Note- There are two Garth Owen projects being worked on at the moment. One of them is a ghost story with naughtiness- planned to be the first in a series- the other is the as yet untitled Hero project. Here’s another bit of first draft from the Hero tale-
Shoppers’ Paradise had been designed by taking the plans of the two largest malls in the country and taping them together, then laying the sheet on the photocopier and pressing Enlarge.
Viewed from above the two shopping wings formed a shallow V with a huge glass dome at the hinge, looking like nothing less than the scowl and vampire fangs of an undead monstrosity draining the life from towns in the next four counties. The four stories- three above ground one below- had units of every size from hotdog stand to department store, and even with half of them still empty boasted hundreds of shops. There was a fair sized town’s worth of ancillary buildings as well- from the hectares of parking all around to the huge gambling and entertainment complex on the Northern side.
The river ran to the South of the complex, the motorway to the North. To East and West was post industrial wasteland which would one day be tarmacced over to provide even more parking. Shoppers’ Paradise was a long way from anywhere and liked it like that. Once a patron was foolish enough to park up they had no option but to spend money there. They’d have to wander the halls of fake marble and faux gilt until they found something which justified the litres of petrol they’d wasted getting there.
Come the zombie apocalypse Shoppers’ Paradise was one of the places survivors and undead would flock to for a showdown. On this opening weekend it looked like only the survivors of the showdown were left.
Mmmm… zombie apocalypse… can’t wait ’til that one’s published!