100 Worlds: Lightning-Quick SF and Fantasy Tales

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by David Nell




  100 WORLDS

  A Dreamscape Press Anthology

  Edited by

  David Nell

  This Version Produced For Kindle

  All Rights Reserved

  This edition published in 2013 by

  Dreamscape Press - United States of America

  Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, store in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise), without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.

  If you purchased this book without a cover you should be aware that this book is stolen property. It was reported as “unsold and destroyed” to the publisher and neither the author nor the publisher has received any payment for this “stripped book.”

  Publisher’s Note

  These are works of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  First Printed 2013

  ISBN: 149355056X

  ISBN-13: 978-1493550562

  Copyrights: Assigned to Individual Authors

  Edited by: David Nell

  Website: dreamscapepress.wordpress.com

  Twitter: twitter.com/dreamscapepress

  Contents

  Naptime by Milo James Folwer

  Missing Laughter by Jennifer Courtney

  Marshal Meets An Alien by Solon Ben Earl

  Home Again by Jake Ristic-Petrovic

  Coming Of Age by William Van Winkle

  Lower Half by Jason Osmond

  The Diagnosis by Nicole DeGennaro

  White by David Revilla

  The Unfortunate Incident at El Sombrero Galactico Resort & Conference Centre by Mark Helwig Ostler

  Harmonia Axyridis by K.W. Taylor

  South of the Sun by Matthew Wilson

  Upward, Ever Upward by Chris White

  Leidenfrost’s Portal by Lance Manion

  Shattered Dreams by Schevus Osborne

  Red Moons by Joel Blumenau

  Barbarian At The Gate by Chuck Von Nordheim

  Reset by Jessica Alden

  Judgment Day by Nick Johns

  Library Day by Cheryl A. Warner

  Twinkles by John Rathbone Taylor

  Jury Rig by David Elsensohn

  The Quiet Moments by Robert Lowell Russell

  The Baggage Handler by Andrew Patch

  The Umbran City by D.L. Smith-Lee

  Preferences by Caitlin Sinead Jennings

  Sleeping Beauty by Berti Walker

  Enclosure by Theodore Kanbe

  Envy by Regan W.H. Macaulay

  PWNED by Christina Scholz

  Found In Space by Robin de Voh

  Gingerbread by Lindsey McLeod

  Accretion by David W. Blackstone

  Judy and the Dream of Horses by Mike Stasko

  Countdown by Frederic Himebaugh

  The Statue by Steve Newton

  When I Get You Alone by Lena Smoot

  The Thought Process by Mary Berman

  A Star Isn’t Born by Carly Berg

  So by John Harrower

  Object Lesson by Jennifer Wardell

  The Replacements by Mike Epifani

  The Franchise by Ross Baxter

  Before You Squash That Fly, Consider The Following by Herman Sanchez

  Look, Look! by Timmy Jones

  Taking Control by Elizabeth Archer

  Homecoming by E. Thomas Petrie

  To The Victor, History by Ray Yanek

  Baking A Storm by Rachel Green

  Portal by Erik R. Van Asch

  The New Book of Revelations | i-iii by George Sandison

  The Power of Imagination by Alisia Faust

  Survival by Iulian Ionescu

  She Was Beautiful by Thabo Mandisa

  After They Came by Shibon Clingman

  Cryptic Giant-Speak? by Claire Jones

  The Puppet by Erin Eveland

  The Kindness of Robots by E.A. Fow

  A Sweet Cup of Water by Jacob C. Denton

  Upgrade by Terence Kuch

  The Infinite Mouse by Kaitlyn Kochany

  The Birthday Present by Chris Redfern

  Miracle Ears by Marian Brooks

  Leap of Faith by Charity Tahmaseb

  Moss On Mars by Mathias Jansson

  Payback by Jane Percival

  How The End of the World Really Happened…The Second Time by David Nell

  Keep Running From The Aliens, Man! by Antonio Honda

  It’s All In The Lure by Jason Lairamore

  Soul by Cat Jacobs

  Deny Everything by H.A. Farr

  Kids by Amanda Simon

  Artificial Intransigence by Mike Scott Thomson

  Why Crows Steal Shiny Things by David J. West

  Touchstone by Ashley Reynolds

  The Compulsion of Pestilence by Eric R. Schiller

  Attached by Adam Davidson

  They Came In The Night by Conor Harpham

  Not Quite Black by Yosh Haggerty

  The Sword of Power by Simon Kewin

  Friends by Stephen Sottong

  The Smoking Tree by Von Rupert

  Bay the Wendigo by Danielle Davis

  Valhalla by Allison Runham

  Recipe For Man by Brenda Bishop Blakey

  Last Stop For Gas by Stevehen Warren

  Closer by Dee Harrison

  To The Flame by Trak E. Sumisu

  Cat Food by Stephanie L. Weippert

  Rebirth by Ari Ryan Ailin

  The Tricyclic Bridge by Shimon Starfury

  Letter For Jurise by Chris Fradkin

  The Significant Event by R.A. Andrade

  Deal by Brenda Anderson

  Rift by Matt Scott

  The Battle’s End by Stephanie Rose

  Desert Snow by Chris Mikesell

  Spincast by Rocky Hutson

  On The Run by Andira Dodge

  Citizen/…Offline by Redford Stephenson

  Bit-ing Back by Leo Norman

  Naptime

  Milo James Fowler

  The odorless gaseous intruder had managed to knock out everyone else on board the Effervescent Magnitude, even Hank the hairy Carpethrian. Only Captain Bartholomew Quasar remained immune to its debilitating effects. He’d felt a bit excluded at first but soon realized it was up to him to save the day.

