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. 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 BuyThe War is over. Something else is taking root.
Notes, fragments, and strange signals from the edge of story.
Five Dispatches from Conflict Zone W-924B Regarding Post-Battle Deployment of A. Thanatensis.