The ward rattled as the chronal engines cycled.
Due to “administrative efficiency,” the hospital registered soldiers as dead five minutes before their actual demise to save on logistics.
“I'm still breathing,” the corporal wheezed, watching his own name appear on the casualty list.
“The system doesn't make mistakes,” the nurse whispered, her eyes flickering like a dying bulb.
“Time doesn't exist; it's just a trick of the mind, right? Please...” He willed the clock to reset.
The room shuddered. Time looped, but his body didn't. He was now a conscious corpse, trapped in a five-minute window of endless, agonizing paperwork.
With a degree in economics and Japanese, Diana Parrilla writes fiction published by Inkd Publishing, Blue Planet Press, Murderous Ink Press, and others. She was awarded first prize in the 2024 Mollie Savage Sci-Fi & Fantasy Contest and received an Honorable Mention in the 2025 Writers of the Future Contest.
X: @buffyta17
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