Dystopian Mystery

"One of Me - 2 Near Future Short Stories" is a gripping collection of two short stories set in a not-too-distant future, each unraveling compelling narratives that entwine technology, morality, and the human spirit. In "The Last Rejection" readers are introduced to a world startlingly similar to our own, but with an ominous twist. The story follows the journey of a frustrated job candidate who, after facing one rejection too many, embarks on a dark path of revenge. This tale masterfully explores the depths of desperation and the dangerous consequences of a society driven by cutthroat ...

'She throws her head back and pushes her chest forward and lets go a huge blast right into the centre of his body. The rivulets and streams of red scarring run across his chest and up around his throat. She'd put her hand on his heart and stopped him dead.' Suddenly - tomorrow or the day after - girls find that with a flick of their fingers, they can inflict agonizing pain and even death.

Agent Kirsten Wren, a gifted psionic with a troubled past, possesses a rare combination of abilities that makes her a powerful weapon against paranormal threats. Adrift in a society that fears people like her, she feels alone in a city of millions. In 2418, rampant violence and corporate warfare have left no shortage of angry wraiths. Most are little more than fleeting shadows or eerie whispers in the darkness, but every so often, one gathers enough strength to threaten the living. A series of attacks by androids known as dolls leave the normal police baffled.

Skylar is a girl with extraordinary power - a girl with a mission to use her Greater-Than gifts to stop the makers of Destiny from getting people hooked on their deadly drug. But Sky is still mastering her new abilities, and her first mission to destroy a Destiny lab leaves her best friend addicted to the drug. For a few days Cal will be able to walk again - until it kills him. Time is running out for Sky to save the world without sacrificing her friends - to become truly Greater-Than.

In a darkly warped near future, lucrative disease cures are brokered on Wall Street's Genetic Stock Exchange. And the hottest consumer products are artificially synthesized humans that serve as everything from domestic slaves to combatants in savage gladiatorial games. For Jack Saxton, the young heir to genetic design powerhouse Genico Inc., these Synthates are just a fact of life...until the murder of a high-profile genetic scientist leads a pair of seasoned NYPD detectives to Genico's door.

Lionel Bigman is dead. Murdered by a robot. Guy Matthias, the philandering founder and CEO of the mega-corporation Beetle, insists it was human error. But was it? Either the predictive algorithms of Beetle's supposedly omniscient "lifechain" don't work, or, they've been hacked. Both scenarios are impossible to imagine and signal the end of Beetle's technotopia and life as we know it.

Forget the police. If you want protection, buy Death Insurance from Lemma Quartz. Lemma sells black market insurance, which guarantees that you will be avenged if you are hurt or killed. She excels at sales, and she resents her employer for not promoting her to be an assassin. And Lemma has the perfect cover: she works as a caretaker to her young handicapped neighbor, Milligram. Lemma helps Milligram walk around the neighborhood on crutches, gives him snacks when he’s grumpy, and tucks him in at night. She’s fine with selling Death Insurance to his teachers on the side, as long as ...

Several months have passed since the shocking events in Ramsar. Monique and Jonas remain locked away in an Iranian prison; billions watch as the world's leaders continue to debate their fate. Meanwhile, the Hanssen asteroid is fast approaching Earth's orbit. At last, the Consortium's end game is at hand. Will Rudy uncover the truth behind the Chairman's unimaginable plan, before it's too late?

Welcome to future-shock. Hold on tight and buckle yourselves in, because the future is on a relentless onslaught, for better or worse. This is a collection of the short speculative fiction of Gabriel Walker Land. Most stories are flash fiction, meaning less than 1000 words. Each contains a story of mystery, action, romance, and suspense.

They thought escaping the bunker was their biggest challenge. They were wrong. With little food and no resources, the fragile union is beginning to strain. But there’s something else, too - something lurking in the shadows. When the power died, the bunker went black. But it was nothing like the darkness that awaits them now. A new panic is spreading, but this time, few have hope of escaping it. This was meant to be a fresh start, a rebirth. Instead, it could be the beginning of the end. Will Callie and her friends be among the lucky ones?

