To The Mud

Author: Majoki It really wasn’t his thing: pain and panic way too up-close-and-personal. The chaotic video and jarring audio, the total mayhem of battle were so not his thing, but it was up to him to wrap this melee in a nice, neat bow. A twenty-two minute package of war ...

Timeslip

Author: Julian Miles, Staff Writer A grey horizon arcs cleanly against a backdrop of pristine stars. “Well I’ll be damned. It worked!” I look back at Arty. He’s already halfway into his suit. “Going somewhere?” He grins. “After so little time cooped up, I need to get ...

The Third Time Is Close Enough

Author: Tinamarie Cox Rosemary sat under the harsh light of a small vanity in a Vegas chapel touching up her makeup in an attempt to disguise all the decades she’d walked the Earth. A soft knock at the door was a welcomed distraction from her reflection. “Ted!” She stepped ...

Three Magic Beans

Author: Rick Tobin “Careful with lighting, Captain. Don’t kill them.” Jerry Carter readjusted reflectors a few inches from a grouping of small barrel cacti in the spaceship’s arboretum. “Why keep these damnable things? Don’t get enough of them taking over Earth?” Captain ...

Mind Fullness

Author: David C. Nutt They call me a saint at the long term care facility. I go and sit exclusively with patients who are in irreversible comas. Sometimes I hold their hands. Sometimes I sit, as if in prayer with my forehead lightly touching their arm. Once I proved to the ...

Please Don’t Turn Your Back on Me

Author: Philip G Hostetler I set my guitar down in it's stand, I went to take a piss, the Zuntory whiskey was running right through me. D'rard had warned me not to drink too much, but he was fucking my ex-wife so fuck him and the high horse he rode in on. I walked back out ...

Humoring the Stone

Author: Majoki The mason aligned the large sandstone block and lowered it onto the mortar he’d just ladled with water against the growing heat of late morning. The heavy block nestled into the mortar resting on the soft metal plugs that would keep the stone level with its ...

Hoodlums

Author: Julian Miles, Staff Writer I’m all for elegant combinations of form and function, but I’ll never agree that bioreactors sat every hundred metres is an improvement over having trees and streetlights. These ‘greenboxes’ even have benches on their pavement sides, ...

The Watchers

Author: Mikki Aronoff Our vinyl patches proclaim our purpose. ANIMAL, VEGETABLE, MINERAL WE WATCH THEM ALL DECIDE WHO PASSES We are birthed to serve, groomed to wait and watch, to scrutinize and assess. We follow guidelines. Detractors regard us as arbitrary, but if ...

The Rider

Author: Antonio DIsi Yesterday, I turned forty, without even realizing it. My life has become an endless sequence of days and nights, of bicycle deliveries, all dictated by an unrelenting app. Every morning, I wake up not knowing what the day holds. The only clue is my ...

How It All Began

Author: David Barber The man in the window seat on the late train from London is Charles Biggins. This is before he became a hero. He’d been to see As You Like It and was enjoying having the carriage quietly to himself when a man settled into the seat opposite. "Mr ...

Dialogue’s End

Author: Alastair Millar They came because we were killing ourselves; our conflicts had become pervasive, global, and more intensive, but paled in comparison to our war with the planet itself. Their ships moved smoothly into the Lagrange points, and calming broadcasts on ...

Don’t Push the Button

Author: Hillary Lyon The lights on the console rapidly blinked in sequence. What that sequence was, Jackie couldn’t tell. It was all random nonsense to him. His finger hovered over the reboot button. If he hit restart, he’d have to work up a report, and explain his actions ...

Providential

Author: Majoki When the founders of Providence made planetfall, they had but one credo to establish their new civilization on the uninhabited world: Blind ignorance is unfortunate. Willful ignorance is shameful. Manufactured ignorance is unforgivable. Two hundred ...

The Waiting Apocalypse

Author: Julian Miles, Staff Writer The woman with the crossbow spits into the fire. “I don’t understand why they didn’t just reboot the computers as soon as it started.” Her sidekick nods, pushing their cap back before joining in. “Reckon a lot of them eye-tee types were ...

Very Few Fish

Author: Caley Schneider 'Ha. Not if you were the last man on Earth.' That's what she'd said to smirking Cole Hamilton when he, not so subtly, suggested an intimate rendezvous in their bustling Interlaken hostel. He thought them both being American was enough to push her ...

Just One Day

Author: Jaime K Devine How long has it been November 15th? I’ve pulled this same picture of a hamster on a running wheel off the One-A-Day Cute Animals calendar for at least a week now. I feel like I’m losing it, so I call my sister. “Yesterday was November 15th, ...

Dark Harvest

Author: Bill Cox I’m making this recording standing on the cliffs at Troup Head on the Moray coast of Scotland. This used to be one of my favourite places. It’s famous for the seabird colonies that nest here, Gannets, Guillemots and Razorbills creating raucous seasonal ...

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