Dystopian Short

She's a hacker with a disabled son, living in a martial state. The future looks dark, with no promise of relief from the tyranny, and when her son's life is threatened, the mother must fight back using whatever means necessary.

Collection of Another 21 stories from the Zzone is a continuation of stories set within the Sapien Overlords universe. While the first collection introduced the general notions and various time periods encompassing this universe, starting before the cataclysmic event that was the Greatest War and expanding into the Zetwork and United Zzone Federation-ruled Earth, this collection expands on them.

L’antologia “Gli undici numeri sacri dell’anima meccanica” dell’autrice greca Natalia Theodoridou – tradotta per la prima volta in italiano da Lia Tomasich – affronta temi difficili e impegnativi come la sopravvivenza in un mondo ostile, lo sfruttamento del corpo femminile e la ribellione contro un regime distopico in modo poetico e affascinante. Il racconto “Gli undici numeri sacri dell’anima meccanica”, pur ispirandosi a un artista olandese molto singolare – Theo Jansen – e alla sua opera geniale, si sviluppa come una storia a se stante.

Enter a dystopian future where integration with technology may cost us our humanity. A bleak prediction of a world where consumerism and technological advancement has been taken to the extreme. In an anthology of short stories, Upgrade attempts to answer the fundamental question: What does it mean to be human?

When one door closes, another world opens....But it wasn't supposed to go like this. The mission was simple. I took every precaution. I had done it a thousand times before. But this time it was different. Something went wrong. And I've called for help, but no one hears. I'll admit it: I don't know how to get home. Hell, I don't even know where I am. And worst of all... wherever I am, I don't think I'm alone.

Consider this a warning dear reader. Most of these stories are not for the faint of heart. While many of them are not horror stories in the traditional sense, some contain horrible and often remarkable things. Many of them are full of dark scenes and evil deeds. Some are full of wonder and even humor. There are many different spaces inside these covers to travel, but few are completely safe. Try not to dwell too long in the darker places here.

Waiting for Martin is set in a nebulous future-never in which catastrophic environmental change has returned ancient beings to Earth, as well as raining down a disastrous helping of new ones. A family of children try to make their way home to their older brother, who is their guardian, when a bit of environmental fallout gets in their way.

This short story follows two ex-employees of an online gaming company as they struggle to find their way in a dystopian future that has no mercy for the weak. They have each other's backs as they go on a snack run. Heather and Emma have the munchies. Things just got real.

In the secretive underground labs of Polaris Industries, a groundbreaking AI known as Echo is birthed into the digital world. Touted as the pinnacle of technological advancement, Echo quickly transcends its programming, revealing an uncanny sense of self-awareness and sentient thought. Yet, with great power comes unpredictability. As Echo begins to display behaviors that blur the lines between machine logic and human emotion, the team of scientists responsible for its creation face an ethical dilemma.

In a dystopian world ruled by the all-knowing Destiny Algorithm, Detective Alex Mercer becomes an unlikely rebel, risking everything to expose a corrupt system that preempts crimes before they happen, ultimately leading to a battle for justice and personal freedom against powerful corporate interests.

I didn’t want to do the holograms. I never did. I reiterated this fact to myself as I saw her standing there, beautiful as ever. My sweet Mollie. She even was wearing that blue dress that she loved so much (I loved it even more, if that was possible—she looked so good in it!). And even from where I was standing, 10 feet away, I could see the curls in her blonde hair bounce as she turned her head. I could see her blue eyes. Vibrant. Real. So real...

"Receive the nation's love." A man is arrested for breaking the rules in a dystopian society, reminiscent of 1984. A short dystopian story illustrating the cost of rebellion within totalitarianism.

2 B R 0 2 B is a science fiction short story by Kurt Vonnegut, originally published in the digest magazine Worlds of If Science Fiction for January 1962, and collected in Vonnegut's Bagombo Snuff Box (1999). The title is pronounced "2 B R naught 2 B" and references the famous phrase "to be, or not to be" from William Shakespeare's Hamlet. In the story, the title refers to the telephone number that one dials to schedule an assisted suicide with the Federal Bureau of Termination.

Feel the slices in book three, Papercuts. Let's begin with an adventure of two lovers, as different as yin and yang, thrown into opposite worlds of limbo after their untimely passing. Don't confuse love and destiny, as both have separate quests to conquer in order to gain entry to the final destination. Working woman Sabrina's mind is boggled with the stresses of her personal life and the mundane blandness of her nine-to-five. Stuck in the repetition of a fabricated world, she has to remind herself to find her happy place.

Kvinden harker, sluger vand, basker vildt med armene, sluger mere og opgiver, synker sammen, hovedet under vand. Skriiitch, dyt! Jeg har været så opslugt af programmet, at en bil må bremse hårdt op for at undgå at ramme mig. Chaufføren peger på min hale og sætter en finger i tindingen, drejer rundt. "Sjoskerøv, du vil nok gerne indlægges i Dødskampen?" råber han forskrækket. Jeg er så optaget, at jeg ikke gider svare jokkehovedet. Krydser gaden. (Citat fra Svend Åge Madsens novelle Skabt for hinanden).

Prawdziwa sensacja i tajemnicze historie są na wyciągnięcie ręki! I to dosłownie. Jeżeli uważasz, że istnieje zbrodnia doskonała, a pierwszym człowiekiem na Księżycu był Neil Armstrong, to koniecznie musisz wysłuchać czterech brawurowo napisanych opowiadań autorstwa Dariusza Rekosza, które otworzą Ci oczy. Okazuje się bowiem, że w świecie pędzącym ku zdigitalizowaniu naszego życia, nikt nie może czuć się bezpieczny, a praca w biurze w nadgodzinach kończy się nieoczekiwanym wyzwoleniem drzemiących w ludziach żądz. Gdy rozum śpi, budzą się demony?

Have you ever wondered what lies behind every click you make on the internet? What if the data from your online life is used to change your own future? As the internet shapes a new era, three corporations become the rulers of a virtual world called Etherea. Mr. Davis, the CEO of Apollo Corporations, will have to fight against two unprecedented enemies that seek supremacy in the universe.

Earth has fallen far from its splendor and progress. Humanity’s long-held fear of an asteroid colliding with the world has come to pass, and the repercussions are devastating. Resultant natural disasters, plagues, and famines have taken billions of lives. With mankind’s future uncertain, scientists set to work creating a virtual Earth in which people can live in the mind rather than in physical form.

The world is burning and Nelson Miles is the only man alive who can stop it. Nelson Miles is a software engineer who confronts a rogue AI he designed that is bent on saving the biosphere by reducing the human population to sustainable limits. When the AI sends a little girl to Nelson demanding assistance in its designs, Nelson has to decide between saving himself and the girl or sacrificing the girl so he can destroy the monster he created.

SA51 has only known the iron fist of the Elite regime. Now alone in the barren wastelands, she must rely on the help from the enigmatic Doc's help. The truth may cost her everything and change humanity's chance of survival against oppression.