“Deliver this to the western camp,” the officer said, handing Thomas a scroll that was sealed in wax. “These contain the latest troop movements across Appalachia, and General Amber needs that intelligence before he makes his move.”

Thomas knew little about the war effort, but he was sure the information he carried was vital. Since the beginning, Thomas had yearned to be a part of it and had asked ...

The shaded window admitted little bands of light which illuminated the floating dust particulate in the air as it passed through. Lines on the floor moved imperceptibly as the sun crept abroad the sky, but I did not move at all. My eyes were only partially open and I felt the bruising around my orbits throbbing, so I did not move. I did not even know how many had survived and was too weak to go in...

The hulking mounds of rust which had stood for centuries loomed in the now-overgrown landscape, becoming the bones of the forest where none dared to tread. Someone had moved them there eons ago before they had fallen to moldering ruin, and saved their antecedents the trouble. Thousands of automobiles lay among the moss and the mold in those woods, barely perceivable now under the growth, but still...

The rock face rose before her, ever upwards and with nary a light at the end of the proverbial tunnel. Hands aching, toes cramping, she clung to the sheer slab of granite like a lizard with its many toes splayed across, searching for an imperfection to hold onto. ‘How stupid could I be,’ she said aloud to herself, as nobody else was nearby to hear her. She reached a hand out, transferring her weig...

He peered out of the eyes that were only slits, the darkness behind them seeming to show an emptiness within, and yet he smiled. His teeth were white and unnaturally straight for a man of seventy five and seemed to be the only living thing about him. He stood as erected as he was able and still slouched heavily from his arched spine. His fellow man took pity on him and he used that to take advanta...