A Hacked-Up Holiday Massacre: Halloween Is Going to Be Jealous by ed. Shane McKenzie

singular snap of a jaw closing. Brody had drawn his gun.
    “Where’s the head, Dick?”
    Dick slowly turned around with his hands in the air. “I buried it.”
    “Bullshit. Sands said you wouldn’t go near that goddamned thing after the experiment. What happened?”
    “You want to know what happened to her?” Dick asked. “Look behind you.”
    Brody turned around and fired one shot into the wiry humanoid before him. She didn’t flinch. He fired again and her hands encompassed his, crushing them around the gun. As she loosened her grip Brody’s arms dropped to his side. Tara straightened her fingers and drove them through his eyes, deep into his brain. They danced on the back of his skull, eventually piercing the other side. As she held him there suspended above the ground, she drove her other hand into his entrails, spilling them onto the floor.
    “Stop!” Dick shouted.
    She dropped the agent’s body and started for him. “He was going to shoot you.”
    “You didn’t have to kill him.”
    “What would you have done?”
    Dick shook his head. “They’ll send more now. I’ll never be able to go back to the university.”
    “Don’t you want to stay here with me?”
    His head continued to shake. “We can’t be together.”
    She started towards him. “What do you mean?”
    “Look at you. You’re not even human anymore. We’d have to spend the rest of our lives in hiding. You can’t be seen. They’ll kill you, or tuck you away somewhere and keep you alive to experiment on you.”
    “Like you did?”
    “I didn’t know it’d turn out like this.” He backed against the wall. “You were right. They should have let you die.”
    “It’s not so bad, Dick. You’ll see.”
    She lurched over him and drove her hands into his chest. He felt her gnarled fingers work through his heart as she drew him close. Blood pumped through the holes forged by her fingers until everything around him went black.
    A DAY LATER HE woke face-down in the greenhouse. He tried to lift himself, but found he couldn’t move.
    “I followed your notes as closely as I could.” Tara leaned down to address him. “Your body isn’t growing as quickly as mine is, but I think within a few days you should be as good as new.”
    Dick’s jaw snapped wildly as he tried to speak.
    She put her finger to his lips. “Shhh. Rest now.” She walked to the doorway and turned off the lights. “Tomorrow’s Arbor Day. We’ll celebrate.”

I *HEART* RECYCLING
    by Lesley Conner
    M att slammed the door of his stepdad’s Escalade, looking around the graveled parking lot surrounded by the forest and one shadowed path. There were no other cars in the small lot, no buildings, no people. Just Matt, his mom, his stepdad, and his two half-sisters.
    And a rabbit, perched just off the gravel, staring at Matt with wide, moist eyes, completely still.
    I have to spend all day pissing in the woods with a bunch of bunnies just because Tucker thinks we should plant a tree for Earth Day. Matt could hear his stepdad’s voice in his head— It’ll be good for Brooklyn and Dallas. In his opinion, it was the biggest waste of time. If you’re going to plant a tree, why would you do it in a forest? There are already trees there. And he was sure their town had planned some Earth Day festivities anyway, like cleaning up the park or something. Why couldn’t they’ve just gone and done that instead of wasting the entire day out here? But he’d come along without too much complaining to keep his mom happy, drawing the line when she wanted him to wear a t-shirt with a picture of Earth hugging itself. He was here; he didn’t have to look stupid, too.
    Stooping, Matt picked up a chunk of gravel, skipping it across the lot towards the rabbit. The rabbit jumped high in the air as the rock came skittering towards it, twisting and bounding into the dark undergrowth. Matt shook his head as he crossed the lot, following his family into the forest.
    Brooklyn bounced down the