THE LEASH OF THE DEAD
by Sharon Neetles
The world didn't end when the dead rose.
It ended when someone learned how to control them.
When a global bioweapon outbreak turns billions into flesh-hungry monsters, Evelyn Cross wakes from an emergency C-section to find the hospital in chaos-and her husband dead in the parking lot. Within hours, the man she loved becomes the first confirmed zombie of a pandemic that collapses civilization.
With a newborn in her arms and her young son at her side, Evelyn flees a dying America toward a classified underground bunker in Utah-a last refuge her husband once whispered about but never explained. Along the way, they join a small band of survivors, losing friends to the undead and discovering that the monsters are not as mindless as they should be.
When they finally reach the bunker, only six of them remain.
Inside, politicians and scientists reveal a horrifying plan: deploy a global chemical strike that will kill every infected-and every unprotected human still alive. An antidote exists, but not for everyone. And Evelyn learns the truth too late-her husband was issued four doses before he died.
Only two remain.
As the countdown to extinction begins, Evelyn uncovers the final, devastating secret: her husband was a covert spy, and the virus was never meant to spread. It was designed to create soldiers who could reanimate, be remotely controlled, and never stop fighting. The dead were never the real threat.
Control was.
Forced to choose between her children, her companions, and the future of humanity itself, Evelyn makes a decision that will shatter the bunker, expose the truth behind the apocalypse, and determine whether the world deserves to survive what comes next.
Dark, relentless, and deeply human, The Leash of the Dead is a post-apocalyptic suspense thriller about motherhood, power, and the terrifying cost of deciding who gets to live.
Because the dead were never the ones holding the leash.
