"Replicants" by Maria Carvalho

The government is replacing people with Replicants. They got to Carter a couple nights ago—when I woke up, I knew it wasn’t my fiancé lying beside me, even though it looked just like him. I wondered whether they’d programmed the thing to think it was really him before I slid my gun out from under the pillow and blew half its head off. That’s how I discovered that Replicants are organic. Fake Carter looked human, right down to the blood and brain. 

I didn’t cry because I knew in my heart that he was still alive and probably giving his captors hell. I decided to try to find him, but I knew I couldn’t do it alone—and thanks to my rescue pup, I won’t have to.  

Taffy is part Bloodhound, so I’ve been teaching her to growl whenever she catches a whiff of Replicant. She’s a fast learner, and fake Carter’s body has been the perfect training tool. 

Last night, my good girl hit 100% accuracy, so now I’ll know who I can trust to join me in the fight. If our numbers are strong enough, we just might have a chance of freeing everyone who’s been taken. Maybe we can even bring down the whole damn regime. 

I wake at dawn and shuffle downstairs to make coffee and work on my plan. As usual, Taffy bounds into the kitchen to greet me—but she stops short. And then she growls. 

Maria Carvalho’s multi-genre work has appeared in a variety of literary magazines, including Roi Fainéant Press, MetaStellar, Free Flash Fiction, Twin Pies Literary, 101 Words, Literary Revelations, and All Your Stories. Her short stories have been published in many anthologies, including several titles in the Owl Hollow Press Anthology Series, and her poetry appears in several best-selling books from Literary Revelations. Her popular children's book Hamster in Space! was praised by Kirkus Indie Reviews for its "sharp understanding of kids' wacky sense of humor." Find her on Bluesky and Twitter: @immcarvalho