‘Did Amanda know?’ James said.
‘No,’ Greg said. He put out three mugs on the side and threw a teabag in each.
‘Aren’t you worried that…?’
‘Amanda would never have let Melissa do it,’ Wilkie said. ‘She would have cancelled the whole gig. We would have missed the opportunity.’
‘But what if they think Amanda was involved?’
‘Give him a break,’ Wilkie said. ‘Yes Amanda is going to ape shit, but that’s what’s going to convince them she’s not involved. Her natural reaction will be the thing that gets her out of there.’
‘You hope,’ James said.
The kettle whistled. Greg poured water over the teabags, mashed them against the inside of the cups with the back of a teaspoon. ‘Get the milk will you James,’ he said.
‘And will Amanda know that you knew?’ James said. He opened the fridge, took out the bottle of milk, checked the use-by date on the side, and when he set it down on the work surface next to Greg, Greg grabbed his wrist, turned it over and squeezed with a force that caused James to gasp, to drop his shoulder, to grab at Greg’s immoveable fist.
‘Stoppit!’ James said.
‘Don’t you dare question my morality,’ Greg said. ‘What have you ever risked? You weasel around with us, sitting at the back, piping up with your naive observations when there’s only one or two of us around. Don’t you think I’m terrified? On the day you risk something, anything, you get to have an opinion, until then, just shut it.’
‘Okay okay!’ James said. ‘I’m sorry!’
James rubbed at the red streaks Greg left on his wrist.
‘This is great flapjack,’ Wilkie said. His mouth was bulging with it. Greg poured milk into the tea, squeezed the teabags again, and tossed them in the compost pot. He carried the three mugs to the table. Wilkie raised his mug in a toast and said, ‘Death to the Captain’, but before James or Greg could return the toast, the phone began to ring.
◊
Amanda’s hands were at her face, covered with icing, closing the horrified gape of her mouth. Children were screaming, soldiers pushing them out of the way, sending them skidding across the floor. The soldiers yelled at Melissa to let go of the Governor, their fear at the size and ferocity of the conflagration obvious in their hesitation. In response to Governor Franco-Basoni’s screaming, and the thrashing of her legs, they kicked at Melissa, five of them, but Melissa’s grip was strong. She was fused to the woman. The fire alarm began. The faux Captain scampered back on all fours to the edge of the hall, his voice changer amplifying his whimpers.
Only after someone had blasted the burning women with a foamy white jet from the fire extinguisher did the soldiers go at Melissa with their hands, peeling her apart from the Governor. There was smoke, and steam, and an acrid stench that made their eyes water. The soldiers yelled at her, spitting out curses, even though she was still.
Amanda was paralysed by all of this, standing in the same spot she’d been when Sasha was about to blow out the candles, the cake broken over her feet, but then the soldiers began thudding Melissa with the butts of their rifles, and Amanda became galvanised.
‘Stop!’ She yelled. ‘It was an accident!’
She took one step towards her fallen friend when a soldier tackled her from the side, his shoulder hitting her thigh with awful force. Her feet skittered in the air for purchase as she fell, crying out, ‘I’m pregnant’. The soldier crashed on top of her, crushing her. His elbows pinned her arms. A big metallic-tasting palm covered her mouth, pushed her head to the side. And then there were more around her, pointing their rifles in her face, telling her not to move.
◊
Greg got up from the table and lifted the handset from its cradle. The number calling was unknown. His thumb was on the answer button, but he didn’t press it yet. Each ring shook the whole kitchen.
He was at the open door. The heap of bodies only slightly diminished. Now the crows and the magpies had found it, hopping from limb to limb, blinking and squabbling.
There were only two rings left before the answerphone would cut in. Greg was shaking. Inside him, things fell, things froze, things curdled and things woke up startled. Had Melissa succeeded? Had they gone too far? Had the world changed? Had it changed enough to make the sacrifice worth it? Could he live with the consequences?
Under the weight of all the possibilities, Greg pushed the button and took the call.
