future
Exploring the future of science today, while looking back on the achievements from yesterday. Science fiction is science future.
Scorched Earth Policy
In one of the Factory Worker districts of Southern Calimart, the reach of the ruling company was being tested. A laborer’s house had been vandalized some time ago, but was only recently reported. The aerial photos showed crude drawings of birds and big-headed people hugging each other. The sale of chalk was prohibited to children in the lower districts, so the local authorities were ready to attach ‘Sale of Illegal Goods’ to the vandalism charge. But no self-respecting official would go near a laborer, so something more creative had to be done.
By Gabriella Pleasant5 years ago in Futurism
Treacherous Heart
With every hastened step towards the Upper City my clothes became heavier, raindrops raced down my face freely as I had long given up trying to wipe them off. I made a quick scan of my surroundings, checking for any sign of white armoured suits or guns. It seems the months of surveillance had paid off as I met no resistance on my way to the small entrance in the shadows of one of the upper city’s shimmering silver towers. One more quick check, a swipe of my stolen key card and I was in.
By Kirsty Macleod5 years ago in Futurism
Static Nothingness
Colors of the Earth faded the second human hearts turned from red beauty pumping life to silver stillness. The flowing river of the body turned into a stiff metallic heart-shaped locket inside, encasing all of the memories of what used to be. Everything turned to grey. Those who used to run the diverse societies are the very reason the world was plagued and overrun by greed. Believing only their routine and outdated structures for countries were the only way and never trying to find a middle opinion caused intricate architecture to fall, leaving rubbles and cracked glass to cover the dirt paths that remain. Traditionals who yearned for power, yet cowered behind their tidy desks, could not adapt to the changing times. Their failures to become kind human beings led to the ultimate nuclear demise of the Earth. The heavy smog clouds our vision along with the thick lens of the gas masks, but our visions were gone long before the cloud of death emerged in the horizon. The future was no longer a dream, here everything dies. No more blue sky, warm yellow sun, or even the old green paper with different numbers that used to be one’s lifeline. The only luxury we can afford now is fear. Hiding, fighting, and running are the only activities that fill up the day, allowing us to escape from time before the clock catches up. Running on the dry, crackling ground produces sounds of static. The dim world of chaotic destruction turning lives into a flickering, yet empty screen. The only channel available to watch and try to connect to is the hovering cloud of death that resembles static nothingness.
By Tate Russell5 years ago in Futurism
X3: 215
Kerry Dutter Dystopian Story X 3: 215 Naomi Blunt plugged the code into the computer, lifted the boxy machine onto the table and waited. It began silently whirring. The readout on her timer showed seconds, minutes, and most importantly the captured energy output. Within 5 minutes the whirring slowed and stopped. Energy output: Zero. Blunt looked at the previous thousands of codes she had entered and sighed. Someday she thought, someday. There was no urgency to get this done now but she knew it was coming. As an MIT trained chemist and researcher she was employed by the Government of the Americas to find alternative food sources. Food, inside the bubble they lived in was too scarce, due to a lack of sunshine, water, and earth to grow anything in. If her superiors knew about her real research, they would kill her. She thought about that a minute, and remembered what her father had told her, “Everyone knows they’ve got to die. No one wants to do it today.”
By Kerry L Dutter5 years ago in Futurism
The Exhumed
The desecration of a grave was a crime when my grandfather was young. I recall being a small child sitting in his lap while he told me about “wakes” and “funerals” about how it was common practice then to bury people and to respect the dead. Even though it’s morbid, death has fascinated me since I was a child. My favorite story was the story of his mother’s burial. She was laid in a white, silk lined oak casket. She was adorned with her pearls and her favorite blue chiffon dress with white glass buttons down the front, her arms folded neatly across her chest, surrounded by the orchids she so fondly grew in her flower garden. My grandfather was only 8 when she passed, my great grandmother was only 34. I’ve seen pictures of how beautiful she was, she had the same light brown shoulder length hair and iridescent green-blue eyes that I have. The same athletic build and slightly above average height, We even share the same name, Evelyn Allston. I've always felt a deep connection with my great grandmother, I tend to wonder if she would despise or respect me for my job. Especially as the years rage on and I creep nearer to the age she was when she passed on. Now at twenty eight I cannot fathom only having only six years left of my life, but the harsh reality of the world we live in, that may be pushing it.
By Tyra Mitchell 5 years ago in Futurism
She Stood Still
It was the last day. The immortal sun slowly rising above the horizon. Flat. There were no rolling hills or cracks of mountain splendor rising from the earth. Not in this wasteland. There were a few trees rooted in rank soil, leafless and dying. And that blazing blurry zone just above the line where soil meets air. Dreamy and blurry. Or it was just her weakened eyes struggling to take in light after a night so dark. Last night had been without stars. A simple void. It was more than surreal. It was nothingness. And in that nothingness, her companion had mis-stepped. In that one slight there was an unforgiving sound of blade striking bone. The sound that came after that was haunting as it hung in a brief whisper of seconds and then just “thunk.”
By Judy King Sylvester5 years ago in Futurism
The Silhouette of Freedom
To the person whose window lights up in the night, It’s really quiet now. I think that’s the thing that has stood out to me most these days: the marked sense of stillness. We’ve all been given the space to think and ponder. We can sit outside in the middle of the day and just take it all in. I don’t think we ever understood what that was before. The world was loud, fast-paced, and everyone was stuck inside their own egocentric cyclone, glued to a device or an agenda and never obtaining the capacity to step out of it. We’ve been given the gift of perception in the wake of the end of the world. For that, I am grateful.
By Sophia Cousino5 years ago in Futurism
Kelly's Diary
Prologue Before the apocalypse my mother gave me her heart shaped locket, that had been passed down the generations. I never really understood what was so special about this locket until the post-apocalypse. It happened all at once, the end of the world. It all started with war! War between all the countries there were bombs and nuclear explosions. We were killing each other. So a few select people who were against the wars, were chosen to go to the island and stay there until the war was over. That island would be a safe-haven till the war was over, just over 30 people were sent to the island with pets and animals. But, somehow the location was compromised and people came to the island and killed everyone on it. A few people hid and were able to survive. My mother was killed. I was one of the few people who lived.
By Lori Brandt5 years ago in Futurism
The Two Halves
ABIGAIL DAVIDSON, THIS LETTER IS OFFICIAL DOCUMENTATION NOTIFYING YOU THAT YOU ARE HEREBY LEGALLY DRAFTED INTO THE SERVICES OF THE ARMED FORCES OF THE FREE REPUBLIC. YOU WILL REPORT TO YOUR LOCAL MILITARY REGISTRATION OFFICE WITHIN 24 HOURS. FAILURE TO COMPLY IS A SERIOUS OFFENCE AND WILL INCUR SEVERE PENALTIES.
By Sophie Carter5 years ago in Futurism
