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His nails tear through my palms.

Another violent tug comes from beneath him.

Something cracks.

His scream changes.

Higher. Raw. Terrified.

Then the ground beneath his body splits open.

Not like a hole.

Like a fucking mouth.

Black soil folds away from him in thick, wet layers as roots writhe beneath the surface like tongues.

“No. No, no, no!”

I pull harder.

So does the Earth.

His fingers begin slipping through mine. “DON’T LET GO!”

“I’M NOT!”

One hand slips free.

Then the other.

“NO!”

His fingertips scrape across my hands.

And he’s gone.

The Earth swallows him whole.

The ground slams shut.

I’m left on my knees, staring at the place where a man existed three seconds ago.

Then the soil bulges. Something punches through.

A green stalk rockets upward, leaves unfurling as it grows past my face, then over my head. Tassels burst from the top while an ear swells along its side, fattening beneath the husk until the leaves peel themselves back.

Red kernels glisten underneath.

Wet.

Perfect.

Ripe.

I stare at them.

And realize what the field just fed on.