Just when you thought high school was over... #YA #ScienceFiction

The Academie

by Amy Joy

The sinking feeling in my stomach renewed itself. The ancient stone building lookedthe same as I remembered, but the sixteen-foot barbed-wire prison fences aroundthe perimeter and guard shack by the drive reminded me that this was no longer Grant High School: Home of the Angry Bees.
A line had formed at the school entrance, and I looked ahead to see what the hold-up was. But given my size, I couldn’t see anything.
“What are we waiting for?” I asked the girl ahead of me.
She turned and I could see I wasn’t the only one who’d been taking this hard. Her eyes were swollen and her voice was tight as she answered. “I think they’re collecting papers.”
I started to rummage in my bag. Weeks ago I’d been given extensive paperwork to complete, and was told to bring a copy of my social security card and birth certificate.
The girl in front of me sniffed. I wanted to say something, but I kept quiet. Sometimes you just need to be alone to cry.
I watched as she tried to wipe the tears away, and I reached into my bag again,rummaging about until I came upon a pack of tissues. “Here,” I said, holdingthem out to her.
“Thanks,” she answered, accepting the pack. She wiped her face and blew hernose. “Sorry…I’m just…”
“No, it’s fine. Really, I understand.”
“I have a daughter, Charlotte,” she answered.
“Oh,” I said, surprised.
“How old is she?” It seemed like a nice enough way to make conversation.Apparently, it was not the right thing to say.
Tears started down her cheeks. “Five days.”

From "Into Thin Eyr" by Michael Horton

Caviar clicked frantically, and Eyr spotted where the chirping came from. A giant chameleon faded in and out of sight as a shovel struck one of its cone-shaped eyes. The creature chirped and lashed out its tongue at the man who’d attacked it. His body snapped backwards with a sickening sound as the chameleon gummed him down. Blood dribbled from the monster’s chin.

“Big Gone,” Eyr muttered.

She spotted the mayor holding the torch with the mother she’d met standing beside him. Both of them cried out as Big Gone charged toward them and phased out of sight yet again.

Eyr pulled the wrench from her pocket and rushed past them. The monster was twice her height at the top of its spinal ridge, but that didn’t mean anything to her. In that moment, all she wanted to do was save the people who’d taken her in.

What did it matter if it killed her? She was already a ghost.

From "The Judas Syndrome" by Mike Poeltl

Days after the Apocalypse ravaged the earth, Joel finds Gil staring into the abyss behind their house...

 “Don’t know how much longer I can keep it together.” His voice was hollow. “I don’t know. The sadness, everyone’s sadness… I hear them, their cries in the night, the walls can’t contain it. I can’t listen to it anymore.” He began to jerk as emotion overwhelmed him and the tears came. “It can’t go on like this, Joel, I know I can’t.”

I joined him at the glass door and watched the darkness distort all that I loved, all that we were...  The sky was as the earth, muddied, wretched and dark. You could suffer a case of vertigo from staring for too long.

Standing there, remembering all that this view once offered- the beautiful vistas in the fall, the lush greens of the summer foliage, the crisp whites of winter snow- I realized that memory was all that remained of this place. In my mind’s eye I saw the sun come out and cleanly sweep over the trees and the lawn, the field and the pool; all that I knew were there, but could no longer see through the thick black rain falling hard from a bitter sky.