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CONTEST ENDED – Thank you for submitting your stories!

Write a story where a character has to decide whether to press the button or not.

Posted in Science Fiction on Feb 3, 2023

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✍️ 70 stories

“OUR TIMELESS CAPSULE” by Leon Moss

Submitted to Contest #184

Last week a couple moved into the house next door. We were relieved. It’s six months now since old man Simpson passed on and left the property deteriorating. So, on Saturday morning, Betsy baked a cake and we went in to meet our new neighbors. We had barely managed to introduce ourselves when the husband, an angry-looking man bulging in a tattered vest said, “Hey, Sam, what’s that thing in your garden?”           “Ed, ......” began his wife, Ellen, who was more than a foot shorter than h...

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“Just Press the Button” by John Steckley

Submitted to Contest #184

           At the opposite ends of town, two people are contemplating the same matter of choice, yes or no. Ricky is Thinking            It was much more difficult to do in the past. Almost all of the ways of committing the act were clumsy, and sometimes didn’t even work, a horrible half measure for the person involved. Now it is so much easier – just press a button and the job is all done – clean, efficient, no fuss, no muss, n...

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“The Choice I Made” by Ariana C

Submitted to Contest #184

"CHOOSE, Press the button or don't, it's entirely up to you." Dalton screamed practically inside my brain. I would love to play the victim and act like I don't know how I got here but let us be honest, of course, I do. I know how I decided not to follow the rules and I know how now I have to pay for it. I know why I'm sitting here on this disgusting carpet floor, getting screamed at by Dalton, sobbing in front of a giant dark green button the size of a frisbee, and I know why I have to push it. This all started 1 year and 1 week ago when t...

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“Elevator” by Kathryn Kahn

Submitted to Contest #184

The Uber driver dropped her off outside the big building on Broadway. But as she approached the huge glass revolving door, she had a sudden sense of doubt, and faked a phone call so she could walk a few feet away and think about what she was doing. No, this was ridiculous. She had come all the way down here, she had made her choice, and how would she feel if she just turned around and went home? She’d spent a lot of time thinking about how to do this, and battled a lot of anxiety to get this far. And maybe something good would come of it. ...

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“The Lesser Light” by RJ Holmquist

Submitted to Contest #184

We moonlings do with great delight our labors for the lesser light.We stoke the waxing, still the waning, trim the lamp of mystic flaming.We guide the searchers in the dark and set the seasons on their mark.We turn the times and tilt the tides, and shine the beams for shadow hides.We watch the whirling world below and count the quickened ebb and flow.We moonlings do with great delight our labors for the lesser light.***Deep inside the moon, I hurried towards the surface, the rhyme of Lunar Labors on my breath. The final fullness soon upon us...

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“Will it be him” by Alex Rodriguez

Submitted to Contest #184

Will it be him               The sounds of tapping coming from the window draw my attention. It is raining pretty hard today. Beautiful Weather to travel I thought as a grin slid on my face. Zoning out. I quickly got back to work. I was overlooking the latest model we put out. Looking at the rain again. “Darn,I forgot my umbrella.” I spoke to myself or at least I thought. “I knew you would say that.”Said brad holding two black umbrellas. He came from the open doorway and s...

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“Rivalry of the colors ” by Ksenija Rubež

Submitted to Contest #184

He laughs out loud. Ha ha ha.  The main magazine of Purplelandia never failed to make him laugh. Articles, columns, or short stories written by talented writers of Purplelandia would find themselves in the mother of all magazines of this purple planet, named Landia. This was issue 8888. Purplelandia was known for its genius writing skills. Reading and writing were the most respected skills a citizen of Purplelandia could develop. Each Purplelandish child is trained in the skills of reading, to the point that it can read at least one boo...

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“Jacks dilemma” by Robert Truesdale

Submitted to Contest #184

Jacks Dilemma Act 1: Jack was a brilliant scientist who dedicated his life to solving the world's problems. He was highly intelligent and driven, with a passion for using his knowledge and skills to positively impact the planet. Jacks's latest invention was the machine that he believed could change the course of the future, which he had poured countless hours into perfecting. The apparatus consisted of a single button, one that Jack was about to press for the first time, but before he could do so, he heard a voice that would change everythin...

