Martina crouched low as she picked her way through the dead city, sprinting between scattered debris. It was hard to tell what used to be a street and what used to be a building and what used to be a body. She popped out from behind a twisted rail switch, wrenched up from the ground… Continue reading Not Alone in the Dead City
Tag: Post-Apocalyptic
No Philosophers Aboard the Prism
"What do you know, Doc?" The small contingent of science-minded survivors loitered around the lower level of the observatory like dead leaves without a breeze to carry them. The other—the religious, and the despondent, and the most insufferable of them all, the indifferent—migrated around the gargantuan alien spaceship in endless, meaningless loops, passing the time… Continue reading No Philosophers Aboard the Prism
Scavengers
Deadeye saw it first, no surprise. We rode toward the smoke. Loud Mouth couldn't stop giggling, interrupted every so often by that disgusting clicking noise the stump of his tongue made against his uvula. I ran my palm over the smooth end of my left arm, which terminated at the mid-forearm. It was an interstellar… Continue reading Scavengers
Blessings of the Arc
Zin Zidel awoke hot and sweaty, tangled in her swaddling robes. She pinned her feathery black hair atop her head and went digging through the cart's many trunks and baskets for something to busy her moaning stomach. She settled for tough jerky, though there weren't many choices left. "Smithlin Caust, do you never sleep?" she… Continue reading Blessings of the Arc
The Highway
"It's alright. We'll take the Highway." Alexa's eyes widened like twin full moons, large and desolate. "We can go around." Her voice was small against the wind. Joel waved his arm at the wasteland before them, still smoldering and stinking sourly of burnt outgassing. "It goes on like this all the way to the coast."… Continue reading The Highway
Zyz’s Syzygy
Zyz awoke staring straight into the sun through a shattered skylight. Full charge. Elapsed down-cycle: 14:11:55.25. She remembered now wandering the tunnels for days in the dark and then scrambling to find a place to recharge before a forced shut down. In the end she'd had to tap into the aux capacitors to stay conscious;… Continue reading Zyz’s Syzygy
Greener Tomorrow
Natalie shifted the two jugs of water and the sack of fruit—plums and peaches, just now in season, and bananas—to her other arm and wiped a bead of sweat from her forehead. It was so humid. "It's just been so busy lately," she was saying, "with Eli's leg still healing—" A tug on her pantleg.… Continue reading Greener Tomorrow
The Legacy We Deserve
They skipped from star to star like a stone on the surface of a placid lake. At each bright point they gorged themselves, ripping through the magnetic flux lines like a cellophane wrapper and exposing the sticky, savory flesh within, fattening up for the next jaunt. The next long winter of the vacuum. In some… Continue reading The Legacy We Deserve
Running in Place
Carter hit the treadmill with gusto. It was old and worn—mechanical, not electric—just a rubber strip wrapped around a couple of rollers, no motor. Electricity was a scarce commodity these days, and he wasn't the wasteful type. He wasn't a brainiac either, though, and couldn't figure out how to use the treadmill to generate and… Continue reading Running in Place
Most Unthinkable
Morrison grew up on a rye farm outside of Cenesthesia, a typical arcology in the midlands. And, as do most children who grow up on farms, he was going to become a farmer himself one day. He didn't find it especially fulfilling, certainly not exciting, but it was as lucrative a career as you could… Continue reading Most Unthinkable
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