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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

Then an even more sickening image wracked Hilda Cannon’s heart. What appeared to be another type of creeping animal was moving among the roaches, inching slowly up the path away from the massacre. It seemed at first to be an unusually bloated centipede, a bizarre remnant of the dinosaur past. It was a yard long, with thousands of legs on each side of its disgusting body—legs scurrying like frantic cilia beneath the pallid, slimy thing.

It took a minute before Hilda Cannon realized she was watching a gang of cockroaches moving off a dismembered section of the intestine of one of the Tintons.

She wanted to faint, but instinctively knew that would be stupid as well as cowardly. It would allow the cockroach demons to turn on her. She had to remain silent, steady, and try to see the end of this living malediction on her island.

Despite her resolution, the scene of the hideous butchery was too much for her. Vomit rushed up her throat and exploded from her mouth, and she saw in an instant that she had drawn the vermin. A band of the giants was already racing to her hot stinking mess. Their relish at the new feast kept them momentarily from her, and she turned to plow through the trees toward her auto. Now it was doubly imperative that she find Amos Tarbell! Never mind her own nausea, the smell of vomit on her clothes, her disgust and abhorrence. There was an unspeakable terror loose on Yarkie that no one suspected! In her sickened heart, Hilda Cannon was miserably sure now that her own daughters had somehow been caught in the woods and destroyed by the unbelievable monster roaches. No one knew how many others had already been killed, but it had to be stopped. She would waken Tarbell and Johnson and Scott and—

The woman stumbled, grabbed for a tree to steady herself, and felt her skin scrape. Her hand was quickly wet with blood. And just as quickly she felt a sting and a needle-­like bite on her palm. She went faster. In the dim light she made out a roach biting the back of her hand. She swung her fist against a tree, not caring how much it hurt her, wanting only to mash the insect. The mess dripped from her skin, and she impatiently brushed the blood off on her dress as she ran. She kept praying that the great body of roaches in the woods were still too busy with the Tintons—long beyond hope or help—to come after her. She had no idea how fast they might be though she had once heard that some roaches could fly. Those might reach her . . .