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... "

  
  

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  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."

  
  

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