Replacements

The documents were all there, laid out in front of Piana. Self-generated -why would they do such a thing? The images scrolled past -diagrams, chemical syntheses, photos of Piana’s mothers from every angle. The bastards had duplicated everything -even the little scar on Mom’s fingers, where Piana had once bitten her, and the freckling on Momma’s cheeks. Every dot in place.

Red Ashes

Nothing, save sunlight, had touched this land in a millennium. Animals, even the insects and worms, had yet to repopulate this far south. With no food to draw them, the migratory birds had changed their routes; when marine life strayed too close, they soon joined the decomposing wall of flesh that was still sinking to the ocean floor. The ships that had sought safe harbor a thousand years past should have rotted into nothingness, but the lack of microbial life had left them well preserved.