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Write about a character preparing to go into stasis for decades (or centuries).

Posted in Science Fiction on Oct 15, 2020

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✍️ 108 stories

No Hard Feelings

Winner of Contest #62 🏆

Dear Winston,By the time you’re reading this, I will already be a human popsicle. I know you don't support my decision to freeze myself. Still, I want to make you understand it... Winston Solis held the letter in trembling hands. Hazia’s exuberant penmanship swarmed over several handwritten pages like ants on a mission. There she was, having the last word again. But something about the cursive made Winston’s ribs ache and his breath catch. It seemed more a piece of her than the sweaters she’d left behind in their townhouse, or the ...

402 likes 168 comments 168
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The Population

Submitted to Contest #62

They rushed him to the hospital. Timothy laid on the wheeled stretcher. He was ready.A few weeks ago, he got an email saying that he had been accepted into a science camp. Timothy was overjoyed. He had been trying to get into that camp for three years.Timothy counted down the days until camp started. Nothing else mattered to him. If he got grounded for not helping out around the house, he would just lay in bed thinking about the camp. As long as he got to go to that camp, everything was fine.Finally, the day had come. The camp bus drove by h...

92 likes 34 comments 34
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Reborn

Submitted to Contest #62

Who am I? My eyes flutter open landing on a short female, a “Dr. Sanders” as it says on a rectangular card pinned on her shirt. There are crowds of people running around, testing things, like they’re in a hurry. Laboratory. The word comes to me quickly, though I was fine with the “not knowing” I had always been accustomed to. The Dr. Sanders places a hand on my shoulder and smiles. “You’re finally ready.”  I can tell from the color of the sky that it is going to be a different kind of day. The Dr. Sanders, as usual, presses a few butto...

67 likes 12 comments 12
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Field trips when your name is Beatrice

Submitted to Contest #62

“Come on, people! If we’re gonna finish touring this museum today, we’re gonna have to hustle!” Mrs. Harui shouted over our excited voices. Mrs. Harui is my science teacher, and today we were going to the science center. I’m ok with science, but it's not my favourite subject ever. My name is Beatrice, and my friends and I are the exact same (kind of). Rea likes art, just like I do. Jumi loves hummus, just like me, and Mary likes to practice skateboard tricks, even if she gets hurt in the process, JUST LIKE ME. So we basically did everything ...

63 likes 37 comments 37
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Best Served Cold

Submitted to Contest #62

"Your Grace, I regret to inform you that the constant provocation of lawless elements from your duchy have forced my lord, His Majesty, the Emperor of Barundia, to declare war upon you." The popinjay ambassador from the power-mad tyrant bows as he speaks. "Do you wish to respond?""I would like a week's time to arrange my abdication," I answer. "If I can manage affairs with my subordinates, my people will not suffer.""We know your coffers are full. Should they be plundered ere the week is done, no place shall hide you from our lord's wrath.""...

60 likes 19 comments 19
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The ATLAS Program

Submitted to Contest #62

“Name please.” “Ryan Nero,” Ryan answered. “ID Number?” “ASD34523.” The guard nodded and opened the doors to the underground chamber, revealing gray stone walls, and a high-tech looking computer at the end. There were two platforms on either side of the chamber, holding carbon fiber pods with a bluish substance inside them. Ice. As Ryan walked into the chamber, he peered into the pods, with curiosity rippling over his face. He saw ghostly pale faces inside, eyes closed, almost like dead bodies. Which they practically were. Ryan w...

58 likes 52 comments 52
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Am I...? (Part 3)

Submitted to Contest #62

Hell is truly a good place. Take it from a person who has been there for twelve decades.Hey again- this is Iris. Iris Jones- the werewolf. I am rather tamed now, actually. The devil who took me away was rather kind. What was his name again…? Ah, yes- James. We had to first go and meet his friend, the angel. Benjamin.“Hey, Ben!” James called out as soon as we reached his doorstep on earth. A clearly sleepy and irritated person answered the door. “What is it this time, James? I swear, if it is another of your pranks, I’m gonna turn you into a ...

