Literature / The Autumn Queen Protocol

A zombie novel ... in two parts.

The Autumn Queen Protocol is Patrick Ashe's Zombie Apocalypse novel, released in late 2021 amid the COVID-19 Pandemic of The New '20s. It's a follow-up to his debut Upon This Pale Hill (notably released in early 2020, just as the pandemic began). The setting is rural Pennsylvania directly before, during, and up to a few years after a zombie outbreak.

The Two-Act Structure (of the parallel variety) with Anachronic Order introduces us to two protagonists, respectively: Mike Ballard, a mild-mannered healthcare data analyst who just lost his dad to COVID-19 and works as an underling for a Bad Boss, and Cassandra Riven, The Ace and Returning War Vet who's earning two degrees while working two jobs to make ends meet (and has a sister with The Disease That Shall Not Be Named, no less). The former is a white elder millennial cishet man and the latter is a Black younger millennial transgender woman. They have obvious differences in privilege, but often function as a Mirror Character to each other as they navigate (and crossover into) each others' stories.

Given the era in which this was written (see Ripped From the Headlines) and that it's by a policy wonk, there's quite a bit of Author Tract. Themes include isolation, pro-science, anti-authoritarianism, populism, economic inequality, civil liberties, whistleblowing, nature, survival, grief, parenting, friendship, and Ashe's go-to Humans Are Bastards. Word of God is that the novel's main themes are escapism, Living Is More than Surviving, and the truth should matter more in the aging American Empire.

In early 2023, Ashe released the sequel, The Winter Queen Contingency.

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The Autumn Queen Protocol contains examples of:

• A Boy and His X: Part One begins as An Elder Millennial and His Cat.
• The Ace: Cassandra, which is part of why she's chosen for a critical and deadly mission. A second part is because her commander is The Rival using her for a Uriah Gambit cover-up. The tension comes by the fact that pulling off the nominal and actual missions combine for a Suicide Mission.
• Action Pet: Chloe, which is part of the reason Mike survives in this life (given the infected weakness).
• An Aesop: Amid social chaos, two people of mostly different backgrounds save each other in different ways. Also, conspiracies may be mostly bunk (Occam's Razor applies) but the powerful can and do exploit the less powerful.
• Aliens in Cardiff: The outbreak and almost all of the story takes place in rural Pennsylvania.
• Ambiguous Ending: The twist ending of Part One suggests it's no zombie apocalypse at all, as it's contained in a quarantine area under the Title Drop procotol and the people who stay there do so willingly. Then in Part Two, which takes places before Part One, see You Have No Chance to Survive. A cure is hinted at, and indeed fought for by the crew delivering the research data in Part Two, but given that the events of Part One are more than six months after that and Angie noted that they're evolving, it's still uncertain.
• Ambiguously Bi: Penny repeatedly flirts with Cassandra and admits to an encounter with Rick.
• Anachronic Order: Chronological order is Prelude to Part One, Prelude to Part Two, Part Two, Part One.
• Arc Words: "Always surviving. Never thriving." And "Maybe life isn't so bad after all."
• An Arm and a Leg: What often happens to an uninfected when a super-strong infected reaches them.
• As the Good Book Says...: Mike references Proverbs 16:18, "Pride goes before a fall," as his take on the public's relationship to the infection.
• Attack Drone: A main weapon of one of the villains in Part Two.
• Awesomeness by Analysis: One of the parallels between Mike and Cassandra; they're both strategists.
• Badass Adorable: Penny is young, spunky, and wisecracking, but proves strong in a fight. Also applies to cute gray tabby Chloe, who makes good use of the infected's deathly cat allergy.
• Badass and Child Duo: What Part One becomes after Angie enters the story.
• Battle of Wits: Part Two. Cassandra and Phil are nominally on the same side, but given their rough past in war, they each correctly suspect the other of ulterior motives, and the stakes are high for each.
• Being Good Sucks: An Ashe staple, here a commonality between the two main characters, where both have backstories of doing right and good work only to have superiors doubt, criticize, and dismiss them.
