In the Minister’s office, there was a map of the world on a large flat screen. There were 25 lights spread across the earth, all white except for one solitary red one, floating over Dublin. The Minister was sitting at his desk talking to old Professor Kennedy along with his assistant, Doctor Sheridan.
Continue reading “Mister Cube – T.J. Matthews”The Silent Man – Neil Abercrombie
There is a man at the door.
I watched him walk up the garden path from the vantage point in my living room, before he passed out of sight as he reached the front door. He kept his gaze forward as he journeyed through the garden, so I feel confident that he didn’t spot me as I watched his approach. He is wearing a long dark trench coat, tied up tight at the waist and with the collars turned up, and his hands are thrust into deep pockets. He completes his look with a short dark hat, tilted slightly forward to cover the upper part of his face. It gives him the look of a private detective from a noir film of yesteryear. I know for a fact that I have never seen this man before in my life.
The Wheel of the World – Adam Fout
Hawkflame stood on the muddy bank of the great Castandar river, he and his father, the Fabricator, gazing up at the Wheel of the World, and behind them was a hovercart as large as a boat, and in the hovercart was the world’s death.
Continue reading “The Wheel of the World – Adam Fout”The Wall – Bill McGuire
Squad Commander Fraser shifted his machine pistol onto the other shoulder and squinted into the low-hanging sun. The hummocky terrain beyond the wall was baked hard, any remaining grass withered white, bouncing the harsh rays into his eyes. Little by little the barren zone merged into scrubby brush, dessicated and barely alive, which stretched as far as the eye could see. They’d been told to expect quite a crowd later in the morning, spotted heading their way by the security drones the previous evening. So far he’d seen not a soul.
Continue reading “The Wall – Bill McGuire”The M6 Southbound – Hannah McIntyre
Rain pours into the dry soil, trickling in through the crevices. Dry roots, hiding like ants in the ground, now burgeon with moisture. Upon my trunk, yellow blooms of fungi quiver as beads of water form on their flat tops. Amongst the irregular vibrations of the road traffic, I feel the familiar bubbling of cells as we expand symbiotically. For days I have been wilting with thirst, but as water disperses throughout me, I feel suppleness return to even the spindliest of branches. I sway alongside my sparse brethren in the man-made gusts of the motorway.
Continue reading “The M6 Southbound – Hannah McIntyre”A Song to a Micronaut – Ethan Campbell
Grandfather, a frequent babbler now, turned to me with that distant look in his eyes. A proselytizer with no certain direction, he reached aimlessly for the ear of an ear. He said:
Continue reading “A Song to a Micronaut – Ethan Campbell”
Emerging Worlds 