As distinct an entity, a separate person entombed within the DNA of an organism, yet, paradoxically, co-existing as a passenger despite their innate and profound connection(s). What consequences or choices is one given beneath such confining Mytho-poetic variables?
As such, if one can place the individual as I, postulating the person as occupying a space in time A), removed from said observation, repopulated to another point X distance away. As said heuristic argument is thus derived, the observer-receiver ration may be extrapolated from the Planck constant.
The coordinates of Phainothropus’ severed head lie submerged just beneath the Mohorovičić discontinuity. It is suspected to have evolved from crystalline substrates, recalibrated fractal connections within cognitive clouds drifting from planet to planet, accumulating minerals to repopulate, rebuild, reconstruct, and reproduce. Perpetually. Of this comes the dawn of the new intelligence. The birth of Phainothropus.
This decapitated Phainothropus retains such power even in death; brain continuously transmitting an array of magnetic resonances. Its aura radiates far beyond the Earth’s crust, into the cosmos, spreading units of contact across planets, focal points, ascribing ley lines of derivative neo-axiomatic postulates on Earth’s continents, photovoltaic vitalization reaching an apex in the Afar Triangle region.
As such, these energies have influenced Homo sapiens’ evolution. Atavistic reminders of heritage remain through bio mineralization, the presence of ferromagnetic materials in the brain and meninges tissues from Homo sapiens have revealed diamagnetic and paramagnetic conditions (Kirschvink, J. Magnetite biomineralization in the human brain. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci., Vol. 89, pp. 7683-7687). Clear antecedents of biological consequences per Phainothropus’ influence(s).
This Phainothropus head remains interred within the Earth’s inner core, surrounded by nested spheres of various alloys, the most prevalent being a 1200k thick layer of iron. Phainothropus has surgically implanted a series of tubules between these layers, inserting a cerebro-spinal substance to accentuate the conductivity to aid in generating the electro-magnetic processes necessitating its generative occult manifestations. This inner core rotates at a greater speed than the other layers, which not only creates the Earth’s magnetic field, but extends the field over the entirety of the planet’s surface.
These energies are exacerbated by the internal heat generated in the mantle where convective cells circulate and power the processes from Phainothropus’ brain that much more effectively. When operational, this Phainothropus organic device distorts space-time, thus instigating a singularity where the aether is altered by gravitational forces creating the perpetual feedback loop between infinite expansion and infinite contraction of the universe where consciousness as bound to time in a fixed point is no longer valid but becomes amendable to manipulation. The ability to traverse these barriers of time by the artificially created Phainothropic consciousness and the temporality achieved in such states delivers photon-tachyon particles which collide at the temporal luxon/bradyon barrier and propagate the permeability of tachyonic antitelephone mitigated time.
Rey burned the book the next morning.
Washed the stiff mask of blood from his face. Fried some side-meat in a skillet. Warmed a pot of bitter coffee with the vestiges of heat from the ash. The thick brew helped him sober up.
The foreman showed shortly after he’d finished eating.
“Didn’t sleep much last night. Racket in the skies.” The foreman held his hat in both hands like a soldier delivering bad news to a widow.
He continued when Rey didn’t respond, “Down five more workers. Up and left last night I suppose. Not sure who’s available no more.”
Rey couldn’t place the man. Vaguely familiar voice, like the tone of a schoolmate’s idle chat he hadn’t thought of in decades. “I ain’t goin’ nowhere. Need to work.”
“Can you work? You look like you been beat.”
“I need to work.” His hand wound was oozing a clear jelly flecked with specks of an embryonic aspect. He wrapped the dirty shirt around the bite. Set the cup and plate down. Slipped his boots on.
Rey swung the serrated blade.
Lopped the lettuce free in neat strokes. Gathered the heads in a crate. His wounded hand dripped onto the dirt. Thick liquid drip drip dripping of seeds scattered across the soil.
