The narrative “The North St. Vrain Hunger” unfolds as a chilling, surreal apocalypse set in the town of Lyons and its surrounding front-range areas. The story follows Arthur, a former civil engineer turned unreliable narrator, who witnesses the transformation of his world during a brutal blizzard that cuts off the town and plunges it into darkness. This storm, however, is not just a natural disaster but the harbinger of an otherworldly entity: the Pale Drifters, pale, ice-coated creatures emerging from the North St. Vrain Creek’s freezing depths. These beings are parasitic radiators, feeding not on flesh but on the heat and life force of humans and their environment, enforcing a brutal “audit” of thermal energy and biological existence.

As the blizzard intensifies, Arthur observes the relentless assault of the Drifters on the town’s survivors, who gather in a school gym only to be overrun by the creatures. Arthur himself gradually transforms, losing his humanity and becoming one of the Drifters. The narrative expands beyond Lyons, chronicling the Drifters’ systematic eradication of heat and life across the plains and into urban centers like Longmont, Boulder, and Denver. They dismantle power plants, sever transmission lines, and neutralize human technology and resistance through a chilling process that turns warmth into cold, life into frozen statues.

Throughout the story, the North St. Vrain Hunger symbolizes a cosmic reckoning or natural balance enforced by these creatures, who are indifferent to human suffering or morality. The story culminates with the Drifters poised to consume the heart of Denver, turning it into a frozen tomb, as Arthur fully embraces his new identity as the embodiment of cold and hunger, the unstoppable force of entropy and retribution.