Brayden Saucier

Benjamin Chandler

Sean King

Sam Becker

Keith Farquhar

English

The Underground City of Yumaria was a sight to see, if only if it hadn’t been so filthy as it was. It was common though, at least for some people to have the dirt from the surface rain down upon them and the streets due to the trolleys from the higher district which ran between

North & South Dakota. Eventually, though, the Mole Folk of Yumaria got sick of the dirt sprinkling on their city. When Princess Mulalum's eyes got infected from the falling soil, her people had had enough. War was quietly declared as they armed their mole machines & digger tanks.

“The Surface Dwellers must die, or at least move away” was the rallying cry of the mole people. They were willing to be reasonable. They knew their enemies were quick to anger and slow to reason. So they were also prepared to be unreasonable.

To kick off their negotiations, the mole people drilled their way to the United Nations where they promptly burst through the floor of the in-session assembly; the whir of their enormous drill-mobile drowning out the sound of dignitaries screaming and running for their lives.

“You lost—we have colonies beneath your capitals,” said the mole leader to the evil nations on the Jumbotron. “One missile flies, and we turn your countries into sinkholes!” You could see by their panic that crisis was averted. The assembly bowed in unison to their superiors.

War and Moles

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The misty streets were empty as he walked to work that morning.

Not metaphorically empty: there was nothing on the streets. No cars, moving or parked. No other pedestrians. No delivery bikes. No traffic lights or street signs. No leaves or paper bags, no wind to blow them. It felt like he was walking through an incomplete simulation.

'Let there be light'
The street is in complete darkness.

'Come on man...' He thought.

'Let there be a ton of diamonds'
A strong smell of petrified fish rush into his nostrils.

'I wish all men are wiped out'
He thought he would vanish.

However, girly gigglings are everywhere.

Obviously there were some limitations to the simulation. “Just give me what I want already!” he demanded. He was beginning to feel frustrated. After all he had paid a high price to experience the simulation before its intended release date; Not knowing he would soon be …satiated.

“How’d he get in here?” “Damned if I know. Owner says the shop’s been vacant for years. Some kids saw him through the window.” “Not a druggie. Nothing in here but trash.”

The detectives shined flashlights on the dead man. A smile visible under an old VR helmet with a frayed cord

Test Run.

Daenary BadKarma

Joseph 'Zouk' Rogers

William III Farquhar

There are a lot of people out there who think that the world is dying fast. It had been slower then since they didn’t have the tools we have now that had gotten them this far into the future, but leaving behind in their wake the forgotten ones that tried and tried to be better.

It was harder to survive each year, and fewer people were able to have children. The bees were long gone, most of the birds were extinct too. It was hard to grow food without predictable seasons. Humanity was slowly going extinct.

Laws of the world? They seemed obsolete nowadays. With everything coming to an end after "the incident", all that will be left of almost everyone will be dried bone and evaporating ash.

Perhaps it would be best that way. Mankind did, after all, disrespect their world. Like roaches feeding upon the ongoing neglect of a dwelling - at what point would destruction and rebirth be the only course of action?

Within their city in the planet's core, the trilobite folk, the world's 1st rulers, decided it was time. They powered up their asteroid magnet & waited. Within weeks, a mountain-sized space rock impacted on the world's surface, wiping out most life, rebooting it for their return.

Judgement

Lauren Coles

“Father?” Asked Tiny Tim who was on the shoulders of his overworked and underpaid dad; Bob Cratchit as they walked home from their daily Sunday’s at church. “Do you think we might be able to try a turkey one christmas day?”

"Maybe," said Bob, "if one of your songs becomes a number 1 hit." Tiny Tim took that to heart, laboring day & night on his little ukulele. Finally, he had a song he was proud of. At the recording studio, Bob looked at the song's title as Tim prepared—"Tiptoe Through The Tulips"

And surprisingly enough it was a big hit. 15 weeks in the top 10. A best selling record. Ukulele sales quadrupled. But the strangest thing was that “Tiptoe Through the Tulips” became a perennial favorite. Year after year, people couldn’t get enough of it!

It is what draws people in. People don’t want to come something boring. Ukuleles bring people together. This is what people need right now.

The council looked down on the musicians. “We have seen the error of our ways,” the grayest turkey uttered in a gravelly voice. “Today will henceforth be known as Ukulele People’s Day.” There was cheering, followed by many, many off key notes. Luckily, turkeys have poor hearing.

An Odd Twist

Jacob Sherman

7/9/23.

I’m so hungry.

The Mist hasn’t left in Months.