Biographies
Maurice Broaddus is the author of the novel series, The Knights of Breton Court (Angry Robot). His dark fiction has been published in numerous magazines, anthologies, and websites, most recently including Dark Dreams II & III, Apex Magazine, Black Static, and Weird Tales Magazine. He is the co-editor of the Dark Faith anthology (Apex Books). Visit his site at www.MauriceBroaddus.com.
Monte Cook has worked as a professional writer and game designer since 1988. He has published two novels, numerous short stories, countless articles, and a comic book series for Marvel. Monte was also one of the three principal designers of 3rd Edition D&D and the d20 system. His d20 game design studio, Malhavoc Press, produced award-winning products including Monte Cook’s Arcana Evolved, Ptolus, and the Books of Eldritch Might. Games he has worked on include D&D, Champions, Rolemaster, and more. He also created HeroClix, D20 Call of Cthulhu, and Monte Cook’s World of Darkness. He is a graduate of the Clarion West Writer’s Workshop and his recent nonfiction book is A Skeptic’s Guide to Conspiracies.
Named by Gamasutra as one of its Top 20 Videogame Writers, Richard Dansky is the Central Clancy Writer for Red Storm/Ubisoft. His credits include critically acclaimed games such as Splinter Cell: Conviction. He’s also published five novels, most recently Firefly Rain, and has contributed extensively to multiple tabletop RPGs. For a brief time, he was the world’s leading expert on Denebian Slime Devils, but he doesn’t like to talk about those days. Richard lives in North Carolina with his wife and their inevitable cats.
Graeme Davis was born within spitting distance of London’s Heathrow Airport and traveled around the world twice by the age of seven, visiting Australia, Fiji, and other places across the Pacific. He is just old enough to remember airliners with propellors and has a lifelong fascination with vintage aviation. Best known as a writer for roleplaying games such as Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, Vampire: the Masquerade, and GURPS, he has also written a Dungeons & Dragons novel and a few short stories. He has always wanted to write an air-pulp adventure.
Julia Bond Ellingboe is a freelance editor, writer, and roleplaying game designer. Having missed her chance to become an itinerant storyteller, her work often draws on various folkloric traditions, such as African American slave narratives, Japanese kaidan stories, and the Francis J. Child Ballads. Her work includes Steal Away Jordan: Stories from American’s Peculiar Institution, the forthcoming Tales of the Fisherman’s Wife, and the short fiction “The Wolf and Death”. Julia holds a bachelor’s degree in Religion and Biblical Literature from Smith College and lives in Greenfield, Massachusetts.
Peter Freeman was born in London, educated at Oxford and is still alive. He has now been a professional writer for fifteen years, producing over a hundred works on all manner of subjects and under more than a dozen different pseudonyms. His output has varied from writing cartoon strip text for Punch Magazine, through fantasy, humour, detective fiction and erotica to nonfiction on everything between recycling equipment and unexpected sexual practises. For him, this story was very much a case of coming home to early influences. (Alexandra Freeman is his daughter and has an imagination perhaps more vivid still.)
Ed Greenwood is the creator of the Forgotten Realms® fantasy world-setting, an award-winning game designer, and a bestselling author whose books have sold millions of copies worldwide in more than thirty languages. Once hailed as “the Canadian author of the great American novel”, Ed is a large, bearded, jolly Santa-Claus-like librarian who lives in an old farmhouse crammed with more than 80,000 books in the countrys
ide of Ontario, Canada. His most popular series include the Elminster books published by Wizards of the Coast, the Band of Four series from Tor, and the Falconfar trilogy from Solaris.
Kenneth Hite has designed, written, or co-authored more than seventy roleplaying games and supplements, including the Star Trek Roleplaying Game, GURPS Infinite Worlds, Day After Ragnarok, Trail of Cthulhu, and Night’s Black Agents. Outside gaming, his works include Tour de Lovecraft: the Tales, Cthulhu 101, Zombies 101, Where the Deep Ones Are, and the graphic illustrated version of The Complete Idiot’s Guide to U.S. History. He writes the “Lost in Lovecraft” column for Weird Tales magazine, and his essays and criticism have also appeared in Dragon Magazine, Games Quarterly Magazine, National Review, Amazing Stories, and in anthologies from Greenwood Press, Ben Bella Press, and MIT Press. He lives in Chicago with his wife Sheila, two cats, and many, many books. He blogs at princeofcairo.livejournal.com.
