Follow That Car

Sam sat in his taxi as the raindrops pattered against the windscreen, looking up at the dim stars battling to be seen in an expanse of grey. The day had been as dull as any other. A woman leapt into the street, black coat flailing around her, her hand stuck out. He pulled over and she darted...

Horizontal Babel

The Wall was raised over months of work, cement and barbed wire dividing one tongue from another, one people from another. Soldiers walked from one end to the other, their rifles clicked like beetle's pincers as the desert sand lapped at their boots. They didn't hesitate to fire. Their eyes were hidden behind black sunglasses:...

Queen of the Lonely Paths

Ardhyld was a War Queen, her sword never far from her hand. Across the land, thousands quaked in fear of her and her fierce warriors, slaughtering under the Lion's mark. One night she and her warriors made camp by the river by the shadow of the Grimwood, laughing and drinking long into the night, rejoicing...

Three Eyes of Fire

Three lights shone overhead, piercing the dark metal of the gates. Edgar avoided them, keeping to the shadows. Shadows were softer, safer. Shadows didn't pin you down and cut you. And the three lights became three staring eyes of fire, sweeping the cold stone towers for him. The metal fences gleamed like teeth, shook as...

REVIEW: Star Wars Episode V: The Best One (AKA The Empire Strikes Back)

All right, everybody strap in for the second installment of Star Wars Week here on LAS, building up to the release of Rogue One. This time, it's another rambling essay posing as a review by yours truly. There are spoilers, obviously, so if you don't know who Darth Vader is, stop reading now. Star Wars...

Quarantining Time

The decay came suddenly, as if years were passing in seconds, as if time had made some terrible mistake. Metal rusted; wood rotted; everything fell apart. Cassie ran, but an invisible barrier threw her back. It felt solid as steel. Everything froze, as if she was in a paused video. A groaning sound filled the...

Warm Breath

That morning, as Carmine waited in the abandoned warehouse for his contact to show, he was surrounded by cold darkness, as if he was buried in a tomb. His breath rose into the air, warm steam spilling from his lips, then grew warmer and warmer until he realized that it wasn't just breath that was...

Isolation

At the edge of everything, where wild winds whipped over wine-dark waves and the air was cold as ice, he waited in his lighthouse. Only a narrow, snaking bridge of stone – a bridge few would ever be brave enough to cross – connected it to the shore. On moonless nights, when the waters were...

Shadows Under the Stairs

There was no top and no bottom. There were only the stairs, climbing upwards and downwards, a vertical eternity. How long had they been climbing? Vicki asked herself this question every night as they made camp upon a turn in the endless stair, breaking a bannister for firewood and cooking whatever it was they'd hunted...

SPF – Armour

Lieutenant Jeffries knelt in the trenches, watching the silent battlefield before him. It was a world of mud and blood and rain, a wet and murky place where the nights rang with laser fire and thunder. Lightning flashed over the distant mountains, barely visible through storm clouds and gas clouds. A bitter chill filled the...