Dead Rich by T. H. Rahman

What Dead Rich is about

 The horror of fighting zombies becomes a reality in Albany, New York where an arrogant, selfish Bo Reynolds finds himself thrown into a perilous situation. He seeks to endeavor in the face of long odds and nearly overwhelming obstacles, which take the form of flesh-eating zombies. 

The attack on the United States of America begins, and Bo must save himself from the approaching enemy bombers decimating the city. 

Five years later, during the time of a war-torn America, Bo finds himself on the outskirts of the city trying to survive within post-apocalyptic surroundings and its population of zombies.

A beautiful young woman named Lynn frees Bo from danger, and together the two set out to find safety inside Tate Estate, but soon find themselves fighting alongside Cassius and Tony whom are already prisoners within the boundaries of the mansion. The unfortunate four must play a deadly reality game of survival against hordes of hungry zombies in an attempt to win their freedom or face a brutal death.

With evil intent, Mr. Tate, a cruel individual and proud owner of Tate Estate manipulates his servants to do his bidding by ordering them to release wave after wave of zombies into the mansion with the intent to kill the four contestants. As the game progresses, something far worse is unleashed, something so vicious that not even the strong know if they can survive.

 While the contestants are struggling for their survival in the lower rooms of the mansion, Mr. Tate’s wealthy guests are on the floor above indulging in food and drink, watching the greatest reality show ever entertained on a television screen.

 The fondest Rufus is Mr. Tate’s most obedient servant and fulfills his master’s wishes, but soon a feeling he has never felt before infiltrates his heart, and he will do whatever he can to keep it there.

 EXCERPT

 Now I waited in the control room behind the barricade when I heard the hungry groan. I went around the desk, stopped in the doorway, and looked down the stairs. The first fiend came through the hall, but this time, I wasn’t scared.

In mass, the snarling horde advanced in search of fresh meat to devour. The zombies forced their way into the hall with the intent of not stopping.

The fastest of the fiend’s with its snapping jaw oozing blood from the corners of its mouth locked onto a potential meal of human flesh.

 Anger coursed through my soul and I didn’t waste any time in firing both barrels from the shotgun. The force of the blast sent the zombie backwards into its own kind and knocked several other fiends down the stairs in the process.

I felt a crazed anger fill my soul. I removed the survival knife from its sheath. I charged the other fiends and pushed them backwards down the stairs.

 Outnumbered, one of the zombies rushed towards me.

I drove the knife’s blade deep into the zombie’s throat and pinned the fiend against the wall. I drew the Colt from my waistband and fired into the heads of three other zombies as they rose to their feet.

The zombie I held against the wall growled at me with a gapping mouth. The stench from its breath was repulsive. I placed the barrel of the Colt into the fiend’s mouth, closed my eyes, and squeezed the trigger.

When I opened my eyes, I yanked the knife free to allow the zombie to slide down the wall and slump at my feet.

I turned to see several more zombies climb the stairs. With haste, I reloaded the shotgun and raised the weapon to my shoulder. My finger squeezed the trigger, but the weapon misfired.

Filled with fear, I backed away towards the doorway to the control room, but tripped on an extended arm and found myself crashing to the floor. My finger pulled against the other trigger. This time the shotgun fired.

The blast hit the zombie in its midsection and cut the fiend in half.

I looked on with satisfaction towards my endeavors. The upper torso slid from the zombie’s lower body to land on the floor with a sickening, squishing sound. Awkwardly, the legs took one last step and fell to the floor. The hideous deformity released a vicious snarl from its rank mouth, drove its fingernails into the hardwood floor, and pulled itself towards its meal.

I pushed backwards with my feet in an attempt to get away from the legless zombie whom now grabbed a hold of my foot. I looked out to see another undead, which advanced with hunger in its wide eyes. I can’t take them out myself, I thought. I became scared and locked in fear. “Help,” I shouted.

