About The Morass:
The Australian Outback is a place mired in myth, folklore, and rumour that’s inspired some of the best horror fiction and creature horror books. Some say it’s full of deadly creatures. Others claim it’s rife with serial killers hunting for backpackers and stranded tourists. Whatever the cause, young people in central Queensland are disappearing and the locals are frightened.
Katy is fresh from college and ready to research and write her magnum opus, a book investigating the many disappearances of outback youths in Australia. When she meets Kip, a guitarist on his way to the city, she knows she’s onto something good and that she can prove her hypothesis: there’s nothing there for the youth of today and they’re running away, searching for employment and prospects in the city.
Unfortunately, she’s wrong. In this terrifying cosmic horror book, there is a killer in the outback. One that thinks God is the ancient creature that lurks in the swamps near his property. With floodwaters rising, he’s certain Katy and Kip are the sacrifices that will allow the entity to emerge from the morass and cleanse the world of sinners. One terrifying abduction later, he has them both imprisoned.
As they struggle to escape the terror and the torture, their desperate fight for survival will lead only to more horror. Because their kidnapper is not crazy. His god is real. His god is hungry, and it is screaming to be reborn.
Aurealis-nominated Australian author Zachary Ashford turns his attention to the isolation of the outback with this fast-paced horror. The tension thrums. The brutality screams. The desperation of his protagonists’ plight bleeds from the page. For fans of extreme horror, splatterpunk, gore, violent films like Wolf Creek, or international movies like the Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and the grotesque creatures of movies like Aliens, The Thing, or The Fly, The Morass: Servant of the Fly God is not to be missed.
Will Katy and Kip survive? Will their killer succeed? Will the God in the swamp take over the world. Buy this supernatural thriller book now, and discover their fate.
Excerpt:
Prologue
Providence, serendipity, or good fucken luck, whatever you called it, Calvin Pastroni saw the broken-down campervan as nothing but an opportunity. The driver was isolated, caught miles from civilization with no shelter and no protection. The chances of another vehicle passing by were slim and only eagles patrolled these plains with any regularity, observing the rising hills in the distance and the dry creek-beds and dusty pastures below with the hungry eyes of predators ready to swoop in, snatch away, and kill. The sole building between the van and population was an abandoned farmstead given to rot and ruin. And that was exactly what had encouraged Pastroni to choose this place when he’d come looking for prey this far from home. Recent paper talk meant people were finally paying attention to the disappearances occurring in his usual hunting grounds. However, the rains were still coming, and that meant he had to persevere if he wanted to fulfil his promise, so it was good that stranded out here, the sheila pulling bags from the van could be taken without a single soul knowing.
The fly alighting on his windscreen buzzed its wings and cleaned its proboscis, and he smiled. He’d brought this one from Mother’s room. There was every chance she had blessed it, that it too knew what was coming. Pastroni scratched absently at an infected pimple on his chin, checked his rotten teeth in the rear-view mirror, and held a finger out to the insect. It took to the air. Landed on his thumb. Kissed him.
The girl pointedly did not look at him, and he knew that he had to get out of the vehicle before making things too weird for her. He didn’t want her to think that he was some Ivan Milat type. That always made life harder, and he couldn’t afford to have his purpose scuppered by a glorified rapist and gun nut. No, he had to remain vigilant and careful, or else everything his mother had worked towards would be wasted.
He waved politely at the girl and slid his gun, a Colt .357, underneath his seat. He finally got out of the Ranger and approached. “G’day,” he said. “Come a cropper?”
The girl, a short dumpy sheila in her early twenties, looked at him, her eyes wild. Her shoulders heaved. She took a deep breath, and spewed words at rapid speed. “It came out of nowhere! I tried to swerve, but it went the other direction, and…my boyfriend went looking for help and now my phone is dead.”
Boyfriend? Time to think intelligently. No witnesses. No mistakes. “Hey, hey, chill out,” Pastroni said. “How long ago’d old mate leave? I’ll go get him.”
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About Zachary Ashford:
Zachary Ashford is an Australian author, educator, and speaker. His dystopian horror novella When the Cicadas Stop Singing was nominated for the Aurealis Award. His other works include the Sole Survivor books, Autotomy Cocktail, and Encampment by the Gorge & Blood Memory. His short fiction has been published by various presses. His love of Ozploitation creature features has seen him called ‘a master of bush horror’. When he’s not writing stories about the human condition while surrounded by action figures and monstrous memorabilia, he’s listening to death metal, hanging with his amazing wife, chilling with his son, or playing with his cat. His debut novel, POLYPHEMUS is due in November from Darklit.
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