  “Right.” He nodded in his deluxe-model captain’s chair while his crew slept on the floor. “So…”

  He drummed his fingers on the armrests and glanced around. Everybody looked so peaceful, some smiling, others snoring.

  “Oh what the heck,” he yawned.

  The day could still be saved after a few winks.

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Milo James Fowler is a teacher by day and a speculative fictioneer by night. His work has appeared in AE Science Fiction, Cosmos, and Shimmer. www.milojamesfowler.com.

  Missing Laughter

  Jennifer Courtney

  Broken building and an empty planet. Water trickles in from a fracture. It slimes the floor. He squints at a rotting book. Ignores mold and sticky pages, ferreting a
glimmer of life from these ghosts. There are reports to file, can’t leave without data.

  Sunlight filters in.

  Faded text. A page with exaggerated genitalia scrawled by a child’s hand. A penis, breasts. Darryl is printed on the decaying cover, the L written backwards. For a timeless space he stands in the old classroom. Smelling rot, looking through a dead kid’s book.

  Alone.

  Sharing the silence with the corpses of silverfish.

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Jennifer Courtney is an aging mother of two toddlers, and currently in her last year as an undergraduate in English Literature at the University of Maryland University College. She intends to pursue a MA in Creative Writing at some point in the near future.

  Marshal Meets An Alien

  Solon Ben Earl

  Marshall knew right away that he was in trouble. The alien was as big as a house and was bearing right down on him. Marshall tried to run away, he zigged and he zagged, but the alien was moving much too fast, and Marshall couldn’t get out of its way. Marshall said a prayer to be accepted into the afterlife and waited for the inevitable. One giant foot-like appendage came down, and Marshall was no more.

  The captain let out a deafening yell: “This ridiculous place is really impossible – some doggone bug just squished all over my spacesuit.”

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Solon Ben Earl is a retired IT Consultant and mathematician, with a degree from UCLA, who has been an avid Science Fiction reader for 60 years. Solon lives in the Las Vegas area, which gives rise to many fantasies.

  Home Again

  Jake Ristic-Petrovic

  Hyperspace sloughed off the nose of Heracles in wispy strands of warped spacetime, observable only on Artemis’ instruments. The jewel that had been an apparition, the great planet of Pomona, glowed in the lower right corner of his sensor monitor. He angled for the little white, green, and blue bulb—a reflection of mankind’s origin—and fired the fusion reactor for a time. Artemis, the warrior who had seen what had become of Pomona’s sister around Sol, was weary from his travels. But the time for the truth had come.

  “Hello again. Earth no longer inhabited; we must carry on alone.”

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Jake Ristic-Petrovic is a young writer from Alberta, Canada.

  Coming Of Age

  William Van Winkle

  Joey’s dad became a cyborg when Joey was fifteen.

  “I have to. My colleagues have implants. This is the only way I can compete.”

  Days afterward, Joey’s dad left to merge with a hive in Minneapolis. Forever. He sent money monthly.

  Joey’s mom left to join her husband two years later.

  “You’re almost eighteen. You’ll be fine. I love you.”

  On Joey’s birthday, he stood among the trees outside the conversion clinic, studying the leaves, deciding. One fell into his hand.

  “Now you’re free,” Joey said. But the leaf was brown, dead.

  Eventually, Joey carried it inside.

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR: William has been a full-time technology journalist since 1998 and has been fortunate enough to interview futurist/inventor Ray Kurzweil and the world’s first cyborg, Prof. Kevin Warwick. Both men left him fascinated with the idea of self-engineered human evolution and the possible “singularity” transition awaiting humanity, a theme that flows through many of his speculative stories now — including this one.

  Lower Half

  Jason Osmond

  When that creature with the big, black eyes cut my body in half, I hardly felt a thing. It told me that they needed my legs for an experiment, and that it was for a good cause. What good cause? I wanted to know, but it wouldn’t say. When the light turned on, and they beamed me back down into my bed, I couldn’t fall asleep. The next morning, my daughter ran into my room. She had my lower half, my legs, and hips. She hurried over, and thanked me. She said she wasn’t going to need her wheelchair anymore.

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR: During the day, Jason Osmond writes content for a travel magazine, and a column about fatherhood on LAfamily.com. His other work has been published in Shlock Magazine. He is the member of the world-renowned Osmond family, and was the assistant editor, and ghostwriter, for “Stages”, his father’s autobiography. He is currently working on his debut novel.

  The Diagnosis

  Nicole DeGennaro

  “D’ven, you need—”

  “—I know! But I can’t sit still.” D’ven paused. “Everything is shifting. Me, too.”

