Author: Joshua Fagan To the human who found my spaceship: I am sorry the front door was locked, but the open house does not start until tomorrow. You’re free to come back then, and in fact, I encourage you to do so. I have an offer to make you. Living out of a spaceship ...

Author: Lewis Richards We all have little rituals. Lily braids her hair every night before bed, Daisy rubs the same spot on her arm when she worries, Jasmine taps out the same rhythm with her fingers when she daydreams in lessons. We all wear our white silks and pearls ...

Author: R. Michael “Good morning, Sue. How may I assist you today?” “I’m afraid there isn’t much you can do, Vick. Everyone is staying home. They know what’s happening and don’t want to put additional strain on the system,” Sue replied, rummaging through some boxes on a ...

Author: Mary Sophie Filicetti The roar of overhead planes; that’s what hits me—or more, the lack of it. Each morning at six planes soared overhead, one after another, pulling me into a dim consciousness. Night brought a gradual reversal, the gaps between flights widening ...

Author: William Gray Exploring Callisto, stumbling upon curious cave drawings. Erratic runes chiseled into rocky walls needed no formal translation. Illustrations below sufficed. A staircase, a shrine, an altar, a robe-clad Oracle. Arrows circling from a child to an ...

Author: Mark Renney The road signs are still standing and at first, this intrigues Davis. It doesn’t make sense to him when everything else has been demolished and flattened, reduced to strewn rubble. The foundations of buildings remain but these are merely platforms of ...

Author: Julian Miles, Staff Writer The map on the wall shows a wash of orange with occasional zones of red or blue. Above is yellow, denoting the Canada-Alaska Alliance, below is green: Mexico. All bordered by the black of the oceans. “D.C. has fallen.” Analyst Stevens ...

Author: Michael Anthony Dioguardi This cold is not healthy. My skin is cracking. This won’t last—it can’t last, not in space, and certainly not in these conditions. I’m not sure what’s hurting it more, the cold or the rapid aging? Are we traveling at the speed of light? How ...

Author: Rick Tobin Officer Timothy Jeffreys flicked a puffy, trembling hand over his holstered pistol, while staring into and then away from Edward Andrews’ glare. Timothy had rookie bloating from devouring Sheriff’s station sweets. Donut dust still mingled with dripping ...

Author: Takshak It began when the first mind was uploaded. I remember there was a big uproar. Soon there were two camps – for and against. I thought scientists leading us during learning curves would do a better job than yesteryear politicians. I couldn’t have been more ...

Author: Steve Smith, Staff Writer Julia sat in her boss's office, barely taking up any room in the massive wingback chair, eyes locked across the massive wooden and steel desk at Tomas. "I know something," she began. "I pay you to know things," he didn't give her the ...

Author: Beck Dacus Kilometers above me, sitting stoic like a mountain, was Verenia. Her green bulk blocked my line of sight to the opposite side of the cylinder, like a hole cut in the sprawling countryside curving up over my head. Lazily she turned-- or rather, we did, the ...

Author: Irene Montaner Seventeen days. Alana made another straight line beside the previous sixteen. The faint light of the first sun rays already filled the kitchen. The kettle whistled. Alana poured herself a cup of tea and watched the milk swirl in the brown water. ...

Author: David C. Nutt I watched the wifihead bounce into the door. I Love clueless look they all have when they realize they’ve lost connectivity. Next comes the part I love even better, when they swipe their finger across the door to open it. None of them have been ...

Author: Evan Whitbeck Light . . . warmth. It's far, but what I begin to feel rouses me. Where am I? I guess if I've woken, I must be someplace again. Ping. A sound? A sound! And I felt something! Something hit me, flew into me -- I crashed into something, but I ...

Author: Mark Renney The road is becoming much more difficult to follow and there are places where it disappears entirely and each time it does the road becomes a little harder to locate. Davis is now spending most of his time meandering back and forth, searching for ...

Author: Janet Shell Anderson I’m driving up 34, but no one’s on the road. Tractors sit in the muddy fields; nothing’s planted. Where’s everybody? Usually they’re on I-80 anyway, so that’s probably the reason, plus it’s Sunday morning, and except for church traffic in ...

Author: Katlina Sommerberg Soft red-violet and indigo flog floats off the floor, obscuring my body beneath glittering colors. The fingers that held my boyfriend’s are drenched in sweat and water vapor, clammy in this cold tank. There is nothing but the fog. My body drifts ...