Hello and welcome to the Drapylcast, episode 472. The Drapylcast is an

audio fiction magazine that brings strange stories by strange authors to

strange listeners such as yourself.

I'm your host, Norm Sherman.

This week a great story for you called The Hard Problem of Consciousness

by Andrew Giffen.

Andrew's a high school English teacher in Richmond, Virginia,

where he lives with his wife and two daughters.

His previous work can be found in Cosmic Horror Monthly, The Dread Machine,

Abyss and Apex, and Planet Scum.

So without further ado, we bring you the hard problem of consciousness by Andrew Giffen. Rain fell and the air reeked of communication. Chemical signals trailed behind every scurrying figure. Pat shuttered at their segmented legs. The was a girl. The war officially ended two years ago. Pat still had trouble adjusting to civilian life.

She woke up screaming sometimes, dreaming of tunnels and dead friends.

That it was a dream. She was still alive was barely a comfort.

Her scent translator picked up a hail.

She guided the beetle through streets lined with brown, rounded buildings,

each structure built with chewed up dirt and saliva.

The cab beetle allowed out high-pitched chirps as it stomped along the pheromone trail to where the lone passenger waited.

Bioluminescent lighting from the city illuminated the bug's reflection passenger waited the

the bug's reflection in spreading puddles.

Pat had tendered her resignation from armed surface shortly after the hasty truce

between the two species, human and hive.

Then she was pulled in the lottery.

...