• Betrayal Insurance: In the Prelude to Part Two, Cassandra has already taken steps to outmaneuver her former commander Phil between him calling her up and meeting with him the next day.
• Beware the Nice Ones: Mike and his cat Chloe. They're both tame until they step up to being fierce.
• Bilingual Bonus: Mike works at Kosong (Malay for "empty") Systems, along with (a reference to Ashe's previous novel) prestigious firm Vazio (Portuguese for "empty") & Leer (German for "empty")!
• Bittersweet Ending: Mike and Cassandra both prevail in most ways, but the latter revives her PTSD by failing to save her two companions, there's a chance the infection will spread, and both decide to stay in the quarantine area due to a strong case of Humans Are the Real Monsters.
• Blatant Lies: All of the promises "the brass" make to the contractors working for them. See Shoot the Builders and Shoot the Messengers.
• Boom, Headshot!: How we're introduced to Cassandra. She's pretty good at those.
• Boss's Unfavorite Employee: No matter how much others defend Mike, his boss clearly doesn't like him specifically.
• Brand X: The whistleblowing website called Wiki Whiz. Inverted with real gun, clothing, and video game brands named.
• Can't Stop the Signal: Whistleblowing with a side of protective PR toward the end of Part Two.
• Cassandra Truth: Played With extensively, given it's one of the two main character's names. Ironically, the data she delivers is taken seriously by the public. But the book implies at various points that the public at-large tends not to believe the truth, preferring conspiracies or lies.
• The Cavalry: Cassandra at the end of Part One, having been hinted at since the beginning.
• Chekhov's Gun: Mike's steel water bottle, mentioned in the first few pages as a staple in his office life, becomes a Pocket Protector saving him from a manhunter years later.
• The Chessmaster: Both Cassandra and her superior Phil have moments of exemplifying this against each other.
• Clear My Name: The shared intent, along with Can't Stop the Signal, of delivering the data to Eagles Mere for the three holed up at the research facility in Part Two.
• Conservation of Ninjutsu: Both parts end with three (plus Cassandra's One-Woman Calvary at the last moment in Part One) against hundreds of superhuman zombies. One guess who prevails both times.
• Covers Always Lie: There's not a giant skeleton (although there's a brief mention of the Sayre, Pennsylvania region's folklore around large skeletons). Could be Stock Monster Symbolism. But there is a little girl.
• Crazy-Prepared: Cassandra took a few key preventative measures before her mission. Also applies to the unseen Captain Jones, who leaves a useful cache.
• Cultured Warrior: Cassandra, with her two degrees, intellectual quotes, and harpsichord playing.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: What the hard-fought battle at the end of Part One becomes after Cassandra arrives, introducing her with a strong Worf Effect.
• Dare to Be Badass: The response of the otherwise stoic Cassandra to Penny and Rick's resignation.
• Darkest Hour: What the end of Part One is before Cassandra arrives.
• Darker and Edgier: Part One is rough, but ends happily enough. Part Two is rougher and more complicated.
• Dark Is Not Evil: A theme, as night is usually (not always) safe, and the heroes are rejects who operate in the dark.
• Dead Man Writing: Dr. Zalk's recordings of lucid infected at the Monroe Research Facility.
• Deceased Fall-Guy Gambit: The government's plan to do this is a key plot device in Part Two.
• Does This Remind You of Anything?: Initially, the right-wing rally seems harmless enough, even friendly. Once the infection breaks out, it's suddenly violent, specifically attacking an African-American couple. January 6 is mentioned in passing.
• Don't Go in the Woods: Subverted, as hiding in the forest is a primary (though not surefire) survival strategy.
• Double-Meaning Title: The title means something literal in Part One and metaphoric in Part Two.
• Empathic Environment: The oncoming hurricane ups the tension, but also seems to augment and encourage the heroes. Also provides Annette an excuse to Mike as to why infected dwindled suddenly; she gave her word to newly secretive, traumatized Cassandra that she wouldn't speak of her or her Roaring Rampage of Revenge that actually caused that sudden drop.
