Copyright
First published in Great Britain by HarperCollins Children’s Books in 2015
HarperCollins Children’s Books is a division of HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd,
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Copyright © Will Hill 2015
Cover illustration © Bose Collins; logo images © Shutterstock.com
Will Hill asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of the work.
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
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Source ISBN: 9780007505890
Ebook Edition © MAY 2015 ISBN: 9780007505883
Version: 2015-05-09
For everyone who has come this far.
Just a little further …
The woods are lovely, dark and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.
Robert Frost
We have learned to believe, all of us – is it not so? And since so, do we not see our duty? Yes! And do we not promise to go on to the bitter end?
Abraham Van Helsing
Contents
Cover
Title Page
Copyright
Dedication
Prologue
Six Months Earlier: Zero Hour Plus 2 Days
Chapter 1: Home Truths
Chapter 2: Diminished Responsibility
Chapter 3: Running on Empty
Zero Hour Plus 11 Days
Chapter 4: The Definition of Insanity
Chapter 5: Fallout
Chapter 6: Acceleration
Zero Hour Plus 13 Days
Zero Hour Plus 41 Days
Zero Hour Plus 67 Days
Zero Hour Plus 91 Days
Zero Hour Plus 109 Days
Zero Hour Plus 140 Days
Zero Hour Plus 163 Days
Zero Hour Plus 191 Days
Chapter 7: Redundant
Chapter 8: Not for Profit
Chapter 9: The Faintest Glimmer
Chapter 10: Collateral Damage (I)
Chapter 11: The Enemy of my Enemy
Chapter 12: Haven
Zero Hour Plus 192 Days
Chapter 13: Sleight of Hand
Chapter 14: Strange Bedfellows
Chapter 15: At Ease
Zero Hour Plus 193 Days
Chapter 16: A Butterfly Flaps its Wings
Chapter 17: The Weight of The World
Chapter 18: Huddled Masses, Yearning to Breathe Free
Chapter 19: Ratcatchers
Chapter 20: Human Trial
Zero Hour Plus 194 Days
Chapter 21: No going Back
Chapter 22: Quicksand
One Week Later: Zero Hour Plus 201 Days
Chapter 23: Empirical Evidence
Chapter 24: Collateral Damage (ii)
Three Days Later: Zero Hour Plus 204 Days
Chapter 25: A new Day
Chapter 26: Rapid Reactions
Chapter 27: Prometheus
Chapter 28: Close Enough To Touch
Chapter 29: Death From Above, Part One
Chapter 30: The Art of War
Chapter 31: Death From Above, Part Two
Zero Hour Plus 205 Days
Chapter 32: The Morning After
Chapter 33: The Elephant in The Room
Chapter 34: A Vision of the Future
Chapter 35: International Aid
Chapter 36: Willing Victims
Chapter 37: Down the Rabbit Hole
Chapter 38: The Hottest Ticket in Town
Zero Hour Plus 206 Days
Chapter 39: Collateral Damage (III)
Chapter 40: Jurisdiction
Chapter 41: The Scouring of Carcassonne
Chapter 42: All Good Things …
Zero Hour Plus 207 Days
Chapter 43: The Morning After
Chapter 44: Scorched Earth
Chapter 45: Sins of the Father
Chapter 46: The Waiting Game
Chapter 47: Aftershocks
Chapter 48: Directors’ Guild
Chapter 49: Enemy at the Gates
Zero Hour Plus 208 Days
Chapter 50: Just when you Think …
Chapter 51: … It can’t get any Worse
Chapter 52: Insertion Point
Chapter 53: Come Together
Chapter 54: Some Corner of a Foreign Field
Chapter 55: The Tip of the Spear
Zero Hour Plus 209 Days
Chapter 56: A Promise is a Promise
Chapter 57: Clean Slates
Chapter 58: Dulce Et Decorum Est
Chapter 59: In Fading Light
Chapter 60: Death’s Grey Land, Part One
Prologue, Redux
Chapter 61: Death’s Grey Land, Part Two
Chapter 62: Death’s Grey Land, Part Three
Chapter 63: Death’s Grey Land, Part Four
Chapter 64: Death’s Grey Land, Part Five
Chapter 65: Death’s Grey Land, Part Six
Chapter 66: Death’s Grey Land, Part Seven
Chapter 67: Death’s Grey Land, Part Eight
Chapter 68: Death’s Grey Land, Part Nine
Chapter 69: Death’s Grey Land, Part Ten
Chapter 70: Death’s Grey Land, Part Eleven
Chapter 71: After the Fire
Zero Hour Plus 210 Days
Chapter 72: The End (I)
Zero Hour Plus 211 Days
Chapter 73: The End (II)
Zero Hour Plus 213 Days
Chapter 74: The Beginning
Acknowledgements
About the Author
Also by Will Hill
About the Publisher
Jamie Carpenter soared over the battlefield, carrying Frankenstein effortlessly beneath him, marvelling at the scale of the fighting taking place below.
His view of it was fleeting, such was the speed he and the rest of the strike team were travelling, but it was enough to make quite an impression; the battle was already spread out across more than a mile of blasted landscape, the air full of movement and gunfire and screaming, the ground littered with black-clad bodies and soaked with vampire remains. Jamie tore his gaze away and focused on the looming shape of the medieval city, its pale stone darkening in the fading light, and, as he rose over the outer walls, his squad mates close behind him, he saw a distant figure floating near the summit of the hill, high above the raging battle.
Dracula, he thought, his heart leaping in his chest. Right where they said he would be.
This is going to be too easy.
Jamie swooped over the walls, rising above the wide cobbled street that led up through the city. He accelerated, the evening air cool as it rushed over his uniformed body, the rooftops passing below him in a blur, and allowed a smile to rise on to his face. As he soared over a wide square, he heard something above him, something that sounded like a flock of birds, and rolled to the side so he could look up and see what it was.