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AFM Issue #1 ("Dangerous Intersection" by Jeff Westover)

Editorial

• "Nuke Fiction" -- Editor, Scott C. Carr

• "GAK, the Man, the Artist" -- A behind the scenes look at the enigmatic artist whose work graces the pages of AFM

Short Fiction

• "The Merchant, the Mayor and His Mutant" by David McArthur
  "With one gloved hand, it slowly unraveled the brown cloth shrouding its features. What was revealed left Victor in shock."

• "Nan" by Wolf Peterson
  "Heads raised tiredly as we passed. Dull eyes cautiously following Nan, glaring hatefully at me. I could feel their fevered, wordless minds, I was a traitor to them, they hated me for running with an ape. "

• "A Rat In the Rain" by Gregg Delcurla
  "And from that opening emerges our first visitor. Black, wet--sly and shy--he stands for a brief moment, surveying the topside world."

• "Jim Johnson" by Ross Goldstein
  "His shoes, though--his shoes were the real problem. The leather (if it ever had indeed been leather) was so entirely worn through so that only patches were left holding together the wafer thin soles..."

Series

• "The Man Who Sold Marionettes" by Gregg Delcurla
  "I was lost in its perfect little pantomime, hypnotized, convinced that at any moment it might just bite off the strings that gave it life, and trot off down the staircase into the city. I believed in the marionette."

• "Six Days In December: From the Journals of Jonathan Hemingway"
  by Justine Entrophe [Plain Text Version]
  "By anyone's definition, northern Montana is a cold place. From September through April bitter Canadian winds constantly blow down from the north. Little did we know, it was these same bitter winds which were to be our salvation. "

• "Wasteland Blues" by Andrew Conry-Murray and Scott C. Carr
  ""When you get to the wasteland, you'd better bottle your piss. You'll probably need it." He cackled, turned back to his pissing, and began to sing in a shrill, nasal voice. "You are my sunshine, my only sunshine. You make me haaaaappy..."

• "Hot Dog and Crazy" by Christopher Wagner
  [Contains Explicit Violence and Mature Content --Ed]
  "Twenty-six pancakes and nine dead waitresses later, they rode off in the jeep, satisfied. They drove into the city at ninety-five miles an hour. They had roughly seven hundred dollars apiece from knocking over the IHOP. "

• "To Drive the Cold Winter Away" by G.W. Thomas
  "The window was hard to navigate with only one arm. I threw out my pack first then kneeled on the sill and just kind of let myself fall out. The roof was slippery but I crossed quickly, eyes ever open for Man-Bats and Sky-liners."

• "The Thousand Year Nixon" by Synne Christian
  "He pulls the trigger as I swing up my briefcase, and the rapid burst of fire takes out three innocents, as the gun goes spinning off into the air. There is an explosion of sparks and falling glass as the bullets strafe the ceiling, and the airport is transformed into a screaming hysterical mob... "

Comics

• "Synwulfe: Another Day In Hell" by S.C. Ringgenberg
  ARTICLE: Take a behind-the-scenes look at the development of the Synwulfe series.
  "My feeling has always been that Synwulfe was ahead of its time, so it's a distinct pleasure to reprint his first published adventure, with the promise of more comics and art for the Apocalypse Fiction site in the coming months."

• "Synwulfe: Episode One" by S.C. Ringgenberg
  "Earth, 2417, Post Apocalypse. Twilight descends on a world ravaged by the hand of man. The dying rays of the muted sun gild the acid-rain scoured hulk of Nuevo York and the blighted landscape below."

• "Synwulfe: Collect the Tin Soldiers" by S.C. Ringgenberg
  Originally appeared in Heavy Metal Magazine, May, 1984. "Earth, 2417, Post Apocalypse. When Earth died, man fled to satellite colonies... and beyond, leaving it to the Muties, the twisted humanoids descended from those whose seed was tainted by contact with their tortured planet."

