Ghosts — Shawn Chesser

"Through a combination of tight, well-structured plots and fully realized characters, Chesser has emerged as one of the top indie writers in the business." Joe McKinney - Two-time Bram Stoker Award winner, and best-selling author of the Dead World series.Ghosts, Book 8 in the bestselling Surviving the Zombie Apocalypse series, picks up where Warpath, Book 7 ends.Cade Grayson, father, husband, and former Delta Force operator collected his fair share of ghosts as the Omega virus ravaged the United States, turning the majority of her population into mindless automatons hungering for human flesh.Wearing incredulous stares, the faces of those ghosts -- dozens of men, women, and children he was unable to save during his many forays into the Z-infested wasteland -- visit him nightly during the early morning hours when defenses are dulled and REM sleep has him in its firm grip.For others who lost contact with loved ones during the frantic first hours and days of the Omega outbreak, their ghosts manifest in the nagging possibility that a wife or child or mother or sibling may still be alive out there, somewhere, struggling to survive amongst the multitudes of walking corpses and roving bands of murderous breathers.So as the Eden survivors prepare their rural Utah compound for the coming fall and winter they find that the herds of dead patrolling the nearby State Route aren't their only enemy.Idle time seems to be giving power to their ghosts. And with each perceived whiff of familiar perfume, or flash in the side vision of a familiar form that proves to be nonexistent, the lure of wanting to know their fate begins to affect some of the group adversely.Even after attaining a modicum of closure in the high country of central Idaho, Duncan Winters continues to seek solace for his loss at the bottom of a whiskey bottle.And still struggling with the post-traumatic stress from being held concubine in Robert Christian's mansion in Jackson Hole, Daymon's girlfriend Heidi hides from her ghosts below ground, spending nearly every waking moment tethered to the HAM radio by a pair of headphones, scouring the airwaves for other survivors.Meanwhile, still healing from the wounds suffered in Idaho, former BLM firefighter Daymon Bush ponders what ultimately became of his mom. Face-to-face with thousands of dead and ultimately forced to turn back short of her home in the suburbs south of Salt Lake City, Daymon can't shrug off the baggage of the thwarted rescue attempt.Similarly affected, former Jackson Hole Chief of Police Charlie Jenkins trudges through the day-to-day machinations necessary for survival, hollow of heart, all the while wrestling with the idea of venturing to Salt Lake City in search of his missing adult-aged daughter.As winter looms and hordes of living dead continue migrating about the countryside, will the group finish their preparations and reconcile with their ghosts before venturing topside becomes the exception to the norm?Can Daymon juggle Heidi's internal problems and his own desire to know what happened to his mom, all while continuing to pull his weight for the greater good of the Eden Compound?Will Duncan take the first step and put the plug in the jug so he can get on with living?Will Cade and Brook succeed in cultivating in their daughter Raven the level of self-sufficiency necessary to survive her new world?And will Taryn, Wilson, and Sasha strike a balance between their personalities long enough to make it through a day without turmoil -- let alone the long dark days and months ahead of them?Or will Mister Murphy -- of Murphy's Law fame -- intervene and fracture the group for good? Come along and find out who has what it takes to Survive the Zombie Apocalypse.