1 4 - Calm Before the Swarm | Ashlei Hawley 106 - Sticks and Stones | Lydia Prime 7 - Nanny | Alyson Faye 107 - Ghost of Building 5 | Roxy Thomas 7 - A Slippery Dish | Alyson Faye 109 - Emerging from the Dark | Donna J. W. Munro 8 - Angelic Abduction | Alyson Faye 111 - Cereal Killer | Angela Yuriko Smith 8 - Witchcraft | B.E. Seidl 112 - Pain Relief | Angela Yuriko Smith 10 - The Sleeping | Jessica Rougeau 112 - Efficiency | Angela Yuriko Smith 12 - Mother Gate | Rivka Jacobs 113 - Whole Hearted | Angela Yuriko Smith 13 - Cracked Spines | Linda Imbler 115 - A Dark Love Story | Helen Mihajlovic 14 - Blood Moon | Joanna Koch 117 - Cradle Song | Brittany Hause 14 - Poison Apple | Andrea Allison 117 - Log Book of the Deep-Sea Vessel Archias of Pella |Brittany Hause 16 - Murdering My Sweet | M.A. Kastle 118 - Party Pooper | Shelly Redd 19 - Barbas | T.J. Ravenwood 120 - A Murder: Magpies in Mourning | Adrienne Dellwo 21 - The Pink Skies | Melissa R. Mendelson 121 - Seeing Shadows | Scarlett R. Algee 23 - Mamma’s Pizza Parlor | Stacy Fileccia 124 - Mutually Assured Destruction | Scarlett R. Algee 26 - Teardrops of Blood | Maria DePaul 125 - fighting the inevitable | Linda M. Crate 27 - When the Hour Glass Breaks | Hillary Lyon 125 - you only deserve my thorns | Linda M. Crate 30 - Almost Human | Lydia Prime 126 - have to save yourself | Linda M. Crate 30 - Markings | Lydia Prime 126 - the werewolf's moon | Linda M. Crate 30 - Some Carnivores Have Roots… | Lydia Prime 127 - a body without hope | Linda M. Crate 31 - Halving My Child: What Wakwaks Want | Ellen Huang 129 - Orehu Lake | Veronica Schultz 34 - Cross My Heart, Hope to Die | Sheri White 132 - Deliverance | Stephanie Ellis 38 - Ritual | Ashley Davis 133 - The Neighbors’ Things | Cecilia Kennedy 38 - Buried | Ashley Davis 137 - A Hands-Off Approach | Sherry Morris 38 - Wild River Soul | Ashley Davis 138 - Mildew | Maura Yzmore 39 - Asphyxiation | Ashley Davis 139 - Milo | EV Knight 39 - Black Water Magic | Ashley Davis 142 - Entertainment | Lynn White 41 - They’ve All Come Home | Ashley Davis 143 - Melting | Lynn White 43 - Cigarette Burns | Sara Jayne Townsend 143 - Monsters | Lynn White 47 - Lizzie Cleary Had A Bad Day | Christy Aldridge 144 - Look This Way | Lynn White 48 - Poison Apples | Erin Sweet Al-Mehairi 145 - Promises | Deb Whittam 49 - In the Pines | Loren Rhoads 149 - Beg the Bee’s Forgiveness | Christine Makepeace 52 - Hivemind| Olivia Hennis 151 - Emmelina Should Like to Dance | C.A. Yates 55 - Beautiful Day | Elaine Pascale 152 - The Manifesto | Christa Wojciechowski 58 - Deception | Brenda Matteson 156 - The Other Woman | Mya Lairis 61 - Inside | Nina D’Arcangela 158 - The Balfour Witch | Tawny Kipphorn 64 - This Savage God | Joan McNerney 159 - The Legend of Countess Creep | Tawny Kipphorn 65 - Clandestine | Joan McNerney 160 - Cherry Chuckle | Terri Ross 65 - Knave | Joan McNerney 162 - Coffin Walker | Julia Benally 66 - Bury ‘Em Deep | Tiffany Michelle Brown 164 - Doppelgänger | Jamie R Wargo 68 - The Sentence | Jo Colley 168 - Big Brother | C.A. Viruet 69 - Eclipse | A.F. Stewart 169 - Games | Jessica Shannon 73 - An Ogre in Walmart | Rachel Kallembach 171 - Ferrymen | Maura Yzmore 76 - Cement Jesus | Leah Lederman 173 - Lighting the Way | Diane Arrelle 77 - Doctors and Delicacies | Rayvn Salvador 174 - Chaser| Miracle Austin 79 - Dark Soil | Nina D’Arcangela 177 - From the Ground Up | Madeline Mora-Summonte 81 - Slither and Squeeze | Tracie McBride 179 - The Smell of Snow | Amanda Crum 84 - The Voice | Stephanie Ayers 182 - The Walk | Mary Genevieve Fortier 84 - Pink | Stephanie Ayers 183 - I Am | Mary Genevieve Fortier 85 - Burning Joan | Stephanie Ayers 184 - Within the Mirror | Mary Genevieve Fortier 85 - A Part of You | Sonora Taylor 186 - In Hot Water | Geraldine Clark Hellery 86 - Stick Figure Family | Sonora Taylor 198 - Dad’s Ghost | Donna Cuttress 87 - Moribund Dreads | Lori R. Lopez 194 - Bruce Loves Mary | Kenya Moss-Dyme 88 - Empty Rooms | Lori R. Lopez 196 - Fresh Air | L. A. Campbell 89 - Monstrous | Lori R. Lopez 197 - Abigail | Clover Swan 89 - Nocturnal Embers | Lori R. Lopez 204 - A Pretty for Polly |Mercedes M. Yardley 92 - Clean Freak | Vivian Kasley 94 - Chopped | Vivian Kasley 71 - Featured Artist | Drowned Orange 97 - Fireflies | Debapriya Ambuly 3 - Wraith of the Wilds, 15 - Cave, 36 - Avalon, 51 - Feast, 80- 100 - We're All Mad Here | E. A. Black Frowning, 108 - Skadi, 128 - Garm, 155 - Bad Luck, 167 - Psilo, 103 - Rising Moon | Lydia Prime 193 - Hel 105 - Narcoleptic | Naching T. Kassa 201 - Featured Author | Mercedes M. Yardley 2 3 Calm Before the Swarm | Ashlei Hawley Aside from the harsh tone his cell phone elicited each time he initiated and ended a call to his daughter, Margo, Benny’s small house