Flash Animated Series

• "Superbaby: A Post-Atomic Fairytale" -- A Flash Animation Teaser, by Wolf Peterson and Dagney Wilde
  "A long, long time ago--when the corpse of the world was still warm--there was this baby... "

AFM Issue #2 ("Flatiron" by Amy J. Mousley)

Editorial

• "Archie Bunker" -- Editor, Scott C. Carr

Short Fiction

• "Einstein, Einstein, Einstein" by Gregg Delcurla
  "Most of them, at least, were pretty bright."

• "The Miracle" a short-short by Dagney Wilde
  "A dedicated search for uniforms as remained..."

• "The Fence" by Wolf Peterson
  "Another second and he hit the line. Everything in his face just sort of froze, and when I say froze, brother I mean dead.. "

Series

• "The Man Who Sold Marionettes" by Gregg Delcurla
  [Part Two] -- "But I knew right then, witness to all of those undisturbed remains, that there were no animals left in New Jersey. No animal animals at least."

• "Six Days In December: From the Journals of Jonathan Hemingway"
  by Justine Entrophe [Plain Text Version]
  [Part Two] -- "Jan.uary the 6th, 2071 Well, Christmas has come and gone, although truth be told, it's been almost twenty five years since Christmas was legal..."

• "Wasteland Blues" by Andrew Conry-Murray and Scott C. Carr
  [Part Two] -- "Leggy smiled, he had to admit it was good to be away from San Nuyammo. Only now that he was away could he see clearly how much the struggling camp was truly dying under the decay of living in the shadow of the Wasteland--eating itself alive in a cancerous, futile grasp at existence. But in Levitton at least there was hope."

• "Hot Dog and Crazy" by Christopher Wagner
  [Contains Explicit Violence and Mature Content --Ed]
  [Part Two] -- "Crazy's lecture was cut short with a forceful grunt as he and Hot Dog, along with two of the dead pleasure cruisers, landed on the tracks of a low railroad bridge extending across the river."

• "To Drive the Cold Winter Away" by G.W. Thomas
  [Part Two] -- "A high-pitched squeal not unlike a loose fan belt. Our shotguns were raised, ready. Whether it was that full moon or just a break in the gusts of snowy cloud, we could now see exactly what we were facing."

• "The Thousand Year Nixon" by Synne Christian
  [Part Two] -- "The desert here is littered with broken factories and Joshua trees. The sand has been baked into rock, and even melted into glass in some places. A sort of unnatural tarmac, as far as the eye can see. And it is hotter than hell."

Comics

• "The Scavengers" by Fernando Ruiz
  "Two aliens land among the remains of the long dead planet Earth looking to make their fortune in this prologue to AFM's new, original comic serial."

• "Synwulfe: Episode One [Part Two]" by S.C. Ringgenberg
  "Earth, 2417, Post Apocalypse. Twilight descends on a world ravaged by the hand of man. The dying rays of the muted sun gild the acid-rain scoured hulk of Nuevo York and the blighted landscape below."

Flash Fiction and Nuke Poetry Contests

• "AFM Flash Fiction Winner"

• "AFM Nuke Poetry Winner"

AFM Issue #3 ("Everything Is All Right" by Scott C. Carr)

Editorial

• "In the Movies" -- Editor, Scott C. Carr

Featured Novel

• "TimeShift" by Phillip Ellis Jackson
  "Entering surface area," a mechanical voice intoned as the small, square-shape lift came to a stop at the top of the turbo shaft. "Please put on enviromasks and take all other necessary precautions to guard against ash contamination."

  Read AFM's Q&A with author Phillip Ellis Jackson, and an excerpt from his novel TimeShift.

Featured Game "Last Rose in a Desert Garden: A Poem of Sadness" by Jonas Kyratzes
"I walk. Endless desert. Red sand everywhere. The sun is hot and burning my skin, but I do not feel it.I feel nothing but emptiness and a certain sadness. I walk for hours without end, but time means nothing to me. There is no end to my pain."