• The End... Or Is It?: Part One, while chronologically the latest, wraps up well and even optimistically. Part Two, while featuring a hard-fought and won massive battle, leaves it open that the infection could spread given revelations from Dr. Lee that emphasized global spread and doubt towards a cure.
• Evil-Detecting Dog: Or rather, cat. Not only are they lethal to infected, but they can usually smell them at a distance. Mike usually heeds Chloe's warnings, but the few times he doesn't ... don't go well.
• Exact Words: When Mike asks Annette about her drone data because he's feeling followed, she says "Haven't seen anything your way" leaving out knowing that Cassandra is watching him, per an agreement between the two women revealed later. Also when Cassandra complains that she doesn't play music anymore because she's "mostly surviving," her murder-minded Major Phil responds, "We can help with that."
• Excellent Judge of Character: How Mike sees Chloe and suggests Angie is, as well. Annette also applies.
• Eye Scream: How Cassandra finishes off the last infected attacker of hundreds when all ammo and even the Item Amplifier serum coating that cuts through zombie skin runs out.
• Face Your Fears: Despite the infected's deathly allergy to cats, Chloe understandably avoids fighting these numerous creatures much bigger than her. Mike "six trains" her to stand behind him so they won't be overrun, but she resists at the moment of truth. When she realizes his danger, she does join the fight and takes a few down, including a massive elite that nearly kills Mike, but is badly hurt afterward.
• Fate Worse than Death: The implied fate of children at the hands of infected, as no infected child is ever seen.
• Forbidden Zone: The fields near Wilkes-Barre and to the northlands, as they are both highly infested. More generally, all of Quarantine Area Oscar Lima. Yet our two heroes seem to like it there.
• Foreshadowing: In Part One, Annette suggests Mike would "meet the right girl" and Mike's suspicions that Chloe could be powerful in a fight. Also the "crunch" sounds which denote Cassandra's presence.
• Friendly Zombie: During large combat sequences, a few are shown to have no interest in attack. Accordingly, a few of the lucid cases studied express not wanting to be violent like the rest. How many? A grand total of 7%.
• Future Badass: Mike was a "boring" data analyst, frequently overlooked and seemingly hapless during the outbreak, until he Took a Level in Badass in order to survive the world after the outbreak. By choice, no less.
• Glass Cannon: What cats are to infected (with a side of Fragile Speedster). A scratch can kill them, but they prove increasingly capable of taking down these feline threats.
• Glory Hound: Major Phil's service record.
• Go for the Eye: How Cassandra takes down the final infected when out of ammo and the knife's coating runs out.
• Good Is Boring: Mike the data analyst's MO, outright saying "the truth is boring, usually" to dismiss wild conspiracies.
• Government Conspiracy: Played With. Part One all but shrugs these off, making various topical points about how these are usually bunk. Part Two shows there is indeed a conspiracy, although not one most suspected. In either case, the theme of questioning the powerful is consistent.
• Greater-Scope Villain: Part One suggests the outbreak was a mistake in trying to cure COVID-19, thus the infected are the true villains. Part Two implicates The Government; geopolitical forces that created the super soldier serum on which the infection is based, incentivized a rogue to use it as a bioweapon, and then moved to crush progress toward curing it when it wasn't fast enough and made leaders look bad.
• Guardian Angel: What Cassandra becomes for Mike after losing her new crew, invoking this very title in her thoughts.
• Happy Flashback: A coping mechanism for veteran Cassandra, before and after the outbreak.
• Hates Their Parent: How Angie feels about her father. Quite sensibly, given his Abusive Parents behavior of pulling her into a dangerous place and using her as bait. She barely mourns him.
• Heel–Faith Turn: Part One plays with faith and doubt in times before and after the outbreak. Angie says she's agnostic, but exchanges "Godspeed" farewells with Mike after they reach safety.
• Heroic BSoD: Cassandra after her team dies in the final fight inducing a 10-Minute Retirement until she finds Mike.
