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…

Klaxons. Klaxons everywhere. Truly this was it.

The building convulsed. It wasn't supposed to be like this. We were supposed to fight back, to win against all odds. Where was the indomitable human spirit now? Running for their lives. Nothing had prepared…

The fat man moved suddenly, standing up and ducking forward to release her hold while throwing his unfinished noodles over his shoulder. Even as the contents of the bowl splattered against her chest, her hand closed reflexively, no longer on his neck but …

Behind the counter, a serious faced Jin watched them while he used his apron to wipe his hands. She needed to finish her business here before he called a street team to investigate. She didn't want to tangle with them. The violent thugs thinly disguised a…

“You have the wrong man.” he said, slowly putting the bowl down and setting his hands flat against the counter.

“You don't recognize my voice? Maybe I can jog your memory. How about these words: no, don't, stop, please, you're hurting me!” She echoed her…

She moved through the crowd deliberately, puddles overflowing around the soles of her boots as she took each step, water streaking behind her in long broken lines. Compared to the hurried activity of the people around her, she looked like she was moving i…

Brett Parker bounced along the dirt road to the sounds of Toby Keith's “Beer for My Horses.” Satellites had picked up movement in the area and it was his job to intercept the illegals who had made it across the border.

Just after twilight his headlights …

President disavows knowledge of attack in the middle east, official inquiry to follow

Another ineffectual attack inside the palace at Yaniv ends in blood as the superhuman leader calling himself Savior dispatches twenty-one assailants and adds their head…

He walked through the detonations unscathed and unfazed. Soot and dirt splashed against his uniform but didn't stick, sliding back to the ground.

A ray of the new day's sun bridged heaven and earth and he stepped into its light to pose majestically. Spre…

The chain-link fence trailed along as far as his eye could see. He continued to the nearest section. The whole world had been watching this strip of barren land. People had died here, slaughtered like animals. More would. Let everyone watch now too and se…

The sun's golden head peaked over the mountains, tinting the sky with rose. The gunfire that had swelled into a wind of bullets was now silent. He didn't even have to kill them. They had just stopped. The man supposed that they were finding heavier ordina…

Without altering his course, the man brushed by the human obstruction and with a negligible hand gesture sent him spiraling to the ground.

More hands reached out for him trying to take hold of anything they could. When they found something to hang on to…

The child babbled something in a language that the man didn't understand and ran off, calling out in a high pitched voice.

The man frowned. If he couldn't understand them, then his message was going to be wasted on these . . . people. Well, he had chosen…

The man appeared in a rectangle of shimmering purple light, a Door. Striding forward with confident purpose, he stepped over the twitching bodies of those who had been cut down when the Door had opened. His careful steps left a trail of bloody footprints …

“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…

"And on that day, I will be here to turn you back. This truce will stand, this war is over, whether you wish it or not." I approached the god-post and jammed my blade into the wood just below the loathsome face that peered back at me.

"You are releas…

"This is truce by ultimatum," the god sneered.

"It is," I agreed. "But it is a truce, nonetheless. You and your kind leave this world alone forevermore, and I and my descendants will cease our war upon yours. That I must force this is irrelevant, but pea…

The god was silent for a time. Irritation appeared across its countenance, but it knew now it had no choice in this matter. It was merely processing this information, coming to terms with it, making peace with its new fate.

"Very well," it agreed. "I am …

"You are not a man at all, are you?" I heard the god ask behind me. "Nor a god. You are both less -- and more."

Suddenly the weight of everything that had happened fell upon me. The burden weighed heavily on my head, on my shoulders, and I felt immensely…

The god finally found its voice, and not to my surprise, there was a quaver to it. "What are you?" it asked. "You are less than expected, yet more than you seem. The power you hold does not compare even to the simplest Alderman, and yet you are fluent i…

I said nothing to the god, merely turned my back to it and stepped to the golden post from which the spectre of death continued to emanate. The fleshing blade was still in my hand, and using the curved tip of that sanctified steel, I drew the point along …

"The bargain is this," I began. "A truce. An end to this petty war that began with my ancestors, that has led to so much death."

"NEVER!" the god roared, cutting me off. "WE WILL HAVE OUR VENG--"

I held up my blade again and said nothing. The god's mout…

Story is marked as mature

If you take the covered bridge over the River Ren and follow the twisting road that bisects the stagnant waters of the Coracotta Swamp, you'll find sickly trees in ones and twos that grow more numerous the deeper you go, until their limbs form a spiderweb…

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, …