Brian Martinez

A Chemical Fire: a Novel Brian Martinez

Take a ride through one man's fall that becomes the entire world's end.
Meet John Cotard, science teacher and devoted husband. After a car accident turns him onto prescription painkillers, John drugs his life away. First his job, then his marriage crumbles as he does nothing to stop it, lost in a haze of chemicals. Then one night a mysterious fire sweeps through the land, wiping out human-kind and leaving behind zombie-like burn victims. John is left seemingly alone in the world, and he carries on by breaking into houses and stealing what he needs. For him the end of the world actually makes sense- it's the next step in his self-destruction.
But one-by-one he meets the few remaining survivors, including a woman starving herself thin, a combat-obsessed survivalist and a dangerous face from his past. As they travel across the country they face not only the dangers of the world around them but of each other, discovering the fateful connection they share along the way.
A Chemical Fire is a minimalist, noir vision of the apocalypse, with twists and turns that can't be missed.