Spetsnaz08

     Estee was a Green. She had been a Green for as long as she could remember. And the only thing she was certain of was her hatred of the Yellows, Reds and Blues.      She was on the hunt for members of the rival factions, patrolling the empty streets of No-man’s land with her tranquilizer rifle in her gloved arms and the hem of her green cheongsam dress swishing around her legs. The shift was nearing completion, and so far they had encountered no enemies to add to their ranks. Estee kept cool, surely some prey was just waiting around the corner.    “Any sign of activity?” Meera asked Estee as they walked side by side,

    Over twenty-five years ago Jeannie Jacobs was a young woman who dreamed of leaving the sleepy village of Little Lowerby to explore the world. She worked at the tea room owned by her parents, saving up to fund a trip to some exciting, extravagant country. She wasn’t fussy regarding her destination. She just wanted to leave.    Had her car not been rear-ended two days before she was supposed to leave by a tractor driven by a young farmer by name of Duncan Kay, she would probably have left Little Lowerby forever and never looked back.    Little did she know as she furiously screeched at a bewildered Duncan about the damage caused t

The thunderstorm was finally dying out, and the flashes of lightning were becoming fewer and further apart. The storm had been ordered by the governing council of Municipal Habitation Centre 231, in order to clear the air, and to help with washing the streets clean. Tomorrow there would be bright sunshine in a cloudless sky, a perfect day for picnics in the park or days at the beach. But tonight, the citizens of MHC231 were staying home, or were finding somewhere fun to shelter from the weather. Most of them, anyway. Even in the early twenty-second century, with a technologically advanced and socially diverse and enlightened world culture, th

EPILOGUE [The scene cuts back to where the story began: the Japanese town of Shinonome. Every citizen in the town was resuming their normal lives. The scene cuts to a park where the camera moves left to a giant, sports stadium. The camera zooms in and reveals a huge crowd of people watching and cheering for a basketball game. This time, it was the finals match between Team Xros Heart and Team Samurai Warriors. The score was tied like the last game with 20 seconds remaining on the clock. Claudine, Zen, Keith and Angeline were watching the game. Claudine had the group photo on her cell phone. Claudine had an expression of no memory being of th

It is truly most undignified and unladylike to awaken from slumber after a party with a splitting headache. Often such a scenario means a lady has had rather too much champagne and potentially made a fool of herself in. It is tiresome that the women of future generations treat getting as soused as possible as some kind of badge of honour.   No, in my glory years waking after a party with a headache was something of a rarity. Unless – of course – your champagne flute had been spiked with a knock-out drug.    In the aftermath of a particular ball in the summer of 1949, it took me quite some time to realise this particular headac