Thick Crust

The real Spartacus was among the guys who answered to that name when Romans captured hundreds. No photos on file—he was the one who looked like Kirk Douglass.

He’d take his punishment alone for leading the slave uprising. Except his men wouldn’t allow it. The Romans spread them out along the Appian Way, crucified.

Appian Way was a strange name for a box mix of pizza dough a few eons after the action.

No one schools Romans. That’s clear as he walks to the cross they raise. Still, he’d do it all over—break for freedom, die beside the road.

From Guest Contributor Todd Mercer

The Great Screen

Hiro couldn’t stand it. Every day, the same routine of work, eat and sleep gnawed at his core like a termite. So one day, he lay down, refusing to work.

Though he eventually starved, news of his acquiescence spread throughout his country. Hiro’s fellow humans followed suit across the globe until soon, the entire species rejected the daily grind.

Without such toil, the collective energy - generated from human labor that had for eons fueled the great screen obscuring the viewing capacity of even the most powerful telescopes - dissipated.

Suddenly revealed, the entities beyond abandoned their observation of Earth.

From Guest Contributor S.F. Katz