Exclusive Excerpt from Dead Over Heels

Today we're happy to be hosting an exclusive excerpt of Dead Over Heels by Alison Kemper. You'll want to get your hands on this one!

Vrrr-vrrr! I find my feet and wave the Weedwacker like a sword. Vrrr-vrrr! The vinyl string spins close to their ashy flesh.

At that moment, my brain seems to unlock. On TV, they’d been joking around, calling the infection “Zombie Flu.” And now I know for sure that’s exactly what’s in front of me. Because these three people look like something straight out of a horror movie. Scabbed, slimy skin, streaked with dirt and blood. Rough, jerking motions.

Jesus. This can’t be happening.

My breath comes fast. I keep my eyes locked on the flesh-eaters. One gal trips over her high heels but keeps reaching in my direction, arms extended, eyes rolled back in her sockets.

Vrrrrrr-vrrrrr! I herd them back, revving the motor into a loud whine. “Take that, flu people!” They retreat into the copse. Vrrr-v—

The motor spins into silence. Oh, no.

No, no, no. Damn thing ran outta gas! For a moment I stand staring at the useless Weedwacker.

“Rawr!”

I toss the machine to the ground and take off.

In two seconds flat, the infected are out of the trees and on my tail, moaning their dadgum heads off. That sound they make—“Rawwwrrr!”—it’s like T-Rex crossed with dying cow.

Or exactly like the sound a zombie makes.

My pulse drums in my ears as I clamber up the steep hill.

Up the hill? Why the hell am I climbing up the hill? Toward the house? Toward that girl? What am I thinking? Now ain’t the time to be a hero. I need to get the hell outta here! Down the road, in the woods—someplace far, far away. These infected people aren’t fast; I could outrun them in two seconds on level ground.

But the girl. Eva, Ava, whatever. She doesn’t know about the flu monsters in her front yard. Her parents are gone. She’s alone in that house. I can’t just leave her.

I scrabble up the incline, my feet twisting on loose rocks.

“Rawr!”

Golfer-zombie’s slap-up behind me, lower down the slope. He might be slow, but I’m slow, too, fumbling up this slant. He grabs and catches my shoelace. Desperate, I thrash out and kick his mouth. Crack. The steel toe of my boot connects with his teeth.

Part of me wants to apologize, but instead I’m screaming my fool head off. A terrified, frantic sound in the back of my throat. Gotta get up this hill.

I reach the crappy, half-rotted steps, concrete crumbling beneath my shoes. Almost there.

“Girl!” I shout. “Hey, girl.”

My feet hit the gravel drive, and I’m sprinting now, leaving the infected still halfway up the hill.

“Evie,” I yell. “Ada!”

No movement at the house.

Damn it all to hell.

I throw myself against the front door, pounding with my fists, kicking with my boots. The infected finally reach the top of the slope and regroup on the gravel driveway.

“Rawr,” they chorus and begin to shamble in my direction.

Crap. The girl’s probably got her iPod cranked up and can’t hear a thing. One last try and then I gotta bolt.

“Girl! Girl! Hey, you,” I holler.

A rattle at the lock and the door swings open. Hair in a ponytail, workout clothes, and sneakers. And attitude oozing from every pore.

“My name,” she says, “is not Girl or Hey you. It’s Ava.”

“Well, Ava, let me in your damn house. There’s zombies out here.”

Author Info:

Alison Kemper writes fun, flirty romances set during a zombie apocalypse. Her first novel DONNA OF THE DEAD (Entangled Teen) spent several weeks on the Kindle YA Humor bestseller list.

Her new novel DEAD OVER HEELS will be released September 29, 2014-- just in time for Halloween reading!

She loves to meet new people and talk books, so send her a friend request or connect with her Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

Find Alison Online:

Website  *  Twitter  *  Goodreads  *  Facebook

Book Info:

The end of the world just might be their perfect beginning…

Glenview, North Carolina. Also known―at least to sixteen-year-old Ava Pegg―as the Land of Incredibly Boring Vacations. What exactly were her parents thinking when they bought a summer home here? Then the cute-but-really-annoying boy next door shows up at her place in a panic…hollering something about flesh-eating zombies attacking the town.

At first, Ava’s certain that Cole spent a little too much time with his head in the moonshine barrel. But when someone―or something―rotted and terrifying emerges from behind the woodpile, Ava realizes this is no hooch hallucination. The undead are walking in Glenview, and they are hungry. Panicked, Ava and Cole flee into the national forest. No supplies, no weapons. Just two teenagers who don’t even like each other fighting for their lives. But that’s the funny thing about the Zombpocalypse. You never know when you’ll meet your undead end. Or when you’ll fall dead over heels for a boy…

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