Zombie Drabble #87 “Taught To Lead”

I was a Second Lieutenant in the Alabama National Guard. Tanks. Saw action in Africa, but nothing major. All the old NCOs who’d been in Iraq called it a cakewalk.

We were called up Sunday afternoon. By Tuesday, we held the highway out of town. They never stopped coming. We ran out of ammo in two hours, what little we had. I ordered everyone to fall back, started running the undead over with my tank. Back and forth for hours, leaving a paste of gore all over the blacktop.

When I finally ran out of gas I became a civilian.

Fantasy Drabble #34 “CTRL-Z”

“It’s just a book,” he said. “Nothing’s going to happen. These things are just made up by people with too much time on their hands. It’ll be fun, scare the girls. Then we can comfort them.”

Josh is an asshole that way.

It cost him: that unholy thing’s first act was ripping Josh’s throat out. Only three of the six of us made it out of the room. We’ve stopped Angie’s bleeding but she’s still hysterical.

We drove all night. It’s still following us, I don’t know how I know, but it is. If only we still had the book…

Zombie Drabble #86 “Rush Hour”

“We haven’t moved in an hour.”

“I know.” The engine was off. The cars around them were similarly and eerily silent.

“Get over on the shoulder! You can get by…”

“It’s blocked. Maybe we should walk…”

“Not in these heels.”

“You can take the heels off, Kerry, come on.”

“Manolo Blahniks? No.”

Two cars ahead, a man got out of his Hummer, put a backpack over his shoulder, and started walking hurriedly away.

“Oh, look at this asshole. Now we’ll have to get over…”

Now he saw movement behind them too, but those people were walking more slowly, almost stumbling…

SF Drabble #62 “Fight Night”

The Champ is known for his footwork more than anything else. He can throw a punch, of course, but it’s uncanny how he can evade or attack in unexpected directions. It’s the extra leg that does it.

I had nearly ten thousand credits on the Yourian challenger. Twelve feet tall, solid muscle covered by thick carapace. One solid blow from either of his fists would have ended it.

But the Champ just danced. For ten rounds the Yourian was punching thin air. Those huge bony knuckles never connected once.

I’ll have to go offworld until I can pay the marker.

SF Drabble #61 “Cracker Jack”

We dug in the Martian regolith for a week. It was difficult because we had to work in environment suits.

We found a four meter sphere, mirror surfaced. We built a research institute around it. It took almost a year to confirm it was a force field. It took nearly two more years to find the resonant frequency that opened it.

The being inside lived for two days. The doctors think he had been sick to begin with. He spent most of that time talking, it’s all recorded. I just wonder if we’ll ever figure out what he was saying.

SF Drabble #60 “I Get Jokes”

I’d never even heard of of a Polixaci liner breaking down, but mine did.

I asked one of the crew, “How often does this happen?”

He chittered, “It’s been quite a long time. We have backups and secondaries for all systems. Several things must go wrong at once for the ship to be immobilized.”

“What happens now?”

“We wait for another ship to come with parts.”

“How long?”

“Well,” he paused, “Hopefully not so long that we have to start eating passengers.”

Apparently the little antennae wobble is a giggle. I hadn’t even known they had a sense of humor.

Fantasy Drabble #33 “Girl Talk”

“What about you? Was it Bobby? One of the guys on the football team? Jeannie’s little brother? Not Jeannie’s little brother…”

“My first? Vampire.”

“Stop.”

“For reals.”

“Tell me you didn’t fall for that quiet brooding bullshit…”

“Naw, he was actually pretty peppy. We used to go to salsa clubs a lot. Open till like 3 in the morning, you know. ”

“So how was he?”

“He was a great dancer. Awesome footwork. He had this innate sense of rhythm, and when the band was really getting into it…”

“No, in the sack.”

“Oh, he was ok. A little bitey.”

Zombie Drabble #85 “Psyche”

When you see your first zombie, at first you don’t quite understand. You feel confusion: it’s a person, but something’s wrong. Then it becomes clear that it’s not a person anymore.  That’s when the terror starts.

If you live through that first encounter, terror gives way to nagging fear and determination. Then, steadily, you build confidence.

That leads inevitably to complacency. You make mistakes. Eventually, one of those mistakes gets someone killed.

If that someone isn’t you, you go back to the terror.

This cycle repeats over days, weeks, months, until you are completely numb, feeling nothing but your exhaustion.

Fantasy Drabble #32 “Things Ain’t What They Used To Be”

I was a god once. There were many of us: an ocean god, a god of the air, one god for the hunt and one for the hearth, and countless others.

It was good for a while, thousands of years in fact. Then the faith of our adherents waned. Our power began to flag. We bickered, we conspired, we fought. Most of us were already gone by the time the last of our people left our service.

Our stories are told as myth.The only things keeping me alive at all now are the armless statues and friezes carved on ruins.

Fantasy Drabble #31 “Jack’s Last Journal Entry”

I ordered the seed packet from an online store somewhere in South America. Took forever to get through customs. When it arrived I was incensed to find only one seed in it, but I planted it anyway.

The next morning the stalk reached the bottom of the second story window. I sat on the front porch for an hour, and I could have sworn that I saw it growing.

It’s been a week now, and I can’t see the top. I’ve bought some climbing gear. Mother says not to try it, but I can’t see how I could possibly resist.