End of a Grand Tradition
I want to welcome you all to our annual talent show and contest. This is the 59th year of the series, and it is sure to be among the greatest. Personally I’m…
Flashing Before Your Eyes
My first time. My last time. My cold beer in my hand, numbing my fingers. The cigarette perched in the corner of my mouth. The door to my trailer swinging on…
The Time I Slept Through the End of the World
It began as any other summer thunderstorm begins. The air was thick and hazy. Streetlights and stars were invisible from my window. I closed everything up…
The Beginning of the End
Laurossel had just enough time to return to his apartment and rest a little before the PA system outside announced “Armageddon in 4 hours. Termination unit…
The End of Everything
The last sunset ever on what had once been the planet Earth was not quite as spectacular as Laurossel had hoped. He had imagined something a little more…
Final Testament
The Hero has fallen, the Quest has failed, and the Prophecy lies broken. With it so too has gone our last hope. The long dark arm of shadow spreads across the…
Burning Daylight
Santa Ana winds topping 60 miles per hour had dried out the Ortega Mountains. Whitecaps on Lake Elsinore beat the shoreline relentlessly, tossing watercraft…
Time Is Up
Was it a wrathful ancient god? Some demonic entity? Or had our time simply run out? We’ll never know, now. Not that it makes much of a difference. It was cruel…
You Look Away For A While...
-And that’s it,- I note as I rub my brow. -They’ve turned down the last option for society. Annnd they’re eating each other. Only a matter of time now.- I look…
Homeward flight
No one knew if these old devices, mothballed for decades, would even work. Sensors indicated that the device had functioned as intended but with blinds…
A Quiet Start to a Quiet War
Another young man walked into the cafe. This one was clean-cut, dressed in a crisp suit, looking for all the world like an entrepreneur or a Wall Street stock…
Destroying the World over Coffee
“Just what are you suggesting?” “You know very well what I am suggesting.” “I want to hear you say it. So you can hear for yourself just how ridiculous you…
Told You So
I was smugly confident, for I had science on my side. Armageddon? 2012? Nonsense! It was just another page in the Mayan calendar. Just one more fantasy from…
Four o' clock post meridiem
Like so many other days, it starts off the same. The sun comes up, the wind blows, the clouds soar overhead. But extraordinary days are only ordinary for so…
A Cautionary Tale
“They came at night, destroyed our crops, killed our women and children yet we have done nothing about it! These beasts have made the ground within our parks…