When Cheryl and her fiancée, a soldier who has just gotten back from Afghanistan, are on their way back to Denver after a reunion camping trip in the mountains, she hears that an epidemic has spread like wildfire. She has no idea that just a few hours later, her life will be threatened by hoards of \'Eaters\', the infected whose lust for rotten food quickly turns to an insatiable desire for human flesh once their corpses are reanimated. Cheryl witnesses the best and worst of human nature as she and a group of refugees struggle to stay alive. What will she have to do to survive in this new dark world?
Eaters: The Beginning is Part I of a series. (Eaters: Dark Journey and Eaters: Destination will be published later in 2011.)
Excerpt: “Hey!” Ed yelled as he dropped the cigarette and batted the gnarled hand away. “Back off, buddy!”
They surrounded him, closing in like a pack of wolves.
Cheryl panicked. “We gotta do something to save him. Mark…go out there and shoot them!”
But, Mark shook his head. “If I did, the sound of the gunfire might draw attention to us. He was stupid...he shouldn’t have...”
By now, any window of rescue was gone. As the Eaters began ripping and tearing at his clothing, skin, and hair, Ed fell down to his knees and curled up into a defensive position with his hands covering his head.
Cheryl looked away, with tears streaming down her cheeks as they tore him apart, one fistful at a time, like they were the devil’s two-year-olds, and he was a blood-filled birthday cake.