Title: The Rut
Author: Michael Natale
Originally Published: Variant Frequencies, October 2007
Word Count: about 3,000 words

Notes: This story is a bit autobiographical. Well, not all of it. Read it and see if you can spot the part where fiction and reality part ways...or do they? This is another story of mine that Rick Stringer and the crew over at Variant Frequencies produced as an audio podcast. They got Michael R. Mennenga to narrate and it sounds fantastic! Be sure to download the MP3 file directly from there, or better yet, subscribe to Variant Frequencies via iTunes.

Non Audio Formats Available:

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Rich Text Format

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This story is being made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives license.

Excerpt

I was alive when I got in the car to drive to work today, I was sure of it. But now I think I’m mostly dead. I should have noticed when the parking garage attendant looked at my ID badge, then flicked his eyes curiously back at me. He did it twice, as if the faces didn’t match.

“You feeling all right, Mister…” the guard glanced again at the ID, “Mister Crane?”

“Sure,” I replied back. Why wouldn’t I be? It was just another day at the grind.

The guard handed me the ID and pointed at my face. “You…you’ve got a little something…”

I glanced in the rear view, and was shocked to see the ghastly image staring back at me. Sunken cheeks, mottled skin, red-rimmed eyes. What was that? Some kind of yellowish pus was leaking from behind one of my eyelids.

Gross!