And the Editors’ Choice Is… “One Quiet Evening” by Marchell Dyon Congratulations to Marchell. Featured Stories The following stories made the short list and have been put into our Featured Stories category. They are listed in no particular order. “Late Train” by C L King “Extinction Event” by Simon Hole “The Solution” by Lorenzo Berardi…
Writing Contest - Issue 21
Lost Cause
By Werthworld
I contributed twenty dollars. It felt good. I believed in the cause. They thanked me, then asked for fifty. When I sent fifty, they wanted a hundred. Disliking continuous appeals, I sent a thousand dollar annual gift, attaching a note: “Please, send no more requests!” But they kept soliciting more. More often, and more urgently. Each…
Moving On
By Lauren Bowers
He felt awful as he drove away. He could see her in the rear view mirror. Stooped over, hands on her knees, trying to catch a breath. Finally, she’d given up sprinting after him. The beaten old truck had barely managed to outrun her. At 36 years old, the Jeep was the same age as…
Extinction Event
By Simon Hole
Just to prove they could, the engineers created tiny flying bots. Gnat small. Mote of dust small. The bots were programmed to buzz around until they came across another tiny bot. Once two bots hooked up, they buzzed around until they found some sand. Just a few grains would do. After using the sand to replicate,…
Sergei’s Afternoon Out
By Ben Sixsmith
I dreamed that Sergei Yatzenko had returned to life, motorbiking on country roads he knew like his Lyudmila’s face. The young men bound to the trees wriggled and screamed. Sergei stopped. Their hammer was lying on the ground. He picked it up, testing its weight in the hand that had spent years building walls, fixing…
Five Loaves
By Sivan Pillai
Jimmy pocketed the wad of bills and dropped the wallet into the wayside dustbin after glancing at the driver’s license and cards. Feeling hungry, he entered a restaurant named ‘Five Loaves’ across the road. The food was simple but tasty. Some diners were well-dressed, others in rags, like the one whom Williams, (whose pocket he…
Lost Passwords
By Hubert Hug
For Francis, each day starts with programming on an apparatus at the bed. His life is easy. Everything, including all housework, is performed by electronic devices. But due to a horrible fear of hackers, Francis has created complicated passwords, different for each application, and without writing them down. A screen sparks; he mixes passwords. Today…