Latest Stories
Most recently published stories in Fiction.
Whispers From the Past
Dusk settled in as sounds echoed throughout the city, trying to move through the street towards the meeting point out beyond the city. It was an abandoned building that once was used as a workshop that everyone agreed to meet. Feeling the chilly winds creeping through and rustling newspapers moving them through the empty street. Grasping the locket tied around her being the last memory left behind before he went missing. Trying to hold back the tears remembering, the day she walked out the door not knowing it would be her last. They were arguing over the remark her father made towards him and how he felt he was going to be, no one, and she was wasting her time. Memories from back to a place she once called home and the words he said hurt so much she left crying. Opening her car door looking up once more towards his window, he was looking back, with hurt in his eyes as he stood there watching her drive off. Calling her father and yelling that this was his fault, and he caused this. Before hearing what he had to say, she hung up the phone before realizing one of the cars was speeding towards her. The front of the car crashed into her sending her car rolling into the building. Screams of people around as she lay covered in liquid, unable to feel her body. Lights, flashing in and out of focus as the thoughts of needing to get back to him and say she was sorry. Letting go of the locket as the sounds of glass shattering echoed throughout blocks down the road from her. Quickly getting under one of the stone slabs jutting out from the ground. Shadows playing tricks of images moving all around and screams of ferals as they were, communicating with one another. One of the larger ones was moving around smelling, the air searching and looking for prey. Seeing it inch closer towards her catching her breath and holding back the trembling sounds her hands were holding back. The face slowly moved in fighting, back the urge of reaching for her pistol. The noise would only cause them to swarm pressing, her back against the cold stone, trying to contain her fear. As her body started to tremble with them scrapping across the top of her cover and the other one starring her down without realizing she was here. Sinking into the ground when the sounds of the last one left, leaving the street barren once more. Opening the heart-shaped locket to see his face once more, holding it close to her heart, feeling the tears finally come. Feeling the ere breeze cut up her back, reminding her she was still standing alone in the middle of the street. Wiping the tears away, gathering herself, then heading back out, the others were waiting. There was still so much more out here, placing a hand against the wall whispering her goodbyes, and turning towards the inner part of the city. Whispers of places from old, stories of the past overtaken by shadows, and reclaimed by the earth, the remnants told a story. Placing a hand upon the brick wall feeling the chunks and pieces taken turned to dust. Walking down the street looking at the buckets of rust left behind that resembled a car before the outbreak. Running fingers along with the metal, feeling the memories flood back, to the day she left looking at the house, looking down with eyes filled with regret and recently dried tears. Stopping at the sight of the park, it was the place he proposed asking for her hand in marriage, the place her life stood still. Slowly heading towards the pond, he dropped to one knee, looking up at her with love and passion. Lowering to the ground, taking a deep breath, then letting it go. Why was this so difficult? Why was this so much harder than before? Questions that would eat at her mind felt heavy. Hearing one of the slowly approaching behind her smelling the air hearing her tears fall to the ground. Creeping in closer, brushing her hair aside, turning bloodshot eyes, creating contact feeling every part of her body sink. Heart skipping a beat as the feral just stood there, neither moving but just close to send shivers as the cold skin touched hers. The amount of pain her heart was feeling tightened in her chest, grasping the cloth of her shirt falling to the ground, face sinking into the dirt. Feeling the tears stream down her, face the feral slowly begun to turn away, leaving her to finally have that moment of peace, the place she always would return. Feeling his words whisper across the winds, his heart and soul touching her mind calling to her. As the moments brought her closer to him, the remnant of a photo of them locked away behind the gift. A locket shaped in the place of a heart as he said he was giving her his heart. Alongside, it was the ring that his grandmother gave him that same ring he slipped onto her finger. Each piece serving as a memento helped, to never forget the memories they shared. Dancing out in the light of the moon till seven in the morning, drinking the night away. Even the day they found their first place together and finding out she would be a mother. Every piece that bound her to this world keeping her heart going each day.