Editor and Stone Skin Press Creative Director Robin D. Laws is an author, game designer, and podcaster. His novels include Pierced Heart, The Rough and the Smooth, and The Worldwound Gambit. Robin created the GUMSHOE investigative roleplaying rules system and such games as Feng Shui, The Dying Earth, HeroQuest 2 and Ashen Stars. He is one half of the podcasting team behind “Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff”. Find his blog, a cavalcade of film, culture, games, narrative structure and gun-toting avians, at robindlaws.com.
Adam Marek is award-winning short story writer. He won the 2011 Arts Foundation Short Story Fellowship, and was shortlisted for the inaugural Sunday Times EFG Short Story Award. His first story collection Instruction Manual for Swallowing was nominated for the Frank O’Connor Prize. His second, The Stone Thrower, followed in 2012. His stories have appeared in many magazines, including: Prospect and The Sunday Times Magazine, and in many anthologies including Lemistry, Litmus and The New Uncanny from Comma Press, and The Best British Short Stories 2011. To subscribe to Adam’s blog, Twitter and Facebook updates, visit www.adammarek.co.uk
Jonny Nexus lives in Brighton, England, with his wife, their dog, and an array of chew toys that the dog invariably leaves on the topmost step but one. He was the editor, co-founder, and chief-writer of the cult gaming webzine Critical Miss, and wrote the Slayers Guide to Games Masters and a regular monthly magazine column for leading British roleplaying publisher Mongoose Publishing. His debut novel Game Night, published by Magnum Opus Press in 2007, was shortlisted for a GenCon EN World Award (an “ENnie”).
Jeff Tidball is an award-winning writer and game designer with a roiling wake of stories, board games, card games, and roleplaying games in his rear-view mirror. Marquee credits include the Horus Heresy board game, the Pieces of Eight pirate coin combat game, and the book Things We Think About Games. Jeff holds an MFA in Screenwriting from the University of Southern California and lives with his wife, sons, and dog in Minneapolis. His website is predictably located at jefftidball.com and he spews forth on Twitter as @jefftidball.
Monica Valentinelli is an author and game designer who lurks in the dark. Her publications include nonfiction, original and tie-in fiction. Stories range from Redwing’s Gambit, a novella set in the universe of the Bulldogs! RPG, and “Tailfeather” which debuted in Apexology: Science Fiction and Fantasy. In addition to her short stories, novellas, articles, and RPG contributions, Monica crafted one of the first enhanced e-books titled The Queen of Crows. In her spare time, she dons the role of project manager for horror and dark fantasy webzine, www.flamesrising.com. For more about Monica and her work, visit www.mlvwrites.com.
Kyla Ward is a Sydney-based creative who works in many modes. Her novel Prismatic (co-authored as ‘Edwina Grey’) won an Aurealis Award for Horror. Her short fiction has appeared in Ticonderoga Online, Shadowed Realms, Gothic.net and in the Macabre anthology among others. Her short film, Bad Reception, screened at the 3rd international Vampire Film Festival and she is a member of the Theatre of Blood, which has also produced her work. Poetry, articles, rpgs, art; if you can scare people with it she probably has, to the extent of programming the horror stream at the 2010 Worldcon. To see some very strange things, try www.tabula-rasa.info.
Chuck Wendig is a novelist, screenwriter, and freelance penmonkey. Chuck is the author of the novels Double Dead, Blackbirds, and Mockingbird. He, with writing partner Lance Weiler, is a fellow of the Sundance Film Festival Screenwriter’s Lab. Their short, Pandemic, showed at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival, and their feature HiM is in development with producer Ted Hope. He has contributed over two million words to the RPG industry, and served as developer of Hunter: The Vigil. He currently lives in Pennsylvania with his wife, dog, and newborn heir to the Wendig throne. You can find him dispensing dubious writing wisdom at his website: www.terribleminds.com.
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