Author: Christopher Aguiar The door to the morgue bursts open. I hold my head against the desk in my office and hope it’s a bullet wound. The robots whir and beep, their usual custom, before lowering their brethren onto one of the tables. I eventually stroll out of my ...

Author: D J Lunan Hemmings stopped walking briefly, bathed in a swift glimpse of moonlight, and endured the sustained scream echoing across a forest sucked clean of landmarks, inmates, and healing energy by the storm’s whipping tail. He recognised that something or someone ...

Author: Julian Miles, Staff Writer “Well, now. What do we have here?” I yelp in surprise and shoot him. He disappears from view. There’s a splash. “Did he just fall into water?” “Definitely sounded like something wet.” “Does that mean we’ve arrived somewhere ...

Author: Andrew Schoen Diana plucked her heavy bow from the infinite abyss. With its tremendous weight suddenly lightened, she extended her weapon high overhead, signaling that the hunt was about to commence. But this was not any ordinary hunt conducted by earthly bodies. ...

Author: Abi Marie Palmer As even more swampland is polluted by the humans, swamp monsters such as you and I must leave our natural habitats to pursue careers in the city. This is the end of an era for our kind: Gone are the days when a creature of the sludge could make an ...

Author: David Barber The humans are back! This time there were no deaths. We surrendered the moment their spacecraft landed. A carefully orchestrated show of humiliation and ritual throat baring. Now they stride amongst us, arrogant but wary. How are we to be trusted ...

Author: Ádám Gerencsér Happy End. Damn. I had reluctantly become the Hero, went on a journey that changed me, prevailed over the oddest of odds, put a distressed damsel out of her misery, defeated the menacing genius and renounced the spoils of victory, save for a ...

Author: Kelly B. Johnson The clear pot of water came to a boil. Wiping his hands clean on his apron, Monty waved a two-finger gesture over the stovetop’s controls, to lower the heat as he walked past it. He stopped short of the adjacent T-unit. “Hey!” with an ear given to ...

Author: Steve Smith, Staff Writer Dorothy sighed and pushed herself back from the gurney on which her husband's motionless body lay. Not for the first time she wondered if she shouldn't just throw in the towel and buy a new one. His head plate removed, and the ...

Author: Julian Miles, Staff Writer “You have to understand. He is an exemplar of all that is godless in our society. He and his ilk will lead us down the road to perdition.” I reached out and lifted his chin with a finger. “What will you do afterwards?” He looked ...

Author: D J Lunan From open-cast cobalt mines to litter-foraging on landfill, BudBot’s rental armada of vaguely-affordable ‘displacement robots’ were sanitising the human labour from the most awful, unsafe, and extreme jobs. Sitting in her mother’s basement in suburban ...

Author: David Gianatasio *Click, click, click!* It's on every channel. See what I mean? The show's been off the air for years -- what the hell? It wasn't even that popular. There’s nothing on the screen. Excuse me? There’s nothing on the screen. Pfft. ...

Author: Matt Forshaw It will not heal because I pick at it. I peel back little dry threads of skin from the edges of the wound, and they unwind around its circumference like old, coarse rope. When the scabs on the surface thicken like dirty ice growing solid over a lake, I ...

Author: David Barber "The procedure is not an estimate of your lifespan," the voice said. "It is not like actuary tables. Nor will it tell you the cause of your death. All living things follow a trajectory in time which the scan tracks to the moment of your death. You can ...

Author: Brian C. Mahon Blank mind - you got to have a blank mind and no emotion out there. I do my thirty-second deep breathing routine, knock loose the naughty words from my cerebrum, and stare at the door latch. Is it worth it? A man needs to eat after all, but how ...

Author: Thomas E. Simmons The rooms are less than luxurious. Indeed, there are no rooms as such. Instead, an assortment of squalid pup tents greets each visitor. Pitched there haphazardly among the campsites nearest the inclines are numerous corrosive mists of carbon ...

Author: Kim Farrell The thick foggy sky seemed to press down on her in the empty lot. A tangle of leaves and branches scraped across the vacant space where the kitchen used to be. She could she her mother standing before the hot stove, stirring a large pot of bubbling ...

Author: Bryan Pastor “It started over a year ago because I couldn’t find a pair of wireless earbuds that worked.” Tom began telling the stranger sitting next to him his story. He paused, looking around. The diner was crowded for a Wednesday. There was a youth soccer team, ...