The Night Wire by HF Arnold is a short story that is about a “night wire guy”. The main characters job is to manage a group of people who are typing up the news as it comes in over the wire. One operator, Morgan is especially skilled and can take notes on two wires at once.
A wire come in that there’s a mist hanging over a fog on an unnatural level. The reports are from a place called Zebico. Zebico has been covered in a dense fog. Screams can be heard from within the fog. The remained of the story details the evens that unfold in Zebico.
(the rest has spoilers)
Citizens are hiding in churches. There were two rescue parties sent out to help people on the borders of the city and they haven’t returned. Feared, dead. The city around the operator is shrouded in blackness and through gaps in the fog he reports seeing chaos in the streets. The fog is killing people and the sky is in flames.
At the end of the story the Operator that the narrator is watching detail this incident is dead and reports indicate that no one had sent information on the wire that the information about Zebico has come in on. The Operator had been dead for hours apparently.
(End of spoilers)
This was a very short story. I actually listened to it on youtube. I enjoyed it and I think most cosmic horror or weird fiction fans would too. This story could be a good start to a larger more detailed work that shows the fall out of the event. Maybe the narrator goes looking for Zebico to prove to himself that he’s not crazy or something. I’d read that. It’s the first works I’ve read by HF Arnold. I quite enjoyed it.
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