✨️❗️NEW NOVEL EXCERPT❗️✨️

Hi lovelies! Please enjoy an excerpt from chapter 9 of my novel DOG DOWN, and please let me know if you would like to read more! Please forgive me being scatterbrained and posting a day late as well!

CW: mentions of death, mentions of zombies, animals in danger

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Those three days after Korn’s death passed slowly. The dogs were bored, the kids were bored, and Mira was continuously curt with whatever human opened the door that day to bring food. She and the kids mostly contented themselves with talking lightly, playing games with small pieces of paper at the table, and twisting themselves into odd shapes on the floor, but they steered clear of the back corner where Benji and Indigo had had little choice but to relieve themselves. None of them were allowed outside, and Indigo took to staring out the window up at the sky almost the entire last day locked away.

Three days later, the door was unlocked with a resounding click, and they were allowed out. The kids were whisked away rather early while Mira was taken in a different direction. Indigo and Benji both chose to follow Mira, though when the other humans who were talking to her noticed them, they scowled. One said something about dirty animals and that word infection again. But Mira simply scoffed and reached down to pet Indigo and Benji as she said, “it’s been three days.” Their scowls lessened, but no hands followed suit to pet the dogs.

As the dogs trailed behind Mira, Indigo got a better read of where they were. It was a housing complex, apartments for sure. Some of the humans were grouped in these apartments together, talking or pointing at large papers or strings held on the walls as they walked by, others appeared to be lounging, with objects similar to Mira’s loud object at their hips. Indigo found she didn’t like seeing these objects at all.

They continued to the other end of the complex, where one of the larger apartments was open and the smell of food wafted over to them. Mira was about to walk right in, when she glanced back at the dogs, who were both eager to eat.

 “Sit,” Mira commanded, and when she and Benji were properly seated, she added “stay” for good measure before joining the others in the open apartment.

 “How long do we need to wait?” Indigo asked Benji after several boring minutes. Her tail was wagging slowly, and she was trying her best to ignore the odd stares of the humans walking around them with their own plates of food.

 “You’re lucky you’re being fed at all,” Kandy’s voice chimed in from a few feet away.

Benji and Indigo both turned to her, but it was Indigo who spoke first. “I’m really sorry about what happened to—” but Kandy started to lick her fur quickly, jerkily, and Indigo realized the cat was growing impatient. So, she ended the sentence there.

It took the cat a few seconds to respond, but when she did, she sighed, the licking ceased. “We knew the risks of going back to our old house,” she remarked coolly.

 “Your… brother, was it?” Benji asked.

Kandy meowed in agreement.

 “How did… that happen?” Benji asked, his voice low and gentle.

Indigo watched Kandy shift from one paw to the other as Erin walked by. The human reached down to pet the cat, then reached down to pet Indigo and Benji when she spotted them. “Heya, animals,” she smiled softly, but there was hurt in her eyes which lingered over Kandy’s form before she too walked into the open apartment where food could be smelled.

Kandy paused a beat, then sighed. “I’m not sure. As far as I’ve learned, humans are turning into dead-walkers when the dead-walkers bite them,” she explained, tail swishing behind her. “But… Korn never got bit.”

 “Then how?” Benji urged her on as the paws in Indigo’s head began to run.

 “My best guess,” the cat sighed, “he ate something… bad.”

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Let me know if you enjoyed this excerpt and if you'd like to read more!!