Five Dispatches from Conflict Zone W-924B Regarding Post-Battle Deployment of A. Thanatensis.
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.
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