Author: Joe Wood Most folks hide the question at first. Maybe they’ve seen me on patrol. Maybe they find me tearing thistles out of my lawn, or walking over to pick my daughter up from school. It starts so casually. Just a chat between neighbors. Somehow, in the haze of how ...

Author: Paul Cesarini Lee tapped twice, zipped his fly, picked up his rifle, then went back to work. He could’ve used one of his three remaining disinfectant wipes in his med kit to wash his hands, but decided not to. Med supplies were way too low and way too valuable to ...

Author: Majoki I’m that guy who gets run over by the car forced off the road as the good guy or villain flees during the exponentially epic chase scene in every action movie. I’m that random bystander who gets Swiss-cheesed in a hail of bullets, as the everyman hero ...

Author: Nancy Geibe Wasson My friend first began to disappear back in co-ed youth sports while being chosen for teams. She said she was in attendance and accounted for, abruptly became invisible for five whole minutes, and then wham! She was back, selected to a team, ready ...

Author: Vidyut Gore Some romances are meant to be. Chandra, the beautiful Moon, gazed across the dark expanse of space at him, her existence visible only because of his blazing radiance. Suraj, the embodiment of the dazzling Sun, conjured into personhood in the minds of ...

Author: Lance J. Mushung Patrol ship TFS-648 flew in open space following its faster than light hop. The hop put it on a course parallel to a large slow spacecraft. The 3D viewscreen in the command compartment showed in detail the unknown gray craft 517.2 klicks distant. ...

Author: Julian Miles, Staff Writer I’ve often seen the graffiti around the city: ‘We will be freed’. Some of it is decades old. Like everybody else, I ignore it. The Detrin - referred to as ‘sticks’ since Eldasy’s seminal film - have been an underclass since their ...

Author: Andrew Dunn Snow outside sparkled like a thousand diamonds in a royal vault. William didn’t feel its warmth. Instead, he wielded a poker to stoke dying embers until they glowed bright and hot enough to send fresh logs smoldering. A simple task, but it warmed ...

Author: David Broz You breathe life into me, I breathe life into you. Inhale, exhale, breathe, breathe. The fans no longer spin, nothing spins, all is still. Face to face, inches and miles apart, we breathe through this splintered air scrubber, through each other. You ...

Author: Jeremy Nathan Marks Grandpa Damon leaned back in the recliner by the bay window. The late afternoon sun set his bronze face aglow. He turned to his grandson, Dominic, and said, “Son, Pluto is really two people. They are a planet and the God of the ...

Author: Mark Renney This is how I see it. The land mass is vast and the population is sparse. The people are scattered across it and the Settlements sprouted where something was still standing. Amongst the ruins of housing estates and of larger buildings; hospitals, schools ...

Author: Majoki The fire was burning low. Overhead the stars were a mighty river. Shrieks and howls threatened from the darkness beyond. The clan huddled nearer the flames seeking primitive protection. Talismans hung around their necks. Glittering things. Useless ...

Author: Sarah Klein Paul put on some jazz music as he set up the Webcam. He was pumped. After weeks of boredom, the Doppelganger program had launched. It was a steep fee to be included, but they were essentially cloning you, with some proprietary software that was supposed ...

Author: Julian Miles, Staff Writer There’s something glowing. Must be close. My vision flip-flops, greys out and back in, then snaps into focus. I have a digital clock embedded in my forearm panel! It reads 00:01:19:36, the last pair is seconds, and they’re ...

Author: Majoki Earth Two went missing. You’d think the reaction would have been shock and awe. It was more like “shucks” and “aaah.” Generally, the Sol populace exhibited a collective disinterest. The exo-insurers decidedly did not, and I was called in. Planets did go ...

Author: Jeremy Nathan Marks “There is pain when functional activity is insufficient, but excessive activity produces the same effect.” -Emile Durkheim, The Division of Labor In Society Jerrold Davis Ph.D. (c) had a problem. He was such an astute student that he had ...

Author: Bryce Paradis “Please hold still.” Why am I here, in this machine? The dim tunnel enveloping me sings crazy, electric birdsong. It twangs like a guitar, screeches like a klaxon, hisses like radio static, and screeches again. “We’re establishing your baseline. ...

Author: Faye Zhang Warm sand on the beach. The remnants of dead volcanoes, smooth and sharp all at once. Rows of the shadowed silhouettes of pine trees, jutting up into a blushing evening sky. Her house, shaky on stilts, bleached bone white by ocean sun. Home. The ...