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Back The Nest Save as PDF
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

Reed Brockshaw crumpled to the ground. His hair and clothes were afire. Maddened roaches were feeding on him even as they burned. Deranged, and choking in the smoke of his torment, he felt not drowning in hell’s lake of fire but rising with the smoke of the trees and the dying cockroaches to the heaven that, something in him rejoiced, was waiting, clear and cool and beautiful, with his children, above the horrendous turmoil below.

The forest fire burned higher. The clouds of the man’s self-­cremation rose blacker than the storm sky to signal catastrophe to the people on Yarkie Island.

In the Nest, the atmosphere was dense not only with the acridity of caustic smoke, but with a kind of nervousness that had all the insects quivering. Sometimes housewives see cockroaches “dancing” after an application of the insecticide pyrethrum. It is a death dance, to be sure, but a frenzy of motion while it lasts, caused by the chemical-­nervous reaction of the insects. Now there was something delivering an unclear but powerfully disturbing message: Enemy outside has exterminated whole armies of our Nest.

The Dome shook with spasms of preternatural energy, trying to comprehend fire and the death it had brought, interrupting an innocent feast of the band of insects near the water.

5

FIVE

The evacuation of Yarkie ordered an hour later by the selectmen and the sheriff’s office was quiet and orderly. People with their necessary luggage boarded the ferries called over from Chatham. All were silent and stunned, understanding the danger from the raging forest fire on High Ridge. The volunteer firemen were up on the Ridge battling the blaze, helped by the rain that had finally come down. But there were still too many flare-­ups for safety, and with the storm still blowing, firebrands could land on homes almost anywhere.

More, there was a funereal mood among the people. Almost everyone was in some way related to the children who had gone on the Sunday School picnic, and there had been no word about the Tub. The spreading gossip was that the children had landed along the east shore and gone into the woods for their party. They might have been caught then by the fire the lightning had started. The people could get no answers to their heartsick questions from the stone-­faced village officials.