Nature's Way

104,700 Words

Mankind pillaged Nature...until Nature got fed up...and struck back.

The tattered remnants of the 45th Division fight a hopeless rearguard on the Red River, in Oklahoma. The fight is eating them up, but they can't retreat, and they sure as hell can't stay here any longer.

*****

It was a simple, random mutation, but it was enough to doom the human race. This story recounts a day - the last day of organized resistence - in the lives of the tattered remnants of a U S Army division fighting a hopeless defense of the Red River, in Oklahoma. They are used up, demoralized, crippled by lack of supplies and worn out gear. Few of them have any hope, and some no longer even pretend to try. It's only a matter of time unless someone comes up with a freakin' miracle. But none of them believe in miracles any more, and the ants just keep coming.

The time is fifty years in the future. Ordinary fire ants have mutated: their reproductive rate has skyrocketed, and they are advancing around the world eating everything in their path. Human civilization is crumbling under the onslaught. What's left of the 45th Division struggles against hopeless odds to hold the Red River. Their numbers have been decimated, their equipment is worn out, their morale is shot. They can't endure any longer, but they can't retreat: this is our last line of defense guarding the Grain Belt. Lose that...

This is the last day of Mankind's last stand against Nature out for revenge.



Author's Comments:

There is a trueism in writing that no one really knows where ideas come from. Any writer will tell you that it feels like someone is hovering right behind you, whispering the story in your ear as you write it down. It's a spooky sensation, but true. This one came boiling up out of nowhere, and it completely took charge of my writing. Try as I would, I just couldn't focus on anything else, nor could I exert much influence on how the plot evolved. I sat there helplessly day after day as it manipulated me like I was in some cheesy Demonic Possession flick. Truth is I never thought of myself as a horror writer, wasn't even sure how one would define horror until then. This one was an education and a cautionary tale: I'm still bemused by it.


ISBN: 978-0-9829462-1-3

ISBN: 978-0-9838002-1-7

ISBN: 978-0-9838002-4-8

ISBN: 978-0-9838002-5-5

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