The Kill Order, by James Dashner (2012)

Teresa looked at her best friend and wondered what it would be like to forget him.

Thirteen years before Thomas and Teresa entered the Maze, Mark lives in a world that has been ravaged by heat and radiation.  Living in an encampment in the Appalachian Mountains in western North Carolina, Mark and his friends have had to fight to survive the year of death and terror.  Life is not easy for the survivors.

The sun flares struck with little warning.

Mark and his best friend, Trina, try their best to be happy and make each day count, but the memories always keep coming back.

The memories.   They never let him go, not even for a half hour.  They always had to rush back in, bringing all the horror.

The Kill Order tells what happened with the sun flares struck the planet.  The intense heat and radiation.  How lucky Mark and Trina were to be underground on the subtrans.  How lucky they were to meet Alec and Lana.

At the camp, everything changed in an instant.

But their laughter was cut off by a strange sound.  Something Mark hadn't heard in over a year, and he hadn't expected to hear it ever again.

The sounds of engines in the sky.

This is the first sign of advanced technology since the sun flares.  The Post-Flares Coalition (PFC) delivers supplies to Asheville, but this berg is unmarked.  Five people wearing bulky rubber suits emerge from the berg, each holding a black tube like a gun.  They spray the survivors with darts.  Some are killed immediately.  Others die a much more painful death.

Alec and Mark make their way to the berg to learn more about this attack.  Sealed boxes with warning symbols.

Virus VC321xb47

Highly Contagious

24 Darts, Extreme Caution

Mark and Alec meet Deedee, a young child who has been abandoned by her village after they were attacked by a similar berg.  She had been shot in the arm, but everyone left her there, alone.  She is immune to the virus.

The Killing Order is an exciting read to learn about the devastation after the sun flares and about the virus, later called the Flare.  Filled with suspense, this was one of my favorites in this series.  

Rating:  10 out of 10 stars

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The other books in this series:

The Zombie Autopsies: Secret Notebooks from the Apocalypse, by Steven C. Schlozman, MD (2011)

The enclosed documents are highly classified.  They are exact replicas of the recently recovered handwritten notes of Dr. Stanley Blum, the last scientist sent to the United Nations Sanctuary for the study of ANSD and "zombie" biology.  After careful examination, World Health Organization and United Nations officials have reason to believe that these writings may contain ground-breaking data regarding the nature of the ANSD pathogen.  Furthermore, it is possible that this information represents both a key to a viable cure, as well the most definitive evidence to date that the ANSD virus was artificially manufactured - human-made - and therefore did not occur naturally.  The importance of these potential conclusions cannot be overstated.

One-third of humanity has perished from the plague.  Imagine 2.3 billion people have died.  All attempts at a vaccine or cure have failed.  Experts estimate that civilization can only last another ten years before total destruction.

ANDS, Ataxic Neurodegenerative Satiety Deficiency Syndrome, is present on every major land mass.  Most of the world is under martial law.  The disease is indestructible, untreatable. 

In July 2012 the United Nations set up a study site to study ANSD.  Those who live in the bunkers call it the Crypt.  Three months later the UN received it's last message from the Crypt from Dr. Blanca Gutierrez, resident microbiologist.

Status...gent.  Hype........new.  Diff...virus.

Vaccine...ble

Dr. Blum's orders were to record the findings of the team.  Members of the team left on separate transports, but only Dr. Blum arrived to the Crypts safely.  Only Dr. Blum's notes survived.

I'm writing this because I need to believe that there is hope.

Food has not been delivered for five days.  Water is scarce. 

Dr. Gutierrez still suspects an additional pathogen.

Something makes them live when they ought to die.  Something makes them eat when they ought to stop.  Something makes them able to tolerate some of the worst infections on Earth and keep going.  If this something is one thing, one pathogen, one protein, one change in the way we understand the zombie sickness, then maybe we could take that one thing away.  Maybe we could treat it, vaccinate against it, get rid of it.  Maybe we could cure it.  Cure us.

The Zombie Autopsies is for the extreme zombie enthusiast.  There are a lot of medical descriptions and illustrations to logically explain zombies.  This book is not for the light-hearted...

Rating:  6 out of 10 stars
* Language

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