After Twilight: Walking with the Dead Book

First published in 2008, Travis Adkins's post-apocalyptic zombie novel #After Twilight: Walking with the Dead' formed the sequel to his 2004 zombie extravaganza 'Twilight of the Dead'. Now with a small but relatively dedicated fanbase ready to lap up this quietly anticipated sequel, Adkins has the chance to take the 'Twilight' novels on to further and hopefully more unexplored grounds.

The book begins with a short four page introduction from the self proclaimed bizarro author, Andre Duza. Duza is already well accustomed to the post-apocalyptic zombie subgenre, having a number of published titles under his own belt within this hugely popular field. Straight after Duza's flattering although slightly surreal introduction is another new two page map of the Eastpointe grounds. This gives the reader the opportunity to easily get to grips with the enclosure and the various principal locations within its walls.

The novel begins in Eastpointe where questions are beginning to be asked as to why the Black Beret's had not yet returned from their mission to collect the supposed anti-virus that the mysterious new arrival, Dr Aaron Dane, was to escort them to. The facility, now being run exclusively by Odd Fellows members, has been quietly monitoring the airwaves, listening to the different surviving communities that are broadcasting around the country. The Odd Fellows decide to withhold this information from their community as well as not announcing their existence to the other surviving communities. The only exception they make to this is with Vaughn Winters who they need to keep the others away from the trading paths of these other communities.

Meanwhile, Leon Wolfe (now fully recovered from the zombie bite thanks to the anti-virus) and Courtney Colvin are still trapped on the roof of a block of apartments, with the undead surrounding the premises at ground level (as per the ending of 'Twilight of the Dead'). Whilst Colvin rests after her tiring ordeal from confronting and killing Dr Dane, Wolfe explores the lower levels and rooms of the building. Upon making an apartment safe from the threat of any wandering zombies, Wolfe brings Colvin down into the safety of the apartment to rest up some more.

However, their fellow Black Beret, Vaughn Winters (previously somewhat of a 'hard rock' star) has found himself remarkably still alive after suffering some very serious wounds at the hands of Dr Dane and his 'modified' zombies. Winters awakens on top of a cold steel table with his previously slashed throat now crudely held together with industrial strength staples. Winters manages to escape from the Atlantic Princess which saw the slaughter of so many of his fellow comrades. Upon leaving the vessel with only a fireman axe as protection, Winters emerges on to solid land where hordes of the undead are surrounding the apartment block where unbeknown to him Colvin and Wolfe are held up inside.

Winters slaughters a huge number of the undead in a frenzy of adrenaline fuelled aggression, until utterly weakened by his efforts, he drags his exhausted body off in the direction of Eastpointe. Keeping up with the painful pace of Winters, are literally thousands of the undead, each and every one of them craving for his flesh.

When Winters finally arrives at the gates of Eastpointe with an army of zombies in tow, he collapses and is dragged in to the complex by the facilities law enforcement officers Marshal Tyrell Young and his deputy Creyton. The gates are shut and the alarm disabled as the zombies slowly pile up against Eastpointe's protective fencing.

Upon waking from their much needed slumber, Wolfe and Colvin are able to finally leave the apartment complex where they thought they would die within from the zombie siege and they make their way back to Eastpointe within one of the two abandoned Humvees from outside.

Upon arriving back at the relative secure sanctuary of Eastpointe, Wolfe finds himself confronted by his one time comrade Vaughn Winters. After taking exception to the secretive oppression of the Odd Fellows member s that are running the complex, the ex-Black Beret finally loses his mind and begins a murderous rampage in an effort to kill every citizen of Eastpointe.

With the Fourth of July celebrations in full swing, a crazed Black Beret on a mission to kill everyone and hordes of the undead on the very doorstep of Eastpointe; Tyrell, Creyton, Leon and Courtney are soon to become up against their biggest and most terrifying challenge yet...

With 'After Twilight: Walking with the Dead', Adkins continues from exactly where the first novel concluded with its uber-frustrating cliff hanger. Adkins inserts a number of subtle reminders of where the last novel finished up so as to help the reader recall the events that preceded the sequel.

The remarkable survival of Vaughn Winters, is somewhat hazily glossed over, with no real explanations given. Was Winters was also subjected to the anti-virus which kept him alive after he was inflicted with such sever and potentially life threatening wounds? This question is frustratingly never answered? But throughout the novel (especially after Winters goes on his maniacal rampage) the reader is constantly questioning what happened to the Black Beret whilst he was unconscious and at the hands of the sadist Dr Aaron Dane. Alas, Adkins never reveals if there is indeed something more to Winter's survival and subsequent killing spree.

Adkins inserts a subtle little homage to all the zombie enthusiasts with almost a word for word rendition of the WGON broadcast from Dawn of the Dead stating "Any dead body that is not exterminated becomes one of them! It gets up and kills! The people it kills, get up and kill".

The majority of the novel seems to flow along with very little in the way of a solid storyline seeming to be present. Adkins flutters backwards to the pre-apocalyptic life of Vaughn Winters, where he was an up and coming 'hard rock star'. This does help to flesh out these newly acquired principle role for the character a little more, however the back story does seem to take up too much of the novel. The inclusion of six of the pages from Winters's lyric notebook is however utterly cringe worthy if nothing else. Adkins should certainly steer clear of such lyrical efforts in future, for want of avoiding the levels of cheese that was scribbled within this 'lyrical notebook'.

Although the first half of the novel seems to simply run its course without any real direction towards the principal storyline becoming apparent, Adkins does still manage to maintain a thoroughly enjoyable read that just flows with a great ease.

Courtney Colvin takes somewhat of a back seat within this sequel, instead giving over the principal character role equally to both Leon Wolfe and Tyrell Young (as well as the changing role of Vaughn Winters). Although they come across as quite clichéd cardboard cut-out characters throughout, Adkins successfully substitutes the need for more realistic characters by instead injecting a thick array of interweaving subplots that seems to replace the need for the character depth.

Adkins certainly picks up the pace of the novel once Vaughn's back history has been covered and his subsequent escape from the Atlantic Princess is underway. From here on, the novel builds up with its heart-racing action, delivering a number of scenes of zombie carnage. The grande final of the novel is not only dramatic and pure edge of the seat material; but it also delivers numerous miniature finales, that barrage the reader with an all round epic concluding few chapters.

With 'After Twilight: Walking with the Dead', it feels like you have read two novels. Not due to the length of the novel (which is of a normal novel length), but due to the nature and pace of the storyline that seems to be broken into two distinctive sections. The first section is a slower more meandering story, with little to no zombie action. The second section is a monstrously paced action filled storyline crammed to the rafters with zombie carnage and blood spill. The veritable tsunami of a ending leaves the reader gasping for air; already setting up the score for the following instalment 'Twilight of the Dead: Exodus'.

The novel runs for a total of 267 pages and is published by the zombie/post-apocalyptic obsessed Permuted Press.