The forest held its breath, and so did Amelia, as she crouched in its undergrowth, heart hammering and a lump rising in her throat. She silently swore off the next fiery ache that coiled in her thighs. She listened for the delicate puff of air that would bring the spores, echoing across the pines and oaks as they descended in a curtain of death that would fell the living, leaving in their wake only the eerie, absolute silence of death.
Continue reading “Scarcity by R.W. Owen”
Asatta fussed over her warmth-membrane and scanned the flat horizon of the little planet, searching for a spark of orange light. Blue wisps of ice and dust curled about the skyline. Anjett was late returning. Soon she would have to enter the dwelling and close it off, leaving him to the intractable cold of the planet’s night.
Continue reading “Warmth by J.H. Siegal”
They say that telepathy is a gift.
But it was not a gift when I was designed as a tool—a gene-twisted thing, a tool made of meat. My gaunt, pale, body was designed by the norms for one purpose—reading the thoughts of other norms. I was made to be a psychic burglar, built to uncover the secrets that a norm hides in the lies or silences of their porous mind.
Continue reading “The Mirrors of His Eyes, the Thirst of His Soul by David Newkirk”
The Lunar Landings—a lofty achievement for mankind. Today, 3 billion miles from Earth, two hundred years later, I’m passing Pluto. But only in the company of a doomed ghost ship named the Achilles. All fuel reserves and chances of returning home vanished with my crew.
Continue reading “Final Transmission by Savannah Oldham”
They want some blood, so it’s time to tell Benji, my seventy-year-old grandson. His wrinkles came earlier than his father’s, yet he’s trim with little gray hair. He sits in the frayed recliner his father jumped on as a toddler. I hand him a cup, and he caresses my hand.
Continue reading “Last Call for Grams by Barry Yedvobnick”
“Harry… Harry…”
The voice was muffled, barely audible.
Who was Harry?
A foaming mess of memories flooded into his head, a tidal wave of information he could barely comprehend.
The wave retreated, leaving a simple truth washed up amongst the flotsam and jetsam.
He was Harry.
Continue reading “Last Stable Backup by Ed Dearnley”
Saudade: (n.) a nostalgic longing to be near to something or someone that is distant; the desire to be near again to what has been loved and then lost, “the love that remains.”
Continue reading “Just Give It Time by Matthew J. McKee”
One clear night, a freakish bolt of lightning felled a giant oak tree in a park, and a shapeless creature emerged from the smoking crater at its base. The creature flattened into a pool of “tar,” slithered under a boulder at the lake’s edge, and silently brooded there.
Continue reading “The Gift by Arthur Pitchenik”
Three months to Election Day
“Mazie Tanner has a real likability issue to contend with,” said the slick, over-Botoxed TV pundit. “Folks just aren’t that into her. Polls show her earning a paltry thirty-two percent if the election were held today. That’s no bueno in a gubernatorial race against Robert ‘Mr. Charisma’ Sturgill, who’s got well over sixty percent. Now, if the lady tried smiling once in a blue moon—”
Continue reading “The Likeability Problem by Kirsten Smith”
The sirens didn’t bother me because I was busy thinking about ending things. On the morning of my 573rd cycle, we rolled out of our threadbare bed with a rumbling belly. Breakfast went down stale and seedy. Military rations were all we’d managed to trade for lately; a half-eaten block of Nutrient-Toast mocked us on the counter.
Continue reading “The Ending of Us, Toxic Love During the Apocalypse by Karley Cisler”
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