By Craig M. Dolan5 years ago in Fiction
The Locket
I stare at it as I sat in the back of the truck with my squad waiting for our arrival. I rub my fingers over the smooth, heart shaped surface and wonder why I held on to the damned thing. It was a simple necklace, the silver paint was chipping off from wear and the locket that hung off it was empty, it was nothing special. A cheap gift from my ex, which they obviously didn’t put any effort into. In fact, they gave it to me unwrapped and tossed it instead of handing it to me…the ass. Not even an hour later I caught them in the act with my best friend.
By A.E. Falls5 years ago in Fiction
Dystopian Madness
Dystopian Madness A Dystopian Diary Entry By Mary Founteno “Val?” a voice called out to her. “Val, where are you?” Val didn’t know where she was, but Val knew her mother’s voice when she heard it. Val went to call back, something like I’m here, mom. I’m right here. But the words wouldn’t come. Val saw her mom then; she had aged tremendously, and Val felt suddenly very afraid. Then, the bone cracking noise and the fear gripped her heart like it hadn’t before. Val watched as her mother turned before her eyes, the heart-shaped necklace on her throat being the only thing that remind pure and untouched by the disease rotting her mother’s flesh. “Valerie!”
By Mary Founteno5 years ago in Fiction
Shaking
His eyes popped open as his body shook. He swung a limp hand down to feel the cold smooth ground. It was shaking. No surprise – it was always shaking. He liberated his weary legs from the tangled hammock as he sat up. A quick, blinking scan of the landscape told the same story as it had for 17 years.
By Tyler Emler5 years ago in Fiction
Flight
“Three...Two...One...JUMP” No sooner had the whisper escaped her lips, the young girl found herself hurtling down to the earth below. The cloud she once called home getting more distant with each passing second. The air screaming past her ears was an oddly familiar sound, but this was no time for such thoughts. She knew what she had to do.
By Chase Currie5 years ago in Fiction
Un-vax
Jani walked the deserted streets with an eye to the empty windows above. She still hadn't gotten used to the feeling of silence. She longed for the busy buzz of life; empty chatter, horns honking, even sirens. Instead, the cars were gravestones scattered through the streets, the windows quiet mourners watching over them. Cinder let out a yip and nosed her loose hand. The blue heeler was her only friend since the world had become this quiet tomb.
By Rugergirl225 years ago in Fiction
Costume Jewelry II
That was not knocking on the front door upstairs, it was outright banging. Three young women stood frozen in place for what seemed an hour, expecting gunfire. Standing there in fear and dread, Barb replayed the moments they spent in that other dimension. Her mind could not process what they had just experienced. It seemed to her they had spent the best part of a lazy, carefree afternoon in that lovely, sunny meadow. She asked herself silently, “Why did my watch record only a minute of lapsed time?” The more she pondered the question, the more questions presented themselves. The banging on the door persisted, alternated with a heavy hand on the buzzer. The banging sounded like a hammer on wood. As suddenly as it began, the noise from upstairs abated.
By David Zinke aka ZINK5 years ago in Fiction
And Then There Were None
In the end, it all fades away. As the years turn by and the clock ticks down, our world will turn to ash, and we will be forgotten as if we were dust on the wind. We think of the end of days, and what do we really see? Do we see nuclear Holocaust, a zombie apocalypse, perhaps disease run rampant? Whatever we know, we must remember our humanity through it all. It was not any of those things that ended our world, not disease, not zombies, not nukes. It was our own self-involvement and our laziness that brought about the end of all things. It was something in our genes not that I would know humankind stopped reproducing and the old just kept getting old and young while there is no more young anymore. Nobody can really figure out why it is this way. Most people are too busy trying to download their brains into computerized constructs silly people sometimes they just do not know what hit him that is an actual loss of their own humanity, and I feel sorry for them.
