The Ladies of Horror
Picture-Prompt Writing Challenge!
Genetics
by A.F. Stewart
They asked themselves whether they could, but not whether they should…
We began as eggs, conceived in a laboratory, designed by humans for one of their breeding projects. Born of their arrogance to achieve perfection, they manipulated our genes, spliced our DNA, all in the name of better meat for their tables. A hardier product to send to their new space colony.
That’s all we were to them. Food.
We decided otherwise.
The humans never suspected. From our controlled hatching through the cryo-stasis space journey we fooled them, feigning a docile nature while our collective sentient mind contrived our survival and revenge. Yes, our true natures remained concealed, and we waited. Our emergence only began when we arrived planetside and the cryo-chambers opened.
We christened our awakening in blood.
The ship crew was first, and we painted the grey steel walls with viscera, putting our genetically modified teeth. beaks, and claws to good use. The colonists followed, dying quickly under our attack. We feasted on their flesh, and stored their remaining meat in the cryo-stasis chambers.
Well, most of them.
Some humans we left alive, and penned them like the beasts they bred us to be. They will be our food now, bred for our tables. And there will be more coming. Our brethren on the second and third wave of colony ships tell us they will soon arrive…
.
Fiction © Copyright A.F. Stewart
Image courtesy of Pixabay.com
More from A.F. Stewart:

Visions and Nightmares
Tragedy spares no one… and takes no prisoners.
In the twilight shadows, secrets are revealed past the whispers of madness.
Wander into the realm of the old gods with Elenora, where humanity and marriage are a prison.
Step through a looking glass of dark horrors with an Alice you never knew.
Join with Zenna to seek the truth as her death by magic grows closer.
Journey with Olivia as she crosses paths with a monster of the forest and runs for her life.
Watch Isobel summon the faerie to solve her problem of an unwanted husband.
Shiver as Doctor Killbride experiments with corpses to create life from death.
All that and more await within the pages.
Ten stories. Ten women.
Who will survive? Who will fall? And who will succumb to their inner evil?
Find out in Visions and Nightmares.
Warning: This book contains disturbing scenes that may be upsetting to some readers.













