Zombie Drabble #213 “Raiding Party”

“Gotta go, gotta go!”

“Here they come!”

The three runners, bags over their shoulders, could be seen weaving their way through the crowd of zombies, some of whom had seen them and some of whom were still headed for the school bus.

“There’s a lot of them…” Enough that they quickly lost sight of the runners. A shot rang out, and then another. Yuri — arm outstretched with pistol in hand — was revealed by a falling corpse.

Avram sighed. “That’s two rounds.”

The driver asked, “You’d rather he got eaten?”

“I’d rather he was careful. Start the damn bus.”

Zombie Drabble #212 “Diet”

I’m remembering the pizza oven at the restaurant. It was brick, gorgeous, original to the building. Some old guy from Sicily built it with his bare hands, his shoes probably still wet from the boat ride over. It was perfect; you couldn’t make a bad pizza in that thing.

Now, I’m trying to heat up canned beans over burning pieces of chair laid out on a concrete roof, hoping the cooking smell doesn’t attract a horde of the walking dead.

What I’d give for a deep dish with everything. It’s been weeks. It’d be worth the risk of getting eaten.

SF Drabble #206 “Make Your Own Luck”

“Two tens.” Jim placed his cards onto the table.

The alien asked, “And now I show mine?”

“Yep.”

“Very well. I have two ‘threes’ and three ‘eights’. That is a… a…”

“That’s a full house.”

“Ah, thank you. A ‘full house’. And it beats two ‘tens’, if I remember correctly?”

“That’s right.” Jim smiled politely, but he’d already decided to cash out soon, while he was still ahead: the little green guy was learning fast.

The waitress came back with another Jack & Coke. She said, “I’m sorry, the bartender said he doesn’t know how to make a ‘Quobling Freeze’.”

Fantasy Drabble #148 “Fixer-Upper”

The shell-keep loomed above Gorras. “The walls appear intact.”

The dwarf, Malk, agreed. “Aye, they are. We’ll have to clear the fallen trees from across the moat.”

They made their way around, finding the gatehouse walled off. “There’s no way in.”

“Not from the ground, anyway,” observed Gorras. The keep must have fallen to flying Hygo bandits, become a raiding nest. It explained its current state of disrepair; when the Hygo went extinct, it would have been abandoned.

Malk snorted, “Well then. We dig or we climb.”

The sorcerer grinned, and then rose gracefully into the air. “Speak for yourself.”

SF Drabble #205 “But It Wouldn’t Be Nothing”

I came aboard at Viria, jumped right in. It was nice to be working on a modern drive for a change. I’d been on a bulk hauler before that, but the Captain of that one fancied himself an engineer as well, and I think he was threatened, so I was out. I mean, I’m just a girl.

There’s a lot of that out here. Just getting certified was twice as hard. You have to work twice as hard to prove yourself, but don’t make the boys look bad or they’ll all resent you. Men are such children. Human men, anyway.

Fantasy Drabble #147 “Invocation”

I’m not really sure when it started; there was a period of time where I was certain it was just my mind playing tricks, or maybe coincidence. Then later I was convinced I was going nuts.

But in the end, I knew it had to be real. Even a skeptic like me, you know, you think of things and then, time after time they appear, you can’t really deny it anymore.

It’s a pretty awesome magic power to have. I’m trying to be really careful now, exercising mental discipline, trying not to think about explosions or monsters or Kelly Lebrock.

Zombie Drabble #211 “Playoffs”

The head was still there on the front lawn, next to the body, where the zombie had attacked him the night before.

It looked up at him blankly. It wasn’t until the eyes blinked that Jarvis realized it was still animated. It opened its mouth to moan or to try futilely to bite, and the head toppled over onto its side.

“Serves you right.”

Jenny called from the doorway. “Would you come back in here?”

“I want the newspaper. Do you see it?”

“There isn’t any newspaper! Come back inside!”

“I just want the sports page, goddamn it,” Jarvis muttered.

SF Drabble #204 “Biology lesson”

The viewscreen showed the ice moon, and the gas giant beyond. Between them, the enemy fleet: a thousand ships, all severe angles and glittering running lights.

“There sure are a lot of ‘em,” observed the helmsman.

“I hear they breed like rabbits,” shared the weapons officer.

The Captain spoke from behind them. “They’re asexual, actually. They bud.”

“They do what now?”

The Captain’s matter-of-fact tone belied the seriousness of their situation. “They grown their young on their backs. When the embryo is mature enough to survive on its own, it falls off.”

“Gross.”

“Ours ain’t pretty either.” The helmsman shuddered.

Zombie Drabble #210 “Whistle While You Work”

He concentrated on his work, he didn’t look up, not even for a minute. Mortar the bottom and end of the brick, place the brick, trowel away the excess mortar, repeat.

Above him, all around him, was yelling and gunfire. The noise had started out sporadic, but was almost continuous now. Still, he didn’t look up. When it was time to bug out  — if it came to that — Red’s hand would fall onto his shoulder and he would turn and run. He wouldn’t look back: there wouldn’t be a point. There would be no coming back to finish this wall.

Fantasy Drabble #146 “After Hours”

In the clubs that line the main streets of Capital City, one must dress a certain way and maintain a certain standard of behavior. One must also belong to a certain financial strata: it’s not cheap to get in, and it’s certainly not cheap to partake of the luxuries within.

Off the avenues and boulevards, back in the alleys and down in the basements, there are baser and cheaper pleasures to be had. You don’t have to bring a copy of your bank statement. You don’t even have to be human. You just have to be brave, or perhaps reckless.