• Download Game From AFM (5.1 megs) -- Click Here
  
• Download Game From Jonas Kyratzes, PGD&D (5.1 megs) -- Click Here

Short Fiction

• "Rite of Passage" by Robert J. Santa
  "But he was the Warrior, and this was the first Day of the Two after the autumnal equinox. That was the day the Warrior set off to slay the Beast since long before even Gran-Papa Barooss could remember."

• "All Possible Possibilities" by Wolf Peterson
  In Memory of Douglas Adams (1952--2001)
  "Perfect is a matter of perspective. But in an infinite universe, shouldn't there be room enough for everyone's perspective?"

• "I Feel Like Oedipus" by C. C. Parker
  "Her face was smeared with blood. Hurt welled up in her eyes. Are you judging me? he thought..."

• "The Most Important Day" by Jeremy Carr
  "Always dress like it's the most important day of your life. That way you'll be sure to look good when the day finally arrives."

Series

• "Wasteland Blues" by Andrew Conry-Murray and Scott C. Carr
  [Part Three] -- "That's right," said Leggy. "We'll burn those fuckers out." He turned to Derek, "Unless you're scared, that is. We could always just go on our merry way," he chuckled and continued as if to himself, "You boys can't handle a few half-domesticated bugs, you're gonna love the Wasteland."

• "Hot Dog and Crazy" by Christopher Wagner
  [Contains Explicit Violence and Mature Content --Ed] [Part Three] -- ""It's O'Malley," he said to Crazy. "We'll get him, man. We'll get that fuck. He's just messing with your head, is all, and it's getting into mine. We'll find some way under his fucking skin and we'll get him.""

• "To Drive the Cold Winter Away" by G. W. Thomas
  [Part Three] -- "I had the day to kill. I had two men to kill, too. I hadn't forgotten about Psycho and Hater. But something told me I needed to deal with Jack first."

Comics

• "The Scavengers" by Fernando Ruiz
  "Earth was not an easy planet to settle as its surface was littered with the crumbling remnants of the planet's long-extinct native population."

• "Synwulfe: Episode One [Part Three]" by S.C. Ringgenberg
  "Good luck and good hunting..."

• "Synwulfe: Color Covers and Conceptual Art" by S.C. Ringgenberg
  "A behind the scenes look at some of the conceptual designs, alternate covers, and color pages in the Synwulfe legacy."

AFM Issue #4 ("JESUS SAVES" by Scott C. Carr)

Editorial

• "September 11" -- Editor, Scott C. Carr

The NUKE Brothers

• "The NUKE Brothers" by Scott C. Carr
  "See James Kloiber as 'Zeph' in the brand new teaser poster!"

Featured Novel

• "Empty Cities of the Full Moon" by Howard V. Hendrix
  "Half a dozen bright points of light were flashing into view now, from around the other side of the Earth. Unlike fireworks, those lights were staying on, not guttering and dying."

  Read AFM's Q&A with author Howard V. Hendrix, and an excerpt from his novel Empty Cities of the Full Moon.

Short Fiction

• "Survival" by Karen Carpenter
  "The four beings from the new and improved human race, marched procession-like through the storm, towards the compound. Jonathan turned to see the old brown sedan, following doggedly behind."

• "Last Rose In A Desert Garden" by Jonas Kyratzes
  In Memory of Douglas Adams (1952--2001)
  "One day, a long time after the day the flames came, the sky started crying, and it wept for the earth and all its creatures for more than a year."

• "The Life I Lead" by "Ed"
  "The dead-who once walked and talked and laughed and loved and now are just dead. The dead who I will one day join, in a place that has to be better than this."

• "Convergence on a Panoptic Newtonian: The Interstices of Heaven" by Forrest Aguirre
  " The panoptic gaze of God, glory in all its omniscience, shone down on them. An immense eye, larger than the ship's end windows, stared down over their world. They had, indeed, arrived."

