The Last Human on Earth By Kyra Worrell and Theresa Barker The Grafton machine woke her up. Lifted her eyelids off her eyes. Opened them. Focused them. Turned her face towards the screen so she could see videos, still images from the feed, and finally the text-based experience. Everything she was supposed to do. It…
SARAH’S LITTLE MONSTER HUNTER by Dawn Bonanno The air popped in Sarah’s room, followed by a thump from the closet. Light spilled out from the bottom of the closet door. Not the closet light, that was dim yellow. This light flashed—dazzling sparks of pink and blue and purple. Another portal. She rubbed the sleep from…
Lydia’s Last Wish by Edd Vick Lydia was the only teenager in the world with a wish left. When the genies were all unleashed they assigned each of their number to a newborn. As the children grew, they used their wishes, always in juvenile ways. When she was four, Lydia said, “I wish I had…
The Man Who Has to Die by Steven Fischer The man who has to die stares at her through the airlock window. And he does have to die—there’s no question left in her mind about that. The only question left is why. Not because he deserves it. She knows that better than anyone else. He’s…
Shades of a Dream by Laura Davy I am bright blue. She is bright red. She is pitching to me, but it isn’t fair because I don’t have a baseball bat and the ball is the moon. And I know I’m dreaming, just as I know I will die, but I can’t prove that until…
Beneath the Blood Moon by Zoey Xolton The silver-edged knife slipped through Scarlet’s flesh without resistance, slicing her cheek and narrowly missing one of her albino red eyes. It was a deep cut and would leave a story-worthy scar. Scarlet’s hand flew to her face, needing to ascertain the extent of the damage. She winced…
To Jettison Forty-Two Kilograms by Jonathan Bronico I don’t know how the girl got aboard. I spotted the stowaway after noting the mass readings for my craft was off. My ship can’t escape into the fourth dimension with the extra weight. I found the child huddled behind one of the chests I’d recently liberated from…
Christmas GI Joes By Larry Hodges “Enough denial,” said the president of the United States in his most commanding southern drawl. “You’re the only one with the needed worldwide delivery system. We need you to load up your little sleigh and save the world.” Santa wondered how he’d gotten his personal cell phone number—probably the…
Hold On by Jeff Soesbe Tuan stopped time the moment he thought he still saw love in Frederick’s eyes. They were in bed, Frederick typing on his phone, Tuan pretending to read a book. Frederick put the phone on the bedside, turned to Tuan, and said “Good night.” For a second there was a slight…
WHAT WILL YOU OFFER? by Mark Salzwedel The alien called itself the Visitor. It orbited our planet beyond our moon for many months and was mistaken for an asteroid. It monitored what it could of our communications and watched buildings go up, forests come down, and the seemingly most intelligent species moving about everywhere without…
