“And in the second year it reached Byzantium in the midst of spring, where I happened to be staying at the time. And it came thusly. Many people saw demonic beings in human form of every kind, and as it happened, those who encountered them were struck, in this or that part of the body, by the man they had met; and  were so seized by the disease. Now at first those who met these creatures tried to turn them aside by uttering the holiest of names and exorcising them in other ways as best one could, but they accomplished absolutely nothing, for even in sanctuaries, where most of them fled for refuge, they were dying constantly. But later on they were unwilling to even listen to their friends when they called them, and they shut themselves up in their rooms and pretended not to hear, although the doors were being beaten down, fearing that he who was calling was one of the living dead…” – Procopius’ Account of the Plague in Constantinople during the Reign of Justinian (more…)

Darin leaned back and his chair creaked as he looked out from behind the wall of his cubicle.  He felt like the last person at the lab on campus, but he knew that wasn’t possible.  Hell, it was only ten o’clock.  Felt like midnight.

Sidewalks were empty, fluorescent lights hummed in the hallway, but they were too dim to see very far.  He’d been pulling late nights running some biochemistry tests on a sample the biology students picked up at the lake.  Some kind of organism that was unlike the other forms of algae they’d found.  It was resistant to most of the standard analysis at the lab, too.  It behaved like a parasite, in a way, consuming the algae and changing its form.  It multiplied by an insane rate once it achieved a foothold. At least that’s what the centrifugation process suggested. (more…)

Its always nice when one of our contributors releases a book, especially when that contributor is three time TOWWZ contest winner Jeffrey DeRego. His book ‘Escape Clause’ is currently available through ENC Press, and is based in Jeff’s superb Superhero universe  of  ‘Union Dues’, where having a super power is not dream, but a nightmare of bureaucracy and control. I have followed Jeffs ‘Union Dues’ stories for a number of years now, and can’t recommend this enough. (more…)

They don’t tell you about the hunger.

It’s all about numbers for them, sales and commissions and profits and retirement funds. After the bottom fell out of the stock market, those who didn’t kill themselves found salvation in the latest phase hitting the country: zombies. (more…)

Your mockery knows no end, so again I lash out sending your hollow skull crashing across the confines of my prison.

No, No, respect the dead, the deceased. It’s not my mere skeleton companion that imprisons me here, no it’s the demons at my doorstep. (more…)

It grips me, grabs me, shakes me violently aware;

Flies, a pestilence on the fallen, hangs over the dismal, grim spectacle.

A horde of insatiable scavengers tear at the blue-bloated carrion of society’s fair.

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Roxanne felt a sharp cramp in the side of her abdomen as she sprinted towards the denser forest area.  Quickly glancing over her shoulder, the man who had attacked and brutally murdered her fiancé was still in hot pursuit.  On the verge of exhaustion and her stalker gaining more and more ground on her, Roxanne knew that she was running out of time.

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SEQUEL TO IRONY

Brian Gren was a simple man with simple tastes. He liked his coffee in the morning, scotch at night and a full rest in between. He always had it too. Running the hardware store in town kept his needs meant and living above it made his life almost too easy. Well, that life was soon tested when the Darkness came around. Just waking up from a long night with his loveliest bottle of cheap scotch, Brian found that he may not have another night like that in quite awhile. The Darkness he heard people call it, assumingly because it had come on at night, Brian wasn’t too sure. Not many living people roam around outside anymore to talk to.

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