Author: Delight Ejiaka My green passport exposes me everytime. It is the deadly, poisonous hue of green. My hands have been infected from clutching it the entire plane ride. The customs officer was staring at my face, searching for signs of venom. Another vermin ...

Author: Julian Miles, Staff Writer It’s sort of shuffle-dancing down the muddy ruin that used to be a road. The evening light reflects from the parts of its frame revealed through holes in the hacked-up tarpaulin it wears like a poncho. The dancing progress stops. It ...

Author: Majoki They took a step forward. A warning siren sounded as sentry guns auto-targeted. Red lights flashed threateningly along the top of the border wall as a digital voice commanded, “Stop. Do not enter the barrier zone. The defense guns are programmed to fire at ...

Author: Sam Nikiski Hello friend! If you’re like me, the sudden transition from your simulated paradise to the titanium phone booth which are our sanitary facilities is both jarring and harsh. You roll out of bed in a virtual Taj Mahal, Buckingham Palace, or Sistine Chapel ...

Author: Joseph Hurtgen Chaak had bright red hair and always wore a coat and tie, proud of his job at MIT teaching applied physics. He demonstrated the weapon--it almost looked like a toy--aiming at the snow on our front porch from fifteen feet away. "See how fast it melts? ...

Author: Rachel Sievers The sky was painted with the deep reds and dark purples that can only come when a storm is pushing its way over the snow peaked mountains. I let the heavy cloth fall backward and into place blocking out the view. I tip my mug back and swallow the rest ...

Author: Bill Cox There's no mistaking it now. The Professor’s advanced optics make it clear. A small blue orb, hanging in the void. I can see the Earth again. I can’t quite see England’s green and pleasant land yet, but soon, soon. Is it really seventy-five years since ...

Author: Phil Temples Kenny just finished making his sixth and final call for anyone to talk to on his ham radio. He wasn’t surprised at the lack of a response. There was no "skip" on the band at this time of the night. It was deader than a doornail. Kenny finished his ...

Author: Julian Miles, Staff Writer The café is dimmer than usual - more bulbs have blown, and they’re expensive. There are more candles, but it’s not the same. “What the eff have you got there?” Davey looks up at me. “Steak and chunky chips.” I look at the plate in ...

Author: Robert Flippo The hearse’s view screen crackled with static, forcing Clive to rely on mirrors to reverse the anti-grav sled through the ship’s cargo bay. He steered with cautious flicks of the joystick to keep from jostling the sled’s delicate burden. When the ...

Author: Brian C. Mahon Problematic, my birth was. I was expelled into a world so dry I believed death would catch me just after my sudden realization of “I am”. Then my world was lifted, manipulated, plunged into a moist warmth, descending toward a rhythmic throbbing. The ...

Author: Letícia Piroutek Safety off. Check barrel. Up. Steady. Shoot. Safety off. Check barrel. Up. Steady. Shoot. Safety off. Check barrel. Up. Steady. Shoot. The weather felt drier today, drier than usual in this Godforsaken desert. Janie is standing in front of her ...

Author: Andrew Dunn We could hear the corn crop, yellowed in the field, rustle in a hot breeze as me and Will headed off on bicycles toward town. Mom was in the kitchen, wishing for rain from a cloudless sky, and that dad would give up on magic. Dad and Uncle Stephen had ...

Author: David C. Nutt “Well?” “You’re not going to believe this Chief. It’s nothing like the legends… not even close.” “Really?” “Yeah. Other than some powerful pheromones that makes humans oversexed lunatics and putty in their hands… that and a hollow needle like organ ...

Author: Alastair Millar In a well organised world, Doug Williams thought, the proper venue for this conversation would have been a bunker deep below a heavily secured building somewhere in the world capital. Instead, they sat on a sunny balcony overlooking a pretty lake, ...

Author: Mark Renney There were others. Other Erasers and occasionally their paths crossed. Tanner always attempted to keep his distance and this hadn’t proved so difficult because each Eraser worked alone, forbidden from sharing information or collaborating even when their ...

Author: Frances Koziar My whole body felt warm as I closed the door to the bullet-proof training room—warmth like I hadn’t felt since my wife had died. It had only been tried unofficially—though successfully—in the field, but the new drug should sharpen my senses, they had ...

Author: Majoki Honking, the geese fly overhead in a giant V as the sky reddens in the late September dawn. Tralley watches them for a moment before continuing to unload the pickup truck outside the transmission tower high on the hill. Rucker fixating on his smartphone in ...