Melissa and her twin children, Oliver and Emily, are living in a nightmare world. They make sure no light leaves the house as they settle in for the night. The last thing they do is to check in on Jake, who is lying ill in the bedroom. Shrouded in darkness, and handcuffed to the bed, the family says their goodnights as Melissa tells the children that their daddy is their for his own safety. Whatever ails him will turn him in to a monster that will seek to harm them. Shortly before dawn, Melissa wakes to the sounds of Jake thrashing in bed and attempting to rip free from the handcuffs. Peering into the room through the keyhole, she sees that her husband has fully succumbed to his illness and turned into a vicious monster. As they retreat, they are suddenly surprised by the sound of Jake throwing himself against the door in a bid to attack the rest of his family. As they try to secure themselves, Jake breaks through their barricade, and the family have to run for their lives hoping to avoid the creature he has become and try to survive until the sun rises.

I will be honest but this book caught my eye more from the front cover than the fact it is another covid / zombie story. I’m not going to say the front cover is any good, in fact in my opinion it is a hilarious cover, but if it’s job was to get my attention, well it did succeed. To my surprise, the story inside was actually far better than the cover made it out to be. While the plot has been very common over the last few years, mixing covid with zombies, this is still a well-written piece in its own right. Reading about the family, the children who don’t quite understand and the mother who knows all to well, you can understand in the few short hours, just how desperate the situation is from how they react. You can feel the tension over the night as they struggle to come to terms with what is happening, which only breaks further as they have to survive. The writing switches cleanly between the two halves of the story giving us time to get to know them, before upping the action and forcing them to react to the situation. The ending does leave you wondering what state the family is has been left in as the sun does rise, but I guess that would be for a future story.

The only main issue I had is that the viewpoint of the story changes quickly from person to person through the story without really showing the break between them. Aside from the aforementioned cover, the formatting of the book is fine, although it could possibly have done with being split into chapters. There are links to the author’s main story, so if you do enjoy this short story, there is something more to read. I didn’t notice any grammar or spelling issues either and in general this was a great story to read.