Author: Rida Tariq *That bell of the night:- The phone bell rang at 2:30Am . "Liza" picked up the phone. There was a name on the screen that had been erased for three years: "Max❤️" Panic, surprise, and a forgotten pain all woke up together. "Hi...?" Silence then a ...

Author: Majoki “Based on the most current cosmological evidence, the known universe is less than 5% ordinary matter, all the crap we can see and touch.” “That’s still a lot of crap.” Grunden grinned. He always grinned. Finnhil waved him off. “That’s nothing. We’re ...

Author: Julian Miles, Staff Writer “Go left. Left! Between the trees.” “Rule nineteen: do not follow a road.” “Not the gap on the right. The gap on the left. Left!” Tersi rests a hand on my shoulder and cuts into my comms. “Check definition: road. Query application of ...

Author: Alastair Millar It was our usually bad-tempered neighbour Mr Winkelmann who first told us we could get ‘special benefits’ if we registered in person at the Central Bureau in Lapis. Indigo’s government knew we spent a lot on the exoskeletal clothing and ...

Author: Don Nigroni "Thoughts can't die or fade away," my little brother, Arthur, told me two months ago. He was an adorable bald baby who grew into a self-taught bald polymath. I replied, "So, what if thoughts do spend eternity in the thought-ether?" "If someone could ...

Author: Sarah Goodman One unblemished red apple. I passed it along the conveyor belt. Swoosh. One green pear. Its surface was a little rough, but it was decent. Swoosh. Another apple, but this one had a bruise on its side. A horn blared. A door opened, and I slid the apple ...

Author: R. J. Erbacher She was seated on the closed toilet, legs crossed, just a bath towel wrapped across her breasts, water still dripping from her brunette hair onto her pale bare shoulders. She pulled the straight razor along her skin, her fingers laced between the ...

Author: Majoki In my line of work, I hear it all the time, “Why do we have better maps of the surface of the moon and Mars than our own ocean floors?” To most folks it sounds like a reasonable question, but to a hydrographic surveyor it can be triggering. A few weeks ago ...

Author: Rachel Sievers It is unlikely that many people would leave here. This one-horse town as I’ve heard it called time and time again. Families and neighbors know since birth to walk down the concrete sidewalks. It is cemented in time as a place where the fifties values ...

Author: Julian Miles, Staff Writer There's another explosion outside. People are running about, screaming and shouting incoherently. Nevaten finishes his meal and watches as he wipes his lips. Takes a while, his face being more lupine than human. He’s one of the Beaston, a ...

Author: Cindy Landers There were disbelievers. No one had built a mega tower taller than seven kilometers. But that didn’t stop Max Ever. Eventually, an eight-kilometer tower rose above the clouds. A massive titanium egg on the roof, the Ever Enterprises logo, lit the sky ...

Author: Don Nigroni I was in awe of my uncle since I was a child. He was handsome, athletic, funny and brilliant. Even as he aged and his dark hair showed signs of gray, he still emanated a larger-than-life presence. Unlike Uncle Jim, I was awkward and shy. My uncle was ...

Author: Rachel Geman “So, yes, I can go? Mom! Hello!” Lara looked at Kate expectantly. “Where?” Kate asked. “Upstate. The mushroom hunt. You promised. Everyone is going. You SAID I could go.” Kate fiddled with the slime-covered handle of the lilac mug. A second ago ...

Author: Colin Jeffrey "Your order will be ready eleven months ago next Tuesday," the drive-in automat informed me. "And your bill will be minus eighty-four dollars, less tax." I put the car in reverse, drove home backwards. When I got there, I put the newspaper back into ...

Author: Colin Jeffrey As the steam-powered Queen Victoria chugged its way across the palace forecourt, the sound of a volley of cannon shots rang out through a public address system. A troop of mechanical horses paraded noisily in front of the queen, boilers whistling, ...

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 ...