Purse

Ivy slid into the little seat at the coffee shop table. She always arrived a few minutes early to her appointments - she was obsessed with being prepared.

Natalie was almost always the next to arrive, being the very picture of punctuality. She slid into the seat next to Ivy. “Still waiting for Liz?”

“Aren’t we always waiting for Liz?” Ivy sarcastically asked as she sipped her iced cocoa.

“I’m here!” Liz took a deep, gasping breath, “Look! I’m even almost on time.”

Natalie raised an eyebrow, “I see you stopped for coffee on the way to your coffee date with friends.”

Liz’s face flushed, “Well, you can never have too much coffee, right?”

Ivy laughed, “Any coffee is too much coffee.”

Both Natalie and Liz sighed at their friend.

“Does anyone have some chapstick?” Liz asked.

“Just a sec,” Ivy unslung her purse and started rummaging in it. “Mmm, it’s usually right here on top,” she said as she slid her arm impossibly deeper into the medium size bag.

“It’s not that important,” Liz started.

“Maybe I left it in the other bag” Ivy muttered as she reached in even further, her shoulder disappearing. “Ah ha! Here it is!” she exclaimed as she withdrew her arm, only to reveal a new purse, that looked suspiciously larger than the first.

“I’m sorry, what?” Natalie started.

“It’s just a purse guys.” Ivy said as she flipped the chapstick to Liz. “Want one?”

Hunted

Tameka blinked, her world looked as though someone had overfed a sugar plum fairy too much candy, shook her up, and let her vomit color everywhere. There was no rhyme or reason to the gobs of bright color, it just was. It annoyed Tameka. She was used to clean whites, delicate pastels and rustic earth tones. But that was back home.

Tameka brushed her way through the crowded bazar, a sense of urgency pushing her feet a little faster than normal. She was looking for a way out when a puff of steam rose in front of her face, the smell of spices making her mouth water. She hadn’t eaten in three days. Or was it four?

She sidestepped the stall and nearly ran over a pet dragon. It hissed at her and scuttled backwards between its owners legs. A little child with dark skin and electric blue hair bent down and scooped the spooked lizard into their arms. Tameka didn’t stay around to see any further reaction. She was pressed for time and if she didn’t make her flight, she couldn’t save him.

The Jäger stood leaning against a stall and watching the crowd. Tameka’s heart froze - they were hunting her. Luckily her legs kept moving and she slipped behind the Jäger and into another fast moving stream of bodies.

Up ahead she saw her exit, the sun was streaming through the open doorway and Tameka saw the airship.

On and Off

"Have you tried turning it off and then on agai.. . ." Meghan began her monotonous greeting.

"Yes!" A panicked voice interrupted her, "That's when all of this started!"

"Can you explain the problem that your computer is having?" Meghan asked politely, only half listening for a response.

"It's trying to eat my dog!" There was a loud banging and the squeals of an upset canine blared through Meghan's headset.

"I'm sorry, Ma'am, can you repeat that." Meghan asked, but she heard only cursing and the sound of commotion in the background. "Hello? Hello Ma'am, are you still there?"

Panting, the woman picked up her phone, "Yes, I'm still here. What do I do about this thing?! I've locked it in the cupboard!"

Meghan was unconvinced that this wasn’t a prank call, “Can you tell me the brand and model of your computer?”

“It’s not an Apple, that’s all I know.” the woman’s voice sounded distant.

“Can you describe the logo on the case?” Meghan began to ask.

“You know I wouldn’t put it past those apple people to do something like this.” The woman was rambling, “but I couldn’t afford one of those, maybe I should have. . .”

Suddenly, there was a crashing sound and a weak scream escaped the woman’s lips as the line went dead.

Meghan stared at her phone. Then she hung up, shook her head, and looked up the customer's phone number, sending a memo to her supervisor.

Clouds

Cloud harvesting was illegal.

But the conditions tonight were unbeatable, and Tamra had an anxious buyer with a bonsai terrarium that was going dry.

The combination of a moonless night with pre storm laiden clouds was as ideal as any harvester was going to find. Tamra was one of the best, she knew the air currents, the police patrol patterns and more importantly, she knew the clouds.

