Jerry Gordon is the author of the apocalyptic thriller Breaking the World (Apex Books). He’s also the Bram Stoker Award-nominated coeditor of the Dark Faith, Dark Faith: Invocations, and Streets of Shadows anthologies. You can find him blurring genre lines at www.jerrygordon.net.
David watched from behind the crowd, as two men led a young woman up a small set of steps to the hangman’s noose. A razor-sharp wire replaced the traditional rope, ensuring a clean decapitation and a bigger spectacle of blood and death.