Like everyone else he knew, Steven's heart did not beat. Instead it lay dead in his chest, as docile as his brain and his lungs and his soul. So when he first heard the faint beating sound coming from outside his bedroom window, he didn't know what to think. "In the Land of the Blind" is a 3,000-word nontraditional zombie story that won the 10th Annual Chiaroscuro Short Story Contest. It was also the inspiration for Robert Swartwood's zombie thriller LAND OF THE DEAD. The prologue and first three chapters of LAND OF THE DEAD are included in this e-book.