Wildlife
By Jeff VanderMeer, first published in Amazon Original Stories
A middle-aged female protagonist with a violent past sets up trail cameras in the ravine behind her house to monitor the wildlife and her menacing neighbor. When the cameras start to malfunction, she learns there are more dangerous forces at work in the neighborhood.
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Plot Summary
Sam, who has just left her husband after she killed an intruder on their property, moves into her father's old rental house that has an extensive garden and extends into a ravine. She spends her days wandering around the property and becomes fascinated by the animals that live there. One day, a huge tree is cut down on her neighbor’s property and it falls partially into her yard. When she confronts the neighbor, Zanth, he is dismissive and aggressive. They have a tense conversation, and Zanth tells Sam to stay away from his property.
When Zanth comes to remove the part of the fallen tree from her yard, he carelessly destroys the other foliage in his way, which angers Sam. She sets up trail cameras throughout her yard and garden, and obsessively collects the SD cards each morning so she can spend the day reviewing the footage. Sam thinks about how little she knows others and how little they know her.
Soon, Sam’s trail cams begin to die but she cannot find a logical reason. She begins researching Zanth, and finds information about his past and his criminal history. Obsessed with figuring out the real cause of the trail cam’s demise, she watches the footage until she sees, in the video, another unfamiliar trail camera that is pointed directly at her house.
Furious, Sam breaks into Zanth's house in the night and discovers a stash of her SD cards. Zanth has been taking them and replacing them with faulty ones, causing the cameras to die. Upset and scared, she leaves. The next day she receives a menacing phone call from Zanth and he reveals details he’s learned about her past. She recalls how she once shot and killed an intruder in her home. The intruder turned out to be a young woman who may or may not have been about to engage in an affair with Sam's husband.
Later that night, she sees a light traveling through her yard and, assuming it to be Zanth trespassing on her property again, she grabs a gun and follows it into the ravine. When she gets closer, she finds Zanth dead against his fence with a scream plastered on his face. Sam feels a powerful presence in the light behind her and is overcome with emotion.
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