Dead Country synopsis.

[anthorn]

Obvious synopsis of my novel. I am 45'000 words into it and have reached the ambush of the Scabbers.
What do people think?


Dead Country Synopsis.

A week is all it takes for the world to end. A week for law to fail and for anarchy to rise, for Governments to fall and civilisation crumble. A week for everything to change as in seven days the world dies. It begins innocently as most things do with a scientist discovering the cure to all cancer. Unfortunately, someone interferes with the vaccine just in time for its first test and although the scientist discovers this he makes the fateful decision to test it on himself. At first the authorities call the infection an extreme bout of rabies, but then the dead begin to rise and soon County Durham is engulfed in chaos.

Abeke Sandiee who is an Escort from Africa finds herself caught in the middle of this chaos when she accompanies a client to a Caribbean Resort set in the moorlands of the Pennines. Here she meets a School cleaner called Michael Tarver. A boy named Greg Tanner, who like most teenagers is a pain, and Lucy Thornton who is the Hotel Receptionist. Thrown together they must rely on each other to survive the Zombies and reach the Catterick Garrison Army Base in Yorkshire. Battling hordes of the Walking Dead, they reach the base only to discover that things do not happen as they do in the films or books. Swallowed by the refugees they become just another statistic as the world dies.


Meanwhile the Zombie Apocalypse is recorded through the eyes and journals of the Military, Bloggers and a man who published perhaps the last book ever about the coming cataclysm.


Fifteen years later and Britain is a no go area. The Government has fled to France while America has opted to place mines around the entire coast. Humanity, like a cockroach, has managed to survive, banding together to live in Forts or Compounds where they live out their lives in some semblance of normality. Michelle Williams is a habitant of Compound 5 and is dealing with the loss of her daughter to the Zombie threat. When news arrives of the mysterious radio silence of Compound 6 she opts to travel with three others to solve the mystery. Her companions on the journey are the rather pessimistic Amanda Smith, her brother, and Alan Dale. They reach the Compound and discover it in ruins and its members either dead or now un-dead.



They also discover an ambush set by a group of scavengers called Scabbers because they pick the wounds of humanity. While James and Alan are killed outright, the women are kept to become sex slaves for the main gang in Gateshead. To Michelle’s surprise, she discovers a little girl in amongst the gang, learning that in the collapse of law many do not consider some things as taboo any longer. Horrified, she manages to formulate a plan that ensures their escape. Taking the little girl with them as they flee as more surprises await when they come across a Coach and a group consisting of an abused housewife and her children, a pregnant woman and a man with a hidden past led by former Policeman Shaun Gallagher. They have been frozen in time due to a forgotten Military experiment gone wrong.



Taking them back to Compound 5 their peace is short lived when a large group of Scabbers attack the Compound demanding the return of the little girl. Michelle who has begun to replace her dead daughter with this one is at first reluctant, but learning that this group of Scabbers have the water they need she is forced to relent. Once they have the much needed supplies however she decides to get the girl back. With the help of Shaun Gallagher she follows them back to their base and sneaks inside. A battle ensues between living and the Walking Dead where she is mortally wounded-though not before saving the girl. As she dies Michelle uses the explosives taken from the Compound Armoury to blow up the building and the Zombies she had let in. The last thing she sees before the end is her daughter, smiling.

[mithril]

Even though I usually do not read a zombie acolypse type novel, I liked the synopsis/outline. The only quibble I have with the story is why would the Scabbers place so much importance on getting one little girl back. However I'm sure you'll have taken care of that in the novel.

good luck with your writing.

[Bowler1]

Is there a link between the Tarver group and the Williams group, as they seem to be two separate storylines?
‘Swallowed by the refugees they become just another statistic as the world dies.’ – As it’s a zombie book, swallowed may have more than one meaning here, do the Tarver group survive or not?
The synopsis seems to be good to me, it covers the storyline well and seems to be to the point.
Have you had readers go through your work before submission? You can count on a reader to find the holes in your plot, so it really is a good idea to take your time before submission.

