This is FunDza’s first ever zombie fiction story, told by acclaimed author Sarah Lotz, writing under her pen name, Lily Herne.

It’s been two years since the Sarili Virus swept through South Africa. Those infected by it were transformed into little more than walking corpses, unable to speak, eat or even breathe properly. The government decided to keep the infected away from healthy humans, rounded them up and put them in special camps out of sight of ‘normal’ people.

The last thing on fifteen-year-old Nyameka’s mind is the Sarili Virus and the fate of its victims. She has her own problems. Her little brother Levi is different to the other kids in the community. He rarely smiles, is sensitive and withdrawn, and is always bringing stray animals into the yard. Nyameka doesn’t think it’s fair that her normally strict mother rarely shouts at him and lets him get away with everything. But even her mother’s patience is pushed to the limit when Levi encourages a very different kind of stray to follow him home, an act of kindness that could have terrible consequences for Nyameka’s family.