The weather, whilst for the most part extremely pleasant, was prone to occasional unexpected extremes of heat or cold or sleet or wind. The response of the denizens had been to build the entire thing indoors. There were courtyards and cloisters open to the air scattered liberally throughout the city, with grass and trees and […]

Joshua got a job driving one of those scooters with the signs on the back. It seemed more productive than quietly raging about them. It wasn’t a case of “If you can’t beat ’em, join ’em”, though, he figured that he was doing some good. Rather than using it to contribute to air pollution, noise […]

For nine years his name had been growing in infamy. For the last five almost every soul on the planet had known who he was, and almost all of them feared him. It had been bank robberies at first, but soon that wasn’t enough. He needed more than he could buy with money. Now the […]

Falling Blossom walked through her front door and into the living room of her apartment. She didn’t turn any of the ceiling light on; didn’t even take off her shades, though they did adjust to pick out the edges of the room and the couch in a ghostly white. The storage bot zipped out of […]

Sarah had played in the forest since she was a child. There was a clearing with a waterfall that was her favourite place. She had spent many afternoons swimming in the spray or lazing on the sun-warmed rocks. The route to the clearing was different every time, but that had never seemed strange to her. […]

The forest comes right up to the city wall to the south. People have tried to cut it back over the years, but no headway is ever made. No-one has ever seen them change, but the paths between the trunks and under the leaves never seem the same twice. Every year a few people go […]

Björn Hammerson was a dwarf. It was genetic, which is to say he was actually a Dwarf. He worked construction in New York, and had always liked doing basements the best. Although he had no real fear of heights, when standing on a girder on the sixtieth floor of some new building frame there was […]

The lagoon was still and clear, protected from the ocean by a rock wall stacked loosely enough to let the tide through, but high enough to keep the waves out. The wall didn’t look man-made, though it was hard to imagine such a perfect spot occurring by chance. The lagoon was perhaps fifteen metres across, […]

The three men moved cautiously out into the street: Deacon leading, Silver and Casey watching the rear, all three with rifles at the ready. The static howls of the Scavengers echoed through the streets as they picked their way across the rubble blocking the intersection. “They’re close,” whispered Silver. “I hope you’re good with that […]

Sally had heard of a boy in Omaha who could see through walls. There was a girl in Los Angeles who could fly, and one in London who could turn into a liquid. Scientists were talking about ‘artificial evolution’, though nobody was sure of the cause. Sally knew that what they really were was mutants. […]