Dystopian Short Stories

It’s the hottest winter on record, but Raymond’s demanding, bedridden mother doesn’t mind. She likes it warm. Lately, however, control over the thermostat has become a nasty struggle. And each morning that she’s still alive is a suffocating new challenge for Raymond. How high can the mercury climb before he boils over?

Their captivity was traumatizing. And draining. But revenge is in the blood for a group of brave survivors in this chilling short story of conspiracies and youthful pleasures gone awry.

The protected escapees of the blood-farm experiments are free, secure, and set for life. Kind of. Because there’s something new to fear in this short thriller, the twisting finale of the Young Blood Trilogy.

Generations after a bloody nuclear civil war, the United States is not as we know it. The inhabitants of the Northern states live as normal, but the South, after being decimated during the Second Civil War, are a changed people. Nuclear fallout has stolen any vestige of humanity. When the aircraft carrying the President of the Northern United States takes an erroneous detour, it is shot down somewhere over the south.

In a broken world there exists a strange and sinister eating establishment unlike anything known or imagined - referred to in some quarters as Cafe Grotesquerie - where only the most discriminating and well-connected are privileged enough to enter its doors and devour its dark delicacies. Once inside, however, status still reigns supreme, and for one particular couple - Audrey and Aubrey - a hunger for power proves far more desirable than anything on the menu. But when confronted by the suspicious disappearance of their waiter, and civilization collapsing all around them, will they even be able to make it through dessert?

It is known as The Descent. The event that brought on the fall of humanity and unleashed the violent, hungry Freaks upon the world. The mysterious pirate radio voice Doctor Midnite has called for the Regulars - the humans - who are left to "Take it back." Jonathan "Pops" Poplovitch and his team of "Exterminators" answered the call and attempted to take down the nefarious Admiral Shen, who'd set up shop in Columbus, Ohio. They failed.

This original short story asks the question, "If eternal life came at the expense of love, would you choose death?"

SA51 has only known the iron fist of the Elite regime. Now alone in the barren wastelands, she must rely on the help from the enigmatic Doc's help. The truth may cost her everything and change humanity's chance of survival against oppression.

Three years after a series of massive waves takes out New York City and apocalyptic weather continues to shrink US coastlines, Julian and Kate's daughter returns to their Midwestern home...what's left of it. They should be thrilled, but while Kate is happy to have her daughter home, Julian can't quite believe it's really her. Since their daughter worked in New York City at the time of the first disaster, it seems impossible for her to be alive.

Post-war Denver is ruled by the powerful Guild, an egalitarian regime intent on maintaining order at all costs. But some of the citizens remember what it was like before the fall of the old world and will stop at nothing to bring back capitalism and democracy to their city. Meanwhile, Misha, a young farm boy with his head in the clouds, is lured in by the beautiful Kara. She holds the key to a secret that will bring Misha's world crashing down and has the potential to change his future.

This short story follows two ex-employees of an online gaming company as they struggle to find their way in a dystopian future that has no mercy for the weak. They have each other's backs as they go on a snack run. Heather and Emma have the munchies. Things just got real.

This post-apocalyptic dystopian short story follows Elizabeth, a mechanical and chemical engineer who used to work for a rapid prototyping firm. She uses the skills from her former life to provide for her and the woman she took under her protection, Melissa. The two seem to thrive in adverse conditions to bring semi-modern conditions to their hidden camp. But even after the world ends, you sometimes need something pretty.

A small group of survivors battle a post-apocalyptic landscape that is void of plant life. Hunger plagues the few remaining human survivors. The world has been pillaged and scavenging for food has become the lifeblood of survival, but starvation is now on the horizon for these fellow travelers. Many have taken to cannibalism, but this group has managed to survive without going quite so far. While scavenging, they first come across a woman, and shortly after, her child. They capture them and debate their options. In order to satisfy their burning hunger, they must first lose their humanity. Some will win, all will lose.

If someone observed us from afar, they could claim that our civilization was a civilization of walls. That was its main purpose. Such observers would likely not be able to explain why. I cannot either. Walls do not protect. They just trap and kill. Three short stories about a dystopic future, about people turning into machines, about walls and fences, about the way history works. Three short stories about now.

Kate Enrite lives in the near future where a person's influence score determines what society offers. These influence scores have pervaded social structures to the point that privacy has been outlawed as a hindrance to influence measurement. With nothing to gain from her true identity or lose as a fake, Kate fights to secure what she perceives as a better life. In the process, she will discover how long a person can pretend to be someone they are not before becoming the pretense.

Is Love is a novelette series set in a world where natural love is forbidden. Girls are to be matched by the council in order to build a desirable society. Those who violate the Caiden Act are sentenced to live in the outer compounds, where the only thing that can save them is love. This is the first novelette in a series of three.

To Chinese American teenager Chuntao, New Lake is a beautiful haven where she can hunt for treasures once swallowed up by a big flood. But when she’s caught scavenging by her biology teacher, a woman whose own past has been swept away, Chuntao is faced with an imponderable question: Which world was better - the ideal one she never knew or the destroyed one that now belongs to her?

Now the Congress of Animals is in control, unforgiving, and debating the fate of the planet’s most reviled species. The popular ruling: Exterminate humankind without exception. But a curious mare, coming of age, is making a case for a seemingly gentle person she longs to save - a wish for mercy that could once again unbalance the new and righteous nature of the world.

When Sybil's father returns from off-world, he brings the children something they've never seen before, a tree...The Tree - a short story.