This was an idea I had while driving along residential streets which were empty. Most of the time, during the day, there isn’t a soul about and the rows of houses start to see ominous somehow– like no-one is actually living there. I had this quick flash of someone going from empty house to empty house. I had always wanted to do a bit of a Zombie story, but the genre was beginning to go stale. I decided to do something different for the opening— instead of 1) Get sick 2) Die 3) Rise up wanting brains I changed it to 1) Die 2) Rise up wanting eyes (windows to the soul). The whole long drawn-out getting sick part is always somewhat revolting, and I wanted the main character to get knocked out and wake up to find everything had already occurred.

Emily regains consciousness in a residential street near a friend’s house, in somewhat bad shape for having hit her head. She starts trying to phone doctors but no-one answers. She goes on to try her entire address book and part of the phone book but still nothing. Eventually, she heads into her friend’s house to collapse.

The rest is basically about how she starts running into Zombies and fellow unaffected people (mostly to see what happens when attacked by said Zombies) and finally runs into…

Sophie Roberts. Yes, that’s right. This is the opening episode of series 2 of Amarna: The Adventures of Sophie Roberts, where she discovers a rift which brings her to our reality at different points of time. In this story it is modern San Francisco.

Excerpt:

Emily woke with a start to find the room was distinctly darker than when she had arrived. The clock indicated that several hours had gone by, but she felt much better after some rest. Her head still complained, but she could see clearly— with her glasses on of course. Maybe it was a good thing she hadn’t contacted a doctor, and she decided not to try again unless she felt worse after a few days. Medical bills were Emily’s nemesis— at least as long as her bank account was low.

She switched on the television, but it didn’t seem to be working. Channel after channel only showed a blank screen until finally she stumbled across one showing twenty-four hour old Westerns. She was fond of them, and watched the black and white cowboys ride about shooting towns up for no apparent reason for a few more hours, then began to seriously worry about Maria. Of all her friends, Maria was the most dependable of them all. She was always on time, completely trustworthy and obsessively organized. Even in the living room, Emily could see neat little stacks of to do lists. It was extremely odd of Maria to disappear.