He went into the kitchen and poured her a glass of water. How long has it been since you've eaten?"I'm not hungry," she said. She seated herself slowly, tentatively. Two, maybe three days. Ever since Sister Samain wrested control of the coven from the Council. Thank you …" She took the glass from Jeremiah, still looking at the paintings. They're all done by the same hand, aren't they?"He took off his wide-brimmed hat and studied them. The same eye....

dark horse/ˈdärk ˈˌhrs/noun1. a candidate or competitor about whom little is known but who unexpectedly wins or succeeds."a dark-horse candidate"Join us for a monthly tour of writers who give as good as they get. From hard science-fiction to stark, melancholic apocalypses; from Lovecraftian horror to zombies and horror comedy; from whimsical interludes to tales of unlikely compassion--whatever it is, if it's weird, it's here. So grab a seat before...

"Take the fatal shot," said Horseshoe. He must have laid down his rifle because I remember him helping to steady my own. "Easy now, you'll own this forever-" I stared the thing in the eye and squeezed the trigger. It threw back its head, rising up. It gasped for breath, spitting more blood. It barked at the sky. Then it fell, head thumping against the deck. Its serpentine neck slumped. The rest of its blood spread over the boards and rolled around...

He begins trembling violently, turning this way and that, knowing he cannot find the truck, knowing that if he did it would not make any difference, it would not stop the ground from rolling or the terrorists from coming or Tiangong-1 falling or Mt. Kilauea from erupting. It would not stop the transmission from bleeding or the windshield from cracking. It would not stop the projector from burning out, from leaving them all in blackness, to shiver...

Scenes and Interludes ... from an Improbable End A new series in the Flashback/Dinosaur Apocalypse Universe I looked to see Nigel and Ewan entering the shop from the left, the latter seeming like an utterly new man-his hair no longer mussed; his clothes no longer a catastrophic mess. "Apologies, apologies, a thousand apologies," he said, before pausing to admire Gargantua. "But a maiden voyage such as this requires a fresh change of clothes." He looked...

Scenes & Interludes ... From an Improbable End A New Series in the Flashback Universe ... "I'm not a killer, if that's what you mean," he retorted, then turned away and watched the fire, hands on his hips. "Nor will I let any of us be. I mean, if I've said it once I'll say it again: this isn't about bloodshed. It's not even about rebellion. It's more about …" He paused-as though saying anything else could only lead to regret."I thought it was about...

"Wow," said Annie, her arms tightening around his waist. "Are you feeling it too?" He focused on a dark shape hovering just above the wheat-several dark shapes-like hummingbirds, but big. Something glinted blue-black in the sun. "What do you mean?" "The mescaline … I'm still tripping, baby." Her inner thighs constricted against his hips and he thought of the fantastic shag they'd shared in California-while standing doggie-style amidst the Vasquez...

"For one, Americans don't run. That's just not what made us great. It sure as hell ain't what made us great again, that I can tell you. We may withdraw on occasion, as I directed us to in Syria, but we don't run, and we sure as hell don't crawl hat in hand to some shit-hole like Mexico-especially when they're no more capable of dealing with this than is the greatest nation on earth-I mean, am I right, folks?"And to Tess' utter astonishment, people...

Welcome to the Big Empty, the world after the Flashback, a world in which most the population has vanished and where dinosaurs roam freely. You can survive here, if you're lucky, and if you're not in the wrong place at the wrong time--which is everywhere and all the time. But what you'll never do is remain the same, for this is a world whose very purpose is to change you: for better or for worse. So take a deep dive into these loosely connected tales...

First came the time-storm, which erased half the population. Then came the Dinosaur Apocalypse … How did it all begin? Well, that depends on where you were and who you ask. In some places it started with the weather-which quickly became unstable and began behaving in impossible ways. In still others it started with the lights in the sky, which shifted and pulsed and could not be explained. Elsewhere it started with the disappearances: one here,...