The Zavodsk Files

Short Stories of the Revenant Strain

Book cover titled 'The Zavoisk Files' by Q. B. Ashworth. The cover features a snowy, desolate railroad scene with two men in dark clothing. One man in the foreground holds a large wrench, while another stands farther down the tracks. There are train cars to the left, and a forested background with a radio tower and red and green lasers in the sky, suggesting an ominous or sci-fi theme.

Three linked stories from the world of The Revenant Strain, told from the perspectives of a father, a daughter, and the man standing between them.

Sergei Antonov is a railway signalman working the yards outside Bekershtrit when the outbreak reaches him — and when his own supervisor, Pavel, infected but still running on twelve years of habit, won't let him clock out. Miles away, his estranged daughter Katya works inside the Sino-Zavodsk biotech complex, watching the systems she trusted for containment fail one by one. Father and daughter, fighting two versions of the same collapse, while the distance between them refuses to close.

A note on this collection: most of this material is — and will stay — free to read, here on the site and across social media. This edition exists to gather it in one place, alongside a small amount of new material written specifically for it. It's not a substitute for the novel, and it's priced like what it is: a cheap, honest way to get the whole set in one file.