Open Call – PUNK – Novellas
PUNK THEME – NOVELLAS
Open Call – PUNK – Shorts
PUNK THEME – SHORT STORIES
Open Call – PUNK THEME
THEME : CYBER/BIO/DIESEL/STEAM—PUNK
Open Call – PUNK – 500
PUNK THEME – 500 WORD FICTION
Open Call – Short Reads
SHORT READS
Open Call – Patreon
PATREON MONTHLY CHALLENGE
Open Call – PUNK – Drabbles
PUNK THEME – DRABBLES
Was It Plato?
by Avery Hunter
Caked in No-Man’s-Land mud, ears still ringing from the explosion that took my leg—I haven’t yet realised its gone, there’s just a dull throb where it used to be—I blink shit from my eyes.
Jimmy lies next to me, a smile on his face. “It’s over, Lance,” he says, clear as day. “Isn’t the end of war beautiful?”
A mortar lands close by. We get showered in dirt again. “What’re ya talking about, y’dumbfuck?”
I look over. He’s long gone; his brains are seeping into the mud.
“Only the dead have seen the end of war,” he whispers.
Avery Hunter
Avery Hunter invented writing, the quokka (but not its propensity for sacrificing its young to predators), and mudguards for bicycles (after an unfortunate incident one muddy Monday morning). Now they teach tarantulas how to make a perfect mimosa.
https://linktr.ee/AuthorAveryHunter
The Fog of War
by Warren Benedetto
Jameson surveyed the battle-scarred landscape. Shadows rose from the mud, moving through the fog obscuring the carnage. The sharp smell of cordite hung in the air. Jameson’s ears were numb—the only sound was the agonising wail of an injured soldier on the ground beneath him. Shrapnel had shredded the man’s face; his stomach was a gurgling pile of entrails. Jameson read the patch on the man’s blood-soaked uniform. The name was familiar: T. Jameson.
His own.
Damn it, Jameson thought, recalling the whistling of the incoming mortar. Direct hit.
He sighed, then joined the other shadows in the fog.
Warren Benedetto
Warren Benedetto writes short fiction about horrible people doing horrible things. He has a Master’s degree in Film/TV Writing from USC. He is also the developer of StayFocusd, the world’s most popular anti-procrastination app for writers. He built it while procrastinating. For more information, visit www.warrenbenedetto.com, and follow @warrenbenedetto on Twitter.
The Skittering
by Stephen Herczeg
Insects. After decades of Hollywood telling us that aliens were little green men, they finally arrived. And they were insects. Bigger than rhinos. Tougher than cockroaches. And hungry.
The first wave hit New York. Ripping apart people like they were dolls. We deployed within hours. Thousands swarmed the streets; the sound of skittering feet was everywhere. Filling my mind.
Regular bullets were no good, only armour piercing rounds.
Suddenly, the skittering stopped. They disappeared. Leaving only silence.
And waiting. For hours.
Then the skittering started again.
I see one. Fire. Nothing.
The bullets don’t work. They’ve changed.
God save us.
Stephen Herczeg
Stephen Herczeg is an IT Geek from Canberra, Australia, between work, family, and Taekwondo training, has over one hundred published stories, and somehow manages to write thousands of words a week. His mottos are: “Sleep is for the weak”, and “Just finish it”.