Author: Majoki Currents have always pulled me. When I was a kid, I used to run endless circles inside our three-foot-high, above-ground pool. When I finally felt the tug of the current I'd created, I'd fall back and float in soothing circles. I could do that all day. As a ...

Author: Ruby Zehnder The last thing I see is her face. I don’t recall what she says at that instant, but I remember her shocked expression. I catch her in my arms as she falls forward. She tries to speak, but her mouth is filled with blood. I turn my head away. “’What’s ...

Author: JM Advent Water filled the crevice of tan soil left in the wake of PC749’s hand. The Planetary Cultivator’s visual receptors reeled in scan of the rich tan soil in its palm. It’s masculine lips widened to the test results. After a year of meticulous manipulation ...

Author: Arabella McClendon It's a sleepy, heavy kind of hot. The kind of hot that drives people inside to take their chances with box fans rather than face the sun. My bicycle is rattling in its usual concerning manner. The handlebars got knocked out of alignment years ago ...

Author: Majoki Akeisha could see her breath in little puffs against the pale dawn. Cold. Cold. It was definitely autumn now. The brittle brown leaves crunched beneath her feet as she took her place on the lip of the big grassy bowl where they gathered most ...

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 ...