A Quiet Apocalypse

Book excerpt: The end is hear... A mutant strain of meningitis has wiped out most of mankind. The few who have survived the fever are now deaf. Bitter with loss and terrified to leave the city known as Cathedral, the inhabitants rely on The Samaritans, search teams sent out into the surrounding countryside. Their purpose, to hunt down and enslave the greatest commodity on Earth, an even smaller group of people immune to the virus, people who can still hear. People like me. My name is Chris. This is my story. "A Quiet Apocalypse is told from the perspective of ex-schoolteacher Chris, a hearing survivor. He has lost everything, including his freedom, and through his eyes we learn of what it is like to live as a slave in this terrible new world of fear and loss. I was keen to write a piece that preyed upon people's traditional misconceptions of deafness as an illness, and the imposition of 'hearing' norms. It is a story that has poignancy in any understanding of the struggles of minority groups." - Author, Dave Jeffery (Cover by Adrian Baldwin; original artwork by Roberto Segate)