Morpheus Tales: The Best Weird Fiction Volume 3 Ebook

Introduction

It’s amazing to think that we started Morpheus Tales in 2008, that’s 5 years from the publication of this book! This is our fifth book. The third volume of the Best of Morpheus Tales Magazine, and we’ve also had the pleasure of publishing an original anthology entitled 13: Tales of Dark Fiction, and a collection from one of our regular contributors, Matt Leyshon’s The Function Room: The Kollection.

We like dark fiction, horror, bizarro, dark fantasy, dark sf and general weird fiction. We’ve tried, and succeeded, to publish a wide range of fiction in the magazine. We’ve published first time authors alongside well-established professional writers.

It’s always a pleasure to read submissions, even the one that don’t make it into the printed magazine are enjoyable (to a greater or lesser extent). Whittling down the hundreds of submissions to a few gems is the most difficult job we do, and here, collecting all of those gems together, rereading these stories, and seeing them all in a nice paperback edition, makes all that hard work worth it.

Morpheus Tales isn’t made by us. We just put it together. Morpheus Tales is created by the writers and artists who contribute to the magazine, the proof-readers, columnists and reviewers, those who put their souls into what they create and then trust us with it.

To all our friends, contributors and helpers at every level, we thank you!

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Welcome to the dark side, we hope you enjoy the ride...

Adam Bradley

The Return By Eric S. Brown

Jack knew the end was coming. He leaned back in his recliner and fired up a cigarette, flipping through the channels on his small TV. He was determined to find a station that was still on the air which was not broadcasting information about the storm.

After running through the channels twice, he gave up and hurled the remote at the screen in disgust. As it struck the screen, shattering the glass, and sending a shower of sparks drifting to the carpet. Damn it! he yelled and took a long drag of smoke into his lungs. Cradled in his lap was his .357 Magnum. The only remnant of his old life. Before last night, he thought it would rust forever buried in mothballs and too small clothes in the depths of his closest. Now he held it again in his hands though it brought him no comfort.

Jack heard, before he’d lost interest, enough speculation about the storm and what was causing it to know a simple man like him had no hope of ever understanding the bugger and he didn’t give a rat’s ass. The storm came from seemingly out of nowhere, beyond the cometary belt, and made its way towards Earth as a giant wall of fire engulfing all in its path. Over half of the world and everything in the solar system beyond had already felt its fiery embrace. Fiery embrace, Jack muttered aloud, stifling a laugh. It only looked like a giant fireball from the outside according to the scientists. The robotics probes the world governments had launched into it had sent back pictures of the cities already inside it before they had stopped functioning. Pictures of untouched cities that looked normal in every way except for their complete lack of life. No one could even guess what had happened to the people who were inside it. They were just gone.

Jack knew he had prepared himself as best he could. He had made a run to the stores before the mass panic got too bad and stocked up on enough beer and cigarettes to waste an army. Jack had also picked up a box of ammo for his .357. Inside his pockets were several extra sets of rounds to go with the loaded gun.

For the first time in years, he was glad that Sue was gone. It seemed so long ago now since the wreck out on I-40 that had taken her from him. She’d been on her way home from another late night at the office in the school writing her lesson plans and setting up her room for the next day. She had loved her job so much. That was when a drunk named Walter Wiggins had taken everything from Jack in a matter of seconds as he had cut in front of Sue doing 80 mph in the turn on Hall’s bluff and sent her car careening off the road as she tried to avoid a head on collision.

The thought of Sue made Jack lumber over to the fridge and pop open a beer. He could swear he smelt her hair even now. The clean and freshly washed scent of her hair as she crept into the bedroom after work and laid her head on his chest like she had done so many times before. Not the charred and burnt stench he’d smelled at the hospital as they had covered her skinless face with a white sheet. He could still see the blood seeping through the thin material as they hauled her away. Her funeral had been a closed casket one with good reason.

