検索キーワード： "James Crawford" ホラー

The four stories in this compilation, not by James, are meant to serve as prime illustrations of the best work of a few of his contemporaries and immediate antecedents.

I am not going to complain to you about my life. We’ve got zombies. They are not the brainless, rotting creatures we’d been led to expect. Unfortunately for us, they’re just as smart as they were before they died, very fast, much stronger than you or me, and possess no internal editor at all. Claws. Did I mention claws? I kill them for a living, but it’s as much a vocation as a freelance career choice. It helps me, helps my neighborhood, and the people I consider to be my family of choice. What’s more?

Zombies were bad enough, but now we're being invaded from all sides. Up to our necks in blood, body parts, and unanswerable questions….As soon as the realization hit me, I lost my cool. I curled into the fetal position in a pile of blood, offal, and body parts, and froze there. What in the Hell was I becoming that killing was entertaining and satisfying? I don't know how long I was on my side in the remains of my opponents, but the mess was coagulating and getting cold…to say nothing of the smell of sliced-open bowels.

I live in a world where women are a commodity. The only value we have is as bargaining chips for men who crave more power. We are to be silent, unseen, to do as we are told. But I don’t want to be anyone's property. I want to be the one in control of my destiny. But my past doesn’t want to forget me and my present wants to consume me. I am the object of desire for three dark and deranged men who show no mercy and know no limitations to their depravity. Three men who will do anything in order to make me theirs. To them I am a commodity. A shiny toy to be encased behind glass.