Series

• "Wasteland Blues" by Andrew Conry-Murray and Scott C. Carr
  [Part Four] -- "It was Leggy, reclined in his wheelchair, hanging on for dear life, long hair and singed clothing billowing in the wind. And Derek was behind him, gripping the chair by its rusty handles, leaning forward and pushing, running, charging for all he was worth."

• "Hot Dog and Crazy" by Christopher Wagner
  
  [Contains Explicit Violence and Mature Content --Ed]
  [Part Four -- Final Chapter] -- ""That's more like it!" he said. He had a gun in each hand. "One for each of you fucks.""

• "To Drive the Cold Winter Away" by G. W. Thomas
  [Part Four] -- "What difference to me? Perhaps Hart would have me killed just as soon as I arrived? But at the time I figured my chances were better with Jack than with the Westies."

• "The Scavengers" by Fernando Ruiz
  "The only thing more menacing than a desperate, militaristic alien from Alpha Centauri is a GROUP of them...and that's just what visiting Rigellan Darvin Brill finds himself encountering in this issue's installment of The Scavengers!"

• "Synwulfe: Slow Night" -- An original Synwulfe color strip by S.C. Ringgenberg and John Pierard
  "EARTHSIDE, The Hole In the Wall Cantina, 2:32 AM"

• "D-Day For Earth" by S.C. Ringgenberg
  "A death-like hush fell over the asembled multitudes--as a round portal slid open and a dark-visored stranger stepped out to address the crowd."

AFM Issue #5 (Cover: "NUKE SOUP" by Scott C. Carr)

Editorial

• "Moving Forward..." -- Editor, Scott C. Carr

Articles

• "FPS" by Jarret Keene
  An apocalyptic computer game review from the not-too-distant future...
  "Thus, the overall goal in the The Skulfukker Saga is to decapitate the female vampires and to fornicate with their severed heads. Once you learn the basics of controlling your hydrogen blaster and power saw, it's up to you to use your skills to eradicate and sexually humiliate the undead..."

• "Worm Cheese"
  "In the kitchen of his rustic farmstead atop Sardinia's Mount Lollove, Giovanni Antonio Costa smiles through missing front teeth. It's time for a clandestine treat."

• "Skimming the Gumbo Nuclear" by M.F. Korn
  "Devil’s Swamp was the big sewage dump here. Murky leagues of tepid, caustic Mississippi wa-ter. The winding marvelous river that Mark Twain once wrote about, dot-ted and closely edged by these places for more than fifty years. That Missis-sippi mud was now full of petrochemicals and napalm..."

  Read the first chapter of EraserHead Press's apocalyptic novel by author M.F. Korn, Skimming the Gumbo Nuclear.

Short Fiction

• "In Our Midst" by Hertzan Chimera
  "These law abiding citizens were not tramps on the scrounge or undercover cops on a stakeout or Mormon missionaries itching out the next feel. They were a totally undiscovered breed, living here among us, on our streets, in our government, elected members of our parliaments, supporters of our families."

• "Isle" by C. C. Parker
  ""What is this all about?" I asked, looking at the delectable, my stomach rumbling; a feast before I die . . . it was so fucking cruel; so, well, American. You had to appreciate the irony. I was a criminal and this was my last supper. I felt like Jesus Christ; or Ted Bundy."

• "Hybrid" by O.C. Moses
  "The setting sun glinted off broken glass, filling the buildings with the remembrance of fire. "

Series

• "The Thousand Year Nixon"
  by Synne Christian
  [Parts Three and Four]
  "I see fire all around, the air burns my lungs. I see sand clinging hotly, grabbingly to the melted rubber fabric of my boots. I see the sun reflecting dangerously from mile long sheets of cracked and broken glass..."

• "Wasteland Blues" by Andrew Conry-Murray and Scott C. Carr
  [Part Five: The Motorcycle Men]
  "Not horses," said Leggy, raising the spyglass to his eye. His jaw dropped, and his face went white. "Not horses," he repeated, "Motorcycles. At least two of 'em, maybe more. Fuck!"