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“The Wind Phone” by Ashley Brandt

Submitted to Contest #184

The Wind Phone The flight from DFW airport to Northeast Japan took thirty hours. My head felt fuzzy and my legs cramped from the prolonged activity. Climbing into the taxi, I gave instructions to the driver and leaned back in my seat, closing my eyes. I rested my hand on the tiny clay jar tucked in my carry-on bag. The tears came often, sometimes uncontrollably. I stared out the window at the local geography to distract myself from the onslaught. Pedestrians drifted by on sidewalks and pedaled bikes throughout the lanes of traffic. Signs w...

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“Jonathan's Daddy” by David St.George

Submitted to Contest #184

The heart monitor and other monitors for vitals beeped and chirped on. It had sounded like that in this grand room for two months, and if you sat in there long enough, the sounds were enough to drive a person crazy. “It reminds me of the damn bridge on the U.S.S Enterprise!” Jonathan thought. Watching those old episodes of Star Trek as a kid, he’d often wondered how Captain Kirk and company didn’t go insane from the constant bombardment of sounds from the electronic equipment around them.“What’s the damage report, Scotty?” Jonathan sard...

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“I Need to Know if You Will” by David B Fraser

Submitted to Contest #184

   I was taken to an unknown location at night in a large cedar trunk. It was a new trunk and I know it was cedar because after the novelty wore off, I kept choking on the smell. Her soldiers had bound my hands and legs with twist ties but told me to push the lid if I needed any air. The drive from the hotel was at least forty-five minutes into the countryside, I guessed.     I kept rehearsing in my head; MP5s, alone, arrow, latitude, partner, enemy, decimals, commitment. I wanted to run my background again in my he...

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“A Battle Within” by Jonatan Svendsen

Submitted to Contest #184

Push it, a voice said. He wanted to, desperately, but he could not. Push it, the voice repeated. He walked away from the button, he could not let himself be tempted. PUSH IT! The voice now roared through his head and he leapt for the button out of pure reflex, but stopped himself in the air making him tumble awkwardly to the ground. He ran to the corner of the room and sat down sobbing. Please get me out of here, he thought, not daring to say it out loud. You will never get out here, the voice told him and he crammed himself further into the...

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“Flare” by K. B. Johnson

Submitted to Contest #184

“Can you imagine?” Eagar could. He had guessed the question’s implication by the crowd of people riding the metro maglev, and by the speed of the train itself. After zipping through a tunnel in the blink of an eye, its rush to the next station matched the herd anxiety onboard. Only the lanky girl who posed the question and her friend, both of whom stood crowded inside one pair of waist-high partitions of the train car’s egress, had seemed carefree. They shared a vertical handrail off the furthest partition.  “Yeah,” the friend had said....

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“Somnambula” by Dylan Patrick

Submitted to Contest #184

The excitement in the air was palpable. Authorities are still trying to determine the source. Suspects include the beachside breeze, the near-fatal intake of Cherry Pibb and cotton candy, and the dozens of distractions populating the Atlantic City Boardwalk. There were many old-school culprits that could be held culpable, but all signs pointed to the new kid in town: Somnambula, the zombie-survival AR experience.  This revolutionary experience was what brought the Corencia brothers– Chris, Kyle, and Bart– from further up north the east...

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“Saving Humanity” by Robert Radcliff

Submitted to Contest #184

A graceful landing was made by the presidential jet.The plane personifying strength, power and importance touched down. Limos were waiting to transport the president and his party to their hideaway, which was only about an hour's drive away.Joseph Frank Killarney was every bit a leader. At 6 feet 2 inches tall with a muscular physique, sculpted good looks, and teeth and hair that looked like they were plucked from a glossy magazine, he was undeniably the ideal person for these perilous times. And he had not yet turned 40."JFK," as he wa...

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Contest #184

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Ended on 23:59 - Feb 10, 2023 EST

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Title: All the Lonely People

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