 Tony ran into the room. He stepped between the infected and me. He raised the assault rifle and fired three round bursts into the fiends with the bullets slamming into facial bone. He emptied an entire clip into the undead until the weapon was out of rounds. Then Tony kicked out at the fiend that had a hold of my leg and knocked it to the side. He put a round into the zombie’s forehead and killed it instantly. He grabbed my arm and dragged me into the control room.

 Neither of us noticed the zombie, which climbed the stairs and followed Tony into the room. The fiend lunged and slammed its shoulder into Tony’s knee with the impact sending him to the floor. The fiends gaping mouth tried to take a bite from Tony’s calf.

I rolled on to my knees, drove the blade of my knife into the back of the fiend’s neck, and killed it instantly.

Tony was about to head into stairwell.

“Wait!” I shouted as I rose to my feet.

 Quizzically, Tony turned my way. “What?” he asked, and then looked out towards the landing too see a second zombie crawling up the stairs, and it was coming fast. Now he interpreted what I meant and backed away from the zombie.

I could see the lower half of the zombie was completely gone, and now I understood why it was moving so fast.

The zombies instincts remained locked on its meal and Tony was the main course.

The fiend completely ignored me and continued to crawl towards Tony. As it did, I reached down and wrapped my hand around the zombies exposed spine. In one fluid motion, I ripped the spinal column along with the skull from the torso, raised it above my head, and swung it in an arch.

A second zombie climbed the stairs and this one was on its feet.

I swung the spinal column and hit the second zombie on the side of the head. The arching skull exploded on impact to send chunks of flesh covered bone and brain matter in all directions. The force of the blow knocked the second fiend down the stairs.

Quickly, I dropped the busted spine to the floor next to Tony and reloaded the shotgun.

The fallen zombie attempted to get to its feet, but I fired both barrels into the fiends head to put it down for good.

An awestruck Tony remained motionless. Then he looked at me with admiration, and then back to the spinal column. He couldn’t believe what happened and began to show how excited he was. “Hot-dang,” he let out. “That was awesome! Not only did you just save my ass, man.” He added and used a swinging motion above his head to emphasize his excitement. “You ripped that spine out, swung it over your head like you was all that, and then busted it against the other ones head!”

Cassius and Lynn came into the room.

Still amazed, Tony turned towards Cassius. He used an exhilarating gesture to describe what he witnessed. “Did you see that?” he asked. He looked at what remained of the spine and shook his head. “That was so awesome!”

Cassius released a chuckle towards Tony’s excitement. He looked at me with a big smile on his face. “Very nice,” he said.

 I pointed down the stairs. “There’s no time for celebration,” I said.

Everyone looked to see the approaching fiends advancing through the hall. Like an artillery barrage, we opened fire. The deafening crack of the various weapons resounded throughout the mansion.

At one point, I felt we simultaneously fired at the same target and our combined efforts caused heads to explode with a great force.

With precision and accuracy, Cassius worked the bolt action of the rifle, sniping headshot after headshot. A smile crossed his face with each direct hit. He reloaded. “Nothing came the other way,” he shouted over the deafening gunfire.

 Lynn stood Between Cassius and Tony firing three round bursts from the assault rifle. Without fault, she replaced the spent clip with a fresh one and returned to unloading the rounds.

 I stood at Tony’s right. In my mind, I listened to Lynn and Tony fire in unison with the sounds of the assault rifles firing at the same time becoming music to my ears, which filled me with a desire to kill. I fired the remaining shotgun shells I had and went to the Colt. I let loose with round after round until the clip was empty.

 The fiends didn’t fare well in this battle. Their kind fell at such a rate that their tangled corpses stacked amongst one another.

The final unfortunate zombie found itself trapped within the pile. With its arms moving in a swimming motion, the fiend continued to reach out for human flesh.

 Tony advanced on the pinned zombie. “This one’s mine,” he growled. He placed his foot on the back of the zombie’s head, set the barrel of the assault rifle against the side of fiend’s temple, and squeezed the trigger.

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