The A-Virus Series

Will Batchelor hates his new life in London, the private school his father forces him to go to. He misses Brighton. He misses his friends. He misses home. Little does Will realise that his problems are about to pale into insignificance. Because lurking on the horizon is a threat like no other. Unseen. Contagious. Deadly. Yet it is as his world crumbles around him that he receives the tiniest glimmer of hope. A glimmer of hope which will require him to make a journey like no other. But, even in this desolate place, it will not be one that he must make alone . . .

Will Batchelor hates his new life in London, the private school his father forces him to go to. He misses Brighton. He misses his friends. He misses home. But little does Will realise that his problems are about to pale into insignificance. That lurking on the horizon is a threat like no other. Unseen. Contagious. Deadly. As his world crumbles, is there anything he can do to save it? Or will he lose everything he loves, and everyone?

Just as it looks like all hope is lost, Will receives a text message from a friend he thought dead. Asking if anyone is still out there. If anyone is still alive. The problem: Will is in London. His friend is in Brighton. But after calling and getting no reply, Will makes the decision without hesitation. He will make the long journey to Brighton, across the silent, deathly wasteland that the world has become. Yet, it is a journey that he will not have to make alone . . . Episode two in The A-Virus Series–short listens that weave a thrilling, post-apocalyptic tale!

Having seen no human life for two days, Will and Chloe never expect to hear a car engine. To see the car emerging over the hill. To see the shotgun-wielding men emerge from it. The gun pointed directly at them. The men’s grins nothing but friendly. Because for Chloe and Will, the men have a purpose. A purpose which could not be more terrible.

Their journey is finally at an end, but their new reality has only just begun. In a desolate city, haunted by memories at every corner, Will – with Chloe and Daniel beside him – must make a new life from the wreckage of the A-Virus. But as grief and isolation divides them, and problems surmount them, one question screams through it all: Are they truly alone in this world? Or is there somebody else out there? Watching.

When Will wakes up, it takes him a moment to remember the girl in the supermarket. For weeks, he has been trying to find survivors. And she had been in the middle of the dog food aisle. Just standing there. Before she lifted what she was holding. Fired, before he could so much as finish a sentence. He has no idea who she is, what she wants with him or where he is being taken. As for Chloe and Daniel, he can only pray that they have not been ambushed, too. No, right now, only one thing is for certain. That in this desolate world, they are not as alone as they thought....

When Will wakes up in the back of the van–in agony and struggling for breath; his limbs cable-tied–it takes him a moment to remember the girl in the supermarket. For weeks, he had been trying to find survivors. And she had been at the middle of the dog food aisle. Just standing there.

Will can't escape the image burned into his mind—Leo's gunshot. The horror that followed. Daniel’s screams. Chip’s agonised barks. The wailing of his campmates. The nightmare which haunts them all. One thing is certain now: they are prisoners. Watched at every turn and under threat with each passing second. Powerless. Trapped. But just when all seems bleak, an opportunity emerges. A single, reckless chance at escape.

Two months since the A-Virus hit. Since all but the last few survivors of the human race fell victim to the apocalypse. Now, Will might just have the slimmest of chances at finding out why the A-Virus really happened. Why they are being kept in the Society against their will. Why all the guards and people of Project Beta survived, when the rest of the world did not. Their plan is desperate, and their ally unlikely, but, together with Ellie, Will must break into the forbidden mansion at the heart of the society.

Then come the gunshots in the distance. In the direction of Chloe and Daniel. Desperately hoping that they managed to escape with their lives – with Chip, Ellie and Lars by his side – Will must do all he can to get back to them. But with Will's injured ankle, and the guards closing in, the odds are stacked against them.

On the run, but divided. Nearly beaten, but not quite broken. Then come the gunshots in the distance. In the direction of Chloe and Daniel. Desperately hoping that they managed to escape with their lives, with Chip, Ellie and Lars by his side, Will must do all he can to get back to them. But with Will’s injured ankle, and Project Beta’s guards closing in, the odds are stacked against them.

Will, Chloe, Daniel and the other rebels continue to flee the clutches of Project Beta. Exhausted, injured, and grieving their losses, they wonder how much longer they can go on for. Little do they know, things are about to get even worse. When one of their number becomes critically ill, with only basic first aid knowledge between them, the survivors must fight to save a life. They are dropping like flies.

Will and Chloe thought they had escaped them. They thought that, finally, they were safe. But they were wrong. Now, two members of the Willow Hall community–the community which has already done so much to help the exiles–are captives of Project Beta. And one of the two is none other than Daniel’s biological father. Now, Will and the others must do everything within their power to save them. But little do they realise that there are further twists in store. That this is just the beginning of Mia Blackwood’s vindictive plan. A vindictive plan which Will and Chloe are very much at the heart of...

The survivors wait on tenterhooks for Project Beta to strike. For Lord Blackwood to retaliate with all his strength. Then, hours turn into days. Days turn into weeks. Still, there is no sign of Project Beta. Life begins to return to a new, hesitant normal. Yet, with the prisoner in Willow Hall’s basement, Will knows that Project Beta’s silence can mean one of only two things. One: Lord Blackwood truly saw his daughter as a tool, to be discarded the moment she stepped out of line. Two: a possibility which is far worse. That Project Beta is planning something.