I step off the train.
The streets empty out as dusk sets in. I count sixteen blocks with no light. The noise from the business side of the tracks also fades. The city has turned into a tomb.
Luckily, the wise edicts of the Supreme Council still guide my way.
J.S. O’Keefe has published short stories, creative essays and poems in print and online literary magazines worldwide. More at his website, szjohnny.net.
Newly discovered item: a bookcase, notably from antiquity; shelves contain a myriad of rudimentary texts, ranging from architecture to quantum physics.
Relic assembled with sturdy, fibrous, organic material from a source plentiful of its time.
Overall, specimen is a fine example of human’s simplistic ingenuity—albeit inferiority—to robotic successors.
Jennifer Canaveral is a writer and librarian’s assistant originally from San Francisco. She is the author of the 101 Horror Movie Haiku series. Jennifer lives in Kodiak, Alaska with her family.
They told me the vizsla puppy I got for Christmas is a breed originating from a particular region. After spending the entire morning perusing the globe in vain, I called the Center For Allowed Information.
“Don’t let that bother you,” they said. “Maps are being redrawn almost continuously these days.”
J.S. O’Keefe has published over three hundred short stories and poems in print and online literary magazines. See more at his website: szjohnny.net.
I’ll stuff each cloned version of my dog when it dies until the path I walk through my garden becomes littered with the same white terrier. I’ll stare up through the glass dome at the red sky. At my end, the hazmat suits will light my whole world on fire.
Harmony Mooney is a teacher and writer living on the North Coast of California with her husband, two cats, and two dogs.
White SUVs, gray minivans, silver sedans. Self-driving, late 2040s makes. Kasparov tapped his ID card to the window, but the door didn’t unlock. A notification flashed across his field of vision. “Credit score too low; access denied.” Kasparov sighed, put on his gloves, and picked up a concrete block off the street.
Matthew Klinestiver is an American English teacher residing in Bangkok, Thailand. In his spare time, he enjoys studying Mandarin, composing catchy pop songs on the piano, and watching old Godard films.
The train left the station.
Maya stood alone, holding a letter she would never send. Snow slowly covered her nearly-empty battery pack. She watched her footprints disappear. For the first time she felt calm and steady. She didn’t need to say goodbye. She didn’t want to. She wasn’t programmed to.
Paul T. is a rising sophomore at Suffield Academy in Connecticut. Originally from Thailand, Paul enjoys literature and exploring foreign languages.
Thoughts of his mother flooded his mind: two years gone, today. It seemed so much longer. Outside, no jacket, he never minded freezing air that stung his face. Turning southwest, away from the full moon, Jerry looked skyward. He imagined he could see her ship, hurtling toward a distant world.
John Singh is a long-time publicity and communications executive in the entertainment industry, working for such companies as Disney, DreamWorks and Lucasfilm Ltd. He has lately turned his attention to writing fiction, primarily for his husband, Jeff, and their dog, Walter.
Lila served Gerald the same iced latte in 1892, 2025, and 3041. He never remembered. She always did. “Happenstance,” he said, smiling at the déjà vu. She stirred in grief, knowing he’d forget again before the foam settled. Time bent for him; for her, it only bruised, and always lingered.
AJ Joseph is trying to tame her overgrown garden so that her cats don’t get lost in the weeds.
Resigned to hunger and loose teeth, you have one second chance. Work hard, they said: your children will inherit a planet. The metal skin judders as it hits what passes for atmosphere here.
Where you land is littered with broken machine parts. Phobos waxes overhead. Home is a bright star.
If you like it, my bio might read: Joanne Merriam lives in Nova Scotia. Her writing has appeared in dozens of periodicals including Baltimore Review, Haikuniverse, and Pictura. She owns Upper Rubber Boot Books, known for the first English-language anthology of solarpunk, Sunvault. You can find her at joannemerriam.com.
“No car crashes? Violent impacts?”
He leans in, puzzling over my retinas’ freakish blood vessels.
“No,” I reply.
“You do boxing?”
I could tell him: International Planetary Response Force, Top Secret missions battling Sagittarian cruisers beyond Sirius, high g manoeuvres just below lightspeed.
The world ain’t ready.
“Insurance,” I say.
William Mitchell lives in East Sussex in the South of England. He is an award-winning author, having had early success with various Horror and Science Fiction publications before winning the Writers of the Future contest in 2012. His first novel, CREATIONS, came out in 2014 with John Hunt Publishing.