Pages 14-20

Sacred Duty is a short taut tale about Tom, who is hallucinating about his dead father speaking to him through the TV set. Tom lives in a near future America beset by terrorist forces with the wherewithal to drop fire bombs on population centers. As his small town of Clayfield melts into the ground and belches ash into the sky, Tom experiences an atheist’s version of divine vision in such a way that the reader begins hoping he will see it for what it is and survive.

Simon Clark sets a burning stage for his conflicted protagonist that at once threatens and illuminates his plight, making this my pick for the best story in this 13 tale issue of Cemetery Dance.