Jack downed the bottle in a long gulp and opened another. He was alone now and the storm was coming.

The Magnum felt good in his hands. It reminded him of his days as a cop. Being a cop had meant almost as much to him as being a teacher had to Sue. Still he didn’t regret what he had done. The look on Walter Wiggins’ face was priceless as he had caught the man pulling into to his own driveway hours after Sue’s death. Walter had staggered out of his car and ran for the front door of his house as Jack’s police cruiser had pulled in behind him. Walter had been so afraid of getting another ticket and loosing his license. Jack had caught him easily and shoved him to the ground pressing the barrel of his .357 to Walter’s forehead. Jack had smiled as he pulled the trigger and watched Walter’s brain matter explode from the back of the drunken man’s head staining the gravel.

Walking over to the window, Jack looked out from his apartment at the fire in the sky. It was less than a mile away and creeping towards him. The streets below were empty except for a few abandoned cars. Everyone else had fled the city, hoping to put a few more moments between them and the storm. It would catch them though. There was nowhere to run now.

Jack noticed there were still lights on in the church across the street and wondered if a few of the faithful had stayed to wait on the end and pray together. Had Sue been alive that is where she would have been, waiting on Jesus to take her home to heaven. Jack knew only Hell awaited him. He’d never believed in a God. Not with all the things he had seen everyday on the force and certainly not after what had happened to Sue. No God who loved humanity could ever have let her die that way after the life she’d lived.

He continued to stare as the fire raced over the city. It burned over his window giving off a bright glow but no heat. Suddenly the room seemed to swirl as the storm took him, reality itself folding and distorting. Jack blinked and he was no longer in the apartment. He stood in an open field surrounded by rolling hills of green grass that glistened with a gentle morning dew. The sun shone bright overhead, smiling down on him. Jack, a voice called from beside him. Walter Wiggins sat on a rock near him, smiling. It’s good to see you again. It’s been too long.

Walter appeared just as he had that night in his driveway. He wore a blue T-shirt soaked in his own blood and tattered blue jeans. Walter smelled heavily of drink and decay. A jagged hole remained torn in the flesh of his forehead from where Jack’s bullet had entered. Jack jerked up his Magnum, levelling it at Walter’s chest as Walter got to his feet. The meadow they stood in echoed with thunder as Jack fired again and again. Chunks of meat and bone flew from Walter’s body as the man toppled over to the ground and spasmed as still more bullets ripped into him until Jack’s gun clicked empty.

Jack felt a hand on his shoulder, warm and gentle. He turned to see Sue standing behind him. Unlike Walter, the scars of her death were gone. She looked more radiant and beautiful than ever. Her eyes met his and he saw that hers were wet with tears. A man stood beside her, dressed in white robes, glowing brighter than the sun. An aura of peace seemed to emanate from him.

Walter got to his feet and walked toward the three of them. He still hates, just like me.

Yes, the man in white said sadly, He does.

Sue sobbed openly and turned away from Jack as he moved to embrace her. Jack fell to his knees as he realized where he was, tears welling up in his own eyes. Forgive me! He screamed. But Sue and the man were gone, only he and Walter remained.

Walter walked over and helped Jack to his feet. It’s time to go home, Jack.

Jack watched as the grass around them dried up, becoming brown and brittle. Clouds covered the sun and a new wave of fire swept towards them.

You bastard! Jack raged, pulling himself away for Walter. You’ve taken her from me again! Jack lashed out, his fist striking Walter’s jaw so hard his own knuckle shattered under the blow, but Walter didn’t move or acknowledge the attack in any way.

Jack, I took her the first time, but this time you were all on your own.

Tears bled from Jack’s eyes as he stared at Walter. Why?

Because, Jack. You’re like me more than you know. Walter turned to watch the fire streaking towards them. Jack screamed as it swept over them. It engulfed him as he howled in pain as his flesh melted and bubbled away. But he did not die; this pain was endless and eternal.

