Author: Don Nigroni Abby, As you know, I never liked your husband and tried to talk you out of marrying him. But I never told you that, when we were kids and he lived next door, I once spied him in his backyard slicing the legs off a turtle he had put on its back. Last ...

Author: Alfredo Capacho After the Collapse, when machines devoured memory and history, humanity discovered a strange salvation: stories could be coaxed into flesh. A whispered myth became a bird. A bedtime tale became a guardian. Every narrative left the tongue and walked ...

Author: Anselm Eme The sky over Karu, a crowded settlement on the edge of Abuja, glows the colour of burnt copper. People blame Sahara dust. Inspector Daramola Owei knows better. Dust does not hum. Dust does not vibrate the bones. He stands on a cracked rooftop, ...

Author: David Barber Rona Lal no longer remembered her exact age, but the entelechy did, and arranged a surprise for her birthday. There would be a trip to the beach in what used to be England and the company of Jammes Bek, who had once been her husband. "Can’t hear ...

Author: Alfredo Capacho They called it OptiCore. The city’s central AI was designed to optimize happiness. It monitored everything—traffic flow, food distribution, emotional tone in conversations, even the frequency of laughter. Citizens wore MoodBands that pulsed with ...

Author: Majoki Cast out the pearly gardens of MechTropolis. That was my fate. My flight. I fled the marble columns, floodlit fountains and quantum portals of the great city built upon my lie. I crossed the digital divide and entered the analog wilderness. Storms beat ...

Author: Mark Renney The Sweepers are always plentiful, inconceivably there isn’t ever a shortfall but always enough recruits coming through on that metaphorical conveyor belt. A surplus filling out the application forms, readily signing on the dotted line, undergoing the ...

Author: Majoki It’s hugely satisfying to watch the person who murdered you, go bonkers. Gyrsen was thrashing like a madman as company security restrained him outside the boardroom. He frothed and spittle flew everywhere as he pointed my way, screaming, “He’s here! He’s ...

Author: Andrea Tillmanns The colony had called for help, and we had come – with a heavily armed spaceship. But there was nothing here for us to fight. The planet was empty, except for the long-decayed corpses of the colonists. And the shadows that first invaded our ...

Author: Alzo David-West "Citizen. You are called before the Court of Will." "What's my crime, Counsel?" "Your crime, Citizen, is that of being born outside the Will of the State." "My birth was out of my control. I had no choice in it." "No, Citizen. Your ...

Author: Daniel Miltz They live remote, because living remote they remember everything. The neighborhood leans inward like old men listening, and the people hold faces that don’t blink. During the day, the ghosts come out wearing the habits they died in: a man still counting ...

Author: Keisha Hartley Amara’s head knocked against the cold car window, jolting her awake. Her fingers were numb from clutching the long black case on her lap. The Uber driver sped down the winding path unbothered by the rain. Ahead, the dark spires of her grandmother’s ...

Author: Majoki Well into the neopandemic I noticed the countdown. Inside my left eyelid. A faint image, like a digital timer flickering. I couldn’t make out distinct digits in the rolling blur of numbers so there was no real way of knowing if it was counting up or ...

Author: Julian Miles, Staff Writer Jingle bells my ass. Actually, if I’d had one, the ex-wife probably would have. Covered it’s harness in fairy lights, too. She loved sparkly tat. Guess that’s why she hooked up with the bright-eyed pretty boy I used to be. Then she got ...

Author: Alastair Millar Grandpa Jack had a generous ‘meritorious service’ pension from his time in the Terran Space Force, but he never talked about his time in uniform, or shared war stories. “I’d rather not,” he’d say diffidently, or, if pressed, “Just not much to tell, ...

Author: Matthew Luscher It began to pour as the bus pulled in. The driver shot me a puzzled look as I stepped off and made a gesture clearly hinting for me to get back onboard. I ignored him. It had been half a mornings journey down bumpy country roads, following the ...

Author: James C. Clar “Europe during the plague is too tame for you?” The Extreme Time-Travel agent could barely conceal his surprise. His quartz desk glowed faintly under his hands. “You realize that package includes rats, mass hysteria, and the very real possibility of ...

Author: Bill Cox “Well,” she says, impatience dripping from her voice, “What’s it going to be?” I’ve the stylus in my hand, hovering over the pad. I look up at her and it’s all I can do not to stick the stylus in her eye and just keep on pushing it deeper and deeper, ...