Books by Ellis Grayson

  👋 Say Hello! I can see people dropping into the blog from different parts of the world, and I’d love to know who’s actually out there reading. So if you’ve found your way here, leave a comment below and say hello. Tell me where in the world you’re visiting from — Scotland, elsewhere in the UK, the US, or somewhere completely different. And if you’re a reader of The Fall Series, let me know how you discovered the books too. It would be great to see just how far The Fall has travelled. So... where are you reading from? — Ellis

"I’ve learned something about people. Give them safety, and they grow careless. Give them hope, and they grow blind. Take both away... and they show you what they really are. I watched the world tear itself apart long before the dead ever touched it. I saw men with guns freeze. I saw officers crumble. I saw crowds begging for mercy they didn’t deserve. And when the screaming started in the tunnel, when the air filled with blood and orders and the stench of rot, only one truth remained: Someone had to be willing to do what the rest of you couldn’t. You call me ruthless. Unforgiving. A monster. You’re right.” [RECORDING ENDS]

  AAARRRGGGHHH! Do you think this is easy? All these lives. All these people. Every decision resting on my shoulders — all to keep them alive. Control is order. Order keeps them safe. They'll never know what I do for them. The lines I cross. The choices I make so they don't have to. They can hate me for it. They can call me a monster. But they'll still be alive to do it. And that's enough. Recovered from Major Damien Blackridge's room at Caerlaverock Castle.

  How I Created the Reapers The Reapers had been playing around in my head since After the Fall was written, but they were very different when I first imagined them. Originally, the Reapers were going to be human. I had the idea of introducing a group that would pose a new threat to the survivors, but the more I thought about it, the more I realised they'd just dealt with Ellis. Introducing another dangerous human threat so soon felt like I was covering the same ground again. That's when the idea changed. Instead of humans, what if the Reapers were something that had evolved from the original zombies? Once I made that decision, everything else started falling into place. I imagined them as pack hunters. Fast, agile and brutally strong, with claws capable of ripping through human flesh and bone. Unlike the normal dead, they wouldn't simply see someone and attack. They would stalk their prey, work together and learn from their mistakes. And they would be incredibly difficult ...

 How I Created the Smilers When I first came up with the Smilers, they weren't actually supposed to smile. I knew I wanted to introduce a different kind of zombie into The Fall Series. The normal dead were dangerous because of their numbers, but I wanted something smarter. Something that could look at a situation, understand what was happening and make calculated moves rather than simply charging towards the living. Visually, though, I still wanted them to look like zombies. I didn't want to create some completely different creature that felt out of place in the world I'd already built. They needed something that immediately set them apart. That's where the smile came from. I'd seen the film Smile, and I loved how unsettling something as simple as a smile could be when it was just slightly wrong. I started thinking about how disturbing it would be to see one of the dead standing among a horde, staring at you... and smiling. From there, the idea grew again. What if t...

LOCATION: Central Scotland STATUS: Active THREAT LEVEL: Extreme A Smiler has been spotted in woodland somewhere in central Scotland. If you see it, do not approach. Do not attempt to engage it. RUN. TURN AND RUN AS FAST AS YOU CAN. They are not like the others. They control the dead.

 Dr. Hensley hadn’t expected the file to still exist. Most of the data pulled from Outpost 9 was corrupted, burned, or deliberately erased. This one survived — partially. Whoever tried to destroy it hadn’t finished the job. She read in silence. OUTPOST 9 PROJECT: ███████ / CHIMERA MUTANT STRAIN CLEARANCE: ████████ STATUS: PARTIALLY REDACTED LOG — INITIAL AUTHORISATION Baseline Chimera exhibits limited effectiveness against █████████ clusters. Objective: create a controlled variant capable of rapid █████████████ of the dead. This is not a cure project. This is a ██████████████. LOG — PHYSIOLOGICAL DEVIATION Unexpected skeletal acceleration observed. Metacarpals elongating and ██████. Keratin density increasing along ██████████. Subjects capable of short bursts of ████████ speed. Locomotion improved when ██████████. LOG — BEHAVIOURAL NOTES Subjects display adaptive ████████. Pattern recognition confirmed. They anticipate movement. They do not linger on █████████ targets. LOG — INCIDE...

 FROM THE FALL ARCHIVES CHARACTER STORY: STEPHEN Waiting for a Sign Stephen stood in the middle of the road and watched the car disappear. The engine noise faded as Derek and the others drove away towards the prison. For a moment, the sound echoed through the empty streets of Bellshill, bouncing off silent shop fronts and abandoned cars. Then it was gone. Only the wind remained. Father Luke’s church stood behind him, its doors hanging slightly open. The others had chosen to go with Derek. It was the smart choice. Safety. Walls. People. Hope. Stephen looked down the road one last time. Then he turned and walked the other way. His kids were still out there somewhere. He had to believe that. They had talked about it before everything fell apart. If something bad ever happened, if they got separated, they were to go somewhere safe. Somewhere familiar. Home. The journey to Crossford took most of the day. Stephen avoided the main roads where he could, cutting through fields and side stre...

 The first sign something was wrong wasn’t the news. It was the silence. Daryl stood behind the counter of his small shop near the shopping centre, watching the empty pavement through the dusty front window. Normally, by this time in the morning, the street would be busy with parents walking their kids to school, delivery vans making their rounds and the usual chatter of everyday life. Today there was nothing. His radio crackled on the shelf behind him. Every station carried the same message. Stay indoors. Avoid contact with anyone displaying signs of aggression. Daryl turned the volume down. The words didn’t sit right with him. Aggression didn’t cause entire towns to shut down. The bell above the shop door jingled. Ellie stepped inside, Zak trailing behind her. Their son clutched a toy dinosaur in one hand. “You’ve heard the announcements?” she asked. Daryl nodded. “Aye. Doesn’t sound good.” Outside, somewhere in the distance, a siren wailed. Zak wandered over to the shelves of ca...