Deadfall is a novel written from journalistic entries. While there have been several novels within this genre that have used that method, Richard Flunker has gotten it right. The novel tells the tale of survivors following a zombie apocalypse focusing mainly on Brian former history teacher and son of a famous, wealthy, apocalyptic fiction author. During his travels, he encounters other survivors that come as a shock to him as he was under the impression that everyone was pretty much dead, deadish or mobile dead.
As we see this changed world through Brian’s writing, we meet Evan, Aaron, Lucy, Dawn, and Tague. These new additions to the plot are a mixed bunch. Evan is the hunter who knows a little about firearms. Aaron and Lucy are the couple very much in love. Dawn is the proverbial preacher’s wife, older than the others. Tague is a former overseas CNN stringer. Along the way, this new group rescues Heather and Chris, brother and sister.
As the story moves along, there are some other journal entries and notes made by the other supporting characters. The premise is that while Brian is writing his journal, the others are contributing their own stories as well.
We learn that there was some kind of asteroid comprised mostly of ice that was on a direct collision course with earth. I know, this has been done in several other genres with the most prevalent being Max Brooks and George Romero. However, this particular asteroid is destroyed or rather chopped down into smaller pieces which then break up and melt during reentry, infiltrating the atmosphere with some kind of alien spore. I’ll stop there as its beginning to sound like the plot to a B-movie.
Over the course of the book, its comes out that Brian and his father aren’t that close and before the interstellar ice burns up, Brian’s dad had invited him out to his ‘secret’ house up in the Blue Ridge Mountains. Before I get into more of the story I just want to clarify that the Blue Ridge Mountains are only considered mountains by those people that haven’t seen the Rockies or the Cascades. They don’t usually get snow unless the snow level drops under 3000 feet. Most of us would consider them hills. Geography and geological lesson over, we now return you to the review of Deadfall Survivors by Richard Flunker, already in progress.
To recap we have an ice chunk asteroid, destroyed in space but really broken down into smaller chunks that then burn up in the atmosphere thereby releasing some alien spore onto earth’s unsuspecting populace. Brian and his merry band of survivors move back towards Brian’s father’s super secret, underground, self-sufficient home in the Blue Ridge Mountains. From Brian’s perspective, all he’s lost is his father who some months back decided to take a hike and see what was left of civilization. For reasons unknown, Brian stayed behind. Now that he’s emerged from his underground lair, he travels the area until he meets other survivors who then band together to help build a better tomorrow. Along the way they encounter some wacked out cult that worship some Sumerian deity and is looking for Brian’s father. This leads Brian to start wondering what’s so special about his author father that some cult is interested in him. This leads Brian to begin the quest for his father.
Deadfall Survivors is more than just a story of survival after a zombie apocalypse. It’s a journey of self discovery for the main character of Brian. He rediscovers the wonders of nature he knew as a young boy and discovers that he’s not alone in a world populated by the mobile dead.
Now comes the interesting part or what I like to refer to as the technical dissection of the book. Yes, that’s right sports fans, there are some small issues that need to be addressed. When Brian and his boys encounter survivors from the military its gets a little hazy. Throughout the book, we come to know Brian is not familiar with firearms and it’s stressed that he’s just not comfortable with them. But, Evan, the character with some limited hunting experience is supposed to know enough to be able to train others in their use. This is where we have some fun. The cult followers somehow shoot down a couple of US Army helicopters that we later find out are antique UH-1 Hueys which are hardly ever used as they’ve been replaced by the UH-60 Black Hawk. Moving on, Brian and his gang help one of the flight crews of the helicopters that were shot down and Evan runs to the wreck and salvages a .50 caliber heavy machine gun. He does this by himself. First off, its kind of unlikely that a M2 .50 heavy machine gun (emphasis on the heavy part) would be mounted in a UH-1 or even a UH-60 and its equally unlikely that Evan could move one by himself given that there are usually 3 people assigned to that weapon unless its mounted on a vehicle or ship. I’m leaning more towards the M-249 or the M-240 that was mounted on that airframe but that’s just me.
With those little peccadillos aside, Deadfall Survivors is an engrossing, captivating tale of life after a zombie apocalypse as told through the main character’s journal entries.
Available at Amazon.