57 likes 26 comments 26
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Forward Thinking

Submitted to Contest #62

Footsteps echoed down the hallway. They paused as their owner peered into a room. The door creaked slightly as they shut the door behind. Stephanie could hear them as they searched for her, moving files and shifting furniture. As if they thought she was hiding behind a desk. She glanced around. It was an ordinary office. Nowhere to hide. They’d find her quickly. She felt a violent shiver go through her body. She couldn’t let them find her. She had to hide. The footsteps were getting louder. Maybe the person was in the room next door. Ignorin...

50 likes 11 comments 11
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Going Into Hibernation

Submitted to Contest #62

Going into Hibernation “PLEASE EVERYONE PAY CLOSE ATTENTION TO THE NEWS!! WE WILL BE REPORTING EXACTLY WHERE TO GO AND HOW TO ATTEMPT THE PROCEDURE AND DOING THE PROPER STEPS CORRECTLY. DON’T TAKE ANY FURTHER ACTIONS UNTIL WE TELL YOU TO DO SO! STAY TUNED FOR MORE UPDATES FROM NC 24/7.” I can’t believe we are doing this. All of humankind around the globe were going into stasis. I can’t imagine how the entire world will work after there is no activity of humankind! What would happen to our houses? ...

48 likes 10 comments 10
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Stasis

Submitted to Contest #62

I hold my breath, sweat trickling down the side of my otherwise composed face."Sanna 195-C" the professor calls, resulting in a daunted looking girl with mousy brown hair being pushed from the crowd.She's wearing the same white uniform as the rest of us. She looks like us, she dresses like us, she came from the same situation as us. She is like us, yet they shove her forward trying to avoid expulsion from the program into the world outside, a world of certain death. Is this what we have come to? She looks around the crowd frantically se...

43 likes 17 comments 17
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Yellow

Submitted to Contest #62

Lois leaned against the window panes, carelessly letting the afternoon sun bathe her in autumn leaves and wash her problems away. She did this every morning, you noticed, while she ruffled the black and white newspaper and pretended to read it. Everyone knew she couldn’t read, but they didn’t say anything because she could barely keep a conversation alive either. She also hummed. Tunes of darkness like the sticky syrup Al drizzled all over their pancakes on Sundays. Lois couldn’t remember the words but she could remember the instru...

42 likes 33 comments 33
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Only Human

Submitted to Contest #62

“A good Screecher is a dead Screecher.”—Commander Sigit, Year 4096After an eternity spent wiping the blood of two different races out of her eyes, the only thing Rani wants to do is melt into a puddle of numbness. The chrysalis before her can grant such luxuries; tailored to fit her proportions, it whispers sweet promises from against the wall like the mouth of a coffin.As if to remind her she doesn’t have all day to decide if it’s a good idea to suspend all biological functions for three-and-a-half centuries, a muffled explosion from somewh...

41 likes 24 comments 24
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Hot Air

Submitted to Contest #62

Dorian has always been insufferable, but never more so than since he decided to live forever. We all saw the announcement on the news last month, when one of the tech-mogul trillionaires announced a trial run of his new cryogenic chamber. We all saw it, that is, all of us except for Dorian. He was a day shy of completing his forty-day, technology-free, woodland retreat. And I, being a remarkably good friend despite his aforementioned tendency to be insufferable, called him up two days later and told him the news. As expected, Dorian didn’t l...

37 likes 19 comments 19
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Do Popsicles Dream?

Submitted to Contest #62

Do popsicles dream? In any other scenario that would be a ridiculous question, but my situation warrants the consideration. I’m shivering like a leaf in the wind on the stool near the stasis chamber, the only thing keeping my ass from freezing off is a small towel that is draped over the cold metal seat.  When I arrived at this procedure, I disrobed before being given one final physical. My uniform has been stuffed into a small box by the door with my name on the lid. I keep glancing over at it, I hope they at least fold my du...

27 likes 6 comments 6
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Future Cryonics

Shortlisted for Contest #62 ⭐️

“I can save your life.” The words reverberate in Felix’s skull, mocking him. How can five words make him shake? How can five words stop everything? They are so straight forward. Clear. No double meanings. No softening. Just there. Not like the words he’s heard before. You have a terminal diagnosis. Five percent survival rate. I’m sorry, there’s nothing we can do. Why can’t they just say the obvious? You’re going to die. He stares at the woman in front of him, takes note of her pointed features and long legs. Not his typ...

27 likes 1 comment 1
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