He didn’t recognize the few remaining field hands. They weren’t speaking English or Spanish or Tagalog. Their voices were discordant and their gestures violent. As if they were finger betting at a match.
He watched ancient-engines crawl on the air like thin-legged insects over a scummy film grown across a stagnant pond. The machines were just as impressive as he’d remembered. He stuck a finger in his shirt pocket to make sure the photograph of his children was still there.
The pocket was empty.
He frantically looked up and down the rows. He held his reeling head and screamed down at the earth. Shouted out for that photograph as if it was a lost pet or a lost child and he didn’t want to remember all those burnt little bodies. He raised his gaze.
The black horse was standing in the distance. It wasn’t on fire anymore. It had never been this close before.
He could now see it wasn’t an animal. Intricate parts moved like muscles under its skin. The flaming mane and tail were flickering lights streaming along cables. Some unfathomable internal combustion engine rumbled inside that mechanized steed. Stink of ethanol fumes spread out across the fields.
That horse-like contraption waited there unmoving. An ancient statue carved from onyx by a people forgotten to time. Rey couldn’t understand how something so majestic, so complex with its inscrutable inner workings, could eventually be reduced to charred remains. The inexorable erosion of form and memory and hope.
Phainothropus sat upright on the horse apparatus.
It observed the world with passive indifference, its flesh as resplendent as the walls protecting the cities of Cibola. The air cracked into desiccated geometric segments.
Rey fell to the earth, scrabbled at the dirt in a desperate search for the photograph. The bright air burned so fervently he forced his mouth into the cool soil, mud clumping to lips parched from the sun. That cold refreshing earth shuddered beneath him. His wounded hand burned as if fiery worms were burrowing through the muscle.
Oh so many little blackened hands and feet.
Someone poured water over his head. Pressed a canteen between his shaking hands, his fingers were brittle and hard like pottery.
His hat had fallen off. He held his face in shaking calloused hands to protect his eyes from the terrible heat. He peeked between dirt stiff fingers.
He saw the photograph. Kneeled down to pick it up.
The pandemonium of the sun gripped him with such violence the ground cracked the air shook the firmament cracked wide in a trembling fit.
Nested metal spheres inside the earth spun. Phainothropus’ severed head screamed electromagnetic waves. There was only a young girl in the picture. The faded figure behind her was unknown. Rey didn’t recognize anyone in the photograph.
A terrible conflagration poured forth to scour the land in the ravages of time.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Christopher Slatsky is an author of weird fiction whose works have appeared in the anthologies Arcane, Resonator: New Lovecraftian Tales From Beyond, and the forthcoming Summer of Lovecraft. His stories have been published in The Lovecraft eZine, Innsmouth Magazine, Xnoybis, and several Dunhams Manor Press titles. He currently lives in the Los Angeles area.
DUNHAMS MANOR BOOKS
Est. 2013
DUN-01
THE CHOIR OF BEASTS
Nicole Cushing
DUN-02
THE YELLOW HOUSE
DJ Tyrer
DUN-03
NIGHTMARES FROM A LOVECRAFTIAN MIND
Jordan Krall
DUN-04
UNDER THE SHANGHAI TUNNELS
Lee Widener
DUN-05<
br />
A LIFE IN ANOTHER DREAM
Suresh Subramanian
DUN-06
THE BAD OUTER SPACE
Scott Nicolay
DUN-07
JESTER OF YELLOW DAY
W.H. Pugmire
DUN-08
THE MISSION
T.E. Grau
DUN-09
CHILDREN OF LIGHT
Daniel Mills
DUN-10
FAR FROM STREETS
Michael Griffin
DUN-11
THE WHISPERS FROM OUR SECRET ARCHEOLOGICAL REMAINS
Roger Leatherwood
DUN-12
FATALLY-COLORED GESTURES
Joseph Pulver Sr.