Originally published in Morpheus Tales #8, April 2010

The Last Human By Thomas Henry Dylan

I remember when it was almost time to enter the outside world and the feelings of excitement and fear that came as the time counted down. I hoped that there wasn’t going to be anarchy, because anarchy seemed a little peculiar to me (there is one rule for anarchy: there are no rules). I hoped that there wasn’t going to be communism, because Dad had told me that- hundreds of years ago- the Russian rulers had told the farmers to give the same amount of meat over so it could be shared out, and the farmers had eaten all of their meat because they thought the other farmers would secretly hold some of their own back and in the end, there was no meat to be shared! It was democracy that I wanted to step out into the outside world with me and the other survivors. Democracy had been the popular rule when the world had launched its nuclear missiles and other devastating weapons, but it had also been popular for hundreds of years before that and people had gotten on. Not always, but it had taken the final war a lot longer to appear than feared.

I’m sorry. I’ve started my story at the wrong place and you are probably wondering what is going on. I get things a little mixed up sometimes.

I was educated by my father in a LFP Tank. The Life Form Preservation Tanks were originally modelled on the primitive bomb-shelters, but improvements in science and technology made them infinitely better. The ground floor level of every home was in fact an LFP Tank- it just hadn’t been activated yet (that was why every home had a toilet and bedroom downstairs as well as up). When the nuclear missiles had been fired, the LFP Tanks received a signal and were activated; a protective coating raised up from the ground and covered your home (slicing your home in half in most cases, as the shell usually covered one storey before turning inwards to make a roof of sorts- which is why the things that you needed were kept on the ground floor. If it was upstairs, you no longer owned it.). Lights came on within your little home, your urine was collected and purified to be turned into a drinkable substance and artificial vegetables were created for you by the Tank. I never got to taste meat because of this. Dad once explained that the Tanks were going to be built with a system that created artificial meat for you, but in the end this system was removed. The human race should not have a taste for meat when all of the animals would no doubt have been wiped out, after all.

The tank will open when the radiation levels have dropped outside, Dad once told me while smoking a cigarette, the Tank cleaning the air all the time. Going by the timer, he continued, I would guess that we will be out in around thirty years.

What if the tank breaks? I asked. What if the vegetables are no longer made, or the air and water systems break? What if - in thirty years - the timer stops, the systems are deactivated but the door doesn’t open?

An unlikely scenario, he smiled.

Unlikely, but still possible...

You may be wondering where my mother was during all of this. Well, Dad had told me that she had died during childbirth. When I asked him what had happened to the body, he told me that he had taken it into the underground labyrinth beneath our home and gently placed her there. A small few of us, he said, were granted access to the underground network. I was a chief scientist for the government, so I was given such access.

There’s another floor? I asked with excitement. Can I see it?

I blocked it off. The last thing we need is mutated rats and cockroaches coming in here.

As I grew a little older, I thought of the Tanks in greater detail- and the floor that had once been above us which had not been protected.

When the signal was sent and the Tank was activated, I enquired, what happened to the people who were upstairs or not at home?

They died, Dad said so easily. C’est la vie. Now, activate the computer system and read chapters one to five of The God Delusion and then we will watch a movie. I think we will watch... Romanzo Criminale and discuss why going against the law is wrong.

Whenever we watched a movie, Dad would tell me that the world would look nothing like the one on the screen when it was time for us to venture out into it. Fortunately, Dad never got to see the outside world again. Cancer eventually took hold of him and when he grew too weak, the Tank system told him that he could enter the Life Cancellation Tray.

I am sorry about this, he said as he removed his clothes and stood on a small square of glass, neatly folding his garments before dropping them to one side. Only ten years to go and you can go outside. I’m sorry I won’t be with you.

But how will I survive? I asked as the square that he stood on began to descend, taking him with it.

Just act human, he said, and then he was no longer on my level and another sheet of