Queer Sci-Fi – Flash Fiction Contest

This year’s entry into the Queer Sci Fi – Flash Fiction Contest

Rise (Noun)

1) An upward slope or movement

2) A beginning or origin

3) An increase in amount or numberttaining certainty about something

4) An angry reaction

Rise (Verb)

1) To take up arms

2) To return from death

3) To become heartened or elated

4) The exert oneself to meet a challenge

With the world in turmoil, we all need a little hope, so this year we chose a word rife in meanings and ripe for inspiration.

Tell us about rise in all its forms and the difference it can make on your characters, the culture, and the world, for better or worse.

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Here’s a bit of context: The Great Dying takes place around a hundred years from now. Luca and Afi are siblings who managed to escape captivity while their captors (and seemingly everyone else around them) were dying from a viral pandemic. The two siblings were part of the SzabadPest free zone that had popped up only months earlier. However, they’d been captured by the city police and charged with a series of crimes. While they were being held for further processing, the world went to shit…

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How It All Begins (the beginning of the Great Dying)

Before Luca can even scream, Afi cups eir sister’s mouth. E whispers in her ear, eir mouth rubbing against her soft earlobe. Her short, bristly hair tickles eir nose a little.

“It’s okay! It’s okay! I’ve got you.” E is gentle, eir tone calm. “Stay. Quiet. Please.” But e is also stern. 

The moonlight shines down on the twisted body of a cat that lies sprawled in front of them. Motionless. Its patchwork fur is matted, the abdomen bloated. This corpse isn’t the first one that the two siblings have seen since escaping captivity two days ago. It won’t be the last.

It’s early autumn. There’s a chill in the night air. Afi and Luca are looking for a temporary refuge to get some rest. They are tired. Tired of always moving. Tired of seeing death. Everywhere death.

Abruptly, in the near distance, they hear human voices. There is yelling and grunting. The sounds of pounding fists, clanking weapons, and sharp cries echo across the street. In an alcove flanked by vestiges of the Old World now in ruins—probably an old gas station—there are three bigger people cornering what looks like two smaller people. It’s an unfair fight. 

It occurs to Luca that these are the first living people e’s seen for what seems like weeks.

Afi mindspeaks to Luca. We have to help them, Sis. E doesn’t want to attract attention just yet. 

But…What if th… Luca only gets part of her thought out before Afi interrupts. We have to help, Sis. That could be us someday. E knew she would try to talk em out of it. 

Afi quickly scans the ground around em, picks up a large stone, and runs toward the action. Luca is right behind em. She mindspeaks, Be careful, Sib! 

And neither turns back.