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, ...

Author: Alan Moskowitz It was just a tiny blemish on her thigh. She smiled at the memory and then gave it a few swipes with her fingernail to stop the itching. She went back to work on her computer. Data entry - boring. But it kept her fully engrossed twelve hours a day, to ...

Author: I.W.Ray “Please stop?” I scream. Ten minutes ago, I had the most devastating news one could ever imagine. Everything became worse two minutes ago. A wall of fire is devouring the room that contains diaries and handmade books of children. The enormous room will take ...

Author: Robert Beech There was a snowblower in the living room. If the weather broke soon, they wouldn’t need it much longer, but for now it sat by the door, intermittently belching a spray of fine white crystals over the living room floor. The snow dragon nestled down into ...

Author: Mark Renney To imply his job was monotonous and boring would be an understatement; the work that Jackson did was mind-numbing, soul destroying. He joined together little pieces of metal, to be precise they were triangles of stainless steel. These triangles were ...

Author: Julian Miles, Staff Writer “You’re a killer, Jorn. What you’re doing out here? Everybody whispers about it.” There’s only so many precautions you can take when you’re planning escape routes. Eventually, you will arrive somewhere others know you want to be. “Why, ...

Author: Grant Goehrig Everyone knows not to step foot on Ms. Hellebore’s property. Everyone knows those high peaked gables where the crows go to scream, that rotting balustrade with the termites inside, the black shingles that curl at the ends, the conical witch’s hat ...

Author: Terence Wilson Another name for N.A.S.A. is Never A Straight Answer. When one considers the facts, it fits quite well. Among the inner circle of Star Chamber elites, the true purpose of Explorer is far different from what the history books and fake news would have ...

Author: Bruce McAllister There was a Martian kid I got to know in Palo Alto, California, when we lived there and I was in the third grade. This Martian kid, who had no other school to go to, sat up toward the teacher’s desk, and when we made the California Gold Mine out of ...

Author: Amy Neufeld Three of the school’s four walls were no longer standing, destroyed by vandals after the virus swept through. There was no need to rebuild. Norah’s earpiece clicked, and a loud belch echoed in her ear, followed by laughter. “Uncouth,” came Marnie’s ...

Author: David C. Nutt “I didn’t think it would be like this.” “How did you think it would be?” I dunna know… softer focus, less light, warmer. “Yeah. That’s the expectation. But really, how many times have our expectations ever been met especially since our ...

Author: David Henson When I was a kid, a couple buddies stomped on ant hills and bet baseball cards on who could sizzle the most bugs with their magnifying glasses. I didn’t play. Oh, I wanted to. But I didn’t have a magnifying glass. Sometimes you do the right thing for ...

Author: Julian Miles, Staff Writer The sign on the small shack reads ‘Booth 7’. The gate next to it is a long steel pole with heavy chains hanging down. The uniformed man looks unimpressed, in the way that gate guards have honed to perfection in the many centuries since ...

Author: Christopher DePree The probe was named Starchip. This marvel of miniaturization contained cameras, a battery and processors, and only weighed a few grams. Several of the wealthiest people on Earth had funded the tiny trillion-dollar spacecraft whose ambitious task ...

Author: Gorilla Sapiens "You know, not everyone here, is... mortal?", she said, as she sat down next to me. A wedding feast, the ornate cake had been cut, the waitstaff had cleared away the tables, the DJ had played "their song", the bride and groom had shared the first ...

Author: Christopher Bresnahan David clings to his notifier, its screen illuminating the unshaven shape of his face with implosive, blue light. He can flit to any camera screen in the world, and out of the millions of options he chose the Vishnick Ophthalmology ...