Among the Dead : Among the Living

at the end of among the living, mike, erin, kate, and grinder are running towards the stadium through the hoards of undead. just as they're about to be overwhelmed, lester piles through the undead, halfway crashes, and ends up near mike and his group. as they hurriedly crowd into lester's suv, erin, mike's new love, gets ripped away as lester takes off. among the dead picks up a little after among the living ends. mike, kate, lester, and grinder are alive and safe in the stadium.

lester is a drug dealer and an addict. he escaped his house with a bunch of drugs and is constantly getting high. ok, i can understand that under the circumstances. angela's death haunts him, and he wants to kill all the deaders he can in revenge for killing the only girl he'd ever think of marrying. but what he wants most is a drink of rum. his drug induced haze has him jonesing for rum so he bolts from the stadium as there's a lull in the zombies attacking the gate. grinder chases after him b/c he feels obligated to save lester b/c he saved grinder at the end of book 1. that's kind of a stretch for grinder, who's suddenly become the selfless rock star. now, that an oxymoron. LOL outside the stadium, they run into another group hiding behind a chain link fense led by an annoying vietnam vet, named johnny lee miller. after a pissing contest, lester and him become friends over lester's drugs.

kate is a masochist and a serial killer. her dark half despises people, especially men, and enjoys tearing them apart after she's received her beating. kate volunteers to join a group of reservists, anders, anne, and mark who are going to venture back into the city to rescue anders' sister, kara. kate likes the new environment, where she can kill at will, but she starts losing control when she starts fanatasizing about having a real relationship with mark. something happens to kate that causes her to go bat s#!t crazy and totally loses sense of reality.

as kate's group heads to the office building to see if there are any survivors, that group's story is told. kara, shane, pete, and martha are part of a larger group who've been stuck in an office for 3 days, hoping for a rescue.

neil stays at the stadium, commenting on the deplorable situation. nelson, a reservist he met, tells him that the train will leave a 3 pm, and there's not enough room for everyone. he also tells neil that they haven't contained the outbreak to seattle, and the gov't is going to firebomb the city.

there are a couple of unrelated stories thrown in. marshall, his wife, amy, and their 6 kids are stuck in their apartment building. as they slowly start starving to death, marshall must venture out to find food for himself and his family. kind of a sad story.

while i liked the 1st book b/c of its "believability," LOL yes, i'm actually saying that about a zombie book, i think long stretches his characters past their stereotypical limits for the sake of action and character development.

the story ends with a weird cliffhanger where you aren't sure who has survived. so will i buy the next installment? yes, b/c i'm an avid zombie fan.

overall, an ok zombie novel. 2 1/2 stars. only hardcore zombie fans may want to add it to their collection. if you're new to the zombie genre, there are a lot of better books to read or listen to.