Read and Reviewed: Blog Tour: Undead Ultra by Camille Picott

We're celebrating Zombie Awareness Monthwith a mini tour of Undead Ultra by Camille Picott! Read on for details, an exclusive excerpt, and a chance to win a $5 Amazon gift card!

Kate knows that she's had her ups and downs as a mother. So when the zombie apocalypse breaks out while her son is at college, she's determined to make it to him. But with cars out of the question and his college two hundred miles away, how is she to get there?

Well...it's fortunate she's in training for an ultra marathon...

I love zombie fiction. I've read and watched a lot of them. This one has two very unique angles; Kate is a marathoner, and these zombies are blind, hunting by sound. Such a tiny change that leads to such amazing things! I would really love to see this on screen, as it makes for some fabulous visuals.

I don't know a lot about marathoning, but as Camille runs marathons herself I assume it's all accurate. In all its gory glory, here and there. I could have done with a little less detail on the toll running takes on you, but that's part of the story too.

There are a couple of tiny errors here and there - Carter is five years old in a flashback, yet dispenses six year old logic; a family of zombies described as parents and teenage boys acquires a young girl for one paragraph - but nothing enough to throw me out of the story or make it unreadable. I will definitely be searching out the others in this series; I would love to know what happened next.

I really enjoyed this. A great read for a cold day. And I am absolutely, positively never going to be an ultrarunner. But more power to those who are.

Undead Ultra
Publication Date: April 7, 2016
Genre: Science-Fiction/ Post-Apocalypse/ Zombies
It’s life or death… …and two hundred miles to run. Can she survive the zombies and save her son?
When the virus hits, nobody is prepared. Society collapses and Kate’s son doesn’t have a way out of his dorm. She has to go get him, but the roads aren’t safe, and the government has blockades.
Everything is at a standstill.
It will be the race of her life.
Kate loves running. She’s gone from marathons to ultramarathons and knows what it takes to run a hundred miles at a time, but this is different. This is twice as far as she’s ever run…
…and finding food is a problem. Is it even possible?
You’ll love this unique take on the apocalypse because the struggle is unlike anything you’ve read before.

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Excerpt

The phone falls numbly from my fingers.

Despite my inner attempt to rally, all hope crumples up inside me. I slump over, wrapping my arms around my stomach.

This shit is real. CDC quarantines and checkpoints. Bio threats. Port closures.

Zombies.

My son is out there, trapped. And I have no way to get to him.

Frederico picks up my phone, silently thumbing through the headlines. He lets me cry, administering more pats to my back. I sense him looking up and down the frontage road.

“This isn’t over, Kate,” he says. “Not by a long shot.”

“What are you talking about?” I raise bitter eyes. “In case you didn’t notice, my car is completely fucked. Even if I did have a car, there’s the CDC quarantine and the fact that zombies swarm cars. Carter is barricaded in his dorm room with no one to help him. We’re stuck here.”

Frederico gives my back a final pat and pulls me upright. Looking me in the eye, he says, “Lace up, Kate. We’re hoofing it.”

I blink stupidly at him. “What?”

“Your car is totaled,” he says. “With all the shit that’s going down, maybe it’s a blessing in disguise. You want to find your son? Then we run.”

“You want to run? All the way to Arcata?”

He shrugs. “We scope out the situation as we go. If the roads look safe, we find a car to rent or buy. Or steal one, whatever. We can ditch it before we hit the CDC quarantine or if there are too many zombies. In the end, we’ll need to be on foot to get into Arcata.”

“But . . .” I work a quick calculation in my head. “That’s at least two hundred miles.”

Frederico takes my phone and pulls up a GPS app. After a moment, he says, “It’s exactly two hundred and one point three miles from this very spot to Humboldt University.”

“Two hundred and one miles?” I say, incredulous. “Neither of us has ever run that far before.”

“How many miles did you log last week?”

“One hundred thirty-six,” I reply instantly. I keep a running log and track my mileage and elevation work.

“I did one hundred and nine.”

I think about this. For the average, non-crazy person, running two hundred or more miles would be impossible. At an ambitious walk, they may cover fifteen miles a day. Maybe twenty, if they’re in great shape. But Frederico and I have both made a hobby of running ultra races. Insane long distances are our specialty.

My eyes dry. Something akin to hope blooms in my chest. If we only stop once or twice for catnaps—ultramarathons are run with little to no sleep—we can make good time. If we can find a car to use for a while, we can make really good time.

“Do you think we can make it in two days?”

Frederico, sensing my budding optimism, considers this. “Maybe, if we can knock out some distance in a car,” he says at last. “If we make the majority of the trip on foot, three days is a safer estimate.”

“But we’ll be on the road,” I say. “Road running is always faster than trail running, and we’ve both done one-hundred-mile trail runs in under twenty-four hours.”

“I haven’t done a sub-twenty-four in over five years, trail or road,” he replies. “The farther we go, the harder it will be to hold a decent pace. There’s no guarantee we’ll even be able to stay on the road. If things get hairy, we may be bushwhacking.”

“Seventy-two hours.” I nod, letting this new reality sink in. I might not be cut out for zombie killing, but I am a long-distance runner. “Okay.”

I pick up the phone and send one last message.

Sit tight, sweetie. Frederico and I are coming to get you. Be there as soon as we can.

Five seconds later, my phone rings. Carter’s smiling face pops up on the screen, an odd juxtaposition to everything that’s going on.

“Put that thing on silent,” Frederico says.

I obey, then hit the speaker button. “I thought you said you couldn’t talk on the phone,” I say anxiously.

“You can’t come here,” Carter hisses. His words are barely above a whisper. “Cars are zombie magnets. I don’t know how far south the outbreak has spread, but I’ve seen at least three cars get swarmed today.”

“No problem,” Frederico replies. “Your mom’s car is totaled, and we’re out in the middle of the vineyards without a taxi in sight. We’re running to you.”

Silence.

“You guys are crazy,” Carter hisses. “You can’t run here!”

“Your mom and I are indeed crazy, and we’re coming to get you, kiddo. Deal with it.” With that, Frederico hangs up.

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About the Author

Camille Picott has been writing Stories from the End of the World since she figured out how to turn on her family’s Apple IIe computer and wrangle a floppy disk into the drive. She loves nothing more than penning an epic action scene or pushing a character to his limits. When Camille isn’t writing or spending time with her family, she loves to run absurdly long distances. It’s not unusual to find her hitting the trail in her running shoes long before the sun rises or cranking out miles (and stories!) on her treadmill desk. She considers sleep optional and largely overrated. Visit Camille at www.camillepicott.com to sign up for her newsletter.

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Mini Tour Schedule

May 11^th

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May 12^th

Reads & Reels (Spotlight) http://readsandreels.com
Tranquil Dreams (Review) https://klling.wordpress.com

May 13^th

Misty’s Book Space (Review) http://mistysbookspace.wordpress.com

May 14^th

Cup of Books Blog (Review) https://cupofbooksblog.wordpress.com/

J Bronder Book Reviews (Review) https://jbronderbookreviews.com/