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Free Zombie Stories ***Many of these short stories are now available in an anthology called Zombies Can't Swim And Other Tales Of the Undead by Colin M. Drysdale. This is available in paperback or as a Kindle ebook. For more information on this anthology, click here.*** On this page you will find short stories written by Colin M. Drysdale featuring traditional, risen-from-the-dead zombies rather than the zombie-like infected that feature in For Those In Peril On The Sea (if you're interested in finding out more about the differences between these two, click here). While some of these are typical short stories, others explore different forms of fiction, such as flash fiction or twitter fiction. New stories will be added as and when they become available. They are provided as PDFs which can be viewed using many ebook readers or using the free Adobe Acrobat Reader. You can also view these stories, as well as receiving any additional stories when they're posted, either by clicking here or via the RSS feed at http://cmdrysdale.wordpress.com/category/short-stories/feed/.
1. Waiting Up For Santa Claus (1320 words): This is a cautionary tale written as a Christmas special for the author's blog in 2012. It's set on Christmas Eve and shows why you should always listen to your mother. Click here to download it. 2. Nightwatch (100 words): This is a piece of flash fiction, meaning it can have a maximum of 100 words. It was written by Colin M. Drysdale just to see if a zombie story could be written in so few words. It was originally posted on the author's blog in January 2013. Click here to download it. 3. The Watcher (23 words): Having written a flash fiction zombie story called Nightwatch the author's girlfriend challenged him to write a Twitter fiction zombie story, that is one in the 140 character limit allowed in posts on the micro-blogging site Twitter. Excluding the title (which was added when it was posted here) it as 135 characters. You will have to judge for yourself whether you think it works or not. Click here to download it. 4. When Death Came To Flannan Isle (3600 words): This is a zombie story set 1899 in the lighthouse on Flannan Isles, a small group of remote islands off the west coast of Scotland (click here to see its location in Google Earth - this requires that you have either Google Earth or a Google Earth Mobile app installed on your ebook device). It tells the story of what happens to three lighthouse keepers when then encounter a stranger who arrives in a rowing boat. The story was inspired by a real event that took place at this lighthouse in 1900. These events have entered Scottish mythology and in many ways it is our Marie Celeste or our Bermuda Triangle. I touched on it towards the start of my book For Those In Peril On The Sea where one of the characters is reminded of the memorable line 'Three men alive on Flannan Isle who think on three men dead' from the poem by Wilfrid Wilson Gibson about Flannan Isle. For more information about this mystery, click here. Click here to download a PDF of this story. 5. The Bookshop (598 words): This is a flash fiction zombie story that was originally written for Trembles Horror Magazine but they seem to have stopped publishing so I have posted it here instead. In the story itself, it doesn't specifically say that the enemy waiting outside are zombies but the inference is there. Click here to download a PDF of this story. 6. The Emergency Room (55 words): This is a flash fiction zombie story that I wrote based around the 55 word target from the Zombie Authors Blog, a site I'd highly recommend. Click here to download a PDF of this story. 7. Zombies Can't Swim (2026 words): This story was inspired by a photograph of a real sign I came across in the web that was genuinely used as advertising in a boat yard and proclaimed 'Zombies Can't Swim, Get a Boat'. Looking into this a further it seems such signs are not as uncommon as you might think. I don't know if several people have independently come up with the same slogan or if there was one original that all the others have copied but either way it struck me as a great title for a story, and it was one I couldn't resist writing. Click here to download a PDF of this story. I've included this story both in this section and the one for stories set in the world of For Those In Peril On The Sea as it seems to fall into both these categories. 8. Three Men In A Boat (137 words) This is a flash fiction zombie story written with a target length of 150 words. Click here to download a PDF of this story. 9. The Lighthouse At The End Of The Road (1158 words): This story explores the benefits and risks of having a dog as a companion in a zombie apocalypse. It tells the story of a person and a dog who find themselves in a remote lighthouse at the north-western tip of the Scottish mainland. Click here to download a PDF of this story. 