• Hero with Bad Publicity: Mike is revered by some for his call at the outbreak, but others badmouth him even after heroic acts (echoing his life before the outbreak).
• Hope Spot: Each of the two end battles have these moments (which are promptly dashed). Eagles Mere functions as a stationary one, but has firm rules about how long survivors can stay so others can come.
• Humans Are Bastards: A major theme, like Ashe's other works. It's not only that Being Good Sucks and most of those in authority are Bad Boss types even before the outbreak, but ... there's heavy allegory toward this message by the fact that 93% of the lucid infected express enjoying their condition and don't want a cure, even if it means their own lives are short; Penny calls them "Sons of Cain". And a big threat in each part isn't the bloodthirsty infected, but the bloodthirsty uninfected.
• Humans Are Morons: Basically Mike's lament about the COVID-19 pandemic and the outbreak. Part Two, while bleaker overall, ends with a more optimistic view that overwhelming evidence can prevail.
• Humans Are the Real Monsters: Heavily implied by allegory if not outright stated by Dr. Lee as "the truth about the infection", meaning the infected are simply overpowered versions of what humans are underneath.
• Hunting the Most Dangerous Game: One of Mike's biggest threats is an uninfected survivor gone mad.
• The Hunter Becomes the Hunted: Mike notes mistakes his hunter makes, even pitying him, but that hunter also puts the more experienced Mike in a position to kill or be killed.
• Ignored Expert: The Prelude to Part One establishes Mike as this at work. It's inverted at the end of Part One, which suggests his phone call at the outbreak prevented a worldwide infection.
• Immune to Bullets: Described as having gray skin "like a rhinoceros", infected are to most rounds, unless they are coated by Item Amplifier serum.
• Inevitable Mutual Betrayal: Both Cassandra and Phil expect this of the other, and damn near say it.
• Inspiration Nod: The Das Boot Soundtrack is mentioned as playing in Mike's mind on the day they face their greatest challenge: having to sneak through a giant nest of enemies to safety, but it quickly goes terribly, they retreat, and a main teammate is badly injured (i.e. Chloe). One guess what happens toward the end of Das Boot. In Part Two, with soldiers gunning down monsters in the forest and bases a la Contra, has a passing reference to the Konami Code.
• Introverted Cat Person: Mike. This along with guitar playing is Creator Thumbprint.
• It Can Think: Angie's From the Mouths of Babes moment of noting infected increased use of tools: they're evolving.
• It Was a Dark and Stormy Night: Toward the end of Part Two, when the heroic trio meet and team up.
• Karma Houdini: Neither Arik Broden, the one who deliberately started the outbreak, nor Major Phil Drumlin and the other conniving officers who killed most of the research facility and try to kill Cassandra with the remainder, are showed to have suffered consequences for their actions. Their fates are left open.
• Killer Rabbit: Housecats like Chloe, while vulnerable in stature, are highly dangerous to infected. And they know it. They throw rocks (as they evolve to use simple tools) and attempt to crush Chloe. But not before she fells The Dreaded infected elite.
• Lady of War: Cassandra. Her intellect, pantsuit, and harpsichord playing suggest grace, but she's actually heavier on the Action Girl side.
• Last Stand: At the end of both Part One and Part Two; the first is close, the second closer.
• Let's Get Dangerous!: How previously cautious Cassandra reacts when dour Rick and Penny share the dire Reveal.
• Little Professor Dialog: Angie has a few moments. Such as filling Mike's stunned silence that the infected "are evolving."
• Living Is More than Surviving: A major theme before and after the outbreak; essentially Ashe's take on the pandemic and western life in general, coupled with heeding the Ignored Expert.
• Lonely at the Top: Cassandra at the end of Part Two. She's outwitted her superiors, delivered the whistleblowing data, survived the horde, and saved her sister, but failed to save her two new companions, which triggered her war PTSD and sent her into isolation. She gives the book title a new meaning with her badassry, but doesn't feel a glimmer of hope until the last page.
