Tag Archives: postapocalyptic

Creativity, Fiction

Makers of History

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From the Microcosmicon, 38:

“I’m Empress Rathoi!” Nili screeched from her dingy cubicle.
“Every two damn minutes,” Anned grunted, turning in her sleeping bag. Old Nili was getting worse.

Anned wasn’t much better off. She’d wind up a meaningless husk, like everyone else on Toreadis.
Yet something rebelled within her, coherent, alive, like the stars judging her from above the collapsed Toreadian skyline.

The following day she snuck onto an airship for Arctamam. First, the pirates welcomed her among their ranks; and when the constitution was abolished, the revolutionaries. After the war, she was crowned empress.

Nili never knew of her role in history.

MQS

Creativity, Fiction

The Sentinel at the End of Times

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From the Microcosmicon, 19:

The Moon was a lonely place, even after terraforming.
To allay the sense of separation, he would point his telescope earthward, like the omniscient narrator of a distant drama.

Thus he witnessed the world go under, swallowed by wars and famines and plagues, evaporated in a cloud of screams, till nothing but a barren desert was left.

Initially, he grieved.
Then it dawned on him. No longer separated from life, he was life. Filled with an ease that made his soul soar in billows of mirth, he stopped observing.
And, in the star-pinned silence of existence, he began to dance.

The Sentinel at the end of times

MQS

Creativity, Fiction

The Virtue Signal

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From the Microcosmicon, 17:

If God Exists He’s a Hippie.

Science Confirms: Universe Wants Us to Make Love, Not War.

Harmony of the Spheres Makes Aggressive Lab Rats Love Each Other.

‘Virtue Signal Key to World Peace,’ Says Scientist Who Harnessed Mysterious Space Frequency to Tame Lions.

First Experiment on Humans Confirms: Virtue Signal Effective in Conflict-Solving.

Legislators Looking Into Uses of Virtue Signal. ‘Only in Extreme Cases.’

Virtue Signal Used on Difficult Schoolchildren. Why It’s a Good Thing.

Crime Rate Drops Thanks to Virtue Signal. World Peace Next.

Unidentified Objects Sighted Over DC.

‘Negotiations with Invaders Successful,’ Says President After World Population Decimated.

The Virtue Signal

MQS

Creativity, Fiction

A Sociosyntonic Disorder

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From the Microcosmicon, 16:

They streamed down the street, groaning like a storm-bearing wind, their bodies emaciated, covered in sores.
Screams. They grabbed hold of a girl. In another moment, her head was cracked open, her brains devoured.

I watched from my balcony, horror sliding down the surface of my mind, without living much of an impression.
Then I retreated into my kitchen, put out the cigarette, approached the fridge and opened it. Leftovers from my last meal greeted me, his brain marinated with ricotta cheese.

I heard them approach my driveway.
Excitement enlivened me. I knew the right crowd would swing by, eventually.

A Sociosyntonic Disorder

MQS

Creativity, Fiction

Problem Solvers

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From the Microcosmicon, 9:

On that planet, it seems, technology had reached such a degree of perfection that no problem had been left unsolved. To this day, in all corners of the galaxy, whispers are whispered of their wondrous inventions.

But those visiting the planet today report of the immense silence that envelops everything. A depthless emptiness is over all, unchallenged.
Nor are there first-hand accounts of this alien folk.

Some of their fascinating trinkets have reached us, but not a single one of their myths or tales, not one of their beliefs. As if, together with problems, they had run out of ideas.

Problem Solvers

MQS

Creativity, Fiction

The Waiting Ones

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From the Microcosmicon, 5:

Farodor fell away, a dying man’s eye drooping shut.
The Transplanetary Lifeboat Aeterna began her pensive trudge across space as the planet went out in a burst.

Initially, all those aboard counted themselves fortunate for escaping a terrible fate.

But then, as months chased each other meaninglessly in the great stillness of everything, a gloom descended upon them. One hundred years separated them from Neo Farodor. Only their grandchildren would see the New Era.

And they realized that there is a fate heavier than death—being stuck between the old life and the new, between one purpose and the next.

Those who wait

MQS

Creativity, Fiction

The Synthwave Surfer’s Sacrifice

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From the Microcosmicon, 4:

Among shiny towers of data he surfed. Spambots attacked him. He dodged. He fired back. He surfed on.
He reached the Control Chamber. Doubts crept into his mind. But he pointed his gun at the motherboard. And shot.

He reopened his eyes. He was at home. Outside, no towers of data. Only rotting, overgrown buildings. Screams of irritation everywhere. The illusion had ended.
Instinctively, he tried to stand up. Then his eyes fell on his atrophied legs.

He sighed, wheeling himself out into the real world, where everyone was alone, and everything was messy. They could start anew from there.

The Synthwave Surfer’s Sacrifice

MQS