Author: Majoki Carpenter counted out loud while trying to carefully step over the swollen bodies. In the clunky hazmat suit his boot came down on the neck of a child. Swynton jerked away from the sight, but there was really nowhere to turn from the reality of hundreds of ...

Author: Julian Miles, Staff Writer Water drums upon my helmet, makes a low hissing as it streams over the audio pickups, and fills the air with splashing sounds as it cascades from my armour to fall inside and outside my impromptu shelter. There’s a rhythm to this. It’s ...

Author: Bronte Lemaire “Oxygen level is at 1%. Please follow the emergency protocol.” Sarah sighed and let her head fall against the window. The stars flowed gently over her cheeks and created extra pinpricks of light between her freckles. She felt me staring and I ...

Author: Colin Jeffrey "The total value of your haul," said Twopenny Armchair, eyeing the console, "is twelve point five dweebles." Kentish Town sighed. It wasn’t enough. It never was. But there was no haggling with Armchair - Town had two fewer fingers on his left hand ...

Author: David C. Nutt “What I can’t stand about humans, being human when I’m on vacation, is how cold- (is that the right word?) No. Isolated? Isolating? How isolating it is. I mean, here you all are, in some cases millimeters apart from each other and sometimes inside each ...

Author: Daniela Tabrea I loved my husband. I really did. I would’ve followed him into the desert, gone blind, sold my soul for him. But when I got home earlier than usual that day, something in the mechanics of my love for him broke. You see, up to that point, I had no ...

Author: Eva C. Stein Weeks passed before they met again, at what they still called a café: legacy infrastructure, where some devices failed to detect low-spoken words. Vines snaked through fractured steel. Light filtered through old purification nets. Mae’s fingers ...

Author: Majoki A wicked wind rattled the gravel and it pinged against the rims of the truck parked on the sloping shoulder. The strikes were constant enough to keep Malloy from dozing peacefully. He was dead tired. He’d been three weeks in the unforgiving Badlands. ...

Author: Julian Miles, Staff Writer “They’re fighting again.” Bryr-na-ne rouses from her nap and looks up at Bael-la-le. “What’s new?” “Nuclear warheads.” She launches herself off the recliner. “How long?” “Their spears launched as I came to tell you it looked bad. I’d ...

Author: David Bors There is a break in the fighting. Zaira surveys the battlefield. The horrors have retreated for now. An Aegiswalker limps over to her and tells her that one of them is badly injured. Zaira rushes to the injured Aegiswalker, barely breathing. She kneels ...

Author: David C. Nutt I remember the day as if it were only yesterday. I walked into the room. Adrian was adjusting a painting- Starry Night by Van Gough. It was breath taking! “Is it the original?” It wasn’t a stupid question. That’s how powerful Adrian was. I also noticed ...

Author: R. J. Erbacher “I… am… the summoner… of Spadehammer!” The herd of oafs began ‘hoolering.’ They could not clap and a ‘hool’ was their equivalent of a cheer. The inhabitants of this planet were basically bipedal, semi-intelligent cattle with thick arms that had curled appendages ...

Author: Neil Weiner By the time you read this, I’m no longer what I was. My space pod is being dragged—no, devoured—by a black hole’s event horizon. The engines scream. Alarms flash in panicked red. But I feel nothing. Just the tug of acceleration pulling at my bones. Did ...

Author: Brian Genua When the mirror-toxin was injected in the base of my skull, it rendered me paralyzed from my eyelids down. What happens when big-tech, big-pharma, and the NLP community come together to solve the national education crisis? The hybrid protocol known as ...

Author: Hillary Lyon “And we’re back,” Rob, the chiseled sports announcer chirped. He nodded over to his cohort, Ike, an elderly sports commentator of great reputation. “Thanks to all our viewers for joining us for the 130th annual Collegiate Cheerleading Competition. Next ...

Author: Ashwini Shenoy The first time, I think it’s a dream. You and I are holding hands. The night-blooming jasmine spreads its fragrance, sweet and soothing. The fruit trees sway in the twilight. The birds chirp and butterflies swirl. Our garden, our labor of love, built ...

Author: David C. Nutt “OK everybody up and let’s get the blood flowing.” Marcy Partridge rolled her eyes. Yet another impossibly annoying corporate team building exercise. She had no idea why all of a sudden the company was inflicting these motivational morons upon them. ...

Author: David Barber McMurdo Station’s a rough town. It had ambitions to be a city one day, with law and order, and schools and churches and such, but meanwhile bullets were cheaper than bread. Hucksters still sold snow shoes to climate rats fresh off the boat, like ...