• "To Drive the Cold Winter Away" by G. W. Thomas
  "As we rose I saw the underbelly of the bridge. The upper rafters were covered with moving shapes. Man-bats, hundreds of them hanging from the steel protrusions."
• "The Scavengers" by Fernando Ruiz
  "Earth was not an easy planet to settle as its surface was littered with the crumbling remnants of the planet's long-extinct native population."

AFM Issue #6 (COVER: "NO NUKES" by Scott C. Carr)

Featured Story

• "The Holes Where Children Lie" by Patricia Anthony
  "At his feet his wife digs diligently with the trowel. The yard is a dense pattern of holes, as if squirrels have been at war with tiny mortars. "It's raining, Mary," he says. "Come on into the house." "

Short Fiction

• "Ripples" by C. C. Parker
  "In Claire's opinion, it was an outrageous display of pure cruelty. She could still recall the scream of humanity and the smell of burning flesh . . . could see the eyes of children who had lost their moms, dads, brothers, sisters. And what did it matter where the bombs came from; it didn't . . . not really. Whoever was responsible was faceless; just as faceless as those on the receiving end."

• "Weird Scenes" by C. C. Parker
  "This is your ticket to an apocalyptic redneck party. Someone gave those rednecks l.s.d, turning them to lunacy; some skinny dude with a dirty New York Yankees hat screwed onto his head."

• "The Historian" by Hertzan Chimera
  "As always, before we depart this scorched planet core once called Earth, it is my solemn duty to switch off the little black box..."

• "London Bridge" by Damian Grace
  "Terrorists, tyrants, monsters and misfits. Enemies, enemies, so many enemies, so many centuries, so many wars. Countless dead generations slaying legions of external adversaries."

Series

• "Six Days In December: From the Journals of Jonathan Hemingway"
  by Justine Entrophe [Plain Text Version]
  [Part Three] -- "They marched straight down Main Street; almost three hundred of them, led by six refurbished army tanks and four armored personnel carriers. We numbered about a hundred, mostly armed with rifles and shotguns, hidden on rooftops and in alleyways."

• "Wasteland Blues" by Andrew Conry-Murray and Scott C. Carr
  [Part Six: Leggy's Story]
  "See boys, I was a man of ambition, and spear carrier ain't no job for a man of ambition. After a couple of KC runs I asked the road boss in Levvittown for a new assignment. Luckily, I was possessed of pretty good eyesight, so he apprenticed me to a couple of scouts. That was more to my liking. Scouts rode out ahead of the caravan to check for danger--bug nests, ambushes, road blocks, downed bridges, things like that. And the really good scouts could earn themselves a rifle."

• "To Drive the Cold Winter Away" by G. W. Thomas
  "My great plans of surprising someone while he took a dump or fell asleep quickly disappeared when I fell over a low box of beer cans. I tumbled onto the old carpet surrounded by empties. Someone had planted the box in a clever way as an alarm. Someone who stood over me with a shotgun. I didn't move."

AFM Issue #7 Cover: "After the Bomb" by Paul Tonner

Short Fiction

• "Kaboom!" by Linda Dydyk
  ""But it ain’t the big It," smirked the Sheriff. Up there in the Peace Tower, the Sheriff needed an orb to keep an eye on Mount Hong Kong. The orb was flying evasive maneuvers, on track behind Slave-trader Bob. The Sheriff named her orb Snoopy Dog-dog, after an ancient constellation that, along with the other stars, had disappeared from the sky years ago."

• "Perishables" by Amy Grech
  "With a heavy heart, he sliced pale, pink meat into thin, translucent strips with a brand new knife he got at the mall. A kerosene lantern, also from the mall, provided a soft, warm glow, creating a soothing ambiance."

• "Book Store" by C. C. Parker
  "Maybe I should stick a shotgun in my mouth and shatter my skull to kingdom come, he wants to tell her . . . but he knows it would only upset her. She could always take more Prozac, but that would just mean more oblivion . . . not that we are adverse to such things..."

