Life After: The Line of Duty

Life After: The Line of Duty is the sixth short story in the Life After series, a collection of new adult horror fiction by American author Bryan Way. It is the second new story in the series' second trilogy of shorts, preceded by Life After: Zugzwang, and will be self-published by Way on December 21st, 2021.

Synopsis
In times of crisis, few bear a burden more demanding than local law enforcement, but even as a zombie apocalypse wreaks untold havoc, the undead are the least of their troubles.

Spread thin in the wake of a calamity, the remaining officers at the Broomall Police Department are faced with dwindling resources and manpower in a losing effort to contain the scourge. As state and government agencies fight to enforce a quarantine boundary prior to an impending evacuation, the station is mistakenly identified as a rescue center, forcing Lt. Arthur Gilchrist and a handful of cops to determine whether their new arrivals are trying to escape the mayhem or take advantage of it.

Set during the events of Life After: The Arising, Life After: The Line of Duty examines the fortitude required to protect and serve the public in an unthinkable circumstance as well as what it means to maintain order when chaos becomes the status quo.

Plot Summary
(As this short story has been recently published, a summary has been temporarily withheld.)

Conception, Writing & Publication
After the publication of Life After: The Arising in 2013, Way sought to expand his written universe by publishing a series of short stories; while he'd already written a few and posted them on Homepage of the Dead, it seemed wise to have them available on Kindle alongside his first novel and preceding the inevitable release ofLife After: The Void. Though Life After: The Phoenix was written first, it was released last, following Life After: The Cemetery Plot and Life After: The Basement, both of which were conceived at approximately the same time as Life After: The Line of Duty, then known as Life After: Upholding the Law.

While the premise came easily and the characters populating the Broomall Police station followed quickly, Way struggled mightily to execute the story with the standard of realism he established in the Life After universe; though he could easily ask friend John Henderson for assistance in accurately portraying aspects of serving in the armed forces, he lacked any contacts in local law enforcement and, as he intuited upon the completion of the first draft of The Arising, felt he lacked the sophistication necessary to do the concept justice. As such, the early drafts of Upholding the Law sat untouched for years.

A night owl by nature, Way would frequent local convenience stores, supermarkets, and pharmacies in the early hours of the morning. During one such a venture, he met Ofc. Clinton Cunningham at the Newtown Square Wawa; finding him amiable and unassuming, Way struck up a conversation about policework that ultimately led him to ask Ofc. Cunningham several questions about the role of law enforcement in local disaster or pandemic scenarios. Though the conversation armed Way with new ideas, he was hard at work editing The Void and couldn't dedicate the time to reapproaching The Line of Duty yet. During the ensuing months, Way and Ofc. Cunningham ran into each other several more times, each time striking up conversation that eventually led to Way acquiring his e-mail address and promising to send him the earliest completed draft. By early 2015, Way moved out of the area and the two lost touch, but Ofc. Cunningham's contributions were such that Way included him in the acknowledgements of The Void when it was published in 2016.

In 2020, when Way decided he would complete another trifecta of short stories, he was most excited to come back to The Line of Duty; in the time since its original conception, he became less precious about perfect accuracy and more passionate about verisimilitude, feeling it better to capture the chaos of a zombie apocalypse than follow strict police procedure. When the draft was close to completion, Way prepared to reach out to Ofc. Cunningham, only to be devastated to learn that he had passed away in 2018. Upon securing the blessing of Mrs. Cunningham, Way chose to dedicate The Line of Duty to Sgt. Cunningham's memory.

Following a beta read in July of 2021, The Line of Duty was submitted for pre-order on Amazon on July 30th.