By WilliamNotShakespere5 years ago in Fiction
Late Information
Raze stepped out onto the metal catwalk, her footsteps echoing throughout the massive server room. The destruction she had witnessed outside had mostly missed this place. Whether it was because it was underground or better built she didn't care. All that mattered was that it was still here. Raze put her hands on the cold metal railing and shivered slightly, this is what her father had died for. She reached up to open the heart shaped locket at her neck. It was a little smaller than her palm and the polished silver glinted in her hand as she stared at the contents. It was a small USB with a dirty piece of tape stuck to it. The tape had the coordinates of the building she was currently in scrawled messily over it. Raze closed the locket, rubbing her fingers over the surface, for what felt like the hundredth time today. She pushed it against her chest, holding tightly to it for a moment longer and looked to the end of the catwalk. It ended on a semi-circular platform filled with monitors and wires hanging haphazardly from the high ceiling. Most of them hung askew, shaken sideways by the blasts that had rocked the ground. White light filtered through the spiderwebbed cracks in the ceiling bathing everything in an early morning glow. She was lucky the building hadn’t collapsed on her. Raze eyed the forgotten monitors and hoped there would still be backup power running through the facility. Her father had given her the locket a little over a week ago with instructions to make it here as fast as possible. There had been talks of war and being the Vice President's daughter had her and all the other higher ups placed into a protective bunker, escaping from that bunker had slowed her down and cost her father his life. Raze had been angry that only the top elite had known of the coming danger, her anger seemed a waste of her energy now. It hadn't saved them, any of them. Anyone who had tried to leave the bunker was placed on lockdown for ‘their own safety’. The lockdown however was more than just a lockdown. Her father had told her they were fine to leave, but the hushed tones he had used told her otherwise. The people who were supposed to protect them, were the same ones to hunt them down and kill him. Raze had only gotten away because he’d sacrificed himself. He’d pressed the locket into her shaking hands and commanded her to go as she watched the life fade from his eyes. Raze let her fingers fall from the railing and the sound of her footsteps echoed around the room again as she walked toward the platform. Her father had said she should make it here a day ago, she hoped she wasn't too late. Raze had been on track to make it in time, but that was before the bunker guards had caught up. She had had to spend extra time hiding from them, and after she had lost them, the war found her. Sirens split the air and Raze realized it hadn’t been just talks of war, it was here. That night she wished she’d never left the bunker, surely they were safer. She truthfully didn't know how she had survived the night. The first of the blasts had knocked her off her feet and drove the air from her lungs. The sky filled with an ugly red and she ran. She’d spent the night in a basement she had found, the night was filled with distant screams and booms shaking the earth with a ferocity she had never seen. Raze had curled into a ball covering her ears and crying for what she knew was lost. Sunlight streaming through the ruined basement had woken her. That morning was deathly still, and no more explosions assaulted the ground. The world she’d emerged to in the morning was alien to her. Smoke from fires still burning choked the air, and cries of pain sounded in the distance, everything she had known was rubble and dust. Raze didn't know where else to go and was hoping the locket led to a survival bunker her father had. The basement she had hid in that night was close to the final coordinates and she would have reached it before the bombs if not for the guards slowing her down. Raze brushed her fingers lightly through the dust over one of the monitors and wiped a tear away. "I did it dad" she said to the quiet stale air. She shouldered her back pack off and let the memories fade away. Raze followed the wires and searched for a way to turn the monitors on most of the day, splicing them together and feeding them into a small power cell she'd dug out of an abandoned desk. The white light burrowing its way from above turned to deep orange before she had a steady power source. Raze wiped her brow with a dirty arm and booted up the main computer console. She reverently took the locket off holding it in both hands and opened it for the last time. She took the USB out and fingered the scrap of tape, taking a deep breath she tried to prepare for anything. Raze slowly pushed the USB into the slot. A small whirring sound accompanied the blue light from the monitor, it washed over Raze and spilled out past her onto the floor. Lines of text began appearing on the screen in white and her heart stopped. ‘Welcome Mr. Balker, confirm nuclear launch cancel codes?’ Raze stared at the screen, a hand moving to her mouth. “No,” she whispered. She took a step away from the console, suddenly dizzy. She looked at the ground and her ears rang with the screaming and destruction of yesterday. She took another backward step, hand to her stomach and tried to suck in air. Raze dropped to her knees and held her head in her hands. "No, no, no, NO!" She choked back a sob and then screamed into the empty room, her echo the only response. She let go of her head, her hands dropping limply to her sides. Raze looked at the screen again feeling sick. "I was too late." The words dripped out of her like tears.
By Olivia Albright5 years ago in Fiction
