Catherine Kenwell
Catherine Kenwell is a Barrie, Ontario author and mediator. After 30 years in not-for-profit communications, she sustained a life-changing brain injury and while recovering she was restructured out of her job.
Cautionary Steps
by Colleen Anderson
Sergei backed away from the greyish thing with flesh rotting off its body. It staggered toward him, moaning. “—rains.”
Trembling, Sergei moved onto the muddy road, water pouring in his eyes, nearly blinding him in the darkness. If only he could reach the carriage.
“—rrrrains,” the creature uttered, lifting its blackened hand and pointing.
Sergei turned, trying to climb through the carriage door when the horse, its eyes showing white, whinnied and reared at the approaching horror. As its hooves thudded into the earth, it tore away, the carriage wheels running over Sergei’s body.
“Reinsss,” croaked the zombie.
Colleen Anderson
Colleen Anderson’s writing has appeared in many venues. She has a BFA in writing and is a recipient of BC Arts Council and Canada Council grants. Her short fiction collection, A Body of Work is available online. She will be Creative Ink Festival guest of honor in Vancouver, BC. www.colleenanderson.wordpress.com
Blood & Silk by Zoey Xolton – Launches 31st August 2020
What is a little-known fact about you? – I love danger. Anything that’s exciting, and physically dangerous, or mentally taxing, I want to try!
Bleeding, Blending, An Ending With The Living Dead
by Steven Holding
Slow shuffle, like a senile senior citizen. Shoulder to slumped shoulder. Your own odour, Eau de decay, bothers you no longer.
You’re at one with the crowd now.
Amidst this apocalypse, you experience an acceptance never found in life: not inside, doing time, nor in padded asylums.
The herd swerve, having heard a scream, moaning, closing in.
A young girl swings, smashing skulls, crushing brains. It’s not enough to save her.
The pack collapses while attacking.
As she’s torn in two, you catch her eye, offering a smile as you dig in.
Happy that your appetite can finally be satisfied.
Steven Holding
Steven Holding lives in the United Kingdom. His work has appeared both online and in print. Most recently, his short story “ROUTE THIRTY-THREE” won the 2019 H.E. BATES SHORT STORY COMPETITION prize for best story from a Northamptonshire writer. You can follow his work at www.stevenholding.co.uk
The Unturned
by Nicole Little
Holing up in this ramshackle cabin was our first mistake, but we’d run out of options.
Now we’re surrounded.
They pound on the door seeking entrance. And though they mumble amongst themselves, no words are discernible to us through the splintered wood. The children—our poor children; they cower, clutching at their mothers ragged shirttails. The stench of fear in the room is tangible.
We know this is the end.
With a thunderous crash the door gives and the mob breaks inside.
“Aim for their heads boys!” I hear them shout as they open fire.
The humans. The unturned.
Nicole Little
Nicole Little is an award winning short story writer living in St. John’s, Newfoundland, Canada. Her work has appeared in nine anthologies in the past year. In her spare time, Nicole has either a pen in her hand or her nose in a book. She is married with two daughters.
www.facebook.com/NLitNon
Saviours
by Dustin Pinney
The last survivor screamed as the creatures brought him to the ground, reached through his flesh, pulled away his lean meat, snapped apart his ribcage, gripped his lungs, and dug out his final breath.
They devoured him without pleasure, leaving nothing but red and bone.
Now, the undead were without purpose. The Earth forced them from the soil to consume and cleanse its surface of the dangerous parasites threatening to destroy it. The task was completed.
The ground opened up. The saviours of Earth collapsed and were welcomed back into their final resting places.
All was as it should be.
Dustin Pinney
Dustin lives and writes in upstate New York. He has been more involved with zombie things than he ever expected and is surprised by how much he enjoys it.
Watch Where You Step
by Jodi Jensen
“Mom! Dad!” Kelly’s shouts were met with a clattering noise from the other room. She raced toward the kitchen. “Mom? Dad? Let’s go!” Her foot hit the tiled floor and she slipped, landing her on her butt. “What the he—”
Feet shuffling, her mom turned, dead grey eyes staring, jaw chomping.
Kelly scrambled backward. Her hand smacked the sticky floor and something smashed beneath her palm with a pop.
Her stomach lurched as she glanced down.
An eyeball…
Her dad lay on the floor next to her, empty eye socket gaping, throat gurgling.
Fuck…
He reached for Kelly’s leg.
Jodi Jensen
Jodi Jensen is the author of time travel romances and speculative fiction short stories. With a passion for old cemeteries, historical buildings and sweeping sagas of days gone by, it was only natural she’d write about all the places that sparked her imagination.
Twitter: @WritesJodi
Time and Decay
by Zoey Xolton
Rayne’s heartbeat thundered in her ears until the world fell away, and there was nothing but her shuddering, panicked breath, and the steady, hypnotic rhythm of blood roaring through her veins.
Plastered against a cold concrete pylon, hidden in the shadow of the interstate bridge, a hoard ambled by just feet away. There were hundreds of rotters, maybe a thousand; all stumbling along in an endless procession of decay.
The gurgling, rasping moans unnerved her, and she unconsciously side-stepped—a plastic bottle crushing underfoot. The crunch brought the hoard to an immediate stand-still and she froze.
Her time was up.
Zoey Xolton
Zoey Xolton is a Best Selling Australian author of Dark Fantasy, Paranormal Romance and Horror. She is also a proud mother of two, and is married to her soul mate. Writing is her greatest passion. Her debut short story collection ‘Darkly Ever After’ can be found on Amazon!
Link: www.zoeyxolton.com