PART IV: BOOKS - A5 P4


Man, this is a long a$$ book review; past the mid point. Two entries took a life of their own, so I'm breaking this into a two parter. Good food for thought.

11) "The Day After" by John A. Russo. Yes, that Russo, co-writer of the 1968 movie. This is a direct sequel to the movie. Another of my favorites here. Taking place seconds after the end credits, showing the corpse pile being ignited.

We follow Sheriff McClelland as he and his posse clean up/shoot up the dead. They're at "Miller" farmhouse. The dead have mostly left the place. Out wandering, somewhat together (a pack) is the ghouls, Johnny, Karen and Barbara...

"Pieces of her were now gone. She bore a big bloody bite marks and gaping wounds on her body. Part of her lips, nose, and ears were missing".

The main part of the story is about Jed Harris. He's a lineman for the Willard Power Company; going up poles - fixing connection problems and general maintenance. Since this area is out in the sticks, he's been out there alone, going from pole to pole, climbing up and doing his job. Well, not alone, his dog Barney is there with him. He's been pretty much camping in the company van all this time, sleeping under the stars as it were.

What saved him from the apocalypse was being so isolated from civilization, there's pretty much nothing out there, but the woods and the road. It is now as he's up a power pole that the dead have come to him... three of them.

Different three.

Hands reached for the dog in the van, sleeping in the passenger seat. Barney fought back, biting a hand but was pulled out and eaten. The noise is what got Jed's attention, he rushed down and got circled. His only weapons are in his tool belt - hammer and large screwdriver are blunt. He almost got bitten, but used his hammer to crush his assailant head.

Five more come out of the forrest to meet their meal. Because of their numbers they blocked his escape. Making matters worse, he dropped the screwdriver, a distance away.

He's saved by a woman in a jeep who crashed into the ghouls, clearing the road for a moment - Jed jumps in.

She is puzzled why this man is out in the middle of nowhere and he's confused about what is happening. Both clue in the other. The obvious question is asked...

"The dead are coming back to life. Don't you watch TV or listen to the radio?"

I've been out here in the boondocks on my own, checking and repairing telephone lines. The job got harder and stranger, 'cause all of a sudden there was no communication from my home office. I kept on trying to do my job, trying to figure out the problem. Power lines seem to be out of whack everywhere - malfunctioning at best.
- Jed

The young woman is Danielle Greer. She sells cosmetics and various women accessories door to door.

This makes sense.

The year is 1968 after all, many people did live out from the cities, away from the suburbs, rural areas. There would be enough customers to make a decent living do that. Even charging a premium for this person to person service. Folks who don't want to travel far into town to buy that shampoo, soap, creams and make-up. Clothes too.

She lives in Willard, but has a cabin in Evansville to be near her customers when she does her rounds. Danielle found out the hard way when she visited one of her customers. She found the lady dead in the living room, all chewed up. No power, no phone - all dead. She was heading back to Willard to report it to the police. Had the radio on and discovered the improbable was happening.

Jed was out there trying to solve a mystery, the pastor of St. Willard's church had made a call, saying the power was out for the church and school. He went out to fix that, then a ton of phone calls came in saying the same thing - no power.

He's been busy trying to fix the connections; some of which had frayed breaks in the lines. Too busy to listen to the radio, workin'.

It's Danielle who decides to change course and head for the church, "by now they could be surrounded."

The school is at siege - the one room room school, next to the church. The place had been under attack for several hours. Many of the stained glass windows had given way. What could be, were boarded up. The place has nearly two dozen ghouls, trying get the flesh inside. There is a radio inside, but because of their location, can only get intermitted signals. Things are bad. And it's happening everywhere.

The adults present are the pastor, a nun Sister Hillary and Janice Kimble - mother of Annie, the eldest kid in school (at twelve).. All four are doing their best to keep the others safe; nailing boards and doing what they can to boost morale, some of the children are five and six.

The ghouls who have not attacked - are milling around the place and growing in numbers. There is a fourth adult, but useless, Pete Gilley the janitor who is reaching his breaking point. End of the world, pulls out his hidden stash of booze (whiskey) and starts drinking and smoking in front of them.

Then Gilley goes over to his toolbox and pulls out a chisel. He's gonna make a dash to the back of the shed where his motor scooter is. A plea not to go, the risk of him letting them inside. Nope. Informs them "I quit! I'm gettin' the hell outta here. Don't try to stop me."

No use, but to minimize danger. The pastor goes to the back door to open and shut quick, a gray steel door. No luck. Pete becomes diner, came close though. Too many of them around the scooter. By the way, McClelland and men are headed in the same direction as Danielle and Jed.

One of the kids' parents comes to save the day... yeah, he gets eaten too in front of his kid looking at his dad through the window. Kyle Samuels was eaten by Karen, Barbara and Johnny among others. But not before Kyle tried to flee in his car - which crashes into the school, busting open a hole and setting the place on fire.

Zombie Karen is destroyed in the impact; Johnny and Barbara are still moving about. Bad timing and location, the impact took down Janice who got dead and set on fire too. Because of the crash, the noise and smell of cooking flesh, the ghouls move towards the opening, keeping a distance from the fire.

A break in the concretion. They rest flee though the back door. The pastor grabs a log from the log pile and tells to kids to...

"Grab something to bash them with!".

Three kids were too slow or in shock and were promptly dined on. Then two more children. It is because of their deaths, the rest had gotten away, attention focused on the uninfected flesh.

The two had heard an explosion as they raced towards the church, not sure what had happened. Once they arrived they saw the aftermath: school on fire, dead kids still being feasted on. But the dead numbers do not add up - no child zombies. More of them, had to have gotten away. It was just a question of - where???

The pastor and nun lead the rest of the students up a cliff, a "hazardous climb" to a semi-safe place, a cave. They could push down any ghoul trying to reach them, a good fall to the base.

But things get worse. Not from the zombies, but humans, well armed rednecks coming from a blue van. No salvation.

"More hostages. More zombie feed, Blaze".

Now... this is the point where I was confused. It's what Father Ed said to the men that is perplexing. From the start of this story were are made quite clear this is 1968, picking up seconds after the movie ended. This one line, is trying to set it up as revisionist history.

Whatever you've done, we can't tell on you. We have no cell phones, we have nothing.
Pardon???

Nowhere previous was there any mention of modern tech. Don't know if this was an error in Russo writing. Did he want to straddle both, past and future? For me, I just ignore that line. Cell phones never come up again. AND the internet isn't mentioned at all.

I'll stop here. Things go real bad (in the good way) for our characters. Some end up dead. In the very end, it is Sheriff McClelland, his men and National Guard who save the day. Not saying how. This is one of the better stories, minus that cell phone comment.

12) "The Girl On The Table" by Isaac Marion. Another period tale, told from the point of view of Karen Cooper. The situations that lead her and parents to that isolated farmhouse. And what she hoped from life - she wanted to live in New York, sights seen from a school trip; in-between this is the happenings above the cellar, the voices that she hears.



It was okay. I much prefer the non-canon book that was Christopher Andrews' "Night Of The Living Dead" (2009; from Rising Star Visionary Press) - reviewed here on April 27th, 2017. You can "click here to read Part II", about midway, you'll hit The Coopers after the entry on Tom and Judy.

That had more weight to it. Marion's version of events is mundane. He does adhere that the radiation from the Venus Probe what created the crisis.

So what happened?

The couple had been watching the news - coverage of folks who had gone mad. But these reports are still a world away. What was their catalyst?

Cigarettes.

I kid you not.