BooksBarbecue
Back The Nest
Chapters (82)
  1. Cover
  2. Copyright page
  3. Introduction by Will Errickson
  4. Acknowledgements
  5. TREMORS
  6. 1
  7. 2
  8. 3
  9. 4
  10. 5
  11. 6
  12. SUSPICIONS
  13. 1
  14. 2
  15. 3
  16. 4
  17. 5
  18. DREAD
  19. 1
  20. 2
  21. 3
  22. 4
  23. 5
  24. 6
  25. WITNESS
  26. 1
  27. 2
  28. 3
  29. ALERT
  30. 1
  31. 2
  32. 3
  33. 4
  34. 5
  35. ENCOUNTER
  36. 1
  37. 2
  38. 3
  39. 4
  40. 5
  41. 6
  42. HAVOC
  43. 1
  44. 2
  45. 3
  46. 4
  47. 5
  48. 6
  49. SEARCH
  50. 1
  51. 2
  52. 3
  53. 4
  54. 5
  55. CLASH
  56. 1
  57. 2
  58. 3
  59. 4
  60. 5
  61. 6
  62. 7
  63. COUNTERATTACK
  64. 1
  65. 2
  66. 3
  67. 4
  68. 5
  69. 6
  70. 7
  71. VICTORY
  72. 1
  73. 2
  74. 3
  75. 4
  76. 5
  77. 6
  78. 7
  79. 8
  80. 9
  81. EPILOGUE
  82. About the Author

He was told more than he ever bargained for.

“I was opposite the dump, off the rocks there, when I saw Russell Homer waving at me from the bulldozer, where he was spreading some new soil on the garbage. He was signaling with his shirt, seemed like some kind of trouble. I rowed on in. Russ came zigzagging down the beach; I figured he was dodging mosquitos or something.”

“What’d he want?”

“For me to get him out of the dump on the boat.”

“Didn’t he have his jalopy there like always?”

“Yes, but it was full of—rats.”

“Rats?—What the hell!”

“That’s what I said.”

“Since when is Russ afraid of a couple of measly rats?”

“Hundreds of them! I saw them myself! Something loco is happening at the dump, Elias! Weird and awful. I got Russ on board and watched with my glasses. Like he told me, I saw rats jumping up out of the garbage there as if they were damn birds! And dropping back dead!”

Elias Johnson rubbed his nose, thinking hard. “We put new poison out there last week,” he said, “the way those Public Health people told us, to keep the vermin from getting used to one kind. Must be killing the rats now . . .”

Craig Soaras clenched his leathery fists. “That wasn’t any poison, Elias! Those rats were dead from having their eyes put out! I saw it plain as day!”

The captain’s head snapped up. “What?” Eyes gone! Like Sharky’s?

Craig scowled. “What in the name of the saints could do a thing like that? Hundreds of those rats, every one without eyes!”

The captain rubbed his nose harder. It sure as hell wasn’t any herring gulls. And even he had known his talk of egrets was phony. Something here just damned didn’t add up. He’d heard every crazy damn thing in his life, at sea and ashore, but never anything like this.

Craig added, “That’s not all. Seems like the rats are going nuts. They thrash around like something’s driving them wild. I could hear them squealing all the way to the boat. They flop around, like dizzy, climb on each other, gash at each other—and then drop dead like that!” He snapped his calloused fingers. “You think it’s rabies?”

“Where’s Russell?”

“I dropped him off to tell Amos. If those crazy rats head for town, this island is in for a helluva mess.”