Sci Fi
The Promise
The Promise Phoenix stepped over the rubble carefully, hearing the soft crunch beneath her leather boots. The hot, dust-filled air scorched its way down her throat. The rag over the lower half of her face barely gave her any relief from the heat. It was just too hot here. Too hot everywhere. Ever since they broke the Earth. You’d think she was in the middle of the Sahara desert. Nobody a year ago would believe that this used to be Chicago. Her eyes scanned her surroundings, taking in the state of the once towering buildings with a building sense of dread. If they hadn’t been destroyed from the series of tornadoes that swept through the area, the sandstorms had finished them off. Everything was a shell of what it once was. Her hope of finding him alive was dwindling. Still...she had to try.
By Jordan Welch5 years ago in Fiction
Fallax
A slight breeze rustled through the narrow streets, disturbing an old newspaper that had been discarded long ago, the ink so faded that no words could be distinguished on the yellowing paper. There was litter everywhere on the dusty road; syringes, random broken bits of plastic and food wrappers that had been licked clean of any remnants of sustenance. The buildings, which had at one time been cheap but fairly comfortable housing, were mostly dilapidated now, with smashed windows, crumbling brickwork, and some walls that were entirely exposed. There were dusty tarpaulins and bits of canvas hung up to replace the missing walls, where people were still trying to eke out a living in the increasingly dangerous surroundings. The only aspect of the town that was still in perfect condition was the small screens, cased in bullet-proof glass, that were attached to wooden poles in regular intervals along each street. A brightly coloured advert was playing on all of them simultaneously, with attractive, healthy people injecting themselves with some kind of blue liquid, surrounded by their equally healthy, equally attractive family.
By Emelia Elliott5 years ago in Fiction
Happiness at the End of the World
Meet at our tree. For months, that’s been our plan. We know that eventually the time will come to evacuate the city and head into the mountains. The news reports have become more and more dire; the world is ending. Everyone knows it. The last of the shuttles departed almost a year ago. Truly, I can’t believe we’ve lasted as long as we have.
By Roger Lawson5 years ago in Fiction
The New Mankind
Eric stood at the edge of the crater, looking towards a lone spaceship on the other side of it. He had to reach it before it took off. He had been paid handsomely for the job, too handsomely. He could buy a country with that kind of money. But the sad truth was that there were no more countries left because there were no oceans left to separate them. Only a neverending expanse of dry, barren land and the occasional crater. And they were even worse than the barren land.
By Eta George5 years ago in Fiction
Diversion
Several light years away, the Jadespear starship speeds towards the Cancri system from Pegasi. The planets orbiting Cancri were well known to possess vast quantities of untapped natural resources especially minerals used in microcircuitry and fossil fuels, which were still used to power machines on the surface of barren moons. In fact, despite the development of efficient fusion reactors and even crude versions of zero-point energy regulators, the demand for extraterrestrial fossil fuels was huge. There was once only one crew onboard but now there are two - one made up of battle-hardened pirates and one made up of mostly frightened captured scientists that believed they were on a survey mission.
By Steven Allen5 years ago in Fiction
The Roach and the Machine
The venture of a cockroach is marred in this nuclear winter, its distance traveled dependent upon its ability to adapt over time. How it adapts is dependent upon what malicious devices nature equips it with, whether bizarre or outright frightening. One crawled over a trash can spilled out in the pathway of a junker. It was deformed and glowing, the size of a fist, walking crooked, swaying back and forth on its uncentered mass. Its shell was hard and protected its whole innards from the radiated air which dissolves matter in minutes. It made its home in ground zero, a land known as the Fire Pit.
By Jaden Fields5 years ago in Fiction
The Before
“The Before”, Doomsday Challenge, S.Hileman Iannazzo 6/26/2021 I had been sick most of the morning, nothing too out of the ordinary, fever, aches and vomiting. I couldn’t remember a time when I didn’t wake up feeling this way, hell I couldn’t remember “before” at all. I’d heard some stories, of when it was safe to play outside, safe to let snowflakes land on your tongue, when sitting in the sun wasn’t painful and didn’t sear a persons skin like a roasted chicken. Except for Tom, I never knew anyone who lived in the “before”, but then I didn’t see many people. Tom was my best friend, and we’d been living in this place as far back as I could remember. Tom was quiet for a lot of the time, but I relied on him, and he on I. Tom didn’t like to talk about the “before”, and he would never tell me about the angry scars that ran down both his arms. Yet though he rarely spoke of it, but still he and I would pretend we lived in the “before”, turning on all the lights in the basement that was our home, trying to give the illusion that we were playing in tall grass, barefoot and sticky with sweat from running through fields that we constructed in our minds. We’d pretend there were other kids there, but except for the odd (and often scorched cat), who had made its way inside to get warm, we were alone. Our room, buried deep in the ground, was functional, and sterile, but devoid of any creature comforts.
By S. Hileman Iannazzo5 years ago in Fiction
