30 Minute Plan
30 Minute Plan by Gerald R. Rice I received a free Kindle copy from Amazon for review. This is FIVE star story throughout & one of the best post apocalyptic stories I have read.
The world is now divided between small pockets of survivors of scientists called 'brains' & soldiers called 'dogs' used to eliminate the zombies called 'ziggies'. Scientists came up with scent-marking for the zombies. It might have backfired.
Danton was a head dog & balked when the scientists wanted the dogs to risk their necks to spray the ziggies with lemon, strawberry, & orange scents. The dogs had a vow that if a ziggy took one of them that another dog would even the score.
The'dogs' were soldiers who are the ones to go out of the isolated surviving community to eliminate the zombies. A soldier 'dog' is taken & one of his comrades, Danton, decides to rescue him. The thirty minute plan is the rule that requires death if they are out exposed to the ziggies for that long. They were given one bullet in their guns to destroy themselves if that happens.
Cargill was captured by ziggies after he had been spraying them with the lemon scent. They started following him but not harming him. The scientists decided he had been 'compromised' which meant no rescue. Danton didn't agree. He decided to change that rule.
Another pack is following the lemon scented ziggies that smell like wood chips. The scientists had not designed that scent. The packs tended to circle several times before changing direction. They also avoided large bodies of water or buildings about to collapse. A straggler didn't have this collective intelligence.
Here's one quote regarding the event of shooting a ziggy. "It fell to its knees like a whore with a new twenty dollar bill and slumped over."
This was the recommended approach for ziggies:
"The same for every single one of you. If you cannot die with honor, you will still die with dignity. I will not abide Ziggy amongst our ranks, either former or present. Neither will you. We will approach Ziggy without animosity, without hate, but with the certainty that we will absolutely do to him what he would not hesitate to do to us.”
There were some single ziggies that didn't go in a pack. They seemed faster & able to catch people easier. Danton took a flashlight knowing that the singles would be attracted to it. He opened a small plexiglas window & dropped his collected bag of weapons through it when he needed to move his bowels. He knew the ziggies were attracted to that. He guessed they knew a human had to do that when they didn't any more.
He finds what he thinks is a little girl. She was running wearing tiny dress shoes. The word neotony comes to mind & he's surprised he knows what it means. She ran right into him & held onto his jacket. He hadn't seen a child in a long time & while she stank & was filthy, she was pretty. He reached to move her hair out of her face & she opened her mouth & sprayed a putrid green fluid into his eyes, which blinded him. Whatever that thing was, it was not a child.
I highly recommend reading this story. I enjoyed it tremendously.
To purchase link: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004P8JXGA?ie=UTF8&creativeASIN=B004P8JXGA&tag=injoslifethin-20
