In a war-scarred future, a field scientist investigates a body-erasing bioweapon designed to leave nothing behind. But memory has roots, and what grows back doesn’t forget.
The War is over. Something else is taking root.
“I was doomed to love this. Not only is it a powerful story, but it carries some absolutely great body horror to it!…This story has heart to it.” —Vale Solomon, How Sweet the Words
“This a haunting and creepy tale…And it shows that sometimes when we set out to do good, things can go wrong in unexpected and horrible ways.” —Howard G. Cornett, My Reading Life
A casket hides a lot of crimes. Children buried without limbs. Skin blackened. Jaws, eyes, ears ripped away. A ragged hole where a face used to be. A casket doesn’t spare the first responders, the authorities who arrive late after the destruction, the body collectors, the embalmers. A child’s body done in by violence is an open wound in the world that can never be closed.
In Lightspeed Magazine, Issue #183, August 2025. Read Listen Buy