ever eat your brains
Or your belly, which, we'd note
Was as yellow as the journal you wrote!
We've got no hope, and it's all because of...

Stalnaker....World breaker....Hellmaker
They're hungry now...they're so hungry now...
They're hungry now...they're so hungry now...

...

Re: I writed you a song...But I filkded it.

notalwaysweak

May 29 2011, 20:24:20 UTC 6 years ago

This is hella shiny :D

the_s_guy

blackic

May 29 2011, 17:02:49 UTC 6 years ago

Mine arrived yesterday! WOOO!

May 29 2011, 17:15:28 UTC 6 years ago

Please don't tell me when the books are released early. :( It just makes me cry.

elorie

archangelbeth

More Expand

idancewithlife

May 29 2011, 17:13:45 UTC 6 years ago

I was so hoping this would be part of the countdown series--thank you.

I have two copies reserved at Other Change of Hobbit for Tuesday, and will probably buy a third as a gift for my Christian ethics professor friend.

ladymondegreen

May 30 2011, 03:16:29 UTC 6 years ago

This is what I was thinking too. When I saw the line about the blog background, I admit, I squee'ed. :)

Almost there!

May 29 2011, 17:16:17 UTC 6 years ago

Quick question for sales: How do pre-orders, from places like Amazon, affect your sale numbers for the NY Times Best Seller's list? I asked as I received an e-mail that my copy is on it's way and should be here soon.

Because I think it would be awesome for you to be on that list.

May 29 2011, 18:56:18 UTC 6 years ago

From a tweat by Seanan yesterday:

"Pre-orders are fine. Buying books in stores before they're released hurts first week numbers. Weird but true."

http://twitter.com/#!/seananmcguire/statuses/74681843085082625

jenrose1

May 29 2011, 17:40:52 UTC 6 years ago

Ah! I was hoping we'd get to see the report George mentioned at some point. Shiny!

We don't get mail on Sundays or bank holidays (of which tomorrow is one) so I'm pretty certain my copy of Deadline will turn up around lunchtime on Tuesday. :D :D :D

brightlotusmoon

May 29 2011, 17:55:02 UTC 6 years ago

Oh my gods.
Oh my gods.
....

joecoustic

May 29 2011, 20:01:47 UTC 6 years ago

This actually had me short of breath reading it....

rokwynd

May 29 2011, 20:27:15 UTC 6 years ago

I almost beg, in vain probably, that tomorrow's story isn't a chapter about Stacy and Phillip.

May 29 2011, 21:19:00 UTC 6 years ago

from Feed, if Georgia is to be believed (and she is -- that whole truth thing and all, right?) Phililp makes it through the rising until right around age 6. So if this is the summer of the rising, maybe we'll luck out and see Bob Stalnaker get his.

I've read Feed four times, most recently a week ago, so I'm fairly certain unless Georgia got bad info from Stacy.

cflute

still fumbling for context

Re: still fumbling for context

May 29 2011, 21:18:37 UTC 6 years ago

This is one I'd been hoping/waiting for - yay! And thank you!

gfish

May 29 2011, 21:35:43 UTC 6 years ago

This post just showed up in my Google Reader's "recommended items" listing. Not bad!

May 29 2011, 21:44:25 UTC 6 years ago

...dude.

kshandra

bigherman

May 30 2011, 00:43:42 UTC 6 years ago

I keep telling myself it's really out Wednesday afternoon so I don't buy it and blow off my essays. Wednesday. Weeeddnesddaayy.

kyrielle

May 30 2011, 03:28:30 UTC 6 years ago

*whimpers*

Thank you.

lysystratae

May 30 2011, 05:07:36 UTC 6 years ago

Thank you, Dr Matras.

anthimerian

May 30 2011, 10:11:13 UTC 6 years ago

I have been waiting for this! I was so excited to see it! I KNEW I remembered Ian Matras from FEED, and I thought it was because of his daughter's blog. I really really hope he survives. I feel he could be useful, especially since it looks like he's the only doc who was charting the creation of Kellis-Amberlee who's left alive.

His utterly destroyed sense of despair overlaid with his clear-cut determination to get the word out is great. And I love love love this first time that someone articulates what will become the rules for living in a post-Rising world: zombies are dead things, head shots work best, avoid creating hot zones, amplification.

When Countdown gets to One, I will squee like a mad thing. And then DEADLINE will come out, and no one will see me until I finish it.

May 30 2011, 15:47:47 UTC 6 years ago

All right, you win! I am going to buy Living Dead 2 so I can read Everglades just so I have something to tide me over until you post the last Countdown piece!

I know now there is no resisting the will of Seanan!

This rocks, though, because your will is awesome.