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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

The sheriff dismissed his next thought: It was almost as if the roach was looking over the situation and making a decision about going after the rabbit itself. Absurd! How could a cockroach, no matter how unnaturally immense, figure to kill a rabbit?

The two other bulky roaches seemed to be playing follow-­the-­leader. Their head wires were all looping around the same way. If a man didn’t know better, he’d swear the three insects were like science-­fiction creatures communicating silently through ESP or some damn airwaves. Amos Tarbell saw the expressions of disgust on the faces of his companions. They matched his own. Those swollen cockroaches were nasty looking, no two ways about it. Now their antennae were suddenly beating the air a mile a minute, like egg whisks. Their heads began to jerk from side to side. A man would swear they were sensing the rabbit exactly like wolves or coyotes sniffing the air for unsuspecting prey.

And a man would swear they caught a scent, as three things happened at once. The first roach leaped into the cage. A second roach spread wings so wide it looked like a small bat. It whizzed inside and landed on the rabbit’s back. The third roach turned and raced away, as if afraid, or as if it wanted no part of the massacre that started.

Gagging with nausea, the three Yarkie stalwarts watched the fantastic, repugnant sight. The first roach went directly for the rabbit’s eyes. The men heard the click of the breaking cornea as the insect mandibles pressed in. They saw the gush of ­liquid from the eyeball as the panicked rabbit chittered with the pain. They watched what they could not believe: The great cockroach insinuated itself quickly into the rabbit’s eye socket, obviously eating its way through, right on into the brain. Then the insect body vanished entirely while the men looked on.

The second roach was at the rabbit’s neck. It moved exactly as if it knew the jugular vein, the way a leopard or lioness breaks a prey’s neck or hyenas bite at hamstring muscles to bring a victim down.

Incredible was too mild a word. The sheriff could see the disbelief in Ben Dorset and Russell Homer. He was glad they were witnesses. To describe this scene without corroboration would be to invite the men in white jackets.