Cloud harvesting was the perfect game of double dutch. You needed to be in the right place, at the right time. Tamra had only been caught once. If she had been an adult she would have been executed, but since she was only 11 she had been grounded and made to live like a Terraist for five years.

Hanging underneath the police landing platform, Tamra made minute adjustments to her glider. Tonight the winds would be fun, unpredictable, but most definitely fun.

The sound of heavy boots came from above her, a change of shifts. Tamra heard the soft landings of the men coming in and watched the dark, almost black silhouettes of men taking off into the night sky.

She waited for fifteen minutes, and then four steady breaths before she prepared to take to the skies. Like a swimmer beginning a race, Tamra coiled her legs and core then simultaneously released the catch to her glider and pushed off into open space.

In an instant the clouds and darkness enfolded her.

Oasis

Persephone had never been so ungrateful in her entire life. She knew she should have been, she had been wandering in the desert for most of a week. She had finally been saved, but maybe not for the best.

She had been slowly staggering towards what she knew intellectually was a mirage of an oasis, it wasn’t the first time, when she stumbled into a helipad. It was a rich, custom helipad exquisitely manicured and decorated.

Persephone remembered finding what she supposed would be a safe haven, and she remembered collapsing in the cool grass, but she didn’t remember anyone coming to take her captive.

Now she found herself in a small room, It was probably a broom closet that was hastily converted into a cell, cool and away from the baking sun. But she was still dying of dehydration and starvation.

Upon waking she had crawled to the door, determined to start pounding and yelling for help, but she was so weak that she could only scratch quietly and croak out moans hoping that someone would hear and help.

Hours passed, or maybe it was days. Persephone had long since given up on time. She knew she should be grateful, someone knew where she was and had “rescued” her, but as time slipped by she grew more panicked.

The door suddenly swung open and Persephone was greeted by the unblinking eyes of a lizard the size of a horse.

Prayer

She was bone weary exhausted. The victory feast had been a welcome distraction, but as the clan leaders droned on she felt the weariness seep into every muscle and every fiber of her body. It was time for a much deserved rest.

As she opened the door to her home her eyes filled with tears of gratitude. One of her slaves must have run on ahead and lit the hearth.

With the door firmly closed behind her, Agatha let the mask slip, she nearly stumbled as she knelt before the warmth emanating from the hearth.

“Thank you,” she murmured, “thank you for the brave who took up arms against us. Please guide their souls to a well deserved rest.”

“Thank you for blessing us with courageous men and women. Guild their souls to great glory and prepare them to fight for the end.”

“Bless the families of those who have lost, who are without husband, brother and son. Help them to feel glory at the sacrifice that was paid for them. Bring peace to their sorrows.”

“May we always strive to fight for your honor, and to bring pride to our clan and people. For thee and we.”

A Agatha paused for a brief moment to cement her prayer in her heart. She made her way to her bed and buried herself in furs. As she drifted off to sleep, she promised herself that she could sleep for a week.

Fight or Flight

Anikevna was falling, in the ocean, in a glass box, naked.

She must have been drugged, she was waking up because the temperature was dropping. Her first instinct was to break the glass and swim for the surface, but it was getting dark.

Twenty feet away she noticed movement, a man in a box similar to hers. She raised her hand, but he kicked out and broke the glass. It imploded around him, shards of glass rending his body. He wasn’t moving.

Anikevna wanted to throw up, to scream or run away, but where? She fell silently deeper into the cold waters.

Not much later Anikevna was startled by the base of her box magnetizing to a conveyer belt, with dozens of other boxes, or parts of boxes. It slowly drew everything into a dome.

The inside of the dome opened up to display thousands of boxes, being stacked up the walls. Anikevna blinked. There was air, maybe she could escape. There was a woman ahead of her who thought the same, she broke her box and tried to run.

Two robots rushed forward, the first caught the woman by the head and crushed it, the second gathered up the body by crushing the bones and pulling the mass inside before moving to a new task.

Anikevna’s box was stacked and locked into place. It wasn’t long before she felt air circulating, and even less time before she was asleep.