KILLER SERIALS

Epilogue

2009-07-13T11:11:00.003+10:00

Thank you to all who have read and enjoyed my first effort at a serial novel. The post-apocalypse theme is a favourite of mine, and one I’ve wanted to properly explore for some time. I hope I have articulated the vision into words adequately. There WILL be a few major changes in the coming weeks or months. The Title for instance, ‘Fatal Cure’, is already taken by a well known medical

Fatal Cure - Chapter 107

2009-07-03T10:07:00.007+10:00

(Index) Many sweaty hours are spent each day in our tranquil little park. I build, plant, water and dig. The hardest work I’ve done in months stretches and tears flabby muscles, which are instantly soothed by chemical affection. Daily exhaustion is absolved by blackouts. I visit the roof often to watch the skies. If I’m not too wrecked I scan the heavens with supplemented Sight. On the

Fatal Cure - Chapter 106

2009-06-23T19:54:00.006+10:00

(Index) ...an awakening thunders over sleep’s tranquility, bringing with it harsh reality. Consciousness rejects it again and again, returning me to deep slumber until the inactive brain grows bored. I am attacked by signals of bodily needs. Pains I haven’t the fortitude to ignore chew holes in soft slumber. “Uhhhhhhh.” Groaning scuffs at a tongue drier than the Sahara Desert. Each breath

Fatal Cure - Chapter 105

2009-06-16T17:45:00.007+10:00

(Index) Sodden sadness is all I can find to wrap up sharp-edged guilt. Packing it into a flimsy cardboard mind is careless. The route I drive becomes more familiar with each turn, allowing me to descend deeper into self-pity, numbly selecting gears on cue, glancing occasionally at the child. The truck’s vibrations and harsh suspension take their toll on her patience. She digs deeply into a

Fatal Cure - Chapter 104

2009-06-08T10:52:00.005+10:00

(Index) It’s the same name of the nursery where I’d been captured. Is it a mirage? A trick? A flashback? Am I really having a nice lie down somewhere, dreaming this? Hot sunshine burns into my face, thawing the icicles of disbelief that lock me in place. I lean down, looking over the stupid glasses to read the last faded line: 1.3 kilometres, left turn at Hanson Street. Yes. I can just

Fatal Cure - Chapter 103

2009-05-31T21:31:00.004+10:00

(Index) Ignoring the tyre’s vandalism of the car’s duco, I feed on the power. We fishtail along the Creep's trampled dual laneway. Flapping rubber and long grasses that scour the car’s underside mark our passage. A road’s kerb announces itself by crashing hard underfoot. New noise and sparks fly when the exposed wheel rim bites bitumen. A slight rise in the landscape’s panorama displays

Fatal Cure - Chapter 102

2009-05-26T12:40:00.004+10:00

(Index) Hope that all Parasites have died in sympathy with the deceased Mother is crushed in that split-second of high-beam illumination. The inflamed fear I carry in my chest tightens in iron bands. A locked brain slows the action and runs a recollection reel inside my head in the absence of constructive ideas. I had once watched a program about Emperor Qin’s Terra Cotta Warriors in China.

Fatal Cure - Chapter 101

2009-05-17T22:15:00.008+10:00

(Index) The black-out nap is short-lived; rudely interrupted by a dousing of warm, bitter liquid. My prone body is shoved a few feet before the heavy wave loses its impetus. Spluttering awake, I open an eye. The background noise of a thundering waterfall induces a fuzzy hallucination. The green glade and swimming-hole fantasy is crushed by hard reality. I have not been magically transported

Fatal Cure - Chapter 100

2009-05-06T12:18:00.007+10:00

(Index) Stunned by the fall, my wallowing hippo impression is fully authenticated when the Mother’s poo closes over my head. With mouth and eyes tightly shut I thrust the little package I carry above the surface, and work with the one free arm to right myself. The jumble of bone and broken concrete beneath me provides an uneven footing. When my feet are convinced to remain in place I burst

Fatal Cure - Chapter 99

2009-04-22T10:09:00.005+10:00

(Index) I look around the inside of my latest host. No resident Parasite dominates her. Just that insidious, calming fog. The baby’s mind is a tight new engine. I prod the starter and discover not all the circuit breakers are switched on. She is highly sensitised to touch yet can’t even move about to make herself comfortable. She doesn’t even know what her limbs are for. Test-driving her legs

Fatal Cure - Chapter 98

2009-04-14T16:34:00.008+10:00

(Index) As soon as I get inside I strain mightily to retreat, resisting the pull of an incredibly strong gravity. It is many times stronger here than the powerful Baby-pods outside. I claw at the nothingness to stay apart from the swirling luminous greyness but I am being drawn. My sight zooms in on the thick liquid until I can make out the individual animals swarming in this soup. They

Fatal Cure - Chapter 97

2009-04-03T21:43:00.006+10:00

(Index) As June’s eyes dilate I have a chance to appreciate how unattractive the Mother really is. A massive worm. A sickening, bloated larvae. And now? Well, SHIT! I’m inside a host inside a Parasite. The argument that there’s a first time for everything is now proven. And I don't feel overly clever about using the child either. The kid was supposed to save my arse, not get me eaten. As the

