Halloween, 1918 Jory hums a pleasant tune as he washes his hands. The white tiled walls of the embalming room reverberate his sonorous voice like a concert hall. Behind him, Peter’s body lies prone on a metal table. Still humming to himself, Jory dries his hands and sets to work. He shaves the back of …
Car crashes can happen easily. A simple matter of not following the lanes of the road will do it. But in a world where everyone is forced to stay in their lane, one man tries to veer off the path. “The Exile,” by Alfred Copper (published in Astounding Science Fiction, May 1952), is set eight …
What would you do if living off-grid were nearly impossible? If infrastructure itself were like a city-sized amoeba, reaching out its pseudopods of wires, roads, and plumbing across the Earth? What if, even after running away to a remote spot deep in the woods, you still had to look over your shoulder for fear of …
A clown walked up to the gates of Hell carrying a gallon of gasoline. He was bathed in red light from a big sign that read “HELL.” Before entering, he paused. It was hard to believe that he had built this enormous thing. He and Jane. The first room was meant to look like a …
Henry is sitting as still as a statue. The morning sun is coming in through the blinds, making bands of light across the patient charts on his desk. His desk phone rings. Henry makes no move to answer. After a moment, there is a polite tapping at his door. Henry stares straight ahead; even his …