• Mama Bear: What ranking officer Cassandra becomes to less-prepared Penny and Rick in a matter of hours. When they each fall, she does NOT take it lightly. Also in a sense with Mike, Angie, and Chloe in (chronologically later) Part One. Her improved ruthless efficiency to guard them is implied by Fridge Logic to be because of her experience in Part Two.
• Meaningful Echo: The onomatopoeia "crunch" that randomly occurs in Part One seems dangerous. But when it's repeated multiple times in the Darkest Hour, it's a harbinger of the Cassandra Cavalry coming to save the day, implying the previous times were her watching over him. Also an Ironic Echo when the end of Part Two shows this is how she first encounters Mike, but in reverse.
• Meaningful Name: Ballard means balding, which both fits Mike's head and his view of eagles as an inspiration. Riven means to tear apart, which could either refer to the zombies or the two-part story structure. The title also means something literal in Part One and symbolic in Part Two.
• Men Like Dogs, Women Like Cats: Inverted. Mike and his cat Chloe are almost inseparable (even before the outbreak) and Cassandra is allergic. Angie misses her deceased dog and hopes to get another.
• Minored In Ass Kicking: Data analyst Mike, who trained in firearms and survival prior to the outbreak. Compare to elite soldier Cassandra, who majored in it.
• More Dakka: After they find the Crazy-Prepared cache includes an M2 .50cal machine gun, complete with boxes of incendiary rounds, Rick rhetorically asks, "Did our luck just turn?"
• Must Make Amends: Part Two makes it apparent that Cassandra's introduction in Part One is this.
• Nature Is Not Nice: Partial subversion, as nature is in-turns the location of and salvation from the undead.
• Not Using the "Z" Word: Almost always uses "infected", but used a few times in a rare humorous tone.
• Oh, Crap!: Mike's reaction to nearly being shot and to finding Angie. The ends of both parts when the respective heroic trios realize they're facing hundreds of superhuman undead killers.
• Old Shame: Mike's mild one is his disapproving first work client that his Bad Boss invokes against him, whereas Cassandra's was in failing to stop private contractors from killing an Innocent Bystander in war.
• Ominous Owl: One is heard during the "necromancy procession" early in Part Two.
• One Riot, One Ranger: Cassandra is sent as this and becomes an effective One-Man Army after her two new companions fall and her Roaring Rampage of Revenge commences.
• Operation: [Blank]: The two main missions aren't named, but the drone data delivery is dubbed Operation Bat Outta Hell (as to avoid a Meat Loaf copyright).
• Our Zombies Are Different: While super-strong with ultra-tough skin (impervious to most bullets) and fast, they don't see well, are deathly allergic to cats, and hunt uninfected in open areas. Overall mindless but quickly evolve to use tools and strategy. They're also able to be rendered lucid for short periods with a drug, and then 93% express that they don't want to be cured.
• Out-Gambitted: Cassandra outwits and survives Phil and delivers the data, but losing two compatriots she came to see as her own leave a toll that turns this into a Pyrrhic Victory.
• The Peter Principle: Concerning superiors in both Mike and Cassandra's lives. Evil and/or incompetent leadership is a consistent theme across their stories.
• Plague Zombie: The particular kind of zombie. Which was created by an ex-government scientist from a super soldier serum.
• Plausible Deniability: What the government is currently seeking for their cover-up in Part Two.
• Playing with Syringes: The origin of the infection, tampered by an ex-government scientist with a grudge against the world.
• Pre-Asskicking One-Liner: "Hey, Phil. I made friends." Commence long hail of .50cal rounds.
• Power Trio: Each of the two parts ends with a battle with three heroes against hundreds of infected. And both times, the structure roughly corresponds to Fighter, Mage, Thief.
• Promotion to Parent: What Mike becomes for Angie, occupying a paternal void in both of their lives. Also Annette to an extent, as she has a maternal view of Mike after her adult son was killed in the outbreak.
• Properly Paranoid: Captain Jones (introduced posthumously, driving the point farther).