• "Father and Son Reunion" by Raymond Towers
  "Yet here I was, sulking through the Anza-Borrego desert, following a cracked and dusty highway that would lead me into the savage clutches of the New World Order, and hoping to see my father, who until recently, I'd never wanted to see again as long as I lived."

• "Exalt Metropolis" by Susanne S. Bridenbaugh
  "But everything has its purpose, and to live in the skies is to no longer be a ground dweller. It means to be distanced from the contamination and grimefestered streets far below. Those who live above have their own roadways and parks and sidewalks high above the stinkpoor; all the better to forget those shoddy folk exist."

• "All Along the Watchtower" by Eric S. Brown and Gail Davis
  "They, these -- things -- that hunted humans and ripped them apart, had once been human themselves. The virus began as a form of chemical warfare that was never meant to be used."

• "Bobus Simianus" by Gregg Delcurla
  "Its body tensed—its head turned upward in what closely resembled a scowl, giving the creature a simian flavor..."

Series

• "Suburban Gladiators (Part One of Three)" by Byron Starr
  "A man in a fine black tuxedo stepped through the main gate and strode toward the center of the arena... After reaching the center of the area, he stopped and glanced around at the thousands of faces in the bleachers, but said nothing. The murmur died to a whisper."

• "Wasteland Blues" by Andrew Conry-Murray and Scott C. Carr
  [Part Seven: Moses Spring]
  "Leggy stared into the fire. Silas’s offer was tempting. His days of running with the Paladins had been some of the best of his life. Could he really recapture them?"

• "The Scavengers" -- An original AFM Comic Series by Fernando Ruiz
  "Yeah. I met Darv on Regula... His squad had just been wiped out when he hooked up with ours... He was the worst soldier I ever saw."

AFM Issue #8 (COVER: "Precision Bombing" by Barrie Jones)

Short Fiction

• "Crapocalypse: A Poem" by Gregg Delcurla

• "A Rat's Tale" by Michael Boatman
  "His hair had always been a nightmare; a mousy, yellow/brown shock of coarse, woolly-wire shooting straight up from the launching pad of his head like a rocket, which upon achieving escape velocity, powers its’ way out of the atmosphere and into the Great Beyond."

• "Day of Revolt" by C. C. Parker
  "Wagner and his mother were watching One Life To Live when the newsbreak came on..."

• "Blue" by Betsy Christensen
  "Walking into the H-Bomb bar, she noticed that the streets were particularly busy today."

• "Borderlands" by Byron Starr
  "His mind was still swimming when a shadow loomed over him. He sleepily looked up and saw the figure standing over him with an M-16 to its shoulder. Rotting blackish-blue skin clung precariously to the creature’s exposed jawbone. One eye was missing and the other was milky and deflated in its socket. Over the walking corpse’s shoulder someone said, "End of the line, Ranger.""

Series

• "Suburban Gladiators (Part Two of Three)" by Byron Starr
  "The Blood Brothers’ were always on the lookout for a way to profit from human depravity. What Bobby hadn’t noticed on his way into the stadium was the voyeurism booths situated behind the restrooms, where, for a small fee, a person could sit in a booth directly behind the portable bathrooms, viewing the activities therein through a pair of tiny peepholes."

• "Wasteland Blues" by Andrew Conry-Murray and Scott C. Carr
  [Part Eight]
  "Back home, the Judges spoke longingly of Heaven. They said Heaven should be the goal of every man, woman, and child. In Heaven there would be no more pain, no more hurt, no more desperation. Only milk and honey in plenty, and white light, and cool days that went on forever. These angels were trying to reach it."

• "To Drive the Cold Winter Away -- Part Seven: "The Devil"" -- by G.W. Thomas
  "I was awake. I could see the two geeks came around the truck cab and stare at me. One poked me with a finger. The other kicked the scattergun aside like it was a rancid dog turd. They babbled as they walked away. No coup de grace. Nothing. Just leave me to die."

