Claire Autumn Reid

Months after the ceasefire, former combat medic Callen Mercer returns alone to the ruins of a forgotten front line. His assignment: document and tag the dead for proper burial. It’s supposed to be quiet work—honorable, final. But the silence he finds isn’t peace. It’s watching him.

As Callen moves deeper into the demilitarized zone, anomalies mount. Corpses appear with tags from after the war’s end. Drone footage corrupts. Fresh footprints circle graves he hasn’t dug yet. And when he finds a body wearing his own dog tags, the line between witness and participant begins to blur.

Driven by guilt and an obsessive need to finish his task, Callen’s grip on memory, reality, and identity starts to unravel. The deeper he digs—literally and psychologically—the more he uncovers a pattern that shouldn’t exist. A pattern built around him.

In a landscape haunted not by ghosts, but by repetition, compliance, and forgotten orders, Callen must confront a chilling truth: some wars don’t end just because the guns fall silent. And some stories won’t let their protagonist go.

Is he here to bury the war?

Or is the war using him to stay alive?

Twist & Tether Press

What Remains: Stories from After Everything

A Silence That Isn’t Peace: The War Ended. But Something Stayed Behind

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