The ceiling of Stormcrow's base shattered. She glared up at her nemesis.

"So-Lar!" she yelled. "What..."

"Where is she?" the hero bellowed. "Where is Jane?"

"You dare..." She stopped, confused. "Jane's missing?"

In a flash, So-Lar was face-to-face wit…

October 14

Day five that Brent has woken up ravenous and exhausted. Officially it's day five. It's been at least five days since I noticed a pattern and decided to track it's course. I'm not surprised that he's exhausted. He told me about his dreams and …

Arden Waithe never wanted to be on the boat. Or any boat. His experience had taught him that sailing was misery cubed. The rolling of the ground that never stopped, rising and falling, clenched his stomach inside an iron fist even as it spun his conscious…

She wore a smile, and not much else. "Glad to see your dress code is still... relaxed," Eric said. "You look good. 20 years has changed you. For the better."

Elena's smile widened. "Why, thank you, Eric. I didn't expect compli..."

"Especially," he inter…

She explained how this pre-natal nurse had come to see her everyday in the hospital, since she refused to leave the babe and insisted on a private room. He was handsome and did everything he could to appease her. He wasn't supposed to keep helping the bab…

The houses here were like high rise apartments lining the steep walls of the caldera. The buildings in the bowl were community buildings. I took my friend to the hospital, on the trail of his wife and the baby she risked it all for.

His name was Charlie.…

Operations came in the night. They gathered up those who were gaining entry to the caldera and led us through the giant steel doors. The tunnel was dark and dimly lit by torches. The pair of uniformed men at the rear of the procession snuffed out the torc…

"I will help you find your wife. I promise. I will not let your parent's sacrifice be in vain." Tears sprang to my eyes then. I thought that I was incapable of feeling after so much time spent distrusting, pushing people away.

"We're definitely getting i…

They gathered around me, wide-eyed.

"I told you that once you enter, you cannot come back out, right?"

They nodded.

"It's true. Unless you are a Seeker. I've been inside. I helped build Operations. I put people in place and I set up the rules. But I re…

We reached the bottom of the mountain the next day. It's steep sides were impossible for climbing. the entrance was dug into the base. Operations had been notified of our number waiting outside. The tunnel entrance was blocked by a steel door, sealed, imp…

I was left with a choice. I could go back and use my skills to get the rest of the family safely to the caldera to find out if they were worthy of entry, or I could give up and enter the caldera myself. Operations dealt with 'leaders' who couldn't do the …

She wanted something more than anything in the world. I saw the hungry desire in her eyes. She had tried to have one of her own, but the time was just not right. I saw the resentment in her eyes as she looked at him behind his back. She didn't show him th…

Dinner was spent silently chewing while the TV shared the latest in the attacks on the planet by the Croatone.

Father cleared his throat. "I think it is time we consider moving into the town bunker."

My Mother pushed the last of the season's peas around…

They came at night, as cowards always do.

The raid followed the typical pattern. The Advance Guard set a containment field around our house in case we took the fool notion to run. The Delegate knocked on our door and informed us that we were to be rel…