AFM Issue #9 (COVER)

Short Fiction

• "Man of War" by David R. Lusk
  ""Stop it!" Jonny yelled as he pushed me toward the edge of the sandbox. Shocked fury lent his muscles strength beyond their five years. "You'll get sand in the gears!" - A Novel Excerpt - Read Chapter One here, and then check out
  www.amanofwar.com

• "And With Eyes Partly Closed, It Purred In Smug Complacency" by David Clancy
  "Bored, Ethel stood up and reached for a book. She turned it, viewing first the front then its back. Absently, she replaced the paperback and chose another. She repeated the ritual many times though she had no intention of reading. Idly, her attention shifted to a large ball of lemon-coloured wool. Ethel was beginning to emulate her cat."

• "The Colonel's Execution" by J. L. Navarro
  ""I don't know how much longer I can stand being here," Murdock said as I pulled up a chair to sit across from him. There was a look of forlorn desperation in his moist gray eyes. He had arrived two months before I did and I had witnessed him slowly degenerate into a man who carried himself and his frail bones in an envelope of sagging skin. I knew and he knew that he had no business being here any longer. If the infection did not get him, insanity would surely do it."

• "Fall of Darkness" by Lucy A. Snyder
  "And the rest are vultures taking advantage of that fear," he said, remembering with sadness and anger the soldiers who'd refused to help the EMTs pull the survivors from the wrecks during the day."

• "Field of Bones" by Amanda Spikol
  "His skin was olive-dark as ours, and I knew from the shape of his eyes that he was from the lands of the East."

• "One Rough" by Douglas W. Milliken
  "The man’s father had once told him that there are few things in life as valuable as loyalty. It is all he had ever said on the subject. It wasn’t his way to speak much to his children, to give advice, to take an interest. With leather skin and soiled work clothes, he rarely stuck around the house. His job was his life. The thing to which he was loyal. "

• "Passengers" by C. C. Parker
  "I could visualize their spectral shapes; the serrated edges of their wings slicing the sky. "

• "Streaks In the Sky" by Raymond Towers
  "I’d gone out to the desert for inspiration, to a secluded spot high in the mountains northwest of Palm Springs, and that had save my life, sort of. The Nameless Ones had arrived with their sleek ships, bombarding the earth with radiation pulses, and catching our planet’s governments completely unaware."

• "Are You Tripping?" by Kevin L. Donihe
  "The air B choked with swirling clouds of incense. The walls B emblazoned with painted-on peace symbols, posters, and adhesive psychedelic flowers. The floor B strewn with fast food wrappers and empty beer cans. The hippie B aging, bearded, and bedecked in a hemp shirt, filthy khaki pants, and scuffed Birkenstocks. "

• "Weird World: Bats of a Fur" by Marcelo Hipolito & Marcelo Machado
  "Lots of people killed themselves when the first wave of demons came out from the earth, I mean, it WAS freaky, after all, science had brainwashed mankind for ages, trying to convince everybody those sorts of creatures were the stuff of legends and such... "

  
  

  Series

  "Suburban Gladiators (Part Three of Three)" by Byron Starr
  "The crowd came to feet once again as five professional bloodfest warriors stepped into the ring. The men were clothed and equipped much different than the women. Their heavy plate and chainmail armor bore a closer resemblance to that of the Juggernaut than the women’s thin leather strips."

• "Wasteland Blues" by Andrew Conry-Murray and Scott C. Carr
  [Part Nine]
  "As they drew nearer a dog came at them through the tall grass. It was large and fast, and it growled menancingly. It stopped twenty yards from them, barking and baring its teeth. The party halted. Minna brayed nervously. Afha nuzzled her and whickered soothingly."

• "To Drive the Cold Winter Away -- Part Eight: "The Devil"" -- by G.W. Thomas
  "Nobody was walking out of Westie territory. Nobody was walking over that bridge."