The convict, in tears, glances at the unopened trailer and sprints past the crowd down the street.
“My God,” McCabe says. “What have we become?”
“Remember what that guy said at 7-Eleven?” Thompson asks, glancing at McCabe. “‘What God? Aliens lord over us now.”
–Psycho Therapy
I’ve said previously that the most chilling stories are those that are one degree away from reality. Ryan Hyatt is creating a whole universe based on that premise. A world where an alien invasion is merely the background for the real horrors. Sure, it’s a world similar to ours, it’s a Los Angeles that is oddly familiar while being only one or two VR generations from now. It’s a Customer Service complaint by way of The Twilight Zone.
The stories contained in this collection run the gamut. A woman who can’t have a child instead finds a way to save the planet. A defunct punk rock band finds there are worse things than just fading away. An exterminator whose work draws out the worst in people. A store manager dealing with budget cutbacks with extreme security measures. These are all just normal people coping under extraordinary circumstances. It’s not heroes and giants. It’s not geniuses and supermen. And there’s the rub.
Hyatt examines how people react to their rapidly changing world, changes measured not in years or decades, but weeks and days, as the terrifying and intimidating quickly slide into the mundane and boring. Bloody violence becomes dull and daily. Events that would have been greeted with outright horror are dismissed with a casual shrug. Carnage becomes commonplace. And usually in the midst of mundane and unsettling ways.
Hyatt’s stories aren’t all in-your-face, blood and guts and viscera. Sure, there is a good amount of that, but it’s what is layered underneath it that gets to you. They creep up on you. As you read, you think a story means one thing, then find out halfway through that it’s not at all what you imagined. The stellar Lot Lizards will make you seriously reconsider your next visit to an auto dealership. And Bob’s Pest Control could make you treat your neighbors or employees a little better.
Anchoring this collection is the don’t-miss-it story, Enhanced, a film noir-style murder mystery set in Hollywood of the near future, where AI-generated dead celebrities act as tour guides, advisors, and… entertainment.
If you like your dystopian fiction big-and-trampling or small-and-nibbling, there’s something for you here.
As Ferret Face screams, doors around The Palms slowly crack open. Fearful, but fascinated, tenants watch from their apartments as their most hated neighbors reveal themselves to be the monsters they had always been and rip each other to pieces.
A teen in a hoodie rolls up next to me on a skateboard. A smile forms around his lips as Queen Cobra gorges on Ferret Face, and pieces of his exposed brain scatter on the cement.
“Cool,” he says, pulling out his phone and recording. “These two, with all of the cop calls, have caused my poor mom so many sleepless nights.”
I reach into my pocket, withdrawing a pack of Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups.
“Want one?”
“Sure.”
–Bob’s Pest Control
Creative Team: Ryan Hyatt (writer)
Publisher: Between the Lines Publishing
Click here to purchase.
