Sharon cursed and fought the steering wheel. “Lord a’mighty,” she cried, the ruts almost tearing the wheel from her hands. The path that passed for a road was much worse than the month before; the previous evening’s rains beginning the damage yet to come. The highways were not much better. The hard-topping of the pavement resisted total erosion only in the center of the road forcing drivers to make their own way in the ditches more often than not. She swerved off into the brush to avoid the remains of a broken-down motor coach. How had the driver found this road? she wondered.
Continue reading “Descending to Eve, Part Two – Al Onia”Descending to Eve, Part One – Al Onia
Olduvai Gorge, Western Rift, Tanzania. September, 2028
Pierre Archambault stopped his hammering to wipe the sweat from his brow. The wind did not cool. During the day, it carried the heat from the rocks surrounding his site. During the night, it carried the songs from the tourist camps.
He stared across the valley at the dark, broken rocks of the landscape and tried to remember what this valley, his valley, had been like before the tourists came. The vision shimmered, as uncertain of its own reality as he was of his memory. There was always the wind, not so long ago lifting the scents and sounds of the great Serengeti herds. The herds were gone, migrated to new pastures with the increase in visitors and tremor activity. Now, Pierre smelled the cooking from the camps and heard the mindless songs repeated endlessly through the dark, warm nights.
Continue reading “Descending to Eve, Part One – Al Onia”Apocalyptic Visions – Mike Adamson
Her first vision had been of a car crash at the end of her street, when she was five, but it may have been coincidence–just a child’s dream. The next, the passing of a neighbour’s pet, a year later, cast doubt on scepticism, and when at eight she foretold the death of a school master her parents placed her in the care of a psychiatrist. Beth Trudeau was special, and her whole life through she had lamented the loss of the innocence that comes from ignorance.
Continue reading “Apocalyptic Visions – Mike Adamson”Wishmaker – Kaitlyn Reese
The wind left footprints on my walls as the stars left broken wishes hanging off my lips. Tomorrow was the first day of fifth grade and I wasn’t even going – I couldn’t. The sinewy air was choking me enough that I couldn’t eat. I felt the tension like I was a rope but somehow, I couldn’t sense what was coming next.
Breath. The sound echoed off my room’s starry atmosphere.
Breath. I released it like I wished I could release my pain.
Continue reading “Wishmaker – Kaitlyn Reese”Who the Hell is Freddy Stanton? – Mike Murphy
Nine American cities were attacked in the first hour. Among the rubble and twisted metal lay many thousands of corpses, all glowing an eerie pink from the Kilparkians’ quantum bombs. The aliens’ triangular ships hovered high in the air, waiting to send down more death. The allies tried to assist, but their weapons were swatted from the sky.
President Cooper had no choice but to unconditionally surrender. Lt. Donald Berkner sent the message skyward. It didn’t take long for the aliens to respond.
Continue reading “Who the Hell is Freddy Stanton? – Mike Murphy”Grimm Christmas – Gina Burgess & Nick Gane
“Help!” Gretel called as she gripped the rungs of the iron cage. Whenever the witch left the cottage, Gretel hollered long and loud, hoping a passing woodsman might hear.
“Don’t waste your breath,” Hansel said. “The witch is the only one around for miles and you’ll be sorry if she hears you.”
Continue reading “Grimm Christmas – Gina Burgess & Nick Gane”Beacon – Gina Burgess
Tom stared at a greeting card of a chubby man in a red suit with a face obscured by a beard. Tom had heard of beards, but he’d never seen one. Only grown-ups could grow them.
He looked to Anna, the closest person he’d ever known to a grown-up. She was busily taping cardboard over the broken windscreen of a rusty, roadside car, which was to be their brand-new home. Earlier, glass fragments and crimson stains had covered the seats. Anna had sent Tom away until she’d cleaned.
Continue reading “Beacon – Gina Burgess”Ascending – Mike Adamson
The old man looked near death but protested he was fine. He liked it here.
He said the ruins of the unknown beings of Tencheros brought him peace for they reminded him nothing lasts forever… But there was more, I knew. His name was Tarrant; he remembered it well enough, and the home ports, and wanted no more of them.
Continue reading “Ascending – Mike Adamson”The Protector – Tom Howard
Smoky, Sir Reginald Immodeus Alexander and forty-seven other names from his long and illustrious lineage, sat on the kitchen table watching a flitzard taking shape. The fibrous creatures couldn’t take form if they were watched, and this one struggled before it died a frustrated death. Flitzards affected human brains, making people fuzzy and distracted. Smoky’s human charge, Charlie, acted fuzzy enough already.
“Listen, Smoky.” Charlie peered over his newspaper. “It says here domesticated cat brains are shrinking. You have a walnut-sized brain.”
Smoky licked his paws to show how credible he found the newspaper article. He wished Charlie would take his bike off the wall and leave. His twitching whiskers predicted something bad was coming through from the other side, and the sooner Charlie was out of the battle zone, the better.
Continue reading “The Protector – Tom Howard”The Ballad of Robinson Clyde – Alexander D Jones
Down in the valley that nobody knows the name of lives a very old man. A man who’d seemingly been there since time began. He was the last line of defence. Nobody had asked him, he took it upon himself.
He sat in his hut, four walls, three windows, two doors, one roof. All hours he sat. Waiting. Watching. Waiting. Watching the skies. Guarding the valley that nobody knows the name of.
They always landed in the valley, never quite the same place, never the same time, but every day, one came. Down in the valley that nobody knows the name of.
Continue reading “The Ballad of Robinson Clyde – Alexander D Jones”
Emerging Worlds 