Sci Fi
Dwelling on the Future
Petra winced as the crumbling brick wall scraped the caramel skin from her knuckles. Quickly darting her long fingers between the cracks, she snatched the tail of the fat papa rat she’d seen the night before, during her shift. She clasped her middle and pointer fingers together tightly, knowing this could be the last chance to eat any protein for a while. Petra slowly extracted her hand as the strong fat rat daddy tried to wiggle free. Plucking him from the crumbling mortar and holding him up, she looked into his lone dark black eye and exclaimed, “Sorry buddy, better you than me!” Petra dropped him in a bag, cinched the end shut and slammed it hard and fast into the wall, euthanizing and tenderizing her meal all at once. Quickly glancing over her shoulder through her greasy raven locks, Petra began expertly ducking and dodging her way through the obstacle course of fallen debris that laid between her and safety. She reached the blue wall with the huge tattered Plaig Flag hanging down its length. The grandiosity seemed ridiculous and some days Petra’s anger would flood in and she would dream of leaping, grabbing, and ripping it from its smug perch. Slinking slowly along the wall, she stopped about 6 yards from the end and laying flat on her stomach, began inching and slithering toward the edge of the wall. At 4 yards a blinding light panned down, searching for scavenging Dwellers who were using the darkness as cover. Quickly, closing her eyes to avoid being blinded, this Dweller knew a secret and continued slithering, stopping, and squinting, until the cold metal grate was below her hands and chest. Grabbing the multi-tool in her pocket she started working on removing the bolts to the grate, while still avoiding being blinded and being seen by the Plaigs. Once the screws were all out she waited…1…2..the 3rd time the light neared her she closed her eyes, felt the heat of the glow on her cheeks and in one smooth motion she lifted the grate, rolled beneath it and dropped hard into the hole below, hitting the hard cinder bottom.
By Cole Laron5 years ago in Fiction
Murderous Womb
Blood. So much blood: clotted blood; spattered blood; thickened and dried. Everywhere, but especially in the puddle where I sat. My eyes burned from the smoke as I winced to see the destruction around me. I choked. And when I caught my breath, my lungs were filled with the stench of rotting flesh, sour and bitter and vile. I used all my strength to sit my body up from where I laid, cringing in pain from my midsection. Between my legs laid a baby. A dead baby. My dead baby whose lifeline had turned pale but still held on to the placenta tucked inside of me.
By Lillie Lawrence5 years ago in Fiction
The Cost of Hope
Day -01: Preparation Grubosh cubes weren’t the best tasting food and I suppose that’s the idea, but at least we had plenty of them. The pale white cubes with tiny Gs on all 6 sides were easy to store, which is why I obtained so many. I stuffed the last of the water purification trodes into the second duffle bag as I heard a noise in the front room. I grabbed the bags and quickly threw them into the closet.
By Teacher Steven U Allen5 years ago in Fiction
Hope and love
Waking up, Banetha looked out at the dull, grey city. She reached over to the table near her makeshift bed and picked up the small joint she had made from herbs she found in a garden. Lighting it up, she opened the window just a bit as she placed the tapered end into her mouth, taking in a few puffs before leaning her head against the window. She looked up at the shiny, gold locket swinging in front of her, letting the memories flood back in.
By Yoallitl C Moreno5 years ago in Fiction
Lost
The woman walked in the dark, flashlight in hand, past burned out husks of buildings, traversing the rubble and debris on what were once sidewalks. She looked nearly as worn as her hoodie, cargo pants, and heavy boots. Her unkempt hair was uncovered, the hood resting between her and her hiking pack. The pack looked newer than everything surrounding it.
By Bernadette Johnson5 years ago in Fiction
'Til Death Do Us Part
The sun was high in the sky, and Claudette felt thirst consuming her. How long had it been since she had last drunk? A week, maybe two, she thought. Not that it mattered-- after a few days, her thirst did not change. A curious side effect of her condition, she thought. She would have searched for answers, but she was too tired. So, so tired, after all these years.