Everyone is Dead.

All i hear is ringing.

He is coming.

8/9/23. The bells grew louder and louder, and the mysterious Mist parted to reveal an unknown figure. Before I could say anything, he came all over me. The Second Coming is at hand. All the corpses came to life.

“Whoah, whoa, whoa! Cut!” The director yelled. “This is a family pictcha, fer chrissakes! Whaddya think we are, a buncha pigs? You Hoboken Cinderella!”

Abashed, she put her dress down. No one had ever expressed outrage at the sight of her bottom before. For the 1st time in Nora's life, she felt embarrassed. "Why does my face feel warm?" she whispered to her hairdresser. "It's your 1st blush," came the answer. She kinda liked it.

Nora stared at herself in the mirror, her innocence melting away. I've been reckless she thought, sitting in silence for the rest of the haircut. Afterward, she paid, went straight home, threw out all her dresses, and wore pants for the rest of her long, distinguished life.

A Destroyed Dream

Hazel Engstrom

“Listen to me please”, the woman begged her journalist friend who she had invited over for dinner, she had a confused yet scared face on her as if she had seen the ghost. “You’ve got to stop this please” there was a long silence in the room after saying that. “I saw his body”

"And its not too late to forget what you saw" she pleaded "you know what this means, what happens if-" A sigh escapes her companion's lips, low and tired. "I can't, I never will." The woman's eyes widen. Her breathing shallows.
"Please for my sake, please-"
"He's your husband."

“He’s my husband, yes. But I never married him. As far as I know, I’ve never met him in person. He could be anyone, he could be a clever piece of software for all I know. But I certainly have no control over him.”

"Well," said Samantha, "be that as it may, he's been flirting with me & it's unwelcome. I hear him whispering behind me at the Kroger, 'Nice cans. Great melons.' You might not be able to control your disembodied not-really-husband, but you should at least know he's unfaithful."

"Unfaithful?!" she gasped! "Impossible!" "Is it?" Sam retorted. "This very moment he's crouching in the shopping cart of a recent divorcee with an US Weekly on his head." "Perhaps," she said stoically. "One day, once you've loved someone more than produce, you might understand."

The Betrayer

Emily J

Ava E.T.

“DISAPPEARANCES LINK TO ABANDONED AMUSEMENT PARK”

Local law enforcement made a new breakthrough today regarding the Disappearances of 12 College Students who left their dorms for a night out to celebrate the end of the spring semester at Rutherford B. Hayes College in Canton.

I clicked to read the rest of the story. Of course they’ve gotten most details wrong. I was there, one of the 12, and certainly not missing. But the story of what really happened at the old amusement park can never be told. A college dare gone wrong that we all wish to forget.

Ah, the twelve. Ring any bells? Someone dared us to recreate the Last Supper at the amusement park, except on the thing that shoots you way up! And so we got our food on the handrail, sat side by side for a picture… then he flipped the lever. And we found ourselves up in the sky.

As gravity started to pull the Reverse Bungee down & the group photo was taken, my 11 friends screamed & laughed, but I got pensive. You can see it in the photo. I sat there, wondering how I, the loser of the 12—the Judas, the March, the 2 a.m.—ever got so many undeserved friends

After the ride was over, we looked at the photo. We all looked so happy, despite the insanity of the situation. That’s when I realized these people were my true friends, and I felt suffused with their love.

A Lost Memory

Rietje Becker

“Is it possible to determine that we’re not alone out here?” The Scientist asked his coworkers who were talking to him via video call. “It depends what you mean by alone”

“We are all alone, in the sense that all interactions with other beings are filtered through our very faulty consciousness. But in the sense of other intelligent life in the universe, we are not alone AT ALL!”, the scientist exclaimed.

“Why, there is life out there!” the scientist continued, “I know it to be true!” “When you look into the sky, all the stars you see are the stars that existed a few million years ago, right?”I inquired. “Mhm.” “So does that mean that we can see the events of Star Wars right now?”

I ran to the telescope, hoping to see Chewie & 3PO, but instead I saw words. An entire galaxy's stars had been rearranged to spell out in perfect English, "SMOOTH MOVE, EXLAX."

What luck, I thought. I was in the market for this type of product, since most space food lacks fiber. I called the number at the bottom and happily settled into my seat, knowing the long trip ahead would be a more comfortable one.

Contact

The first contact humanity ever had with an alien race was a dead alien race, their dead lifeless bodies scattered among endless ruins on what was left of a huge advanced civilization. The four crew members of the Perses Mission which was named after the Greek Titan.

