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CONTEST ENDED – Thank you for submitting your stories!

Every year, one person is sent to the moon. This year, though you hid in terror, it is your turn to enter the rocket.

Posted in Science Fiction on Jul 17, 2021

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✍️ 125 stories

“Moon Fear” by Ana V

Submitted to Contest #52

The sun stood, shining it's bright rays until it empowered the moon. It felt like ages, but deep inside my heart, I prayed that it would end. Three days of this torturous sun, crops failing and putting pressure on world leaders to create solutions. I dreamed lazily of the coolness of the dark sky, filled with cotton clouds. I knew I was not alone, billions are with me! Top scientists, historians, and Mathematics were stumbled by this particular event, and now I wonder who I do have faith in. The temperature rises every day, and so did my su...

15 comments 15
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“The Flight of Jack-Rabbit” by Joshua Portugal

Submitted to Contest #52

September 5, 3215  The Moon Troopers. My luck has run out. Run I did but relentless was their pursuit.  I could feel my heartbeat drumming in my ears. Gasping in my suit’s filtered air, I urged my aching body to keep going, dashing over protruding debris. I almost tripped over a metal scrap, barely seeing it in the dimming sunset. I can hear them speeding up. I looked behind me and saw the land rover, dust behind its trail. A Trooper pointed a gun at me. I discarded my pack in the hopes of being faster. I heard a faint cr...

9 comments 9
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“If You Shoot for the Moon and Miss...” by Taryn Holmes

Submitted to Contest #52

The announcements rang through the street in a sweet, sugary voice.  “Missing person. Sarah Springly. 23 years old, blond hair and brown eyes. If found please notify Head Office A-11. Thank you and have a nice day.” The woman’s voice was cut off with a click and a shiver ran down my spine, despite the heavy black sweatshirt I wore. I had been dodging the Office for the better part of two weeks, ever since that cursed Choosing ceremony. I glanced down the road. Left. Right. But no one was out. Why would they be? I knew everyone was insid...

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“One wish.” by Esa Manley

Submitted to Contest #52

I wish I could just go home. I wish I didn’t know how it felt to kill. I wish I never became the “Lunar Queen.” I wish for a lot of things and never wanted this to happen. It still feels crazy to think I Layla Fiann played such an enormous role in the current state of affairs. I would never have dreamed such a thing possible and to be honest with you, I suspect had I been able to take a peek at this future I would have considered it more of a nightmare scenario. It all started on the 17th January 2025, that was the day I received my lun...

11 comments 11
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“Mi pájaro cantor” by Neela Sanders

Submitted to Contest #52

In then out. This is what I long for today. The silent, unobtrusive slip into a building, then the silent, unobtrusive jump out. Of course, we humans seldom get what we so desire, but one can hope. Silently, and without hesitation, I slip into the patchwork shadows behind the house, careful not to rip a single thread of the dark fabric that could so easily reveal my presence. Deep, molten moonlight streams off my back and outlines my silhouette, a dark stamp on new paper. I crouch, arching my back before springing through the window and onto...

8 comments 8
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“Being Chosen” by Barbara Eustace

Submitted to Contest #52

You should have told them. As soon as the results of the medical had come through you should have told them, your family, your friends. Joshua. But you were afraid. Instead of telling them, instead of boasting about what an honour it would be if you were chosen, instead of letting them be proud of you, of what you might bring to the region, you choose to run, to hide. You are not a boastful person. You prefer to blend into the background, keep your head down. So when you get the results of the medical, instead of putting ...

8 comments 8
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“Children of Honor ” by Stephanie Kaye

Submitted to Contest #52

They don’t tell you how they go about the process of choosing. They don’t give you warning. They just show up at your doorstep one day, cart you away, and take you to the rocket. “It’s your turn,” a suited man tells you, and then you are off. That was how it was explained to Sloane when she was old enough to learn why one citizen was chosen each year, seemingly at random, to partake in our country’s annual Moon Mission. As a child, and even well into the early years of her adulthood, she felt exalted by the idea of traveling to the moon...

