Before you read
it… feel it.
“What will you become when survival is all that’s left? SUMMER 2026
The Decay – A Gripping Post-Apocalyptic Survival Series
The Decay is a dark, cinematic post-apocalyptic thriller from Tattletale Publishing, blending intense action, raw emotion, and moral conflict. Set in the ruins of a fallen world, it follows survivors battling the undead, ruthless factions, and their own humanity in a relentless fight to stay alive. This gripping series explores how far humanity will go when the world collapses — and what we become when survival is all that’s left.
KANO KINGSTON’S THE DECAY
A Novel by Tattletale Publishing
“The End of the World Wasn’t the End”
First they died.
Then they changed.
And then… they came for us.
It didn’t happen overnight.
It crept in slow — through whispers on the news, through streets that emptied too early, through faces we thought we knew.
The world didn’t end with a scream… it ended with silence.
Governments crumbled. Cities fell. And humanity — the thing we swore made us different — rotted faster than the bodies in the streets.
Now, survival isn’t about who’s strongest.
It’s about who’s willing.
Willing to fight.
Willing to lose.
Willing to become something they swore they’d never be.
Because in this new world…
mercy is weakness,
hope is dangerous,
and the living may be worse than the dead.
Welcome… to The Decay.
THEMES
💀 Humanity vs. Survival – How much of your soul are you willing to sacrifice to stay alive when the world turns to ash?
⚖️ Morality in the Ruins – In a collapsed world, right and wrong blur — and every choice leaves blood on your hands.
🩸 The Cost of Hope – Hope is dangerous here. It fuels rebellion… but it can also get you killed.
🔥 Power and Control – From warlords to broken governments, the battle for control is as brutal as the infected lurking in the dark.
👤 What We Become – Monsters aren’t just born. They’re forged in desperation, shaped by the choices we make when survival is all that’s left.
🌍 In the ashes of civilization, survival isn’t enough — you have to choose what’s worth dying for.
📅 Summer 2026
STEP INTO THE DECAY…
Read the prologue — the first breath of a dying world
Prologue — THE DECAY BEGINS
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December 12th — Thursday — 5:10 AM
Grand Rapids, MI“Cass, wake up! My parents will be up soon. You have to go!”
Cass’s face tightened as she pushed herself up from the cluttered basement floor. A light layer of ashes from the warm, glowing fireplace covered her clothes throughout the night. She dusted herself off, then began collecting her things.
She twisted her sandy red hair back into a ponytail while following her former teammate back up the stairs and through the kitchen.
The air was brisk as she walked out onto the back porch. It had only been six days, and her neighborhood had already begun to look like the apocalypse. The cold December breeze quickly chased away her warm body heat as it whipped around her slim-fit frame.
Cass slid her left arm through the other strap on her worn denim backpack and headed down the stairs to begin her journey. Cass grew up playing basketball with her father and six older male cousins, who all were state champions back in her small hometown of Deer Born, so she wasn’t a pushover or softy. Her height made it easy for her to step through the thick, icy snow.
She was the star on the girls’ high school basketball team before everything happened. The night of her big game, more than half the city came down with a sickness. Her family, along with hundreds of others, were infected. She watched as her mother, father, and nine-year-old brother clawed the skin from their face and arms as the sickness set in. Once she realized there wasn’t anything she could do to help them, she fled the school’s gym with the few other survivors. Everything happened so fast, and she’s been on her own ever since.
She pulled her hood over her head, then blew her warm breath onto her hands as she rubbed them together. She noticed the curtains on the upper level of the house next to her move a little as she passed by. She pretended like she didn’t see it though, and just continued walking.
“It was strange to see how much the neighborhood had changed in just over a week,” she thought to herself. All the windows on the lower levels of all the houses were boarded up. The doors were reinforced with chain link fencing, and only a few of the people she came across were friendly. Most had witnessed what happens to those that wander the streets after nightfall alone. So, those that could welcomed her in to get her through the night. She was grateful, but she knew she needed to find a place of her own — and quick.Now blinded by the thick cloud of smoke that hurled from her mouth as she continued blowing onto her hands, Cass struggled to see anything in either direction on the main strip as she reached the intersection. She took a moment to readjust her pack on her back, then proceeded to cross beneath the thick, ice-covered streetlights that hung and swayed slowly in the gusting wind.
So far, it was safe to travel during the day, but once night fell, the streets became a hunting ground. Reporters on the radio called them Skinners.
At first, Cass thought they were living in a real-life Walking Dead — that everyone who got sick was going to come back as zombies. Seeing them ripping their own skin off like that… that’s what they looked like.
However, they were nothing like the movies. They were worse.Cass and her family had been the only African American family in the neighborhood, and because they were new to the area, they hadn’t had much time to socialize with the other families before the outbreak. The few people she did know — from school and the basketball team — either didn’t survive or had fled for somewhere safer. Knocking on doors for help didn’t feel like a good idea anymore.
She remembered the old gas station a couple of blocks over. Her father used to spend a lot of time there, hanging out and talking about cars with one of the mechanics. She knew she needed to be cautious — the only weapon she had was an old flathead screwdriver she’d taken from her father’s tool shed before leaving her parents’ house in search of food and somewhere safe.
If she could get in, it could make for a good shelter from the cold, and hopefully, she could find something to eat.
