My brain knows you are gone. It spends long, fruitless hours explaining this to the rest of me. There are graphs and spreadsheets, detailed PowerPoint presentations, and endless lectures that lay bare the facts for all to see. My heart takes it all in, nods politely, and continues to bleed.
Aeryn Rudel wrote this story.
I am the last. Radiation poisoning or madness have taken the others. Last year we watched the death glow on the horizon and someone joked, “Well, it’s just us and the bugs now.” Today I found the brittle husks of a dozen cockroaches under my bunk and laughed myself sick.
Aeryn Rudel is a writer from Seattle, Washington. He is the author of the Acts of War novels published by Privateer Press, and his short fiction has appeared in The Arcanist, The Molotov Cocktail, and Pseudopod, among others. Learn more about Aeryn’s work at rejectomancy.com or on Twitter at @Aeryn_Rudel.
He does his work under many pseudonyms. Sometimes he goes by cancer, or stroke, or heart attack; other times he’s called car accident, missing in action, or simply victim. No matter what he calls himself today, his true name is writ large and bold across each of our frail bodies.
Aeryn Rudel is a writer from Seattle, Washington. He is the author of the Acts of War novels published by Privateer Press, and his short fiction has appeared in The Arcanist, Factor Four Magazine, and Pseudopod, among others. Learn more about Aeryn’s work at rejectomancy.com or on Twitter.
The trees around here grow too fast. They take things from the ground and trap them in bark and heartwood. Once I found my bike sticking out of a trunk twenty feet in the air.
When Amy disappeared, we searched the woods, but I was too afraid to look up.
Aeryn Rudel is a writer from Seattle, Washington. He is the author of the Acts of War novels by Privateer Press, and his short fiction has appeared in The Arcanist, Factor Four Magazine, and Pseudopod, among others. Learn more about Aeryn’s work at rejectomancy.com.