Kirk, Spock, McCoy and Scotty. Those were the four beamed down on the planet’s surface. All they saw were ruins. Cities covered in dust. Alien lifeforms fossilised under their feet. This was no Pompeii, no, a great disturbance in the Force, as if millions of voices suddenly cried

Off in the ruined distance, they spotted a solitary object. Red. Rectangular. The four trudged thru the dust. Kirk looked at the phone inside. “What is this?” “This device is called a TARDIS,” Spock answered. McCoy flung up his hands. “Dammit Jim, this Force is getting weird.”

A sound drifted over the flats, like bare feet slapping against stone, & a cloud of dust rose on the horizon. "Phasers on stun," Kirk advised. The approaching vehicle came into view—a car made of stone & wood. A man in an orange fur was driving. He eyed Spock. "D'you know Gazoo?"

“No,” said Spock with typical reserve, while telepathically directing his crew to torch the furry foe’s vessel, foolishly made with flammable material—a real Tardis. Kirk eyed Spock: it was time. They backed away and collectively beamed up, Gazoo be damned!

A Strange World

They Found the body mutilated beyond recognition. The stomach area was slashed and ripped apart up towards the chest area with a long bloodied like symbol across and up, the face was much worse as the eyes were ripped out of its socket and shoved into the victims mouth.

The sight was so repulsive that they just kept on walking. After an hour, one of them whispered, "Let's promise to never talk about that." The other vomited at the mere thought of the gruesome memory. The secret was made, the bond to be kept until a bleak night forty years later.

And on that fateful night the two came across the same horrid sight — the same one they saw forty years ago. Already the both of them had thrown up violently at the sight of such a frightful spectacle. They wanted to look away so bad, but they just couldn’t. “Oh man, that’s just…

too terrible to bear. Who puts whitefish salad on a cinnamon raisin bagel? It’s practically a war crime.” In the distance, Cynthia Nixon laughed.

"Cut!" the director screamed. Cynthia rose. "You nailed it," she said. "You have a way with words and I want to work with you on every film I make. I clutched my dogeared, coffee-stained script full of WWII references and ethnic jokes. I made it, I thought to myself. Finally.

Action

He pushed opened the doors that led to the abandoned ballroom once used long ago. Looking around he could that almost everything was preserved, other than moss growing in its separate places.

The giant mirrorball sent spots of sunlight through the dusty air of the abandoned ballroom. Some true greats had once graced this stage. And now it was his. He could fix the place up, and getting the appropriate licensing would be easy. But would this old town support a theater?

“Break a leg!” a voice erupted from the empty audience seats. Is that… “Dad?” “I believe in you son, now make your dreams come true!” “I will, dad!” The disco lights came on and reflected off the giant mirrorball. “Don’t stop,” he yelled, “belie… ving! Hold on to that fee… ling!”

The following four and half minutes became a blur of beats, motion, sweat, & the hypnotic sway of a flashing disco medallion. The audience was entranced. When the song & dancer stopped, the only sound anyone could hear was their own heartbeats, drumming in salient excitement.

The True Greats looked around in awe. They'd done it: crafted the perfect beat, designed to extract the maximum amount of sweat, love, and vibes from a consenting audience. "More!" the amorous hoards cried. "More!" With that, the lights went down and the disco ball spun again.

Encore

The world ended at midnight, that was what most people agreed to although there weren’t many people left in the world at the moment. It ended when there wasn’t screams of terror or pain, but with screams of happiness as billions around the world gathered to watch the countdown

timer tick down. “Five… four… three… two… one! HAPPY NEW LIFE!!!” everyone cheered, as the sky filled up with colourful bursts of light - no, not fireworks - nuclear bombs. The whole world stood together united in one faith, knowing they’re all headed to a better place very soon…

Except for roughly 1200 people watching from orbit. They were the result of a huge effort with the goal of building a self sufficient colony off Earth. They watched the “fireworks” below and knew they they were truly on their own.

“Our timeline just moved up 25 years,” I said. “What do you mean?” asked the governor. “Orbiting a dead planet, no new materials…technology…” I answered. The governor stammered, “This wasn’t the plan—“ “It doesnt matter! Earth is gone. We have no choice now but Proxima Centauri.”

A hush spread across the room. The obvious correctness of my statement echoed around the control deck. Two troopers escorted the beleaguered governor out. The rest of us stared off into space, contemplating the multi-year journey, conjuring hope in a desolate space.

Brayden Saucier
@braydensaucier

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Brayden Saucier@braydensaucier

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