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“Out - Cast” by Aishani Gupta

Submitted to Contest #52

I looked up at the rocket.      “I don’t want to do it.”    Mr. Swean smiled. “It’s all right! You’ve worked hard for this. It’s the final moment. Time to see whether your hardwork will bring fruit. Be a little more excited, yeah?”     I sighed. If only he knew. Then I frowned. Right. Maybe, if he did know, I could avoid having to go.   I looked at him. “We need to talk.”   He shook his head. “It’s about time. No more talking.” Fine. So h...

4 comments 4
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“Blast off!” by N C

Submitted to Contest #52

“Do I really have to?” I asked the director of the spacecraft. “Every year, people are sent. You are lucky to be sent in your twenties, some go at the age of twelve. And we still need more space samples. ” “So it’s a yes?” I questioned, hoping I was wrong. “There’s no doubt.” He replied rather sternly, “Here, try on the spacesuit. Your training starts tomorrow.” “How lucky.” I murmured as I exited the lab. “Excuse me?” “Nothing.” Back at home, I collapsed on the sofa. I didn’t hate outer-space, but what they didn’t know was I was not the mos...

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“BITES” by Alicia Powers

Submitted to Contest #52

“Here worm, here wormy worm,” my son Peter coaxed the glow worm from its crevice in the cave. After only 10 minutes in the cave, his jeans were already caked in mud and his hands were an unidentifiable greenish brown color. His iPad and books lay abandoned in their moisture proof bag. “The mud will wash out,” I told myself. Even if it didn’t, a pair of jeans was a small price to pay for our safety today.  I opened my phone and searched for “mosquito release.”  I found an article updated a few hours earlier, but it me...

2 comments 2
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“Moonlore” by Kaylynn Lee

Submitted to Contest #52

I didn’t want to go. I was scared. More than scared, I was terrified. Terrified because not a single person ever came back. There were no messages or contact from the ones that went before me. I had no idea what to expect, except that I would never see my family or friends again, and I would presumably be alone for the duration of whatever life I had left. It didn’t matter that I didn’t want to do this or that my fear overtook every other instinct. I was still strapped into this stupid rocket, hurtling towards the moon, with no way to be sa...

0 comments 0
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“Bait and Switch ” by Kate Enoch

Submitted to Contest #52

“Wake up, Aniya.” My eyelids flutter open to see my mother sitting on the edge of my bed, gently shaking me awake.                “What time is it?” I say groggily.                “You have two hours until the ceremony.”                “Thanks, Mom.” Her eyes are puffy and red, like she’d been crying before she came t...

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“Final Frontier” by Steve Stigler

Submitted to Contest #52

I am continually amazed by my will to live even when surrounded by imbeciles and thugs with bad haircuts. It’s a personal flaw, I know. Anyone with the tiniest capability for rational thought would have long since given in to despair. But here I am, plugging away despite the oppressive stupidity of my homeland. Maybe I’m not too bright, either. Sometimes, I hum a happy little tune. On a few rare occasions, I whistle.  And this baseless optimism is why, even when I tucked myself into a tiny ball and hid behind the bar of Bub’s ...

5 comments 5
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“Flightless” by Rhonda Allen

Submitted to Contest #52

Although the world had advanced far beyond wilderness survival, it stopped advancing when it reached global control over humans, and free will.  My parents raised me to be prepared for this day,  we knew it would happen, it did to everyone born poor, in my generation, unless you could elude the governing bodies and escape, make it to the Oriel. You see, the government decided that the earths population was out of control, after many failed attempts at genocide, germ warfare etc. their solution was; send all able-bodied people at th...

0 comments 0
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“Baby Blue” by Linda Diaz

Submitted to Contest #52

I’d seen the signs of the snow storm coming home from work earlier that day. I’d grabbed a burger and fries at McDonalds and headed home. Something told me I should park my truck on the side of the street in front of my house just in case the storm got worse. I’d been listening to the radio on the drive home and the news said it was going to be a doozy. I’t had been a busy week. I‘d been living on fast food, too tired to shop after a full day of work. There was no food in the refrigerator and I didn‘t know if any stores were still open. I wa...

4 comments 4
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