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On the Hunt in the
Urban Jungle
by K. A. Patterson
Deforestation of the Amazon by big oil and logging
companies forced us to evolve. The ire of a Flecheiro shaman, his desire for revenge upon the white men who brought sickness
and death to his tribe, helped facilitate our evolution. He hastened it.
As one, we left the Vale do Javarí. We traveled
along the Itaquarí River,
northward to the land of the two-legged Whites.
Our ruddy-skinned queen walked among the towering steel trees. She
waited for our prey to emerge from their high nests. One by one, she lured the powerful away from safety. She used her feminine
wiles to seduce them, allowed them to escort her to each new kill site.
While they lay tied to the headboard of the
hotel room bed, we detached ourselves. Piece by piece the effigy we created to be our human queen fell away until we were
one colony on the ground. As one army, we marched.
Our number exceeded two million.
We climbed upon the bed,
swarmed the writhing body. Our mandibles sliced off minute pieces of human flesh.
Soon, we will spawn another queen.
Then, two red rivers will flow and hunt amid the detritus of our new jungle home.
Bio: Kay
Patterson is the creator and senior editor of AlienSkin Magazine. Her tales have appeared in numerous print and online
magazines, anthologies and podcasts. Her recent stories appear in: Read By Dawn, Twisted Tongue, Black Box, and Murky Depths.
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