Despite the tragic events at Hanssen Scientific, Monique Durand and her newfound companions continue their search for the source of her compelling visions. Are they somehow linked to the secrets of dark matter, as Professor Hanssen is so desperate to believe? Or does the truth reach even deeper - into our Universe's past, and our planet's ultimate future? To find out, they'll need to outwit the Consortium, a secretive group of trillionaires who now have what they need to achieve their own, long-awaited end-game.

Prepare to enter the magnificent Kingdom of Durundal with the first novel in the series - A Hare in the Wilderness. When a child is born into the House of Gnaeus, death marks her from her very first breath; and the Emperor banishes his heir, Ajeya, and her mother from the palace in Ataxata. Now, mother and child are forced to flee to the edge of the world in a race against time to find salvation in the clans. For it is said that when war threatens the kingdom, one individual will be selected by prophecy to lead the people out of the land of darkness and reclaim the freedom which has been ...

✤ A gripping supernatural thriller that will keep you on the edge of your seat until the very last page. ✤ What if everything you thought you knew about History was a lie? When archaeologist Viviane Robert receives a desperate midnight call from her father, she has no idea her life is about to change forever. Hours later, he's kidnapped before her eyes, but not before revealing a shocking secret hidden within an ancient Sumerian clay tablet: for millennia, a powerful group known as the Guardians has been waging a secret war against the mysterious Brotherhood of the Serpent. From Rome to...

When propagandist Paulo Xirau dies and is discovered to himself be a "machine", State Security Agent Nikolai South is given a new assignment he could hardly want less: chaperone the widow, Lily, the only "machine" visitor ever invited from the outside world, and help her determine what happened to her husband. Nikolai knows it will be nearly impossible to complete the job without running afoul of the Party - but when he sees that Lily bears an eerie resemblance to his late wife, Nikolai stumbles on a larger plot.

Resist and Evade follows Sam and Jane Archer as they continue their nightmarish journey through an increasingly hostile and unrecognizable landscape. Torn between a fundamental duty to protect family and their sworn service to community, the Archers reach a critical decision point -- with all or nothing stakes. As local police officers and military veterans start to retake their communities from a gang of ruthless criminals, unbreakable bonds will be forged and unthinkable sacrifices will be made.

In Earth's decline, the drone keeper lives by his own rules...until someone notices and then he must depend on both beauty and death from the thing he loves most.

The year is 2195. The place is New Victoria - a high-tech nation modeled on the manners, mores, and fashions of an antique era. A teenager in high society, Nora Dearly is far more interested in military history and her country’s political unrest than in tea parties and debutante balls. But after her beloved parents die, Nora is left at the mercy of her domineering aunt, a social-climbing spendthrift who has squandered the family fortune and now plans to marry her niece off for money.

Before you start. I wrote this science fiction adventure in the hopes of leading young people into the joys of sci-fi possibilities and fun. But it's not limited to youth. I've encountered many older readers that felt the memories of their younger years. So, don't exclude yourself because it's about a genetically altered youth and his struggles in a world that's unique, yet troubled just as is our own. In a mutant sci-fi world, the rebellious son of surface trader Captain Radoon Gydlin, endures dreams of places he hasn’t seen and disasters that haven’t happened. When he visits Below, a ...

2033. Une guerre a décimé la planète. La surface, inhabitable, est désormais livrée à des monstruosités mutantes. Moscou est une ville abandonnée. Les survivants se sont réfugiés dans les profondeurs du métropolitain, où ils ont tant bien que mal organisé des microsociétés de la pénurie.

America is falling, ready to join the Roman Empire as a distant memory in the annals of history. The year is 2027. Tired and desperate, the American people are deep in the middle of The Second Great Depression. The Florida coastline is in ruins from the most powerful hurricane on record; a second just like it is bearing down on the state of Texas. For the first time in history, the Middle East has united as one and amassed the most formidable army the world has seen since the Third Reich.