Sensitivity Training

Not another sensitivity seminar! The professor already kept his door open when he was with a female student. What more did they want? And who else had been sent this message from the dean? Nobody had been cc’d, so the professor forwarded the message to the entire department, the colleagues scratching their heads when they got it. Why had the professor sent them the dean’s message about sensitivity training? Each colleague checked the skeletons in his closet before flinging their doors open to the punishment of pizza stacked up against the professor’s office. One good prank deserves another, they agreed. From Guest Contributor Cheryl Snell

Cheryl's recent fiction has appeared in Gone Lawn, Necessary Fiction, Pure Slush, and elsewhere.

When I Realised The Earth Wasn’t Flat, I Felt Pretty Damn Foolish

The swarm arrived at the beginning of the week, their language that of war, and humanity the patient listeners.

Continents of flame pulsed now, flickering orange across a world recently gone dark.

Those who could, stayed and fought. Crumbling capitals and plasma-charred skeletons formed the battlefields of Earth by midweek.

Those who couldn’t (and those like myself who wouldn’t), hopped on the soonest evac shuttles to Mars.

I nudge a couple away from the window to catch the last view of a burning Earth from orbit.

The sight haunts me.

After all this time, I had guessed the shape wrong.

From Guest Contributor S.R Malone

Love You Till The End

NATURE SUBMISSION:

I’d never seen a more glorious sunset, even after a tornado. Half the sky was a golden yellow and the clouds above the sun were skeins of vermilion fire. Even the orange flames on the horizon dulled in comparison. Dust in the air; much of it probably radioactive.

We had come out of the root cellar, its door fortunately hidden by an overgrown raspberry patch, where we’d hidden from marauding mobs that had fled the cities, and hidden again when the pursuing troops began shelling. Our house and outbuildings were charred skeletons, the animals gone. We were still holding hands.

From Guest Contributor F. J. Bergmann

While The Dragon Yet Lives

Sir Hadder rested against the boulder. He needed time to catch his breath after hauling his heavy armor and weapons up the mountain. Unfortunately, the racket had warned the dragon of his arrival, and Hadder heard the beast emerging from its cave.

One peek around the corner showed Sir Hadder a field littered with the charred skeletal remains of the many heroes who had preceded him on this quest. No knight could wed the King's daughter while the dragon yet lived.

It made him wonder if marrying the princess was worth it. After all, she was now over 40 years old.