A second large piece of plywood crashed to the floor, the sound echoed through the small building like a gunshot. Cracks spidered out across the laminated glass. Some sections bowed inward, ready to collapse. Outside hundreds of thrall stand waiting. Some sway like reeds near a pond. Others stand, no movement at all, sleeping. The…
Erik began moved toward the group. He felt the weight of the groups eyes upon him. Something felt off and he immediately recognized it. A sudden sinking feeling. His stomach tightened. Erik looked back at Rebecca. She stood still. Not a breath. Not a twitch. He glanced at the others. Their expressions were tight, unreadable.…
Erik’s eyes opened, slow and unwilling. Erik was surprised he wasn’t dead. He had for the umpteenth time give in to Teraphobia’s attempts to break him, yet here he was. A memory surfaced before the rest of him did: the sea of human-like, shells, hollow but functional, surrounding two towering Collectors. Rebecca ran, their monstrous,…
Erik screamed out toward the thrall. He listened as the towering stems and pig weed broke under the incoming horde. The tentacled Groundling reached out, brushed his ankle. Erik turned, snapped a thick stalk from the ground. He threw the stalk at the mystery creature within the grass. A tentacle wrapped itself around the stalk…
Erik wiped sweat from his brow as the summer heat loomed over him. His hands trembled as he set the duffel down, though he didn’t need anything it. He released the pry-bar and let it fall the short distance to the ground. He shook off the anxiety, wishing he had a shot to medicate it…
“Where the hell am I going to go,” Erik said to himself. Erik and a young girl, named Rebecca, walked alone within a sea of brainless thrall, stalled cars and tall grass. Erik carried a duffle bag, Rebecca a backpack. Ahead of them a few neglected buildings, behind those a forgotten city. High-rise buildings rotting…
Erik stood near a pale blue minivan. Its windows blacked out with dirt. He tried the driver’s side sliding door, but it was locked. A pair of tall, blond, thrall twins mill nearby. They blindly search for the source of the noise. The tinyist ‘chunk’, ‘chink’ or ‘ding’ sets them in — It’s a weird…
The cold sat and ate upon Erik’s fingers like rabid dogs. Nibbling away at the nerves as quickly as they could as he stood outside the bus stop waiting for the five o’clock Red line. Erik had lost his gloves and his pockets were full of rocks. Rocks collected from his quarry, for the last…
A Speaker is a traveling storyteller, an ancient tradition brought back by a tragedy. An event disguised as an infection. That infection spread toppled the crippled US government but under the hood of the infection was a revolution. This was a bloodless coup. An explosion of a new population of humans. The new population split…
“No! I said don’t do that. What the hell!” Tommy stepped toward the woman as she attempted to sprint between two pair of outstretched arms. The eager arms trying to find lunch, which was the source of the screaming. Tommy winched as the zombie on the left grasp her ponytail. The woman’s face, joyful she had…