Short Story
Stuck in the Eternal Traffic Jam
The year is 3034. I have been stuck in this traffic jam for three weeks now. If you want to know how and why you find this letter, and myself, stuck in what I know to be an eternal traffic jam, by all means read on. But I warn you now that what you learn here can never be unlearnt.
By Megan Kingsbury5 years ago in Fiction
Be free
A man pushed the array of handwritten papers and photographs to the edge of the weathered table. Moving slowly, as if held down by invisible muck, he retrieved a yellowed glass box from the side of the room, long absolved by darkness. Not a single roach had rustled in vast rooms of once glorious apartment, not a single spider had remained in long forgotten corners, leaving behind intricate fringes of lacy webs to collect dust and desolation. Only the restless, ghostly Echo still roamed here, tormented by the stuffiness of rooms, filled with decaying antiquities. It devised a game: Echo mimicked the hollow sound of water drop, playfully flicked the tin pan, resonated onto the gilded edge of a wood carved mirror, sticking out from underneath a filthy cloth and... died off reaching the end of the wavelength. "Good effort!" Re-assured itself Echo- "Maybe next time I can shoot further, behind what used to be the bedroom, maybe.. just maybe, I can stretch the soundwave past the velvet baldachin of his odious bed and then.... I can reach the window and break free!" But every time the heavy folds of thick velvet would gently embrace Echo, hollowly absorbing it. And sedated, Echo dwelled in plush prison, lulled to sleep by the whispers of creasing fabric.
By Salomé Saffiri5 years ago in Fiction
Eyes for Elsewhere
Night had fallen, and from his place atop the watchtower, Storm saw Metanoia come alive. The city was an expanse of colorful neon signs, holograms, and restless citizens. And even though he had lived among them his entire life, they always felt miles away. Dancing to a beat he refused to follow. He imagined the day every deception pooled to the ground like curtains stripped of purpose. Then, all eyes would see that there was more to the world than the happenings within the walled city. But as he overlooked all he had ever known, he accepted that he was swimming against the current.
By Hannah Moore5 years ago in Fiction
The Dharma Concerto
Dharma: an aspect of truth or reality. All dharmas are forms of emptiness. T. was all eyes, wild and vivid like there was something complex and mysterious just beyond those tiny blue eyes of hers! Lured each and every one of us to her like little druggie moths to a flame. We were like her favorite collection! We were the nonsensical entertainments of youth! Every day, we would joust for her. Anything that could win us attention, or special winnings with her. She had known us since childhood, and together, we made many amicable aspirations: whether in recording music or recording the destruction of our formidable minds. She loved each and every one of our muddy personalities, lifestyles, moods, and attitudes with fierce, amorous love! And we would have basically done anything for her. Death and all. We could decompose our very energies and soul! We were totally fucking doomed off the rip.
By Justin Fong Cruz5 years ago in Fiction
The Beginning of the End
The Beginning of the End. They called me an alarmist or conspiracy theorist back in 2021, but I hate to say it but, I was right. Back in 2021 the Russians became partners with China to develop their space program together. I had told people that this was just the beginning. See Russia and China already had a partnership that was developed in Sri Lanka over 20 years ago. See the Chinese was making a large port bringing sand from the bottom of the ocean to make the huge Port of Colombo.
By Veronica Somaratna5 years ago in Fiction
Regrets
Regrets - by Tom Pistone The days were getting colder. The gray clouds would sometimes take on hues of green and red through the day as storms would rage and wane in our self-made nuclear winter. It’s been seven years since a Russian computer virus went rogue and sent our entire world into the dark. The idea was simple enough, Russia wanted to play some games on its Chinese and US rivals after yet another set of sanctions by the UN. They sent a virus through an attachment in an email to poor sucker named Charlie Brown. I kid you not, a guy named Charlie Brown, an engineer over at the Seabrook Plant just north of Boston, caused the Nuclear Apocalypse by mistaking a Russian Virus for his daily political meme making fun of all those Liberals he couldn’t stand. Once the virus took hold, it was only supposed to give the Russians visibility into our grid and analytics with a kill code to shut down the grid in case of a war level event, but the virus had some flaws in its code that ended up turning it into the deadliest computer virus the world would ever know. A developer somewhere in Siberia forgot a simple semicolon in his code, and it sent an infinite loop of damage throughout the system, eventually making its way into the reactor coolant systems. By the end of the day, Seabrook was a Chernobyl level event. By the end of the week the fallout blew radioactive death-clouds across the Atlantic to Europe and eventually right back to Russia. Thousands died in the Northeast from the initial blast, but the fallout killed a million more in radiation poisoning, birth defects and cancer. After that, the fingers pointed, the voices grew into anger, and War was declared. Not against Russia… no this was across the isles of the Capitol. Civil War. Conservatives wanted to go to war with Russia in retaliation. Liberals wanted to take a more conservative approach and apply more sanctions before bloodshed. A protest broke out in front of the Capitol, it turned ugly. A high profile conservative talk show/blabbermouth got a Molotov cocktail to the face right on live TV, burning its reporters with live mics and cameras on. It was brutal. And it was the last straw. Governors in the South held rallies. Politicians began talks of secession and declared war on the North. They sent troops, and shot rockets at NYC. It was pure chaos. And a scary time to be alive. Well our Civil war turned into a unique situation for all those other world powers looking to assert themselves. More finger pointing, more shouting, and then more rockets. But this time across the ocean. Rockets were shot in all directions by an itchy trigger finger turning cities into rubble and turning our world into a cesspool of radioactive pollution and decay.
By Tom Pistone5 years ago in Fiction
