#657 Feral- Julia Elliott
This is a wildly original story. The world is in an extreme downturn and the excesses of society are starting to turn to our downfall. With cities in ruins and the overall health of the human race in question, dogs have become more wild and taken to their more natural, wild instincts.
“The American pet craze had led to an epidemic of abandoned dogs. A rash of dog-fighting rings had flared in rural ghettos. And the repressed wolfish instincts of domestic dogs had been coaxed out, had transmogrified into weird new breeds.”
Everyone is in alert and in the local school, the children are obsessed with the dogs—except the religious ones who consider the phenomenon akin to a biblical plague. The teacher of the school has an odd connection to the packs of dogs. Her heightened olfactory perceptions she believes are strangely tuned to the dogs, and she can sense when they are coming. She claims that woman may have a more advanced vomeronasal organ that can utilize these senses better.
This was a fun one to read, imaginative and a bit exciting. In a pop-culture world where there are whole genres focused on post-apocalyptic zombie attacks, it would seem obvious in a case of societal breakdown, packs of wild dogs would be likely.
Notable Passage: “The world is a tempestuous tangle of significant odors…and humans are blunt-nosed fools.”
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