It took some time, driving along the back roads and looking for a way onto the highway. The leaves were beginning to fill in along the branches of the trees–the greenery a welcoming symbol of life amongst all the human death. The Earth, with its most dominant species on the brink of extinction, was still showing that it was alive.

Riley smiled as the flora flew by, a blur of green and gray. Why were humans the only living thing affected by the plague or whatever it was that was causing the dead to rise up? (more…)

The flowers looked hungry.  The blossoms turned their stem-necks towards the family as they walked by.  Filaments rippled and gnashed together like teeth as ovules vibrated with pangs of starvation.

A red grevillea reached toward Brie.  Straining at its roots, tiny red petals, barbed at the end, reached out for flesh.  Grandma brought down her machete chopping the head off the flower.  It fell to the ground with a tiny squeal and rolled down an embankment into a swarming mass of tangled weeds. (more…)

The four figures sat in their large plush leather chairs watching the old, bulky television on the far side of the large room. A fire burned in the fireplace off to one side, the flames casting the only other illumination in the room. The walls were lined with pictures of famous people, all now long dead. Einstein, Mozart and Hitler to name a few. Trophies covered the entire mantle piece and filled glass cabinets, ranging from sword fighting to horse riding to `slimmer of the year`. All of them were for first place. Cigar smoke drifted slowly around the ceiling.

Each of the seated figures was as different to the others as they could be. The first figure was huge, and not due to fat but pure muscle. Every inch of him was a bulging mass of rippling muscle with think veins like worms crawling across his exposed skin. His neck was easily the size of a normal man’s waist. He wore tight red vest top and denim shorts, with a red baseball cap sat backwards on his head. A large cigar, twice the size of a mans finger, was gripped between his teeth. (more…)

“Look at that psychotic monkey.”

I glanced up from where I sat, sprawled across the top of a mossy flat boulder that was once a temple pillar, and looked in the direction Roy was turned. I moved with languid care; there was a viper coiled in a patch of warm Cambodian sunlight next to my steel-toed boot, and since I didn’t know what sort of snake he was, I thought it would be better not to offend him. There were things in the jungle much scarier than a basking snake, but a snakebite thousands of miles from MTV-watching civilization would be no picnic, either. (more…)

Alex Scott hiked up from the cabin through the snow, taking care not to get too far from the path. The snow got deep and got deep quick and if he wasn’t careful, he’d end up to his waist in snow.

It was stupid to leave the cabin in the first place. Erin and Carolyn would be up by tonight, tomorrow morning at the latest and he should be getting the place prepared. Couldn’t afford to get lost with the world bein’ the way it was. They all needed to stick together. (more…)

They stood out on these streets. They looked more like kids cruising a suburban mall than the people who lived here.

Barry ducked into a store, “a bo-de-ga,” he over pronounced to Tommy and Mike, his eyes wide open for emphasis while flashing that Hollywood smile. The guys were not so enthralled with their new college roommate right now. “Here,” he passed a brown bag to Tommy.

“What is it?”

“A forty.”

“What?” (more…)

1

Steve Blum scowled in pure hate as he heard the cackle of the old woman. How he hated her. He hated her more than he hated the roaming dead. They had an excuse for what they did. They were dead and, if the scientists were to be believed, simply acting on instinct. She, however, did it because she was senile. The hag was a drain on their resources, and Steve had made this very clear many times. Not only did she take up room in the already crowded refuge but also she wasted their supply of food and water. Not to mention the time it took to look after her. As long as she was awake then someone had to be with her at all times.

He said a small prayer of thanks to whoever may be listening that it wasn’t him today. She seemed to be acting up more than usual. Making stupid noises and, no doubt, causing trouble for whoever was unlucky enough to have to keep an eye on her. (more…)

Pain. Fear.

Crying.

A flash. A Memory.

—

Janie is seven. Santa just gave her her very first kitty. Mommy and Daddy said that she would have to learn how to feed it and clean its litterbox. She knows that those are stinky and yucky because her friend Annie has three cats, but they aren’t kittens. They are all grown up cats. Janie thinks she can get Daddy to clean the box, because he always does the yucky things instead of making Mommy or her do them. (more…)

The man patted his chest, “Kevlar vest.” He grinned. “Hurt like a bitch, but I’m alive.”

Riley held still, feeling foolish and angry. She should’ve made sure he was dead. Who would’ve figured he had a bullet proof vest on? She had made another blunder. Her mental notebook was becoming jammed with things to never do again. Maybe she was afraid that if the man she shot wasn’t dead she wouldn’t be able to finish him off. No, that was bullshit, she was assuming and careless. (more…)