The Body Farm — Marissa Farrar

Doctor Eleanor Armitage is under no illusions that people find her job to be macabre. That she spends her days surrounded by the dead would be understood had she been a funeral director or even a forensic pathologist. But Eleanor studies the life-cycles of insect on decomposing bodies at the Forensic Anthropology Center--an acre of ground where bodies are left in various conditions to decompose for science.

Working late one night with her colleague Robert Dane, they discover a couple of the bodies in the grounds have been disturbed. When they head out to try to figure out who has been tampering with the bodies, one of the dead begins to move.

Trapped in a high-security research center, enclosed by ten feet, razor-wire topped walls, they find themselves surrounded by the living dead.

Suddenly Eleanor has to learn if her science is enough to save their lives...


***This novelette is just over 10K in length and contains scenes of violence and horror some younger readers may find disturbing. BONUS MATERIAL of the first twelve chapters of Marissa Farrar's new novel, 'The Dark Road' has also been included.***


Author's note: Before I made the decision that I wanted to be a writer, I did a degree in Zoology. I spent most of my degree writing (a great clue that I was probably on the wrong degree course) but there was one part of my degree I loved; Parasites and Infectious Diseases. The whole course felt like a lesson in science fiction to me and a number of different story ideas sprung to mind (and were noted down) during those lectures. I've applied the things I've learned during my time at university to a couple of my novels and stories now, and 'The Body Farm' is one of them. I hope I did my job well enough to make the nightmare of a zombie uprising, a possibility.