Survival

By Daniel Powell

The year is 2209, and the hour has grown late for the human race.

Famine and disease have drastically compounded the misery of a warming planet.

With many billions scrambling after the Earth’s depleted resources, a multinational agency known as The Authority has instituted a population-control policy known simply as Labor.

In an effort to stem the tides of procreation and instill a measure of gender equality in the birthing process, men must survive a deadly twenty-four-hour gauntlet of chaos and destruction in order to earn the privilege to become fathers.

The Authority regulates every aspect of the birthing process, from ensuring that male subjects abstain from alcohol and prescription drugs to delivering each man a quota of sleepless nights.

Such is the case for Bryan Norton, whose wife’s due date has just fallen into testing range. Very soon, they will experience the joy of the birth of their son.

Norton has endured the year-long process of qualifying for Labor. He has sacrificed his health and comfort for the chance to become a father.

But the greatest test still lies ahead, and the chances are slim that he’ll ever hold his son in his arms.

Daniel Powell’s new dystopic novelette “Survival” poses an enduring human question: How far would you go to be with your family?

Drawing upon influences as diverse as Richard Connell’s “The Most Dangerous Game,” Kurt Vonnegut’s “Harrison Bergeron” and Stephen King’s THE RUNNING MAN, “Survival” is a chilling narrative on the nature of parenthood in turbulent times.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Daniel Powell
• Release date: Jun 3, 2011
• ISBN: 9781458051813

Daniel Powell

Daniel Powell teaches a variety of courses at a small college in Northeast Florida. He is an avid outdoorsman and long-distance runner, and enjoys fishing the tidal creeks of Duval County from atop his kayak.He shares a small house near Florida's Intracoastal Waterway with his wife, Jeanne, and his daughter, Lyla. His stories have appeared in Redstone Science Fiction, Brain Harvest, Leading Edge, Something Wicked and Well Told Tales.Drop by The Byproduct, his web journal on speculative storytelling, at www.danielwpowell.blogspot.com.

Book preview

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