DUN-13
WEIRD TALES OF A BANGALOREAN
Jayaprakash Sathyamurthy
DUN-14
THE LOST AKLO STORIES
T. E. Grau
DUN-15
NO ONE IS SLEEPING IN THIS WORLD
Christopher Slatsky
DUN-16
THE MONSTERS ARE DUE IN MAYBERRY
Edward Morris
DUN-17
THE STRANGE FRANCO SANTANARIUM DE MARCO
Henrik Sandbeck Harksen
DUN-18
AEON
Jordan Krall
DUN-19
NO SUCH HEAVEN
Allen Griffin
DUN-20
LILY
Rick Powell
DUN-21
TWISTED HISTORIES
Tom Lynch
DUN-22
A TIMELINE DARKLY
Glynn Owen Barrass
DUN-23
DANDELIONS
John Claude Smith
DUN-24
DEATH CAMP DREAM SONGS
Matt Leyshon
DUN-25
ACTING STRANGELY
DJ Tyrer
DUN-26
THE INMOST HOST
Antonio Magogoli
DUN-27
OF PARALLEL AND PARCEL
S.J. Chambers
DUN-28
THE NOXIOUS WINDS OF KARMAGEDDON
Allen Griffin
DUN-29
VOX TERRAE
John Claude Smith
DUN-30
THE USHER
D.P. Watt
DUN-31
ALECTRYOMANCER
Christopher Slatsky
DUN-32
THIS FRAGMENTED BODY
Christopher Slatsky
DUN-33
A PLAGUE OF NAKED MOVIE STARS
Christopher Slatsky
DUN-34
WHEN IT’S TIME FOR DEAD THINGS TO DIE
Clint Smith
DUN-35
THE QUEEN IN GREEN
Gina Ranalli
DUN-36
THE FALL OF THE HOUSE OF DRAKE
Adam Bolivar
DUN-37
CASINO CARCOSA
Mark McLaughlin & Michael Sheehan Jr.
DUN-38
COMING DOWN IN THREE PART HARMONY
Garrett Cook
DUN-39
PURGE STATUS
Shawn Mann
DUN-40
THE INFUSORIUM
Jon Padgett
DUN-41
XNOYBIS ISSUE ONE / Jordan Krall (ed.)
Paperback
DUN-42
SEVERAL DECAYING CLOCKS
Jordan Krall
DUN-43
TEMPORARY TOMB OF VIRGINIA POE
Selena Chambers
COMING SOON:
PASSAGE TO THE DREAMTIME
Anya Martin
THE FACTS IN THE CASE OF CLARISSA COLLYER
Selena Chambers
XNOYBIS ISSUE TWO
Jordan Krall (ed.)
GORGONAEON
Jordan Krall
WICKER MEN SEMINARY BULLETIN
Jordan Krall (ed.)
Newsletter Only Available to WMS members
THE CASTLE-TOWN TRAGEDY
Brandon Barrows
JACK WERRETT, THE FLOOD MAN
Rebecca Lloyd
MUSCADINES
S.P. Miskowski
THE SECRET OF VENTRILOQUISM
Jon Padgett
THE STAY AWAKE MEN
Matthew Bartlett
MAPPING THE DARKNESS
Shawn Mann
IN PRAISE OF PAN
Jordan Krall (ed.)
A CHAMBER OF SLEEP
Jayaprakash Sathyamurthy
Table of Contents
LOVELINESS LIKE A SHADOW
AN INFESTATION OF STARS
CORPORAUTOLYSIS
NO ONE IS SLEEPING IN THIS WORLD
MAKING SNAKES
THE OCEAN IS EATING OUR GRAVES
THIS FRAGMENTED BODY
TELLURIAN FAÇADE
FILM MAUDIT
A PLAGUE OF NAKED MOVIE STARS
SCARCELY HAVE THEY BEEN PLANTED
INTAGLIOS
ALECTRYOMANCER
NOACHIAN ANTEDILUVIAN ENGINES
SHRIEK’D AGAINST HIS CREED
PHAINOTHROPUS
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
DUNHAMS MANOR BOOKS
COMING SOON:
Alectryomancer and Other Weird Tales Page 20