It was the most complex creation ever built, in space or on Earth. It had been designed by the most sophisticated mind the Earth had ever known, Eve Eden, the AI, Goddess, and Empress of Earth. She had dedicated herself to its construction for the past de...
“May I interrupt you, Father Erik?” Erik looked at the young disciple in white robes standing in front of him. He wasn’t sure why they all insisted on calling him Father other than he was old. Grandfather would probably be more appropriate. Erik had been...
“We are the Disciples of Eden,” Mia said as she handed him a box lunch. “We are here to help.” Perhaps Erik could be forgiven for letting his defenses down. They were nice. So very nice and friendly. And he had suffered for so long. Perhaps that was part...
Erik woke up shivering with cold unsure if it was day or night. He freed his arms from the sleeping bag and pushed the quilts covering him to the side. He could faintly make out the walls of the bathroom so it must be daytime. He had insulated the walls o...
“Why not send someone else,” Laura asked, “like the sheriff or the police?” “I just have a feeling this is something I need to do myself,” Erik said. “I think that is what Daniel intended. There may be some information at Daniel’s house that could help us...
Ed Johnson’s son, Ben, had been shot in the driveway taking a bullet to the chest and a second to the back of his head as he lay dying. His blood had soaked into the ochre gravel of the road staining it nearly black. Large blue-black flies were swarming o...
It had been two weeks since the Big-Shut-Down, or BSD as people were calling it, had taken out anything connected to the internet or satellite systems including cell phones, about half of the cars, and most computers. The banks, electrical power, and phon...
“She pretty much drives herself,” the sales associate had said. Erik had been impressed by how the car was able to steer around corners, slow down for traffic, pass other cars, and even parallel park by itself. The car had been a bit of an extravagance co...
“It’s declined.” “What?” Erik asked. He had been thinking about how he was going to fit all of the groceries into his car. “Your credit card is declined,” the young woman at the cash register said disdainfully. “Do you have anything else?” “That one shoul...
“There’s something off about her,” Daniel said. Daniel was sitting at the bar surrounded by a disarray of empty glasses and a half-eaten bowl of popcorn. The long narrow barroom was illuminated by the gray gloom of a rainy afternoon seeping past the neon...
Barry hadn’t committed a crime for over twenty five years. Surely that was long enough to let things go, let the past swallow up his misdeeds? Enough time to move on. Standing by the front door, he held the handle in his clammy shaking fingers, gulping fo...
