Creating the Reapers

 

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 to kill.

I wanted an encounter with even a single Reaper to be something the survivors feared. Something capable of taking on several people and still being difficult to bring down.

The only thing that made me hesitate was the Smilers.

I'd already introduced a new threat to the world, so I wasn't sure whether The Fall Series needed another. But the more the Reapers developed, the more I realised they were completely different from the Smilers.

The Smilers think. They manipulate.

The Reapers hunt.

That distinction was what made me decide there was room for both.

I wanted the Reapers to bring a different kind of fear to The Fall Series. Not the overwhelming numbers of the normal dead or the calculated intelligence of the Smilers, but the fear of being hunted by something faster, stronger and far more dangerous than you are.

Something that would give readers something new to fear...

and give my characters nightmares.