As she got closer, she saw a good spot to check it out before heading over. She eased up next to a large privacy fence. She couldn’t tell if anyone was moving around inside or not, but her stomach was growling, and her hands and feet were completely numb.
She continued scoping things out for a few more minutes, took a deep breath, then made her way over to the entrance. Cass crouched down next to the front door. She used the sleeve of her coat to clear a small spot on the glass so she could see inside. She pulled the screwdriver from her belt loop, then eased up and peeked in.
It looked empty, so she pushed the door just enough for her to slip inside. A foul odor caused her to gag after she entered. She wrapped her forearm around her nose and mouth, then continued looking around.
She tightened her lips as the foul smell got stronger. The further in she got, the thicker the smell became. The power grids went down on the third day. The whole city went black. Even with the sun shining, it was dark inside most places.
She tripped over something just as she got to the last aisle. Cass gripped the screwdriver tight as she used the wall to help her get back on her feet.
Her hands began to shake once she realized it was a dead body. Her heart rate elevated. She looked around to see if she was alone or not. She didn’t want to panic, but she couldn’t control her breathing.
She started backing toward where she came in. Her body tensed when she bumped into the door.
She snatched it open, then rushed back out into the snow.
Cass looked around for a minute, then she turned back toward the gas station. It was freezing, and she didn’t want to chance getting stuck outside alone at night.
She stood there staring into the dark gas station for a few more seconds. She had already checked the aisles, and nothing had run out to attack her. She took a deep breath, then headed back in.
She knew she needed to deal with the one dead body, but she needed to see what was behind the register and in any other rooms she hadn’t been able to check.
As she made it back to the last aisle, she could hear a light dripping sound coming from a room behind the register.
The gas station had been completely cleaned out. The hunger pains in her stomach grew stronger as she looked down all the empty aisles again. Each one of the coolers was also completely empty.
She could see two more dead bodies laid out on the floor as she made her way over to the cash register. The last room was right on the other side of the bodies. Cass stayed low, hugging the wall as she made her way over.
She looked down at the two bodies. They looked like they had been stabbed to death. She stepped over the large puddle of blood and headed for the room.
The dripping got clearer the closer she got. She raised the screwdriver as she peeked around the wall.
Cass instantly fell back onto the floor.
It didn’t start with screams or fire or blood in the streets.
It started with confusion. Quiet panic. The kind that moves through a city like fog — soft at first, then choking.
One day, the news was background noise. The next, it was everything. Words like quarantine and containment spilled from every screen. A strange sickness, they said. Contained. Controlled. Nothing to fear. But fear was already in the air — heavier than the scent of rain on hot concrete.
Then came the silence.
No traffic. No laughter. No church bells on Sunday. Just empty streets and boarded windows. Families vanished behind locked doors, whispering prayers to gods they hadn’t spoken to in years. And still, the sickness spread.
It wasn’t just death they feared. Death was merciful.
It was what came after — when the body twitched and the eyes opened again, hollow and hungry. When neighbors turned on neighbors and mothers on their children. It was then that humanity realized the truth: the end wasn’t coming. It was already here.
Governments collapsed beneath their own lies. Law vanished with the last siren. The thin thread that once held civilization together snapped — and the world fell into the teeth of the Decay.
And in the ruins of everything we once knew…
the living became something else entirely.
WHAT WOULD YOU BECOME ?
“When survival is the only law that matters.”
MEET CASSIDY
I used to think my whole life would be decided on a basketball court.
I was captain of the team, with a future ahead of me that people dreamed about — college offers, championships, my name in lights. That was all I wanted. That was all I knew.
And then… the sickness came.
One night changed everything. I watched my mother, my father, and my little brother claw themselves apart in front of me. I can still hear them screaming. I can still smell the blood in the air. That night stole more than my family — it stole me. The girl I was died there with them.
Since then, every day has been a fight. I’ve seen people I trusted turn into monsters — some because of the sickness, and some because that’s who they were when the world stopped watching. I’ve seen the Skinners tear people apart in the streets. I’ve seen neighbors turn on each other for a can of food.
I’ve learned that survival isn’t about strength. It’s about heart. About refusing to let this broken world decide who I am.
I don’t know what tomorrow looks like — none of us do anymore. But I know I’m still here. I’m still fighting. And I still believe there’s something worth saving, even if I have to walk through hell to find it.
HER STORY
Before the world fell apart, Cassidy had one dream: basketball. She was the captain of her high school team, a rising star with college scouts already watching from the bleachers. Her future was mapped out in points and championships — until the night everything changed.
It was supposed to be her big game. Instead, it became the end of everything she knew. By the time the final buzzer sounded, half the city had fallen ill. She watched in horror as her mother, father, and nine-year-old brother clawed the skin from their own faces. Most of her teammates never made it home.
The sickness that swept through Grand Rapids didn’t just steal lives — it devoured humanity. Those who didn’t die outright became something worse. They called them Skinners — twisted, violent predators who shredded their own flesh and turned the night into a hunting ground.
Cass has seen more death than anyone her age should. She’s endured hunger, betrayal, and the kind of cruelty that only comes when society forgets what it means to be human. But she’s still standing. Harder. Sharper. Unyielding.
She may have lost the life she dreamed of, but she hasn’t lost herself. And in a world where hope is as rare as a warm meal, Cass is determined to keep fighting — not just to survive… but to make survival mean something.