Apocalypse Diary 2

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Diary of the Apocalypse 2 (Original title: Day by Day Armageddon: Beyond Exile ) is the second part of a four-part novel series by the American writer J. L. Bourne from 2010. The German translation by Ronald M. Hahn was published by Heyne Verlag in 2011.

action

The reader learns the story of a man who records his experiences in a post-apocalyptic world in a diary. The plot begins seamlessly at the end of the first novel, Diary of the Apocalypse .

The protagonist of the novel still persists with a small group of survivors in the bunker of a missile silo and tries to survive in a world that is populated by the undead. After recovering from attacks by a band of robbers on the bunker, the men in the group set off on a scouting tour of a nearby airfield. Here, the protagonist of the novel discovers a message from a family in the fuel filler cap of a tanker truck, which indicates their next destination: Lake Charles .

Since the uncertain fate of the family can no longer leave him, the protagonist sets off on an airplane in search of the family. In fact, he succeeds in rescuing an elderly lady by the name of Dean and her twelve-year-old grandson Danny from the clutches of the undead and bringing them to Hotel 23 unharmed. The group, which now consists of nine people, including the dog Annabelle, is immediately torn from their daily routine in the bunker: an emergency call tells them that a six-man army unit is stuck in an armored vehicle - surrounded by hundreds of undead.

Here, too, a rescue succeeds, and the liberated soldiers, after being nursed up in Hotel 23, return to their unit. But the rescue of the soldiers has an aftermath: the battalion of the rescued surrounds the bunker and demands the handover of this facility. After initial negotiations, the military attempted to forcefully enter the facility. The protagonist sees his identity as an officer in the US armed forces as the last, peaceful way out . To his surprise, the protagonist is the highest-ranking soldier among the besiegers, which is why he is given the command of the broken battalion. Through the soldiers, the reader also learns that the US armed forces have an aircraft carrier that is still intact , from which the battalion received instructions in the past.

With its new function as the highest-ranking soldier, Hotel 23 has a new function: It will be a new military base of operations. In the further course there are dangerous rescue operations until the protagonist crashes on a reconnaissance flight far from Hotel 23 and, on his own, has to make his way back to the missile silo. He received unusual help on his way: an airplane threw him weapons, maps and food and also provided him with a cell phone, which he could use to receive instructions in the form of text messages. These instructions are being sent out by a mysterious organization called "Remote Six".

On his further, arduous path, the protagonist meets a human comrade: Saien, a Muslim from Chicago who is trained in the use of weapons . Thanks to further help from the "Remote Six" organization, which equips the two of them with unusually futuristic weapons, they manage to return to Hotel 23. But those who have returned home have a large horde of the undead in tow. To make matters worse, the undead are atomically contaminated creatures. This makes the undead faster, smarter, and more dangerous than the non-irradiated apocalyptic creatures.

When they reached the missile silo, the survivors received a message from the organization "Remote Six". These call on the occupants of the silo to fire the remaining nuclear warheads at the military aircraft carrier. The crew does not comply with this request, which is why the organization fires a new type of noise weapon at the silo, which lures all undead hordes in the area to Hotel 23. The only remaining option for the survivors of Hotel 23 is to flee onto the aircraft carrier.

On the aircraft carrier, the protagonist of the novel receives a new, delicate assignment from the leading admiral: thanks to intelligence information, it is known that the cause of the undead plague is to be found in Beijing . Because here is patient zero, who should now be localized in order to be able to develop a potential antidote. In the final snippets of news from the novel, the reader finally learns that Patient Zero is supposed to be an alien life form. This was found in China in the Mingyoung Glacier, where he was trapped in his spaceship for an estimated 20,000 years.

particularities

The paperback edition is provided with handwritten notes, underlining and drawings to create a realistic impression of an actual diary.

literature

  • JL Bourne: Diary of the Apocalypse 2 (Original title: Day by Day Armageddon: Beyond Exile ). German by Ronald M. Hahn. Heyne Verlag 2011, 448 pages, ISBN 978-3453528192 or ISBN 3453528190

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