SF Drabble #254 “Modular”

The old, damaged arm snaps off, the new one snaps on: problem solved. Time was it would have been a trial, with doctors and operations and pain and suffering. Don’t get me started about what health care used to be like.

Now both arms are new, and both legs are still like-new, still under warranty. All of my internals are upgrades, and not cut-rate stuff either, only the top-of-the-line: when you work for GovSec you get the hookup.

But most of my head’s organic; the brain is still totally ‘factory’. It’ll be years before I have to go full-on ‘droid.

Zombie Drabble #286 “Useful As Well As Ornamental”

He cut the zombie’s head off with one swing. The sword barely slowed on its way through spine, much less the rotten flesh of the neck. It may be a reproduction, he thought, but it does the job.

The effort he’d gone to sharpening it had been decidedly worthwhile. The others had scoffed, left him behind. He’d run into what was left of a couple of them since. Here, Emma, he had said to her, see if having your head cut off hurts more or less than having your chest cavity eaten out must have. Waste of time, my ass.

Fantasy Drabble #183 “Husband”

It’s almost two in the morning. I’ve left the back door unlocked, and a few of the ground-floor windows open, just in case. I didn’t leave any lights burning, though: that would just make George nervous. He likes the dark, at least until his eyes have started to change back to normal.

He always comes back; that’s the only reason I let him out. I could have a cage built, we have the money, but I don’t see the point. George has never eaten anyone we know, and it’s only once a month or so, so why should I bother?

SF Drabble #253 “Eyewitness”

She could hear the whine of the repulsors before she saw the running man. Where the young fool thought he was going, stolen purse still in hand, she couldn’t say: but he was giving it his best shot.

The NForceBots shot up the street after him; had there been no pedestrians to avoid, they surely would have had him already. Finally one was close enough for a clean shot, and the familiar blue beam reached out and transfixed the runner.

The purse dropped, unharmed, to the sidewalk; one of the ‘Bots swooped in and sucked it up into its undercarriage.

SF Drabble #252 “Big Bertha”

The generator is twelve kilometers long. Sorry: tall. When we dug up the heat sink ring, we thought it was some strange alien architecture, designed to awe and inspire. The circulation vents we initially took for mine shafts, sealed against the harsh, toxic climate.

When we turned it on everything became clear. We lost three people who happened to be standing on an contact plate; those areas must have been cordoned off originally, or the builders were simply careful enough to avoid them.

Doctor Stein says it’s connected to something, something we haven’t dug up. It may be a weapon.

Zombie Drabble #285 “Interview With A Zombie”

Tell me: how did it feel? What is the last thing you remember, if you remember anything? Do you remember the sniffles, the headache, the muscle pains, the lethargy? Do you remember the dizziness? The nausea? Do you remember people being worried for you, and then feeling pity for you, and then being frightened of you?

Don’t bother trying to answer. I know you can’t talk now that you’re a zombie.

I remember. I remember it all because I beat it: my immune system fought off the plague. Barely, but it did. So therefore, I’m the one with the chainsaw.

Fantasy Drabble #182 “Wizards Of The Coast”

So when I first came out to L.A., I worked at the catering company. We did a party up at one of those mansions in the hills: full of celebrities, and very tall women in very short dresses, and coke. I was standing there with a tray of cold hors d’ oeuvres in my hand and who walked in but Mifflek.

Fucking Mifflek, man. I knew him right away because of all the TV coverage the duel with Chazz The Red got. He took one of my pigs-in-a-blanket or whatever the fuck they were, and said, “Thanks.”

It was awesome.