By Andrew Kleinschmidt5 years ago in Fiction
A Souvenir
The Souvenir Untz, untz, untz, untz, utnz, untz, untz, untz, whhhhhhhhhooooooooommmmmmmmm, whhhhhhhhhooooooooommmmmmmmm, whhhhhhhhhoooooooommmmmmmmm, blip, blip, whhhhhhhhhooooooooommmmmmmmm, whhhhhhhhhooooooooommmmmmmmm, whhhhhhhhhooooooooommmmmmmmm, blip, blip, untz, untz, untz, untz, untz, untz, untz, untz…Zik turned down his sound pods and rubbed his one eye open as Xef shook him from his cradled sleep in his reclined shuttle seat.
By Adriana Regalado5 years ago in Fiction
A Trip Outside
I lie awake in the darkness of my pod, trying to interpret why I keep having these dreams. For months now, I go to sleep with expectations of meeting my father there. The dreams are so vivid and real, I can’t distinguish them from authentic memories I treasure. Dad started bringing me along with him to the GEM lab when I was 13. My mother hated the idea, but he could see my fascination every time he told me stories of his time spent with “The Pack”. First, he only let me interact with a young male GEM pup, which had a light grey coat with a large white patch along his breast and another along his left hip and thigh. “What should we teach him?” Dad asked amusingly. I thought for a minute then replied, “To find something important?” So Dad asked for the heart-shaped locket that hung around my neck. He and Mom had given it to me for my last birthday; it’s the only non-essential gift I’d ever received, and I was very protective of it. He said, “We’re going to teach this pup to find this locket. And if you always keep it on, then he’ll always find you, ok?” I was hesitant and asked, “Couldn’t we just train him to find me?” He shook his head. “That’d be too easy; other types of canines have already been trained to find a person, or a type of item. We want him to find this particular locket, no matter where it is, no matter how long it takes.” So we did. And Dad taught me all his training techniques, shared all his knowledge of GEMs with me, just like I was one of his colleagues. Eventually Dad let me help him with the whole pack, and they grew to trust me like they trusted Dad. Then one day, he and the entire pack disappeared during a training exercise on the Outside; the pup, who’d grown into a juvenile by then, along with them. That was 11 years ago, and the pain of how much I miss him is like a fresh open wound; made raw by the salt of these dreams; intensifying the sting ever-present in my mind.
By Hannah Jenkins5 years ago in Fiction
Human Zoo
I was 4 when the Abrax Aliens found the last human colony that was hiding in the Rocky Mountains. I don't remember much from before they found us. After they captured us they moved us into one of their cities and put us on display. My father referred to it as a zoo.
By Luci Engnell-Murphy5 years ago in Fiction
More at 11
Production Name: WJKB2-TV 2 Detroit Recording Date: Monday November 14th, 1988 “Good Evening from our broadcasting newsroom in Detroit Michigan, this is CBS eyewitness news reporting a special bulletin for you live. Chaos has erupted at Sunday’s nuclear disarmament protest in New York City. The peaceful protest turned violent in the evening as police and riot squads were already on standby and struggled to maintain the peace, gunfire eventually broke out and many have been wounded. Eyewitness sources allege that some within the crowd became agitated at the police presence, and chaos ensued shortly thereafter as NYPD officials report that Molotov cocktails were thrown at idle policemen during a speech given by Philip Windsor, the outspoken and controversial anti-nuclear activist. Windsor was among the first to be critically wounded at Sunday’s protest. Evidence of said explosives launched at police have yet to been recovered, but many law enforcement officials have stepped forth to corroborate the story. The current death toll of protestors and civilians is still under dispute, we won’t report on any figures on air tonight but civilian and law enforcement casualties are expected to be high. Thousands of rounds were fired, much of the gunfire was reported to be discharged by law enforcement and national guardsmen who were also on the scene. It is believed that most of those attending the rally were believed to be unarmed, but conflicting reports from the New York police department and United States National Guard say otherwise. This incident, although a very tragic one, is just one of many that has resulted from the ongoing activity and discourse over the possible threat of global nuclear war. The United States and Soviet Union have amassed nearly 18,000 megatons in nuclear warheads, with the Soviet Union leading at 11,000 megatons. With the United States backing out of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, an increased in military maneuvers have occurred globally. Nonetheless, we here at WACB news network would like to remind you, our viewers at home, to please stay at home with your loved ones during these turbulent times and respect both government and law enforcement authorities. More at eleven.”
By Joshua Sanchez5 years ago in Fiction
