I don’t really care.
I am what life has made me.
Besides, you’re wrong about all of it—I’m worse.
Here’s what I will tell you: I’ve seen and done things that would make you vomit. I spend the majority of my time in the shadows, and sometimes darkness clings. Sometimes it’s hard to shake off. But most important, I will die to protect what’s mine—better yet, I will kill.
Ali is mine.
If you’re out there, Anima—and I know that you are—if you’re planning to make another move against my girl, you had better be prepared to battle the beast you’ll wake. I will hunt you, and I will not stop. I will take you out one by one, until the last of you is gone.
You may look at me and see a teenager. An afterthought. I will look at you and see a target. A dead one.
I’m very good at hitting my targets.
So, think long and hard before you decide to take me on. There is nothing I won’t do—nothing—to ensure the health and wellness of those I love. If you’re smart, you’ll run and hide before it comes to that.
This is the only warning you will receive.
Cole Holland
Dedication
To the two best kids any mother could ever have—my kids. R and V. I’m blessed to have you, blessed to have raised you and blessed to know you. May your lives be everything you dream. Mommy loves you.
To a wonderful husband who, after almost twenty years of marriage, still makes me feel pretty...even though I wear the same sweatpants almost every day of the week. Washed smoshed.
To my best friend Jill Monroe, who still takes my calls, even at the most inopportune times. What a treasure you are! One of my favorite divine connections.
To my “totes amazeballs” editor Natashya Wilson, who goes above and beyond for me every time. Your support means more to me than I can possibly say. And I don’t think I can ever thank you enough for your notes on this book. Talk about nailing it! Woman, you make me smile.
To my mother, who, when I called crying, picked me up, dusted me off and helped me stand back on my feet.
To my agent, Deidre Knight, who supports me every step of the way. I’m excited to march into the future with you!
To Alyshea Rains. I’m blessed to know you!
And to God, because at one of the lowest points in my life, I looked up and there You were with Isaiah 43:1-2.
Keep reading for an excerpt from ALICE IN ZOMBIELAND by Gena Showalter.
If you loved Through the Zombie Glass, be sure to catch Alice in Zombieland in the White Rabbit Chronicles series, by New York Times bestselling author Gena Showalter.
Be sure to also catch the Intertwined series by Gena Showalter.
Most sixteen-year-olds have friends. Aden Stone has four human souls living inside him. One can time-travel. One can raise the dead. One can tell the future. And one can possess another human. Everyone thinks he’s crazy…
Intertwined
Unraveled
Twisted
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A Note from Alice
Had anyone told me that my entire life would change course between one heartbeat and the next, I would have laughed. From blissful to tragic, innocent to ruined? Please.
But that’s all it took. One heartbeat. A blink, a breath, a second, and everything I knew and loved was gone.
My name is Alice Bell, and on the night of my sixteenth birthday I lost the mother I loved, the sister I adored and the father I never understood until it was too late. Until that heartbeat when my entire world collapsed and a new one took shape around me.
My father was right. Monsters walk among us.
At night, these living dead, these...zombies...rise from their graves, and they crave what they lost. Life. They will feed on you. They will infect you. And then they will kill you. If that happens, you will rise from your grave. It’s an endless cycle, like a mouse running inside a barbed wheel, bleeding and dying as those sharp tips dig ever deeper, with no way to stop the lethal momentum.
These zombies feel no fear, know no pain, but they hunger. Oh, do they hunger. There’s only one way to stop them—but I can’t tell you how. You’ll have to be shown. What I can tell you is that we must fight the zombies to disable them. To fight them, we must get close to them. To get close to them, we must be a little brave and a whole lot crazy.
But you know what? I’d rather the world considered me crazy while I go down fighting than spend the rest of my life hiding from the truth. Zombies are real. They’re out there.
If you aren’t vigilant, they’ll get you, too.
So. Yeah. I should have listened to my father. He warned me over and over again never to go out at night, never to venture into a cemetery and never, under any circumstances, to trust someone who wants you to do either. He should have taken his own advice, because he trusted me—and I convinced him to do both.
I wish I could go back and do a thousand things differently. I’d tell my sister no. I’d never beg my mother to talk to my dad. I’d stop my tears from falling. I’d zip my lips and swallow those hateful words. Or, barring all of that, I’d hug my sister, my mom and my dad one last time. I’d tell them I love them.
I wish...yeah, I wish.
1
Down the Zombie Hole
Six months ago
“Please, Alice. Please.”
I lay sprawled on a blanket in my backyard, weaving a daisy chain for my little sister. The sun shone brightly as puffy white clouds ghosted across an endless expanse of baby blue. As I breathed in the thick honeysuckle and lavender perfume of the Alabama summer, I could make out a few shapes. A long, leggy caterpillar. A butterfly with one of its wings shredded. A fat white rabbit, racing toward a tree.
Eight-year-old Emma danced around me. She wore a glittery pink ballerina costume, her pigtails bouncing with her every movement. She was a miniature version of our mother and the complete opposite of me.
Both possessed a slick fall of dark hair and beautifully uptilted golden eyes. Mom was short, barely over five-three, and I wasn’t sure Em would even make it to five-one. Me? I had wavy white-blond hair, big blue eyes and legs that stretched for miles. At five-ten, I was taller than most of the boys at my school and always stood out—I couldn’t go anywhere without getting a few what-are-you-a-giraffe? stares.
Boys had never shown an interest in me, but I couldn’t count the number of times I had caught one drooling over my mom as she walked by or—gag—heard one whistle as she bent over to pick something up.
“Al-less.” At my side now, Em stomped her slippered foot in a bid for my attention. “Are you even listening to me?”