10. Survival Skills (296 words): This is a flash fiction zombie story written with a target length of 300 words. Click here to download a PDF of this story. 11. The Custom Of The Sea (1,476): This story is written in a diary format and considers how people would react when trapped somewhere without any food for a long period of time in a zombie apocalypse. It follows the descent of the diary's author down a path that, while it may repulse, is one humans occasionally follow when they find themselves in a situation where there's no other source of sustenance available. Click here to download a PDF of this story. 12. Leaving (55 words): This is a flash fiction zombie story that I wrote for the Zombie Authors Blog, a site I'd highly recommend, where it was first published on the 21st March 2013. The limit for this story was 55 words. Click here to download a PDF of this story. 13. Winter's End (1,041 words): This short story is about a world where life is harsh in winter, but it's harsher in summer. There, the first signs of spring are a harbinger of difficulties to come rather than an indicator that things will soon get easier. Click here to download a PDF of this story. 14. The Labyrinth (1,363 words): In a world where the dead roam the Earth, zombies aren't the only thing you have to worry about. Sometimes even something as simple as catching your leg on a nail can be as dangerous as the undead. Click here to download a PDF of this story. 15. A Plague On Both Your Houses (472 words): As the title suggests, this is a Shakespearian-inspired piece of flash fiction featuring a zombie Mercutio from Romeo and Juliet. Click here to download a PDF of this story. 16. Family (3,840 words): The story of how a young girl's life is changed, perhaps for the better, when a zombie apocalypse engulfs her home town. Click here to download a PDF of this story. 17. I'm With The Band (1,597 words): When they take to the stage, little did they know it was going to be their last ever show. As the bass player watches, zombies invade the venue and within moments he's fighting for his life. Click here to download a PDF of this story. 18. Tiredness Kills (128 words): A flash fiction zombie story inspired by a road safety sign. When zombies rule the Earth, tiredness can kill in more ways than one. Click here to download a PDF of this story. 19. Letting Off Steam (672 words): A flash fiction zombie story which shows that even in a zombie apocalypse, you need to find a way to relax every now and then. Click here to download a PDF of this story. 20. Silence (567 words): A flash fiction zombie story which explores how different the world might sound after it falls to the undead. Click here to download a PDF of this story. 21. First Time (299 words): A flash fiction story with a twist at the end. Click here to download a PDF of this story. 22. The Office Christmas Party (3,100 words): A short story about an office Christmas party that goes unexpectedly, and horrifyingly, wrong. Click here to download a PDF of this story. 23. The Day A Zombie Came Into The Playground (1,564 words): A dark tale for young readers that will appeal to adults too. It tells the story of one boy's attempt to make his teacher believe that there's a zombie in the playground outside his classroom window. Click here to download a PDF of this story. 24. The Awakening (2.016 words): The story of one man's struggle to cope with waking up to find that he's been infected with a zombie virus. Click here to download a PDF of this story. 25. ZeeTech Incorporated (2.136 words): This is a dystopian short story about the dark side of corporate power. Click here to download a PDF of this story. 26. Psychopomps (1,305 words): This is a dark tale of stolen souls and the creatures that consume them. Click here to download a PDF of this story. 27. Stairwell (628 words): This is a flash fiction story about how it would feel to be trapped in a stairwell during a zombie apocalypse, with all the sounds that would echo up and down through it. Click here to download a PDF of this story. 28. New Moon (528 words): This is a flash fiction story about a man who is on watch on a moonless night trying to protect a compound from the zombies which are lurking, unseen, out in the darkness. Click here to download a PDF of this story. 29. The Creatures In The Fog (1,139 words): This is a short story about being hunted by zombie-like creatures in a fog filled forest where he can barely see his hand in front of his face. Click here to download a PDF of this story. 30. Santa Claus Versus The Zombies (2,087 words): A dark festive tale for young readers that will appeal to adults too. It tells the story of one boy's attempt to save Santa Claus from a horde of zombies. Click here to download a PDF of this story.
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