Hoppers

By Isaac Thorne

Mike Bragg is a man you can trust. He'll fix your car up right. He might even drive it home himself, just to make sure it's running exactly the way he thinks it should before you get it back. But when he accidentally runs over a small brown rabbit on his way home from work one day, Mike chalks up the incident as just another insignificant rodent casualty.

"Too many of them hoppers anyway,” he reasons. And maybe he's right, because that very afternoon dozens of them begin to crowd outside the door of Mike's humble abode.

Watching. Waiting.

Plotting?

HOPPERS is a short tale of dark comic horror from the mind of Isaac Thorne, a nice man who simply wants to provide you with a few fun frights. Fast-paced and packed with edge-of-your-seat moments, HOPPERS is a story that might make you wary about what darts out in front of your speeding car on a given afternoon. Better to put that smart phone down and keep your eyes on the road than try to survive the vengeful roadkill vendetta of the HOPPERS.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Isaac Thorne
• Release date: Jul 18, 2013
• ISBN: 9781301478903

Isaac Thorne

Isaac Thorne is a nice man who has, over the course of his life, developed a modest ability to spin a good yarn. Really. He promises. He also avoids public men’s restrooms at all costs.

Book preview

HOPPERS

a short tale of dark comic horror

ISAAC THORNE

Smashwords Edition

Copyright © 2013 by Isaac Thorne.

Cover design and interior illustration © copyright 2013 by Paula Rozelle Hanback.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in print, electronically, or otherwise without express written permission from the copyright holder. You may reproduce brief quotations in articles and reviews.

This is a work of fiction. The characters, events, locations, and dialogue are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

Published by Lost Hollow Books in the United States of America.

www.isaacthorne.com

www.losthollowbooks.com

Cover design: Paula Rozelle Hanback

Title page illustration: Paula Rozelle Hanback

www.paulahanback.com

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Title Page

Copyright

Hoppers

About the Author

Also By Isaac Thorne

Back Cover

The bump knocked the iPhone right out of his hand. He watched his half-formed text message tumble in slow motion end-over-end through the air, where it ultimately struck the windshield, flickered, and then disappeared into blackness as the device ricocheted off the glass. From there it bounced off the canvas of the passenger’s seat and crash-landed on the floorboard, face down and just out of reach of his pudgy right arm.

Well, fart muffins! he exclaimed. Not the most creative expletive, but it would do. Ain’t that always the way?

And so it was.

It didn’t matter how many times he diverted his gaze from the iPhone’s minuscule on-screen keyboard toward the road in front of him. It didn’t matter how deftly he could one-thumb those letters in the proper sequence without