Wonderland: Life After the Zombie Apocalypse LGBT Fantasy
Independently Published
December 2, 2020
84
Zeke is a hermit in his late forties who lives a quiet life in a small cabin in the Western Montana mountains, a few miles outside of Thompson Falls. He’s gotten used to being alone since the end of the world, and has everything he needs. Everything but someone to talk to.
Nathan is a younger man on a cross-country trek, searching the country for someone... anyone still alive. Saddled with a ghost from his old life and a case of OCD, he stumbles upon Thompson Falls and a pack of rabid dogs.
Rescued by Zeke, he has to figure out how to be human again. And with Christmas just a week away, both men have to figure out if there’s something left to be hopeful for, and if they might have a future together.
Note: This story was originally published in the 2016 Mischief Corner Books anthology "This Wish Tonight," which is now out of print. It has been re-edited and slightly expanded.
Reviewed by Linda Tonis
Member of the Paranormal Romance Guild Review Team
Zeke has lived alone for over a year but it is not by choice, a plague left everyone dead and now Zeke finds himself the only man alive in a dead world. A plague that was caused either by man or an Act of God but there is no doubt that man is responsible in a large way because we take everything for granted and have abused the very world we live in. Today we face a pandemic and so an apocalypse is on many minds. This time the world is destroyed in a zombie apocalypse.
Zeke lives in rural Montana where he has stopped caring for himself physically, where his house looks like the inside of a hoarder’s home but there is no one to care. Visits to the store for canned goods and when they run out he just has to go to another town where he will once again be greeted by another empty space.
Nathan was at a gay campsite when the plague killed everyone but him and he has been walking for fourteen months hoping to get back home to Vancouver. Nathan suffers from OCD and with no way to get medicine he faces OCD attacks in addition to a dead world ahead of him. He finally reaches the same town that Zeke lives in but is attacked by dogs. Using every ounce of courage and strength he has he finds his way to Zeke’s cabin.
When Zeke finds Nathan on his doorstep he is shocked to find another living human, all his attempts at connecting with someone on his shortwave have proved fruitless but maybe there is hope that there are others who survived. Fortunately for Nathan, Zeke has access to a pharmacy where prescriptions are not necessary. Everything is for the taking only he would give anything if there was a pharmacist requesting a doctor’s prescription.
Zeke has dreamed about having someone to belong to and Nathan has dreamed of finding a home, have their dreams come true. A story of courage and going on in spite of the odds, never giving up when faced with a lifetime of loneliness, I can’t say that I would be able to be as brave as these two men. Is all lost or is there light at the end of the tunnel.