was filled with few sounds. His voice punctuated the quiet only to curse when he kicked his computer chair and to growl, “Flaming hell, Margo, answer your phone!” as he hung up for the twelfth time. Shaking his head, he sat down at his computer screen and continued with his research, pausing now and then to call her again. He doubted what he was reading would calm his pounding heart–quite the opposite, more likely–but he had to focus on something other than his inability to reach his daughter. The first swarm was accidentally released from a series of previously undiscovered underground caverns in Nevada nearly one year before. The media called them ‘bone wasps’ and downplayed the spread. Plenty of people were no longer worried about them or, even more ludicrous, had never heard of them. Not Benny. Even though he lived in Wisconsin (where Benny had heard the winter temperatures were too cool for the creatures to survive) he worried they would be able to destroy his world. Margo was still in Florida. He hadn’t wanted her to go on vacation for a day, let alone a month, with the world as it currently was. A year had yet to resolve the bone wasp issue. That led Benny to think the problem was getting worse, not better. His research made him double down on that assumption. Though the major news outlets claimed the swarm would be contained well before it came anywhere near the East Coast, Benny worried for his only daughter. He cursed himself for letting her go. She’d made light of his concerns every time he called. To try and calm his worry, she’d insisted more than once that she’d be safely back at their Wisconsin home in a little more than a week. Benny thought the country had less time than that. Margo hadn’t answered the phone at all since early yesterday. She’d scolded him several times throughout this vacation when he’d become panicked by his inability to reach her. She’d gone swimming, she would say, or hiking, or out to lunch. She was almost twenty now and he needed to give her some space. Benny’s insistence she keep her phone on and available whenever possible hadn’t been taken to heart. That or Margo was ignoring his calls. He wanted to be angry with the thought, but all he felt was fear. The last blog posting on a website called ‘Becoming Anarchy,’ had shown Benny the nightmare mainstream news was doing its best to keep invisible. The swarm wasn’t slowing down. The bone wasps weren’t being exterminated in droves as the news channels briefly claimed before returning to interviews regarding some idiot celebrity’s recent ratings-raising scandal. Benny clicked on the YouTube video link Becoming Anarchy had posted and watched with his mouth hanging open. He tried to call Margo again as he followed the movements on the screen. Two women shambled and stumbled down a disconcertingly empty street. The images were grainy, but Benny could identify the raised boils and disfigurement which were a trademark of a bone wasp infestation. No one talked about the things Benny had been seeing. No one except the bloggers who operated under fake names and anonymous Redditors. Benny couldn’t believe he was getting his most reliable information from sources that could quite possibly be twelve-year-old kids home sick from school who’d decided to dick around online. Becoming Anarchy had given Google Maps coordinates indicating the video took place in a small town in Mississippi called Collins. A quick Google search told Benny the population was less than 3,000 people. The limited numbers of residents didn’t explain why the two women were the only lifeforms visible the entire five- minute span of the video. The town looked as though it had been abandoned; its citizens forcibly displaced by an enemy which had left no evidence of its malignant presence. The assumption was reinforced by the sight of multiple homes with front doors standing wide open and a car that appeared to have been deserted. Its driver’s side door hung open, no occupants in the vicinity. Little things. Easily-overlooked things. The women were still the focal points, but other issues made themselves known. 4 The first of the women collapsed to the street, making Benny pin his complete attention on her slouched form. Her companion paid her no heed and continued to walk down the deserted roadway. Benny focused closely on the woman who’d fallen. He squinted his eyes and leaned closer to his computer monitor. Was she dead? She looked like she’d stopped moving, but Benny couldn’t tell. The image resolution was too low for him to discern whether or not her still form showed any indications of life. She twisted on the ground. Benny felt a wedge of relief press itself into his mind. At least he hadn’t watched her die. The other woman had wandered off screen.