• The Reliable One: Mike's reputation, with some Hidden Depths. It does him little good before the outbreak, as he's overlooked for flashy types. But after, his character plays like A Day in the Limelight.
• Retired Badass: Even Cassandra's antagonistic superiors see her as this.
• The Reveal: Penny and Rick reveal that the research facility was bushwhacked because the research made the government look bad for not controlling or fully curing the infection, despite great progress. Rick reveals the origins of the infection as a bioweapon from a disgruntled ex-government scientist. He also shares the records of the infected made lucid by a treatment, showing both progress toward a cure as well as the haunting fact that 93% didn't want to be cured, that it doesn't add bloodlust but rather removes inhibitions and adds power, and his research colleague Dr. Lee reporting as an expert and an infected that he predicts The End of the World as We Know It.
• Ripped from the Headlines: It's quite obviously written during the COVID-19 pandemic, as civil liberties and public health debates waged, conspiracies floated, Black Lives Matter protests erupted in the wake of George Floyd's murder, presidencies changed, the US-Afghanistan War ended (with a botched drone strike), and more military and corporate whistleblowing incidents (name dropping Snowden, Manning, Hale, and Theranos) emerged.
• Scenery Porn: Various moments of detailing natural beauty in the Endless Mountains region of Pennsylvania in spring (Part One) and fall (Part Two).
• Science Hero: Mostly data analyst Mike, but Cassandra and her crew are whistleblowers For Science!.
• Sexy Discretion Shot: Mike has a dirty dream while sleeping alone one night, cut off by Fan Disservice featuring Facial Horror. Masturbation is implied with Cassandra following a Sexy Soaked Shirt; nostalgia for good times, including that kind, is an established coping mechanism for her experiences during and after war.
• Shell-Shocked Veteran: Cassandra has a mild case at the beginning of her story. Her multi-level victory at the end of Part Two comes with an extra serving of this after failing to save her two new companions, sending her into hiding.
• Shoot the Medic First: Rick, of the trio at the end of Act Two who's the most trained as a combat medic, is the first to be killed, likely by design. Shot dead by a drone despite their efforts to build him a solid shelter for their battle, but he spotted the threat first, and took a fateful step out of the shelter.
• Shoot the Builder: What the government did after the politically inconvenient research made them look bad.
• Shoot the Messenger: The government's motivations, established in the Prelude to Part Two.
• Shout-Out: Various genre-fitting rock and metal bands, such as Black Sabbath, Music/ACDC and Led Zeppelin (albeit played at the outbreak rally), Sabaton, Journey, and Alice Cooper. Also Franchise/Batman via the Bat Drone. And Eyes Wide Shut via a certain password which is relevant to Ashe's favorite Ludwig van Beethoven. Finally, Dr. Rick, the cat Roger, and named (not shown) characters Dr. Barrett, Nick, and Dave are names of Pink Floyd members, and Angie's dog named Seamus is a reference to a so-named song on their album Meddle.
• Sliding Scale of Idealism Versus Cynicism: Both parts lean toward cynicism in various ways, but have aspects of idealism.
• Sole Survivor: Cassandra at the end of Part Two. Once again a Shellshocked Veteran, she doesn't even bother carrying a weapon when she goes back outside to bury her teammates.
• Splatter Horror: To be expected, though done sparingly. (E.g., parts by the creek and the hanging guardsmen.)
• Stealing the Credit: Cassandra calls this on Phil's behavior and promotion, which rattles him. By design.
• Sugar-and-Ice Personality: Angie, with "piercing" blue eyes. The ice is reasonable, given what she's been through, but she quickly warms to Annette, and eventually Mike (when he stops falling into You Were Trying Too Hard).
• Suicide Mission: Two for two. Mike shudders at the thought of returning to the Wilkes-Barre area because of his narrow escape from the notoriously infected area, but it's where Angie needs to go for safe passage. Cassandra's nominal mission to single-handedly secure the facility in the heart of the infection is tough enough, but her real mission to learn the truth of what happened, protect the innocent, and survive her superiors and the infected horde is called this by name.
