I guess the power went out about 7:15. Luckily, it's summer so the sun hasn't gone down yet. Already, the folks in the neighborhood have gathered at the edge of the woods. They're lighting torches, and clutching clubs, yard tools, and guns. Others have packed their families in their cars, and headed for neighborhoods with electricity. The power company says the blackout is area wide, and that all of their repair crews are busy. The power company never blacks out, so they don't worry about us customers too much. I hope a repair crew comes soon though, because it will be dark in about an hour, and without electricity, the carnivores will brave the neighborhood.

It's been almost a year since we've had a problem like this. We had blackouts during the winter, but the carnivores are either hibernating then, or have migrated to warmer territory. We were more prepared the last time, because it was getting towards hunting season, and everyone had weapons at the ready. When the lights went out – that time, at night – everyone fought from their homes.

Usually, they all gather in a bedroom which won't have any windows, and they kill carnivores as they try to come through the door. The McCabes ran out of ammunition that night. All we found when the lights came back on was a half-dead carnivore, Mr. McCabe's right hand, and little Calvin McCabe hiding under a desk, clutching the rung of the chair that kept the carnivores away, and his hands and arms were terribly sliced by the carnivores' claws.

Oh! Thank the Lord! The lights have come back on, and it's still daylight! It's 7:50; one of the repair crewmen must have had family in this neighborhood. They usually repair the richer neighborhoods first.

Most folks are going back to their homes now, but some of the men are preparing some defenses just in case the power goes out again tonight. Calvin McCabe is just standing at the edge of the woods, staring. He does that every time the lights go out. Some folks think he's waiting for the carnivores to come so that they'll send him to be with his family. I say that if that's all he wanted, he'd have killed himself by now.

Besides, they didn't see what he did to that half-dead carnivore, after the search and rescue teams got to his house. They went in, and while they removed the dead carnivores, he climbed out from under that desk, walked over to that dying beast, and with the meanest look I've ever seen, he kicked that thing, and kicked, and kicked, and kicked. Finally, he reached down, and repeating a move he'd seen his mother do, he wrenched the beast's neck, killing it instantly. He's still got the beast's claws, and some of the larger teeth.

If you ask me, I think he wants to take those things on with his bare hands. He's not stupid though. He intends to live long enough to see the carnivores wiped out, and right now, he's using his dad's shotgun, his mother's spear, his sister's pistol, and a sword that somebody gave him after last year's attack. There's a tradition of naming swords in this area. Calvin didn't go for anything fancy, like most boys his age. He simply called it Carnivore Killer. For now, though, he'll have to wait until the hunting season, or at least until the next power outage.

Story and characters owned by Chris Bishop, copyright 1997, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022.

Thanks for stopping in! :^D

That's all for now! Thanks for reading. :^D

You're on a roll tonight aren't you! This is great! Although, what genre is this?

@captain_garrick: I'm posting some old stories, just to get them out there- original dates for them are posted at the bottom.

This is all I've ever written of this story, so genre is iffy- it could go horror, sci-fi, or post apocalyptic. I'd say probably a mix, as there are present day elements in it, like cars, guns and the power company. To be honest, I wrote it sitting out on the back stoop of my grandma's house during a power outage. Once the power came back on, I went and did something else. lol ;)

@cbishop: Ahh. That explains how you could get them out so fast. :)

Power outage is an interesting inspiration, generally I think it would cause thriller or horror. I would very much like to see more of this in the future if possible.

@captain_garrick: You're not the first person to tell me that, which means I should probably get back to it at some point. Honestly, I have no idea where I'd go with this next. I think it would maybe need a few tweaks first. It's not high on my writing priorities though, so it's not likely in the near future. :}

@cbishop: That's fine...Still hope to see it at some point though.

@captain_garrick: Noted. ;)

@cbishop: Those poor carnivores! Yeah you knew I'd be on their side. Still not sure whwre this is set or what these things are although I can work out a few things from the story

@impurestcheese: Place and exact descriptions were intentionally left vague. I had no real idea at the time, and wasn't trying to figure out every detail as I wrote. I was passing the time, waiting for the power to come back on. :}

@cbishop: Ah well, a good zoologist/ecologist can work out a few things about an animal from a description of their behavior. Was taking notes as I read this to build a profile of what one of these Carnivores is

@impurestcheese: Well, if you figure it out, you'll be steps ahead of me, because I have no idea! Most readers figure they're dinosaurs; specifically raptors since Jurassic Park came out four years before this story. I think I pictured something between raptors and R.O.U.S.'s :)

@cbishop: I had them pegged as something akin to Kaprosuchus, a three meter long terrestrial running crocodile with oversized tusks from Mid Cretaceous Africa

@impurestcheese: <goes to Google to look up Kaprosuchus> I didn't even know what that was, but ehhhh, maybe something like that. Like I said, I didn't put the most thought into it. I mean, c'mon, I just called the creatures "carnivores." Ooo, imaginative. lol

@cbishop: Sigh yes very imaginative

@impurestcheese: lol Not at all. ;)

@cbishop: This was great. Started off feeling like my favorite episode of Twilight Zone- The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street but in this case the monsters actually were due.

It felt like a short post apocalypse story I read in a book called Wastelands.

Also, I loved Calvin. That's my dads name. Though initially I was thinking of Calvin and Hobbes.

As for the Carnivores I had pictured something more humanoid, like C.H.U.D. or a human/raptor hybrid.

@stumpy49er: lol, I always like reading what other people think the carnivores look like, because I never really defined what they looked like for myself... until this thread, where I said I maybe pictured something between raptors and R.O.U.S.'s. :}