Fatal Cure - Chapter 96

2009-03-30T09:26:00.006+10:00

(Index) Killing Kristine’s girlfriend already stretches the boundaries of how I use the word ‘sorry’. And now I might have to apologise for leading the Parasites to our door. I pound across the Parasite mind-net; borrowing the eyes of a thousand Creeps, hoping my worst nightmare will not be confirmed. The dreaded deadpan messages of success are priority routed across the net. My heart sinks as

Fatal Cure - Chapter 95

2009-03-22T12:39:00.004+10:00

(Index) Too scared to unclench my senses, I tumble along an alien conduit tightly wrapped as a ball of insubstantial matter. I feel packets of pure thought crowd past and hear snippets of their contents when they zip through my floundering, cloudy essence, tearing more pieces off my whole in their headlong rush. Something big and dumb moves in to sort through the clutter created by my

Fatal Cure - Chapter 94

2009-03-15T14:30:00.004+10:00

(Index) Picking up the child has a curative effect. For the first time I hear a touch of exasperation in a Parasite’s previously emotionless voice. I’ve been told I’d try the patience of a saint by a few people. But these things aren’t saints. ‘The meat syphons our power from the new-birthed. If it will not be tempted, let it be consumed. The Melding must suppress the new-birthed until

Fatal Cure - Chapter 93

2009-03-08T20:37:00.009+10:00

(Index) A desperate spin in the full three hundred and sixty degrees tilts and turn a sad face in every direction. There are no escape routes around the cresting wave of scuttling terrors. I reaffirm nakedness increases the fright brought on by clicking claws and spindly, thorn- pricked legs. Covering my genitals with a free hand adds a fear of emasculation when a moment passes while I locate

Fatal Cure - Chapter 92

2009-03-03T16:31:00.011+10:00

(Index) We continue our interrupted journey, delving deeper into the indoor forest. They have diligently converted the mall's tiled purity into an oasis of their own dark design. It thickens with heavy growth. The air sours with sharp smells of acid overlaid with aged mustiness. To dwell on the creatures that are emitting these odours and secretions is unavoidable, no matter how

Fatal Cure - Chapter 91

2009-02-26T11:52:00.003+10:00

(Index) David Jones’ regal occupant confirms suspicions these guards are in place purely for my benefit. They lose their thousand yard stares and move in concert, forming a narrow gauntlet that leads to the torn shutters. I am given no choice when faced with the narrow gap, hemmed in by bare breasts and pot bellies. Thankfully the kicking and punching associated with such a privilege is withheld

Fatal Cure - Chapter 90

2009-02-15T19:58:00.005+10:00

(Index) My shield morphs outward, lunging like a huge amoeba to envelope the female Creep. It wraps tightly around her Parasite shield and squeezes, popping it like a pimple. The head top tendril is forcefully expelled, whipping wildly across my misshapen, smooth shell, trying to reconnect. Failing to find a socket it falters then retracts swiftly. I move the woman closer. Her few steps greatly

Fatal Cure - Chapter 89

2009-02-11T08:45:00.005+10:00

(Index) Lying here post-coitus, next to a sleeping girl whose name I don’t know, it would be easy to think the situation could be worse. With one appetite sated another arises. My stomach’s emptiness grumbles and gurgles to itself. If these hazardous surroundings can’t hold back an erection then I’m definitely capable of eating. Food. There’s an abundance of cans close at hand. Examining them

Fatal Cure - Chapter 88

2009-02-04T17:51:00.004+10:00

(Index) The younger man’s head and shoulders poke over a neighbouring cupboard. I move around a bright candelabrum to clarify my sight. He kneels on a mattress. Scrawny. Too much hair and a scruffy beard. And naked, like the brazen open-legged young woman lying beside him. She tugs at his arm as a reminder of unfinished business, miffed at the interruption. “Sorry to barge in. Never thought I’d

Fatal Cure - Chapter 87

2009-01-31T11:54:00.002+10:00

(Index) I concentrate hard on the closest guard, a swarthy, large-boned man. My eye’s zoom lens reveals his features. They wouldn’t go astray on a sumo-wrestler who chops wood with his face. The clear air inside his shield exposes a listless, fixed tendril, embedded in his head. This is not one of the energetic appendages seen stabbing everything in sight. This one flops on the floor, returning

Fatal Cure - Chapter 86

2009-01-26T14:33:00.004+10:00

(Index) I stand with considerable, unwanted assistance from Cricket. We stare into the bustling crowd for several moments due to my unwillingness to proceed. The horror show is in town and I’m to join their parade under the untested sanctity of an invisible cloak. Maybe if I pretend the Creeps are shoppers from the good old days, spending cash and buying crap they don't need, it will be

Fatal Cure - Chapter 85

2009-01-20T20:41:00.005+10:00

(Index) Shit. Free for five seconds and I’ve already lost control. Like a trapped bunny rabbit turning into a wild beast I careen into the host’s mind and crash around, damaging whatever is blundered into, hoping to hit a release switch. After a few seconds of flailing the new powers dim. The mental strain requires a brief recess to recharge. It is while in this unprotected position the

Fatal Cure - Chapter 84

2009-01-17T13:23:00.005+10:00

(Index) The exuberant shout turns to pain when eyes open to a blinding light not of my making. I’m staring straight into the sun. Shit, now I’m a blind God. Flaring spots accost my sight, obscuring the other-world vision of Parasite mind fog and angrily writhing tendrils. The sheepish fall from Godhood couldn’t be more embarrassing. Fortunately my audience consists of unimaginative hosts and