Stay Dead: The Stranger and Tunnel Rats by Steve Wands

Not too long ago I heard that Brother D, co-host of the Mail Order Zombie podcast wrote a story that was published in Dark: A Horror Anthology. A few days after I heard the news, Steve Wands emails me and asks if I’d like a review copy of his books, Stay Dead and Dark, I laughed at how small the world is and accepted. I haven’t had time to read Dark, so that review will come at a later time. For now I’ll review the two short stories in Stay Dead: The Stranger and Tunnel Rats. Since I will be reviewing short stories please make sure you read my anthology rating format before continuing. You can find that to the left of the page under the Undead Heads rating system.

The Stranger
The dead walk. Danielle finds herself running. Her mind is not in the right place. She has recently lost her friends at the hands of the undead. As she jumps from rooftop to rooftop, a man steps in her path. They struggle as this man tries to assist her while she thinks this man is one of the undead. Danielle calms down and follows her savior to his apartment, where he and his wife are holding up. This older couple isn’t what they claim to be. They hold a deep dark secret inside their home as they show Danielle some hospitality. For the young girl’s sake, we can only hope they keep their secret to themselves.

Tunnel Rats
There is a small community of homeless people living in underground tunnels. Bark, is one of these individuals. He is a homeless man that spends his day begging for change, eating breakfast and hanging at Jay’s, a small pizza place. The owner has always been kind to Bark. He gives the homeless man scraps and makes him feel welcomed. Something is going on outside the doors of Jay’s. People are panicking and the streets are filled with chaos. Bark is completely unaware of the mayhem, and calmly makes his way back home. In the underground sewer Bark is alone until a fellow dweller alarms him. Spotz, informs him of the dead but Bark doesn’t believe him. They part ways, but when Bark comes face to face with the undead, he regrets not leaving with Spotz. Bark runs after him and when he finds Spotz, they pair up and try to find a way out of the tunnels.

First, let me thank Steve Wands for supplying me with a copy of Stay Dead. The Stranger in my honest opinion is a very unexciting story. Nothing really happens. It’s one of those stories where the author totally ignores the fact that they are flesh eating zombies outside the door. I really hate that about some stories. I want interaction between humans and zombies, that’s what makes a story interesting. Yes, The Stranger did have a few very brief moments of interaction but not enough. The main characters basically stay indoors and Danielle starts doing nutty things. However, I can’t say that I entirely hated this story. The beginning was a perfect set up and really caught my attention. It was short lived though. I will give The Stranger, 2 Slashes.

Moving on to Tunnel Rats. Unlike The Stranger, Tunnel Rats is in fact an interesting story. It has a fantastic plot and plays out wonderfully throughout the entire story. There are some very good, gore filled scenes that will make anyone cringe. I really enjoyed the interaction between the pizza joint owner and Bark. That was probably my favorite section in the story. I kind of wanted more of those two characters interacting. Maybe the story would have been better if the author kept them together. Either way the story does go on great. There are some nice suspense filled scenes that kept me reading. This story is a wonderful addition to the book. I will give Tunnel Rats, 4 Slashes

 Now to look at the book as a whole. Stay Dead is extremely short and very tiny. It fits in my back pocket perfectly. I love and hate that at the same time. I love it because it’s very portable and hate it because I can lose it very easily. The format of the book threw me off. I have never seen a book have a header on blank pages. I’m not sure if that was intentional or the person doing the formatting didn’t know how to remove the headers on Microsoft Word. Another thing that kind of turned me off was the double spacing after a period. Also, there were a few, very noticeable, spelling and grammar mistakes. There were also times when the author repeats himself. Here’s one example, (page 23) “Clem, a few days after the town went to shitsville, had filled up whatever jugs and mason jars he could find and filled them up with water.“ Notice the bold? There are a few more moments like this.

Other than that I found Stay Dead to be a fairly good read. I am not a fan of The Stranger but Tunnel Rats makes this book worth reading. For the final Undead Heads rating –

The Stranger – 2 Slashes
Tunnel Rats – 4 Slashes

6 Slashes totaled by 2 stories = 3 Undead Heads out of 5

Stay Dead: The Stranger and Tunnel Rats is available through Amazon.com. If you’d like to support the site and the author please use the link to the left and buy a copy.