Latest Stories
Most recently published stories in Fiction.
The Rains of Death
The Rains of Death came without warning in a blanket of orange. It seemed like they started overnight, but really, they had been years in the making. I don’t know what caused them, but it had something to do with humans and pollution. We literally poisoned ourselves out of existence.
By Sara Dowling5 years ago in Fiction
Elsa May Green, Chapters seven, eight and nine.
Chapter Seven. Friends no more. The walk to the King’s head hailed a welcome relief as we left the battlegrounds of the park. Gabriel and Ruben trailed behind us with Michael and Camilla taking up the front of the group, leaving me and my once princess stuck in the middle. It was as awkward an occasion as I had ever experienced with anybody, worse than the time Elsa found one of my adults-only magazines under my bed when we were fifteen, nothing compared to this. It was as if I forgot who she was, and a mere stranger walked by my side. The silence became deafening.
By Peter Culbert5 years ago in Fiction
Keeping Time
Things are a little better now. They've given us bottles for our drinking water. Using our hands as cups never really quenched our thirsts, so we weren't digging enough. W7 says, They gave us bottles because They need us to work faster. I say, maybe it's because They have compassion for us after all.
By Traci Boyd5 years ago in Fiction
Mortal Fragments
The year is 2052. The human condition has been ripped from the inhabitants of planet Earth. Wildlife has ceased to exist, and humanity has undergone a huge shift in understanding their own mortality. We knew it was coming, but we could never have predicted the extent to which our lives would be irreparably altered. Forgive me for the scientific babble that comes next, but you need to understand exactly how this happened so you may be able to prevent it happening again.
By Jason Mac Nicol5 years ago in Fiction
Great Works of Dystopian Fiction
We may or may not be living in a dystopian age, but we are certainly living in an age of dystopias. At every turn in a bookstore aisle, you’re increasingly likely to stumble across a vision of our world, through the looking glass. You’ll find the classics — your Orwells, Huxleys, and Atwoods — but you’ll also find a rising crop of new entries into the dystopian canon, from younger authors with fresher concerns about what, precisely, could spell our doom. They don’t just appear in the sci-fi section, either — dystopian fiction is firmly ensconced in book-club-ready literary circles, as well. It’s fashionable to be pessimistic. It’s in this spirit that we assembled a group of readers to put together a list of some of the greatest works of dystopian literature, as part of Vulture’s Dark Futures week. We received guidance from Jenny C. Mann and Ursula K. Heise, professors of English at Cornell and UCLA, respectively, both of whom study dystopian literature, and limited our selections to books with some connection to Earth. Beyond that, the sky was the limit. There are some familiar faces, but we also wanted to pluck from unexpected corners: You’ll find literary fiction, young-adult works, graphic novels, realist tomes, some books written long ago, and others published in just the last few years. We skew toward the recent, as the term wasn’t even invented until the 19th century and has only in the last half-century or so come into vogue.
By Jaramie Kinsey5 years ago in Fiction
A Queen of Hearts
The diner was quaint and rustic. Relics still hung on the walls and the jukebox spun old discs from a top 40 list long forgotten. The waitress smiled and slapped down a place mat and a menu on the table in front of me. A glass of water followed, sweat dripping from the bottom onto the menu as she reached across and put it down. I noticed the locket hanging from a silver chain around her neck as she leaned over to put down the glass. It swung half-way around and disappeared as she turned to greet the folks waiting at the bar to place their orders.
By Thomas Durbin5 years ago in Fiction
Resonating Thoughts
“Sanity” a word defined by pretty much any dictionary as “the ability to thin k and behave in a normal manner. “, yet as I stood in line while a number of guards pulled out a man two spaces in front of me and began to beat him to down; I wondered if the form of the word sane would best suit my now normal reality. I like to think that life ceased to exist after the new virus had introduced itself; pretty much every country fell into turmoil and when it was our turn to fall, the government rose before the rioters could and took desperate actions. Money became nothing more than a reminder of the past and once law-abiding citizens had become nothing more than petty thugs ready to steal if need be. There were no more laws, no morals, or no ethics, just people with guns enforcing their idea of order and if opposed were ready to serve “Justice”.
By Nathan Torres5 years ago in Fiction
WHEN NOTHING HAPPENED
The far end of Megan’s street had been disappearing for the last week. She had decided to ignore it. To the east there was a sunny day, rows of neat suburban houses and picket fences under green and shady trees. To the west, the creeping nothingness.
By Fiona Hamer5 years ago in Fiction
One Day the Birds Will Sing
The world went quiet. Too quiet. Once, a song danced in the wind, but those times are lost. There is no music now. Fingers still over dusted lyres and the troubadours are voiceless. In this age of darkness, what is left to sing about?
By Nicole Westerhouse5 years ago in Fiction
