Emmex kept her eyes up and her the focus of her hearing behind her. The sirens had stopped but that didn't mean that no one was following her. Some street teams used “birds and the bees,” catchall slang for any flying drone, to keep an eye from the sky ev…

Thin magnets woven into the suit gloves tugged the gun into my grip with distinctive pull that threw me momentarily back to thousands of hours spent at the range practising with a weapon just like this one - and to the reason why I'd left it all behind.

…

“When we walk, we put one foot in front of the other. Each step forward we take is one that matters. If you are able to advance a yard, a foot, even an inch, then congratulations, you're still alive and doing us proud. Holding the line is good and it has…

“Claire, did you want to give your mom something?” Tammy asked, propelling her niece forward.

The six year old approached the hospital bed, took the worn out rabbit she had been hugging against her chest, and gravely pushed it into her mother's hands. "B…

"When will you understand that I love you?" I wrote. "I know it sounds crazy and incomprehensible given the circumstances, but my heart has a mind of its own. I try to rein it in, but it keeps running away after memories of you."

"Little things, like son…

Our train of wagons, ten strong, traveled along the narrow ledges of the Rushaven Mountains. Even as slow as we were going many of the wheels squeaked but we dared not stop to oil them until dawn's blush seeped across the eastern sky.

From this high up, …

Story is marked as mature

Story is marked as mature

Pressing into the mirror, I slid into shadow. Coldness suffused every cell of my body until the pain of freezing became numbness and unable to breathe, I drowned.

Ghostly presences, silent and eerie, faded in and out around me. Seeing details was hard, l…

Rain pelted the windshield of our station wagon and the wipers carried the water away in wide flat arcs. The radio was turned way down low until it was little more than a generic hum. Dad's fingers tapped the steering wheel as if he could still hear it. D…

Story is marked as mature

I take quick stock of the doors, making sure the bolts and bars are in place. It seems secure enough although the mutants are actually howling on the other side now. I'm not sure if that's from pain or disappointment.

I look around the room and notice pe…

Wind hammered the windows and made the shutters crack against the outside of Kevin's house. Bent over a chair near the fireplace, he listened to the sounds and imagined some great beast being hunted by enthusiastic men, courageous and true. Yesterday rain…

"Wait! Please! You can't leave me out here at night!" Someone shouts from outside. I peek outside and see a person is running towards the halfway-closed doors. He’s being chased by a pack of mutant humans. I'm still surprised the mutants come out so soon …

Before entering through the hole he'd made, Darnell unhooked his tether and attached it to a metal eye-hook below the outer handhold. Then he stashed his torch and climbed inside, careful not to tear his suit. After entering the airlock Darnell found the …

The decks below were no less chaotic than above. Osterley helped Silvertown get the stretcher down a steep flight of stairs, treading carefully while water sloshed to and fro on one side of the corridor - a list was developing to port. Mornington glanced …

It's a nightmare to see you. If I catch a glimpse of you without warning, my heart gives a panicked lurch, like a frightened cat trying to bolt every which way at once. Yet I placed you on the face of my phone so that anytime I use it, I see you smiling, …

When I woke, I found my body folded up around my stomach like a clam. That was where a hardening pearl of pain thundered, building pressure I couldn't ignore even while unconscious. My brain tried to get a sense of my surroundings at the same time as anot…

Frank shook his head. His brain was slowing down. He was sure of it. His thoughts came too slowly these days like ships navigating through a thick and treacherous fog struggling through a sea of syrup. His brain felt like it was wrapped in smothering blan…

The second dream vanishes from memory the instant I wake up and stays gone for five hours. When it comes flooding back without warning, I lose all sense of place, trapped in the realization that I have dreamed about my ex again for the second time this we…

I loaded my bag into the car. My sons gave me hugs as if they'd never see me again. My husband stood sadly and worried. He held me for a long time.

Our argument over the past 24 hours lingered in my head. I was still going. This was the opportunity of a…

“Please. Go away.” Her voice was irritated.

“Nah, girl. I can't leave a sweet thing like you here all alone. There are wolves around, you know what I mean?” His voice was smooth, insistent, and sure.

I didn't know who he was but I knew her. She had been…

Me: "I get it, you need a home base, someone who adores you for who you are, and to feel secure. You want more than a place to crash when you're not working. However the Locus of Control has shifted. You are letting them have everything and not making dec…

Stuck.

A blinking cursor mocked me from a blank screen. This writing thing wasn't going well. I wasn't ready to give up but the joy that once energized me was gone, replaced by a bitter numbness and a persistent sense of failure.

Motion at the door drew…

[To try to open the door, please visit https://ficlatte.com/stories/41137.]