Free The Harvest Cycle by David Dunwoody Page A

the floor, counters and some were even plastered to the walls. The entrance had been blown in, as if by a hurricane, and debris swam in a slick of gore. The street outside appeared deserted. Dawn was almost here.
        Abe threw open the other stair door and raced across the lobby. Without a word, he passed Rafe and Peter and shot down the street.
        Rafe and Peter crossed the threshold and emerged in the chill morning air, glancing in both directions. There wasn’t a soul to be found. A few cars were in the middle of the road, windshields awash with blood.
        Rafe realized that, among the carnage, he hadn’t yet seen a single human head.
        They were eating them-
         Dream-meat
        And as Rafe stood in the street, trembling with horror, he was startled by a high-pitched scream from somewhere up above.
        It was Gayle. Leaning out a tenth-floor window, she shrieked, “THEY’RE DOWN THERE!”
        “Bitch,” Peter gasped. Then he took off.
        Rafe saw silhouettes rising on the rooftops, saw claws splaying to capture the sunrise - then the things began to scramble down the sides of the buildings.
        He ran. He ran and ran and ran, pumping his legs like pistons, every muscle in his lower body on fire, the world shaking violently around him as he surged through the streets of Fevgos. He heard feet scrambling behind him and claws raking over cobblestones. Shadows jumped from building to building overhead. Rafe turned onto a street that sloped downwards, toward the beach, and put everything he had into his sprint. He felt that any second he was going to take a tumble and break his neck. He didn’t care.
        Leaping onto the hood of a car, Rafe cleared the vehicle with one jump and heard the creatures scrabbling over it. He’d gained maybe half a second by putting the car between them and himself. But he needed it.
        He was nearing the end of the street, where it intersected with Fevgos’ main thoroughfare. Sucking air into his searing lungs, Rafe jumped up onto a porch and used his momentum to hit the railing and propel himself into the air, over the street-

    And he soared over the heads of two creatures who’d been waiting just around the corner.
        Rafe struck the street and pain knifed through his right foot. He pushed on, gritting his teeth as he felt the pain spreading, not caring that it hurt but knowing that he was beginning to slow down, just as he was reaching the beach, just a short sprint from the marina.
        He chanced a look back over his shoulder.
        There were at least three dozen of them at his heels. They weren’t winded in the slightest. They were gaining on him.
        He raced across the sand. There was something up ahead, a body, lying in a muddy paste of earth and blood. It was headless, but it was Abe.
        Rafe looked toward the marina and saw Erika scrambling up a fence. A creature struck out at her, just below the knees, and her legs came off like broken toothpicks. She fell into the creature’s arms.
        Then he ran into something, and he found himself unable to move, the burning in his legs spreading up into his gut, ears ringing. He looked down and saw five glassy claws skewering his belly.
        The creature jerked its fingers free, and Rafe fell into the sand. It was cold against his cheek.
         Your dreams are beautiful. You don’t know, couldn’t begin to understand. The hunger...
        The creature straddled his back and raked its claws over the back of his head. He felt his scalp being peeled away.
        The others ran past him, toward the marina. He heard a distant scream. He wondered what dark dreams Peter’s mind would yield.
         You’ll be free soon enough. You and your sweet dreams.
         Sweet dreams.
        What in dreams was so beautiful that it wrought such horror? What had Man taken for granted all these many years? Rafe closed his eyes, ignoring