Dr. Eckhardt sat up straight and arched his lower back trying to work out the knots. He removed his glasses and rubbed his eye before replacing them. How many hours had it been? Not that it mattered. He had not been home in a month. With no windows in the long, narrow tile covered room, time was measured from case file to case file.

The florescent light above him flickered, went black for a moment, and then came to life. (more…)

“Either God is a bastard or He enjoys seeing people suffer, which makes Him a sadistic bastard,” David moans next to me. I motion him to shut up but he keeps going.

“I worked three years to keep a 3.9 GPA, I didn’t do anything but study and suck up to teachers so they would give me good recommendations. Then, when I’m finally on the right road and I get that internship with Google lined up for next spring, Google, man. Imagine me at Google. But it just couldn’t happen. No sir. Instead the whole world goes insane and look at us! God damn it! Trapped in a frigging library, God damn it!” (more…)

Morris blinked, looked down at his coffee on the table, then back at the restrooms where he’d been. Something had happened. Something big. The whole coffee shop was empty, only wisps of ash floating in the air. The peppy morning music still poured out of the CD player on the shelf above the milk machine.

There were no sirens, no honks from the street, though it appeared there’d been a massive accident, and several cars were pushed out of line. An SUV was actively burning, but no one was doing anything about it. Morris swallowed, took a big sip of his coffee, and put it down. He had to see this. (more…)

Vass, North Carolina

[Aaron Worth stands in the middle of a field, tugging a hoe through the dirt of a large, walled in garden. Beyond him is a stilted house that is clearly a post-war build. A rifle is still slung on his back, despite the fortification. During the war, Worth served as a special attachment to Army Group South – he was the first of many "Whistleblowers" to aid in the relief of the larger cities of the eastern U.S.]

It wasn’t my idea. A lot of people ask me that. Nope. Some guy with thick glasses must have dreamt this up, because the idea at first seems ridiculous. I know I laughed in the Sergeants face when he proposed it to me. I mean, seriously, take a loud ass train deep into Zackland and hope to God you don’t get bogged down and eaten alive. Yea, sure, sounds like a plan. (more…)

I follow along a large cornfield. The field has been neglected and the stalks have begun to wither and lean towards the earth. Weeds populate the rows and have been left unchecked and are growing wild. A small path leads up a hill. The corn in bordered by a thick wood and I can see little as I walk. I walk straight and quickly until it ends. (more…)

The first indication Gil Pevney had that anything was wrong was when the power blipped, just past 3:30 am. He was sitting in the station’s small common room with his feet up on a table eating his lunch: a sardine sandwich. It was a little silly to call a meal eaten at that hour “lunch,” but as it was the second meal of his day, “lunch” would have to suffice.

“Aw, shoot,” he said as darkness enveloped him. He waited expectantly for the backup generator to come online, and relaxed when he heard it powering up, exactly as it was supposed to do. The generator at the transmitter shack a mile or so away would be doing the same, he knew. Sure enough, within 15 seconds of the outage, the lights came back on. The security lights outside in the parking lot stayed dark, but this was no surprise. They were off the main circuit and wouldn’t come back until full power returned. Gil glanced around while the fluorescents flickered back into life, waiting for further problems, but nothing else happened. It was unlikely that any listener would notice the brief signal drop-out. (more…)

Timothy’s neck and arms felt hot and scratchy as he pushed through the tall, brownish-green grass behind the outfield fences. Randy Parker had smacked a home run right over the fence and into the unkept fields beyond. He swung his mitt like a shield in front of him scaring up small insects and pieces of vegetation as he walked.

Timothy knew he would likely get in trouble. His mother had told him to be careful and not get burned. However, when his parents said he could go play ball at the park with his brother all caution had disappeared. The same way Randy’s home run ball apparently had. (more…)

“Mr. Hawking,” his physics teacher used to say on an almost daily basis, “yet again, your namesake would be ashamed of your performance in this class.”

Classmates would snicker. Steve would blush and scan the quiz paper for the humiliating red letter scratched across the top.

“Why are you so dumb, Hawking? Hey Hawking, you’re no Einstein!” echoed the schoolyards and yellow buses. (more…)