  Radindra frowned. “How did you know—”

  “—I can see the words.” He motioned to her with frantic fingers. “There on your tongue, in your head. Please stop bothering Aaron about it—no, that hasn’t happened yet. I’ve skipped ahead. You don’t know.” Then he spoke in a wispy language Radindra’s implant could not translate.

  He pointed at the diagnostic digiboard in Radindra’s lap. “Now you know,” he said, the words almost a sob. The board beeped; Radindra shivered as she read the result.

  Changer.

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Nicole DeGennaro currently works as a copy editor for a science publisher in New York City. You can learn more about her and find more of her writing at http://nicoledegennaro.wordpress.com/.

  White

  David Revilla

  Survivor. The word meant little to him now. His ship destroyed, his crew gone, the lone astronaut floated on the invisible currents of space.

  Alone.

  That word took on infinite dimension in the void. It was all-encompassing, everywhere and yet nothing at all.

  Adrift in a sea of stars, the survivor caught the glint of white radiance. Oxygen depleted, his eyes opened. Blinding!

  A…star?

  No. Not a star, yet equally radiant. His arm, more a weight than an appendage, reached out to grab it. Like holding the sun in his hand.

  His world….

  …the locket…his wife and daughter.

  Peace.

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR: David Revilla is a freelance writer with degrees in both English and Publishing. His first short story was published in Sirens’ Call Online Magazine called “Little Girl Lost” and he has completed his first novel “The River Styx” which can be found on his website http://www.darev.weebly.com/. “White” is his first drabble.

  The Unfortunate Incident at El Sombrero Galactico Resort & Conference Centre

  Mark Helwig Ostler

  “That guy. That. Flarking. GUY,” Mriskil raged. His nostrils quivered in front of his mouth.

  “Hey, man. Cool your shix. I don’t want to get kicked out of the conference again,” Erg cautioned. His carapace rumbled nervously.

  They were standing in front of the floating marquee, which read: Extraterrestrial Taxidermy: Theory and Practice, presented by the galaxy’s only Extraterrestrial Taxidermist, Declan Murphy.

  The Annual Pan-Galactic Taxidermist Conference security officials escorted Mriskil out of the conference centre, his tentacles manacled together. The paramedic stretcher floated behind him, the preserved and stuffed corpse of Declan Murphy covered in a white sheet.

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Mark Helwig Ostler is a former reporter. He writes all varieties of speculative fiction. As he takes his readers to other worlds, he imbues his science-fiction and fantasy work with a strong sense of the present, real world. He is based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

  Harmonia Axyridis

  K.W. Taylor

  Ladybugs swarmed the flagstone. “They’re good luck.” Violet looked at Ben, who stared at another patch of bugs.

  Ben shook his head. “There’s no luck here.” He chuckled. “Running from rogue time travelers sucks.”

  “I’m here to protect you. Don’t worry.” Violet patted Ben on the arm.

  “What are we supposed to do, then, if I’m so protected?” Ben nodded at the ladybugs. “Call the exterminator?”

  Before Violet could answer, Ben’s frown deepened.

  The ladybugs converged into one pile, slowly turning into a slender man with dark spectacles.r />
  A grin spread across his face as he raised a gun. “Gotcha.”

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR: K.W. Taylor just released a short story collection entitled Grinning Cracks. Taylor’s short fiction has also been featured in the anthologies Touched by Darkness (Etopia Press), Sidekicks! (Alliteration Ink), and Once Bitten, Never Die (Wicked East Press). Taylor’s first novel, The Red Eye, will be released by Alliteration Ink later this year. Taylor teaches college English in Ohio and is a student in the Writing Popular Fiction M.F.A. program at Seton Hill University. Website: http://www.kwtaylorwriter.com. Twitter: @kwtaylorwriter.

  South Of The Sun

  Matthew Wilson

  I don’t like Venus. Men who came before thought it jungle, but the first mission that didn’t crash was eaten by sulphur. Technology’s advanced, and though we survive in suits, the landscape leaves much to dislike.

  I miss home, to swim seas that won’t dissolve flesh. Remove my helmet and feel the breeze. This yellow mist would eat my eyes. I wish I was home but mom says the invasion of Earth will begin, and we must stay ready.

  Alpha Centauri is a long way. We have to collect our forces on Venus.

  Even if I don’t like it here.

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Matthew Wilson, 30, is a UK resident who has been writing since small. Recently these stories have appeared in Horror Zine, Starline Poets Association and Sorcerers Signal. He is currently editing his first novel and can be contacted on twitter @matthew94544267.

  Upward, Ever Upward

  Chris White

  Upward, ever upward.

  Bright, blinding light. Heaven’s wrath, pouring down.

  Upward, ever upward.

  Shoes scuffle against endless marble, erratic, stumbling.

  Upward, ever upward.

  My companion falls.

  I leave her.

  Footsteps echo in metronomic perfection, looming.

  He is coming.

  Ever upward.

  Ragged and torn, the stifling heat, each breath suffocating.

  He is coming, upward, ever upward.

  Stone-edged hooves - a deal was struck.

  Upward, ever upward.

  Flames lick at my heels; the taste of brimstone fills the air.

 

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