Latest Stories
Most recently published stories in Fiction.
Day 74
Today is a different day. We woke up and did not hear the buzzing sound we had been hearing since the day that everything changed. From our messed-up calculations, we are waking up to the 74th day since the sick people were released. For 74 days, we kept hearing bustling and steps above our underground shelter. Frankly, I don’t know how we made it past the first 24 hours, all of us crammed in this little hole that my husband created.
By Beatriz Magana5 years ago in Fiction
I Am April
I stepped into the dark ally, holding my neck, as blood dripped down my fingers. Tonight I did something stupid. My wound was burning so bad that I wanted to scream but could not choke it out. Scared and weak, I stumbled my way to a brick wall alongside the ally and slid my back down until my butt hit the cold cement ground. Closing my eyes, the city noises around me became louder, and the smells of the ally garbage became stronger as the vampire venom was taking over my bloodstream. I could do nothing to stop the transformation unless a vampire was willing to suck the venom out before the change was complete. But kindness like that is unheard of.
By Melissa Bezborotko 5 years ago in Fiction
The Aviary
When you check into the Aviary, they take away your shoelaces, phones, pens, headphones, purses, wallets, aspirin, keys, and plastic bags. Then, they give you a cockatiel; everyone gets a cockatiel. They name it for you; they name it after you. It says all this right in the brochure. It’s the morning of day 5 and my brain feels like a mangy, buzzing porcupine. My cockatiel, Alice L. Karp, sits on a rusted copper perch in a rusted copper cage that dangles from the ceiling. The single bright peach circle on her butter-yellow cheek is so perfectly formed it looks like a design flaw. Not one thing in nature is perfect, and that’s easy to forget.
By Sarah Ulicny5 years ago in Fiction
The Underdwellers
A decimated and desolate land of Sixth Earth is all that I remember from childhood. Years of warfare, pollution, and plague have, tragically, shaped THAT future. No one would dare walk the land of this Earth for very long; for, during the day, an intense warm or a decimating Winter could be a person's downfall; by night, we fear the hunts of the Skylanders. Seas still surround Sixth Earth where the Aquatitans may live as they have not pledged their warriors and resources to a side yet. History has already created the rift between Skylanders and Underdwellers. That is WHY we stay to our underground lairs for protection and may only venture upward for brief stints at a stretch in search of resources. To live only to our tunnels is no way to woo the Aquatitans to the side of justice. Nevertheless, the Skylanders in their constant hunts for new prey and their misuse of advanced war technology have never convinced the Aquatitans to join them either. Virgor leads us. He is a good leader; a headstrong, former military commander who will keep himself in front of danger for the family pack. Lotek is as close to a technician and weaponsmith as we are about to find in our Underearth; and, though we will never boast a technological advantage over the Skylanders, we require his technology for our PROTECTION. Fuja promises to be a good healer and spiritual guide; but her mind is lost to age. She even speaks of an ancestral race of Cat People who could not only WALK an Earth three cycles in the past of the one we know; but who were bold enough to protect it... Virgor promises that he has found something as one final opportunity to enjoin our forces with the Aquatitans. I hope that, this time, he is right...
By Kent Brindley5 years ago in Fiction
The Heart Shaped Locket
Dark days The machines were everywhere. It was dark but as we machines know, we do not need light to negotiate the broken land. All we need is electronic pulses that rebound to our sensors, giving us an idea of direction and highlighting any obstacles that may impede our travel, plus some small halogenic lamps for illumination. And the reason for needing to travel is obvious – to find power.
By Gavin Mayhew5 years ago in Fiction
Chip in my heart
The cramping in my fingers was beginning to become unbearable as I typed madly on the keyboard, trying to break through A firewall I designed to be unpenetrable. My objective to stop the AI we call Neta, short for New Evaluationalized tech Allie from setting off more nuclear bombs.
By Jessie Anne5 years ago in Fiction
