Sci Fi

Utopia
Utopia By Brandi Wanto The simplicity scares me as I think about it from start to finish. Drilling an ice sample in the artic ended our civilization as we knew it. Cutting into the ice was cutting back in time. Ancient micoorganisms were free to mingle in the air. The bacterium and fungi swept through humanity killing anyone without immunity. Over 90% of the world wiped out in seven years.
By Brandi Bowers5 years ago in Fiction
Jeffrey
A collector bot stands just outside the forest line of the clearing surrounding the massive glass habitation dome. Two caretaker bots stand across from the collector in conversation over a wealth of human objects in its possession.
By Chris5 years ago in Fiction
The Underground
“What’s this?” I asked my grandmother, pointing to a bit of shining gold protruding from her apron pocket. She glanced down, and I saw her eyes widen. She shoved the piece out of sight. “Nothing, Amelie, nothing.” She didn’t make eye contact and instead stayed focused on the scenery slowly passing us by as the wagon rattled back and forth.
By Kendall Lambert5 years ago in Fiction
The Sleeping Man
The Oak Estate, November 4015 a.d. He slept for 40 days and nights after we found him. Perhaps he had been sleeping longer, we don’t know. It took me and two of the older children two hours to drag him back to The Oak from the snow where he’d lain. We were wide-eyed, in a dream, anticipating something spectacular as we dragged him up two flights of stairs and plunked him clumsily into a bed. All day and night, he slept. His breathing, invisible. His vibrance, superb. He had no wounds we could see, and our scanners cleared him as clean from disease and infection. I put water and dark bread with beans by his bedside each night. It was eaten a few times, but we never saw him eat it.
By M. A. P. 5 years ago in Fiction
The Empathy Set
Zed was full of shit. I couldn’t ever voice this, as such a hateful comment would result in a hearing on unconscious bias, an offense that carries a quite displeasing penalty: 133 hours of reading Zed’s formation files followed by proof of empathy. I haven’t yet directly offended Zed, so his formation files are technically still a mystery to me, but I can surmise.
By Jill S5 years ago in Fiction
Embers
When the black and orange fiery ash fell from the sky, we were already standing on the hilltop watching three houses in the immediate distance catch fire and burn. Flecks of ash floated so peacefully that I reached out my hand to catch the snowflake-like embers, not considering their heat, before they ignited the grasses of the mesa. People imagined out loud that another country started the attack. I couldn’t help but think it was our own president, but I kept this to myself. There were three men in military-like outfits with faux-leather construction boots yelling about treason and insurrection, people I would call paranoid under regular circumstances, but they didn’t seem so outlandish to me now. They, at least, were prepared.
By Casey Kaye5 years ago in Fiction
The Locket
by Susan Doria Word Count 841 She first saw the heart shaped locket at an antique store in town. It was on a delicate gold chain. When she opened the locket, two familiar faces stared back at her. Quickly snapping shut the locket, she raced to find the owner of the store. Finding him in the back storage area, she demanded, “Where did you get this lock?“ Hmm. Let me think. Oh, yes! It was sold to me by a group of time travelers.”
By Susan Doria5 years ago in Fiction
My World
Rain continued to pelt against the window of the living room. It was constant. Never ending. To some it was a peaceful sound to the ears that allowed them to forget their worries for that time. To others it was a reminder that the sun never shined again on the city. An empty feeling. It made one crave the simple warmth that was taken for granted ages past. That constant heat which pounded against the back of your neck as you moved about and lived the life you thought you understood.
By Chase Thomas Brackenridge5 years ago in Fiction
Hold Me While I'm Gone
It was eight o’clock in the morning, sometime in June, I think, when he stopped being affected by everything. It might have been an interesting sensation had he still the capacity to be affected by things, which he didn’t.
By John Roebuck5 years ago in Fiction
Nothing New to Report
Nothing New to Report “Nothing new to report. Outside observable area status: unchanged. Inside pod status: unchanged.” Petra turned off the observation cameras surveilling the ten-mile perimeter around the RUSH. She couldn’t shake the uncanny feeling that enveloped her whenever she was on duty and had to hear her own voice on the security recordings. She ignored it and recorded the status message in the three other languages that she had been assigned. First in French, then in Japanese and Romanian. Everyone on the pod was assigned languages and cultures to assimilate and preserve. Petra’s pod was a small one with only twelve residents in six couples, so she had been assigned one additional language. But she was happy about the Japanese. She had become quite fond of it over the years and watching old recordings of performance arts shows had become one of her favorite things to do on the pod. The haunting masks and chanting in the nō plays were one of the most spiritual experiences she has ever had.
By George T. Sipos5 years ago in Fiction
The Pulse
I was instantly awake when I heard the creak of the stair leading up to the attic. Quickly I grabbed Sarah’s arm and put my hand over her mouth in case she made a sound. I put a finger to my lips and motioned with my head towards the door. Eyes wide, she glanced over my shoulder in the direction of the door, then slipped silently out of bed. I slid my hand under the pillow and grasped the comforting handle of the hammer. Laying there motionless I kept my hand hidden under the pillow, waiting. They were coming up the only way out so we were going to have to fight to get clear.
By Robb Hassell5 years ago in Fiction
Memories
The year is 20xx. Two decades after a cataclysmic event caused by one of the world's most trusted heroes. Solstice, the master of flame and frost, lost control over her unparalleled power of fire and ice and sent the world as a whole into an ecological disaster. The sudden, planet-wide flash freezes and flash fires caused the immediate collapse of the global order. They killed a lowball estimate of 90% of the world's population within 24 hours. In the years that followed, the Solstice Pulses, as they came to be known, were less intense, but they could change from walls of fire to subzero, icy wind, and vice versa at a moment's notice.
By Tyler C Douglas5 years ago in Fiction