The Harrowers

Gregory, Eric. "The Harrowers." Lightspeed Issue 12, May 2011. Lightspeed: Year One, as of March 2026, still on line here.[1] For further bibliographic information see Internet Speculative Fiction Database, as of March 2026 on line here.[2]

A post-catastrophe (plague) undead zombie story, relevant here for cybernetic interfaces implanted in most of the surviving humans and much more unusually, modified red bears, each:

a twelve-foot, three-thousand-pound monster bred to consume as much flesh as possible [...]. The companies engineered the red bears to clear the forests of the dead, and on paper, it still sounds like a good idea: Carnivorous cyborg weapons, carrion-eaters with titanium-reinforced skeletons. They were supposed to be uninfectable, a walking immune system for the world outside. ¶ Problem was, they got infected anyway.

So see for the cyborg theme with an ursine embodiment, creating a bear/mechanism interface, and blurring not just the mechanical/organic antithesis but the living/dead as well. There's also a theological theme.

RDE, Initial Compiler, 19Jan20; 24Mar26