Fiction: No Respect

“Here is a live satellite image of Hurricane Maera,” newscaster Tim Milloud said. “You can see how huge it is as it approaches the Florida peninsula. This monster is pushing the limits of what it means to be a Category 5 storm.”

“It certainly is, Tim,” said his colleague, Ellora Colonomous. “Hurricane Maera has shredded the Caribbean and the death toll is expected to be nothing short of horrific. The evacuation of Florida and all of America’s southern coastal regions is still ongoing and many people say they are headed as far inland as Iowa to try to escape Maera’s wrath.”

“We’ve still got a crew in Miami,” Milloud said. “Let’s go to Arlin Armon for a live report. Arlin?”

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Fiction: Ancestral Home

It rained all day on the Gulf Coast of Arkansas. It was a steady, drizzling acid rain that kept 14-year-old Jaci from going down to the shore to see if anything interesting from the Gulf’s past had washed up.

A huge underwater net prevented most things from reaching the massive seawall, but once in a while something interesting from sunken Louisiana would get through a big hole or over the top and through the seawall’s little channels. The Coast Guard’s hazmat beachcombers notwithstanding, it was usually a local child who found it first and then ended up in the hospital for treatment of a wound or decontamination or both.

Jaci didn’t complain to her parents about not being able to go to the beach. She’d been told often enough not to go there anyway; she’d just get another lecture and no sympathy.

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Fiction: The Beholders

In one week, a massive hurricane swept up a continental coast, flattening and flooding; an art museum burned to the ground, taking priceless treasures with it; a national leader and his family were assassinated; drought deepened across a formerly fertile region; and the seams of a cruise ship opened and hundreds drowned.

As his mother watched, he lined up automobiles on a bridge just before creating an earthquake.

She shook her head. “He’s so hard on his toys.”

His father smiled indulgently. “Yes, but he’ll grow out of it. Besides, it’s just a training planet.”