In The Ashes
By Tom Weiss
INT. LARGE MAINTENANCE BAY – AFTERNOON Ali surveys the activity in the large, open bay facility. Four vehicles, indistinguishable from US HMMWVs are spaced out in the middle of the bay. Weapons, ammunition, and equipment are lined up neatly on tarps next to the vehicles. Middle-eastern men in US uniforms work on the vehicles and […]
In The Ashes
By Tom Weiss
EXT. BAGHDAD ZOO – MORNING The zoo used to be gorgeous. Dotted with manmade lakes and crisscrossed with canals, the zoo has a grand design but hasn’t been maintained for years. The habitats and cages are mercifully empty. But there are people. Thousands of them. Lined up from the entrance all the way to a […]
In The Ashes
By Tom Weiss
ALI Our friends in the East can talk to me. Attacks against Americans will stop for now. I will not say this again. Ali presses a button on the table next to him and a doorbell sounds. A YOUNG SERVANT enters the room obediently and looks to Ali. ALI Chai. The young servant turns and […]
In The Ashes
By Tom Weiss
FADE IN: INT. GARAGE – NIGHT TWO IRAQI MEN, early 30s, dressed in begrimed coveralls and work boots, tinker with a nondescript white 4-door sedan. The garage door is shut, its interior lit harshly by bare bulbs and portable lights shining where the men are working. MUSTACHE MAN, sporting a thick full growth obscuring his […]
Unwarranted Jurisdictions
By Ouisie Ouisie
Mark’s phone beeped. Text message: "Go." He picked up his newspaper, shouldered his backpack and walked out of the Starbucks, joining the other Newark commuters streaming to Manhattan. The station was three blocks away, departure in five minutes. Shuffling through the turnstile, he scanned the platform. No transit cops in sight. He boarded the train […]
At The End Of All Things
By Joseph Holmes
Satisfied that he had enough money, Jack opened the register. He carefully placed the bills and coins in the right spot, taking out what he needed to give himself exact change. He did this formulaically, routinely. The first few times he’d done a transaction with no one at the register he felt a little weird. […]
Coyote Skull
By Erich Forschler
Mr. Hall went to town a few days later to buy some traps and more shells for the Spencer. But when he got there he found the town full of Federal troops. They had made a temporary camp at the edge of town, and their wagon train had rutted the main road so badly somebody […]
Coyote Skull
By Erich Forschler
The tree trunks made black lines from where they broke the white snow and rose until the frozen needles met in one dark mass. High above, the moon held bright and full. The treetops, sealed in ice, glinted bluish white. A wind came then, carrying a distant yelp that spread and sank away in the […]
Grounded In New Pittsburgh
By Ted Elrick
It was a neat house, set in a row of neat houses, each indistinguishable one from the other. The same white recycled clapboard, the same solar conduits, the same porch swing swaying silently in the wind blowing across the same front porch. I was tasked with investigating potential unrest at number 16 Acer Palmatum, the […]
THE SUPER-SECRET, EXTRA-PERSONAL CAMPAIGN DIARY OF HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON #103
By Lari Vine
Dear Diary, When I take office, I will be 69. Note to speechwriter: We need more “69” jokes. It’ll go like this: I make the reference, then act like I don’t know what it means. Finally, at the last possible second, I wink. (I want a lot of this. Start a file called “sexy factor.”) […]
