As you read this, keep in mind that this is my VERY rough first draft, an ALPHA version if you will. There are lots of ideas rattling around in my head for this and I will work on it a little from time to time and once I have a full chapter, I will have it edited by someone much better than I. That being said, I want you to read it, give me your opinions, even your ideas on where to take it.
DEAD MOON
By: Lucas Murray
“Zombies and Werewolves!?” Tom was mocking me. “That will never work! What in the world
Tom was good guy, mid forties, a little extra around the waist and average height but he was a
great family man and had a couple wonderful boys. He didn’t think that I could write a book at all, let
alone one about zombies and werewolves.
“I am telling you, it can work man! I know the zombie genre is pretty saturated but there hasn’t
been a decent werewolf flick forever!” I was trying my hardest to convince him that this idea was
worth it. I am an aspiring writer but a Network Technician to pay the bills. Tom was a friend of mine,
we had met through a mutual friend and a love of renaissance festivals and video gaming a few years
Tom made a career change a couple years ago, he went from being a teacher for more than 20
years to being a self employed insurance agent for one of the big companies. He had a lot of financial
trouble when he started his business but has since then enjoyed a nice amount of success. I was trying
to get him to back my novel idea and was doing my best to not let on how much I had already started or
“Look, Luke, I have read some of your work. You’re an excellent writer, but you never finish
anything. You start all these projects and get people so very excited but then you fizzle out before you
He was right, of course. I have started about 3 novels and they still sit in my documents folder on my
computer. Fanfiction.net is full of people that are asking me to finish my Eureke/Warehouse 13 story.
What Tom didn’t know was that I recently had an experience that made me more than certain this was
“Alright Tom, I understand. How about this though. If I can get you 200 pages by the end of the
month, will you loan me the $3000 then?” I was doing my absolute best not to literally beg him.
“I’ll tell you what, you get me 200 pages by the 1st
I decided to drop it there, I was certain I could write the pages, hell I already had 50 pages and plenty
of ideas to keep me going for another month or two. I didn’t actually need the money for the book
though; self publishing is quite easy and cheap and I have already done the research on that. I needed
About 6 months ago I had to get new health insurance for my family and I. My wife and son had
no problems getting insurance but me, being 5’5” and 250 pounds, I was denied. I had to lose 30
pounds and the faster the better. I joined a martial arts class to try to have some fun while working out.
The class takes place in a dojo on the edge of town, and even though we live in the Houston
area, our town is pretty far away from it, close to a nature preserve. After my first class I walked across
the parking lot and into the wooded area that lies behind the dojo. I wanted to have a smoke and was
still embarrassed with myself that I started smoking after 2 years of not touching them. I said good
night to my classmates and told them I wanted to jog a little and burn off the excitement I had from my
class. I hadn’t gotten very far in when I stopped and picked a stump to sit on while I enjoyed a secret
Even though I told my friends that I wanted to jog, the truth was that my legs and arms were
killing me. I usually sit on my ass and play video games or troubleshoot computer networks. My
excersize usually consists of chasing my two year old around the house. The pain was pretty bad, so
much so that when I heard a scream coming from further into the dark woods, I almost didn’t go check
The scream was chilling, the kind of scream you expect to hear a teenage girl give out in a horror
movie. I looked around and there were no cars in the parking lot of the dojo except my own SUV and at
this late of an hour, no one on the nearby road. I walked about 100 feet into the woods and heard a soft
whimpering that instantly reminded me of the noise my son makes when is lying in bed and trying to get
our attention. The sound kicked my dad mode into gear and I put on a burst of speed to find out what it
was. I was crashing loudly through the brush and coming up on a downed tree that I was trying to
decide whether to jump over or go around when I saw slight movement to the left of the tree.
“Anyone there?” As I asked this question, I became suddenly aware of how alone and scary it
was out here. The air seemed to drop 15 degrees as I approached the… whatever it was… moving by the
“STOP!” An angry feminine voice rang out from the figure on the ground. “Stay there, it’s not
“It’s ok, I am here to help. If the tree on you? I can get you out of there.” I started moving
faster towards the woman. “Should I call you an ambulance?” I reached for my pocket but I had left my
phone in the truck since there had been no need to take it to class.
“NO, I SAID STOP! DON’T COME ANY CLOSER!” She sounded even more distressed.
It was too dark to see her very well, but I could tell that she was leaned up against the tree. It didn’t
look like she was stuck but something was obviously wrong. “Ma’am I am going to go get my phone and
my flashlight from my car. I will be right back, do you need anything else?”
“I need…nee…nee…” Her voice dropped 3 octaves while she stuttered a reply. I decided it
would be a better idea to check her out first before getting my phone so I jumped over the tree but
landed on my leg too hard. With the combined stress of the recent workout and hard landing I gave a
little yelp of pain. The woman on the ground screamed again which made me freeze in place. The
scream was chilly when I was far away but being this close to her, it made my skin crawl.
“Ma’am, please I need to help you out of here, let’s see if we can make it back to my car.” At
this point, I was pleading with her, trying to sound pathetic to muster up some sympathy. Not that
pathetic was difficult with my leg now thumping with pain.
The woman jumped up, looked at me and then looked back further into the woods and ran off
with a speed I knew I could not match, even if I not just hurt my leg. So I just stood there, in awe of the
amount of speed she was able to command, when it seemed that she was hurt worse than me.
The pain in my leg was getting worse and it was too dark for me to see it very well, I hoped that
I only pulled a muscle but feared that I may have torn something. With the night getting colder and my
leg getting worse, I started making my way back to my truck. There was no way I was going to be able to
go back over that tree so I had to walk around it.
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