Author: Julian Miles, Staff Writer Standryl looks down from the walkway. It's like peering into one of those curio shops on a winter evening - corridors of angular junk filled with mysterious shadows and twinkling lights - except here, every constellation of lights is an ...

Author: Jeremy Nathan Marks “Life is sweet at the edge of a razor” -Tom Waits I was sitting on the levee in the hot sun listening to a trickling sound. Near me, a man was taking a leak in a desiccated bush. I watched the sun turn his stream a brilliant ...

Author: Rachel Sievers Rothwell had done everything she could to break free, or at the very least change the holding space, but she now knew it was useless. She was stuck in this moment of time and might be forever. It was her torture and her pence for playing with time ...

Author: Jason Rayleigh Before him sat an elongated table with seven silent strangers, dressed in elegant corporate attire. Their faces were digital distortions, scrambled puzzle pieces. Taki felt a sudden sense of unease, as if he had stumbled into a secret society ...

Author: Gabriel Walker Land Rodrick Haagen walked into the palatial master rest room with dual basins and Egyptian terrycloth towels, shutting the door behind him. He turned on the steam shower piping-hot, switching off the fan so that the air steamed up, wafting the ...

Author: Vruti Naik I remember pressing the correct button to reach the fourth floor where my father was admitted. I always dreaded hospitals and moreover, these elevators. As the elevator ascended, something went wrong. It accelerated with an unnerving speed, triggering my ...

Author: Kenneth M McRae “Jimmy, over here!” Mike waved from the corner table. James grabbed a beer and headed over. “Great to see you! How long’s it been?” Mike shook his head. “Too long, way too long.” The former college roommates exchanged stories about work, kids, and ...

Author: Majoki Crumbs. That’s how it always starts. Hansel and Gretel trying to backtrack their way home. Except these are binary breadcrumbs. Bits and bytes strewn unevenly through the program. Through nearly fifty-nine million lines of code. How do you follow ...

Author: Vruti Naik Dr. Alex Williams sat alone in his laboratory, surrounded by the eerie glow of flickering monitors and the soft hum of machinery. He was lost in thought, his mind consumed by the virus that he had been studying for months. He had found a cure and the ...

Author: David Dezell Turner Dr. Kayla Geiger braced herself outside the examination room. She knew there wouldn’t be a superhero in there — at least, not a real one, like Venator or Centuria. Still, that didn’t make it any less infuriating every time she had to swab the ...

Author: David Dumouriez Maybe it started with a 'who' or a 'why' or a 'what'. Not surprisingly, given what came next, Sydney really couldn't remember. - Why do you keep asking me these numbingly inane questions? Sydney wasn't sure how to respond. Or, more pertinently, ...

Author: Majoki The stylites perched atop their brainframe pillars feverishly coding as the throngs below prostrated themselves and wailed in supplication. “Hear me, Allenadis. Expel the demon from my device. Free me from the torment of this hacker’s avarice that my soul ...

Author: Bill Cox They are everywhere and nowhere. The world passes beneath them, from the great, deep scar of the Valles Marineris, to the soaring, breathless heights of Olympus Mons. Time has lost its linear progression, yet they know that they have still to wait for the ...

Author: David Barber For as long as I can remember, any wish I made came true. No, Reverend, let me finish, then I should be glad to hear your opinion. Like that youth yesterday, over-revving his dirt-bike outside the window. Wishing things away is too easy. You ...

Author: Julian Miles, Staff Writer I'm wondering about that human. It seems to be contemplating something. Probably violence. It's the only reason why we allowed them membership, after all. Come to think of it, what is it doing sat in a cafe on the Aslencade anyway? I ...

Author: Arthur Chappell “It’s Adam taking the apple, not Eve. Genesis got it wrong.” “Is this Eden, Herbert? Or a nudist camp with an orchard?” “Very funny. Come on, before he takes a bite and drops us all in it.” “Hey. Give me that apple back! Stop thief! Evie, ...

Author: Philip G Hostetler I met Maggie at an open mic in an art gallery. Well, I met her music first, if a distinction could be made. I didn't expect such a big sound from such a small woman as she sat at the antique Ancient Earth piano. She pounded, no, attacked the keys like a Mongol ...

Author: Rick Tobin “It’s amazing how easily we accessed this vault, considering how long these buildings were subjected to seawater.” He ran his three fingers over the outside of the corroded steel doors, five inches thick, but still smooth and glistening on the inside ...