In the bombed-out shell of a Starbucks cafe, he sat at a buckling and tilted table. What the colonel wouldn't give for a green-smocked barista right now. A US Army truck painted over with his familiar insignia passed by, likely headed to the dump. Halfheartedly, he returned salute, then covered his nose. The dead Americans …
Tag: microcosmsfic
Last Touch
A tire spun, the one not furrowed by speed and thrust. Smoke wheezed from the buckled steel hood. Engine guts, half-erupted and splattered with oil, steamed in glossy, iridescent blackness. Beside his twitching foot lay an unwrapped breakfast sandwich. The smells of sausage, cologne, and sharp copper ghosted the car, floated out the broken windows, …
Fiction: Tight Flight
I pressed the call button. Pinned to my window seat by the slumped behemoth of a man, it was the only thing I could do. His flesh oozed beyond the arm rest, assaulting my left thigh with an intimate, maddening pressure. His body heat passed through his polyester pants, through my jeans and ignited a …
The Shot: Fiction for Microcosms
Like all the outliers I've covered, this planet was named for some dead Earthian. Back then you could have a star named after yourself for less than the cost of a decent dinner. This man had a hundred stars named after him. Trump XV looked no different than all the others. When the infrastructure goes, …
The Gift: Fiction for Microcosms
Cal feared the new garbage truck: its dinosaur bellow of steel on steel as the automated arm plucked the blue plastic containers like weeds, flipped them upside down, and dumped the contents with an explosive crash. The engineering marvel rescued lower backs and killed jobs, but Cal wouldn't know anything about that, being seven. All …
Duplicitous: Flash Fiction for Microcosms
As they approached, a big rabbit appeared over the edge of the ditch, looked at them quickly and vanished into the bank. Hazel let out a cry and floundered after as best she could in the cumbersome space suit. "Don't," Tom said. But Hazel didn't listen. Their ship carved the very ditch into which the rabbit, …
Fiction for Microcosmsfic.com
Washed Away "At it again?" Ella asked, standing over the hunched form of her husband. Darrin's once-white robe was covered with a dusting of sand and browned on the butt. Ella handed him a steaming cup of coffee. A sand-encrusted hand trembled but received it gratefully. A ring of untanned skin was all that …
Metamorphosis. Fiction for Microcosmsfic
The little boy. I never considered him a target until the day of the falcon. That's what I called it anyway: the day of the falcon. See, I pass this kid every day on my way to school, but on this day a peregrine falcon had landed on his head. I expected the bird to flee, …
KL Griffiths 