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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

His foot hurt, but he wasn’t about to slow down. His head hurt, but he wasn’t about to give up on Yarkie. Mad rats like this one, obviously rabid, were hellishly dangerous. Where there was one, there would be more. Thank God Craig had batted that bastard away. Those leaves were full of them, that was plain. Russ Homer was right, dammit!—a new kind of rat was loose on Yarkie. They could only hope the young scientist, Dr. Peter Hubbard, would know what to do.

There wasn’t time as Johnson ran painfully away from the once-­tranquil picnic grove to ponder how Sharky’s ear had gotten up on a tree. Or where the rest of his dog was.

The balance at the village dump had indeed been upset. Insects and rodents that had lived peacefully amidst the plentiful garbage were suddenly at odds. Massive doses of pyrethrum had imposed a paradoxic effect on the mutated roach population.

A temporary excitant even in ordinary situations, the pyrethrum jolted the new roach breed into a frenzy of new activity and, more important, new hungers.

The Yarkie rats were the first victims. When chance brought larger prey to the crawling mandibles and jaws, an even stronger taste and relish developed. At the same time, The Nest was throbbing with new vigor, as if the fresh nutrition was itself speeding and amplifying the mutation. Warriors and foragers had multiplied to the many millions. Soon the Colony would be ready for the necrotic raids that would make them masters of all that their swift legions could reach, encompass, engulf.

4

FOUR

By two-­thirty, a meeting was in progress at Elias Johnson’s home. Elizabeth and Bonnie had served sandwiches for a late lunch. Elizabeth was glad she could busy herself. It was disquieting to be in the same room with Peter Hubbard. She had tried to keep her greeting casual. She never wanted him to know of the sixteen-­year-­old crush she had on him when he had appeared in Cambridge to be her father’s laboratory chief.