• Survivor Guilt: A big theme for Cassandra, in her Old Shame past and again at the end of Part Two, with the family Phil ordered her not to help getting infected and her two new companions falling; however, she finds a solace when this trope is averted (chronologically later) at the end of Part One.
• Taking You with Me: When Penny gets bitten, she doesn't hesitate to go out like this.
• Team Mom / Cool Old Lady: Annette to the main characters (albeit brief, given high demand for her shelter).
• Think Nothing of It: Within a few pages, Cassandra says this to Mike and Mike says it to Angie.
• Trans Tribulations: Cassandra's thoughts note these experiences growing up in addition to how her Jerkass commander treats her, past and present.
• Treacherous Quest Giver: The premise of Part Two, from Treacherous Advisor Major Drumlin to Cassandra (who's barely Obfuscating Stupidity).
• Tree Cover: One of the tried-and-true ways to stay hidden from infected. (Most of the time.)
• Tuckerization: Chloe's name is a combination of three cats Ashe had since childhood, i.e., Chester, Molly, and Sophie, with features matching the latter. The novel is also dedicated to the memory of Sophie and Ashe's dog Rue.
• Twist Ending: Part One, at least. At first, it seems as though the world is overrun and survivors are making do, but it turns out they're actively choosing to live in the single quarantine zone. Part Two, however, introduces doubt that the quarantine will be maintained, even though it takes place earlier.
• Two-Act Structure: Of the "parallel" variety, given the Ambiguous Ending above.
• Unfriendly Fire: One of the main threats in Part Two, but carefully timed for a cover-up narrative.
• The Un-Reveal: The exact meaning of the title. It's said to be a presidential order that includes the creation of a research facility, the quarantine zone, and the rule to not send rescue, but other parts are hinted without being stated. It becomes more symbolic for Cassandra's exploits in Part Two.
• Uriah Gambit: The Prelude to Part Two quickly establishes that this is Phil's plan for Cassandra. And she knows it. See Battle of Wits.
• The Vietnam Vet: Mike's father (inspired by Ashe's own), a Semper Fi Marine who died of COVID-19 prior to the story. Mike often thinks of his father's few words about the war, which provide some of the most chilling lines of the novel.
• Visual Pun: The skeleton wraps around the cover, front-to-back, so one guess where its spine falls.
• Walking the Earth: Mike after the outbreak. And Cassandra after her story, until she enters Mike's. Both border The Drifter.
• Weaksauce Weakness: Those super-strong, super-tough, super-fast infected fall real fast to a case of cat scratch fever. (Or weapons coated with their T. gondii-infused crap.)
• Wham Line: A few. "The man ... watching through his rifle scope" shows Mike is oblivious to his hunter. "Piercing, pale blue eyes" establishes Mike's "Oh Crap" moment when he finds the hunter's daughter. Phil asking "What's in your little bag" to inform Cassandra and the reader that her efforts to hide it failed. Rick saying "We did cure it." Although there's more context that diminishes the statement, it's a key part of The Reveal.
• What Measure Is a Non-Human?: Deconstructed. The noninfected protagonists avoid killing infected, even when pressured by others, unless uninfected lives are at stake. The Reveal indicates 93% of infected don't want to be cured.
• Withholding the Cure: Or eliminating significant progress towards it for political reasons.
• Women Are Wiser: Dr. Marie Zalk leads the scientists. Cassandra's also this in most settings.
• You Have No Chance to Survive: When researcher Dr. Lee becomes infected and rendered lucid, he says this to Dr. Zalk, who quickly does become infected when the facility is bushwhacked. Being the only lucid case who also has knowledge of their deepest research and security efforts, he chillingly predicts a global infection and The End of the World as We Know It.
• Zerg Rush: The zombie attack strategy at the end of both parts.
• Zombie Apocalypse: The premise. Or is it? It seems to be an inversion at the end of Part One, but The Reveal in Part Two brings it back into play.