COLD BLOOD:THE END:CAL MILLER REVIEW

**REVIEW**

COLD BLOOD:THE END: CAL MILLER

“Dr. Cheryl Barrett likes to think she got into medicine to help people… to save lives. While that may be true to a certain extent, the real reason has been chasing her since her father’s death.”

Christmas Eve, a night when kids are nestled snug in their beds, parents sneaking down to put gifts under the tree, milk and cookies out for Santa, but something more sinister is lurking and will make this holiday one for everyone to remember..

The night begins with Dr.Cheryl Barrett delivering her best friend Laura's baby. This is to be Dr.Cheryl Barrett's first delivery. A fact that has not gone unnoticed by Laura's husband Drake. He has been opposed to it since the get go. Laura being Cheryl's best friend, since their young and care free college days, trusts her best friend and Doctor with her and her unborn child's life.

Meanwhile in a different room, Dr.Barrett's mother is most likely going to die before she can see another holiday season- from Pancreatic Cancer.

The time has come for Laura to give birth to her son. Excitement has erased any trepidation Drake has about this being Dr.Barrett's first delivery. So her son can be born on Christmas day Dr.Barrett has Laura wait a few minutes before she begins pushing. All is well, Mother and child are strong and healthy. The clock strikes 12am “MERRY CHRISTMAS”. A few minutes later a baby boy makes his appearance into the world, the perfect Christmas gift.

“What happened?! You said I was doing great, what the fuck happened Cheryl?!” Laura cries out.

“He was, you both were… I don’t know….” Cheryl answers.

“You don’t know?! I do! You froze, I have it on tape!” Drake shouts. “You made her wait until midnight! I saw you! You killed our baby by waiting!”

Cheryl is distraught as she watches Valerie, her assistant nurse try to breathe life into her best friends stillborn son.

She leaves the room only to be greeted by mass chaos. Screaming, tears, confusion.

A nurse comes up to her. “Yours too?!” She shouts. Her face twisted in horror. “Was it dead?!”

Cheryl nods her head.

“The last five babies delivered on this floor have been stillborn.” The rather large young nurse says, a hand on each of Cheryl’s shoulders, shaking her... Hurting her.

Cheryl rushes to see how her mother is doing. Upon entering the room there are no signs of life from the machines monitoring her mother. She grabs her mother's cold hands and begins speaking to her dead body. Apologizing for not being there in her final moments. Suddenly the hand squeezes hers back! “What’s wrong, dear? I’m fine. In fact, I feel a bit better.” Her mother says.

So begins the nightmare. All over the Eastern seaboard babies are being born stillborn and people who are supposed to be dead are not. And it all happened after midnight. Christmas day.

The Feds and the CDC become involved, the hospital is on quarantine, the epidemic is spreading across all time zones as each one passes the midnight mark. Animals are experiencing the same exact phenomenon.

The “Technically Dead” begin experiencing pain and start eating the stillborn babies and still alive human's to “ease” these pains. The “Technically Dead” seem to have very persuasive ways and have caused many humans to committ suicide too.

This book mainly focus's on Dr.Cheryl Barrett and her story. She not only has a mother who is now a “Tech Dead” but her best friends child is one of the after midnight stillborns. Not only that when she was trying to save her assistant nurse Valerie's life after a suicide attempt she herself has become a “Tech Dead”.

One of the Doctor's in the hospital has an idea on how to “reanimate” Cheryl. She has not been dead very long and has yet to experience the strange symptoms of physical pains and behavioral changes the other “Tech Deads” have. Dr.Ruiz gets Cheryl to agree to his experiment.

Meanwhile we follow the story of David Burke an his wife Cindy. They both work for the local news station. David and Cindy are awaiting the birth of their first child too. Once the news breaks David and his team sneak into the hospital to get first crack at the story. They witness firsthand the chaos the “Tech Deads” are creating. They see the botched suicide attempts, the stillborn's, etc. They also witness the military shoot humans and “Tech Deads” attempting to leave the hospital. Cindy is in labor at the new station and David is trying to get to her.  

After a “ successful” reanimation of Dr.Cheryl Barrett, Dr.Ruiz is ecstatic, as is Cheryl. Thinking all is well she goes about business as usual. While trying to help the people of St.James Hospital she is met by a site and put into a situation she cannot resist..it seems the heartbeat, brainwaves, and signs of life are not that were returned to Cheryl...

What I simply adored about this fabulous book is that it was faced paced and not as plain and simple as your typical zombie takes over as the world ends story. The world has not ended via viral infection, war, etc. and the zombies are a bit more intelligent than your typical falling apart at the seams z-bee's of yester year. There was no warning at all. BAM! Midnight came and all hell broke loose.

Whatever caused the stillborn births and the undead to not die was never revealed (at least not yet) . As fast as it began it ended. Children were born alive, the dead died as they were supposed to & the tech deads..well.. lets just say I am hoping from the way the story ended there will be a follow up *hint*hint*. A story such as this CANNOT be left unfinished. It is cruel to the readers.