Would you complete a mission if the world was collapsing around you?

Elize arrives in Mogadishu with instructions to assassinate a Russian embassy official. She has tactical command of a US kill-team, CIA operatives, rookies and veterans of a dozen war zones. It should be a straightforward hit but her luck is about to run out. She will soon find herself trapped in a city gone to hell, struggling to complete her mission in the face of betrayal, a spreading pandemic and a population hungry for flesh…

Killchain is a short story that takes place in Adam Baker’s post-zombie apocalypse setting, as featured in his superb series that began with Outpost. The world is being overrun by an interstellar virus that turns victims into strange, metallic-mineral-based zombies.

This short story is set in Mogadishu, and focuses on a CIA operation that is unfolding as the outbreak is occurring. It’s a tense, fast-paced tale. Despite the minimal length, though, Baker does a fantastic job of writing three-dimensional, realistic characters — whether the operatives or their coerced local recruits. They are determined to complete their mission, despite the likely irrelevance of the outcome — as they guide an operative to a planned assassination, the neighbourhood in which they’re hiding out is overrun by ravenous zombies…

This is a great, short and tense story. If you’re a fan of Baker’s series, then I would certainly recommend you give this a read. It should hold you over until the next in the series (hopefully) comes out.

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Killchain is published by Infected Books, as part of their Year of the Zombie initiative.

Baker’s series includes: Outpost, Juggernaut, Terminus, and Impact — all published by Hodder in the UK.

Also on CR: Interview with Adam Baker (2012); Guest Post on “Trauma”; Reviews of Terminus and Impact