Silver

When a boy is bitten by a strange silver beetle, he becomes the first victim of a mysterious infection. But this is no ordinary virus. It turns flesh into metal, and pupils into machines. As the virus spreads and more terrifying, blood-thirsty machines appear, a small group manage to barricade themselves inside the school. Can they keep the machines at bay long enough for help to arrive? Is help even coming? Meanwhile the virus is spreading and its victims are changing… evolving… becoming stronger… The world as our heroes know it is turning silver. Will any of them survive?

Silver is 28 Days Later meets Assault On Precinct 13. I just really wanted to write a siege thriller, a ticking-clock kind of story set in an enclosed environment, but with kids instead of gun-toting adults as the protagonists. It was kind of refreshing as well to write a story in a relatively ‘normal’ environment, instead of a fantasy realm which needed all the rules working out. I had a lot of fun just working out the plot with this one, following four different pupils as the world collapses around them. Lots of stories show you the end of civilisation on a grand scale. I wanted to make it personal.

And they’re not zombies, okay? 😉