[anthorn]

I'm still not ready to let people see it and I don't have readers persay. The Tarver grpup and Williams group are seperate stories as Tarver happens as the world dies and the Williams starts 15 years later. There is a neat little link with the coach the Tarver group escaped on reappearing. I want it to be ambigous whether the Tarver group survived or not because life is like that and not like a book where everything is tied with a neat boe.

[Tecdavid]

I like it. I'm not really a fan of zombie storylines, but this summary did sound quite gripping. I actually like the notion of two separate storylines - one taking place when the threat begins, the other taking place in the thick of it all, especially if you say there'll be some connection between each plot, somewhere along the line.
Incorporating other sci-fi elements, such as the time-freezing experiment gone wrong, should help add some extra spice to the whole mix, too.

[Boneman]

'Scabbers' - wasn't that the name of Ron Weasley's rat?

I'm confused by this bit:

Abeke Sandiee who is an Escort from Africa finds herself caught in the middle of this chaos when she accompanies a client to a Caribbean Resort set in the moorlands of the Pennines. Here she meets a School cleaner called Michael Tarver. A boy named Greg Tanner, who like most teenagers is a pain, and Lucy Thornton who is the Hotel Receptionist. Thrown together they must rely on each other to survive the Zombies and reach the Catterick Garrison Army Base in Yorkshire. Battling hordes of the Walking Dead, they reach the base only to discover that things do not happen as they do in the films or books. Swallowed by the refugees they become just another statistic as the world dies.

Did they become zombies? Eaten by refugees? And surely it's only Britain that dies?

[anthorn]

They're called Scabbers because they're picking the wounds of humanity.

Yeah, it's only Britain that dies, but for most people Britain is the world if you know what I mean.

Currently toying with some of the scenes. I am thinking that 15 years would be too long a time to revisit. Wouldn't Zombies decay without food? Hmmm. I am thinking of reducing the time between the two stories so that there is only a year between them. This could grant me a further link between the two storylines.

Also considered making it a reverse order affair.
Start with train crash survivors and placed between these chapters will be the Abeke storyline and other random tales of the Apocalypse. The two lines intersec with the train survivors getting to the base and realising they're the only ones left. The fort survivors setting up for life in the Apocalypse.

Or, my original plan. Separate into books or parts and go.
Book one. Abeke's story-dealing with the outbreak and them going to Yorkshire.
Book two. Tales from the Apocalpyse-collecting stuff like soldier reports, facebook chats and blogs. Plus, the whole fort thing. Sort of a short story about other survivors.
Book three. Dealing with the aftermath either 15 years later, or earlier.

[SleepyDormouse]

Personally I don't like it when books jump from a group of people I've gotten to know to a new group that I do not care about, so you would have to make a very strong link between the two groups, or create such an interesting world that I want to keep reading regardless of losing the previous group.

Also, compound 5 going to check on compound 6 because of radio silence.. if they are in heavily secured units where leaving them is a real threat there needs to be a very desperate need to leave and check compound 6. If Michelle is going because her grief over loosing her daughter makes her fool hardy why are the other three going? Does the other compound supply important resources, trade or perhaps family members are there?

Her daughter smiling at the end is a bit freaky.. do you mean she has turned into a zombie too? Would seeing her zombie daughter make her more determined to blow it up or hesitate for a moment..

[Mouse]

Sorry, not read it, but just a note on 'Scabber.' It's a word we use in the westcountry (probably elsewhere too for all I know!) meaning a manky person. Scabber = skank. So works quite well, I think.

[anthorn]

She sees what she wants to see, sought of like in the moment before death you see the person you loved as they were. The daughter is a Zombie but at the moment Michelle kills them both, she sees her as she was alive.

So you would be in favour of reducing the time expired?