Fatigue only pushed them onward. Concepts of time diffused in their wake. Hunger atrophied-- a hollow thought redressed by expectation. On and on and on they soared through the comforting cold of liquid space. Above them the great void; below the dense, rocky base of the world; ahead only blackness. Gliding up, then down, the [...]
We upload your consciousness, it runs in a simulated 1960s Lagos, the quaint elder city; but it's totally cool! OK, it runs slowly, and it's grainy (a few details are lacking), but the Uploaded never notice; they lack detail too. Your body is destroyed in the process, but it's immortality; don't worry, we keep you backed up, we [...]
I lick the blob of blood on the tip of my thumb and resist crying as we paddle our old canoe toward the effulgent rays emanating from the lake. “We should probably uproot that tomorrow morning.” Papa tips his head toward the slim plank jutting out from the water near the rickety dock behind. My [...]
“It is time to move on,” the elders had proclaimed when the last of the grass and bushes near the village were gone and the sand flowed over land that had once been fertile. It was the same story that had been replayed over millennia of time. As the land grew parched, the people would [...]
The tear was gruesome. It came from the coat hook that had caught Meena on the back of her shoulder, after she fell from the ladder. She had been attempting to change a light bulb in the kitchen but now she stood in the bathroom, twisting her body toward the mirror, staring. The tear was [...]
The wildebeest— with formidable horns curved and hooked to gore, musculature evident in Serengeti sun, hooves heavy as iron, agile as a gazelle’s —prepare to cross the Mara River. Nile crocodiles lie in wait, their backs rippled like quiet water. Black eyes, like hungry bugs hatching from shadows of waves, survey the herd at water’s [...]
<Load Text File Evidence/OSAS/Encrypted_H-Mail_to_active_ENIX_members> Transmitter: [UNKNOWN – SOURCE TRACE FAILURE] Reception Date: Hour 16.45, Day 243, Year 2505. Subject: “Prepare Yourselves” Receivers: [UNKNOWN – SOURCE TRACE FAILURE] When the hunger and the bombs came, we forgot our heritage of independence and reasoning. We descended into an abyss of sheep-like senselessness. We gave them our obedience, [...]
It’s not the cold what kills you. Not the naarg-wolves neither, Maw says, though they’re plenty scary. No, it’s the Dreams what’ll get you in the end. Dreams what wake in winter and sleep in summer. If only summer weren’t so short. Like the song of a chitkil it is, a burst of glory that [...]
The Lord of Darkness assembles himself from the shadows, takes form in a corner of the room, and then scampers to the edge of the bed. He pauses, looking. Others had done it, and so would he. He is Nunsk, a nightmare of the mortal realm, soon to deliver a horror of the night so [...]
Meg Eden's work has been published in various magazines, including Rattle, Drunken Boat, Poet Lore, and Gargoyle. She teaches at the University of Maryland. She has four poetry chapbooks, and her novel "Post-High School Reality Quest" is forthcoming from California Coldblood, an imprint of Rare Bird Lit. Check out her work here
