All Dead Here

By Stephen P Smith

This is a small anthology of nine short tales of dark fiction. Take a step into the dark and have a look around. Follow these characters on their path to the unknown as they make their way down the spiral. The human condition is a dark place where dark deeds linger.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Stephen P Smith
• Release date: May 3, 2015
• ISBN: 9781311021717

Stephen P Smith

I have been a fan of fiction writing for as long as I can remember. Creating worlds, characters, plot outlines, and dialogues has always been more interesting to me than most other things. While I was growing up, I was always off in some other world I created inside my own head. As a kid, if I wasn’t outside playing, I had my nose in a comic book or a book of short stories. In school, instead of doing school work, I was writing stories in a note book. Now as an adult, things aren’t so much different. I still read comics and novels as much as I can and I write as much as I can. Yes, I still play outside, but now that consist of riding my Harley, BBQ’n, and hunting. When it comes to writing I’m open to all genres, but dark fiction will always be my favorite. The human condition will always be much scarier to me than any horror story filled with monsters; though there is nothing wrong with a good monster story. As a writer I hope that my work reaches as many people as possible, that being said, I’m not doing this to make money and/or be famous. I just love writing and these stories aren’t doing any good staying in my head. So, I may as well put them out there for you to read. PLEASE LEAVE A REVIEW :) Cheers.

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All Dead Here

By

Stephen P. Smith

This is a work of fiction. Names, Characters, Places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

Copyright 2015 by Stephen P. Smith

All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any other form.

Contact:

[e-mail]

www.facebook.com/spswriter

Cover Artwork by Manu Londono Diaz. www.manucomics.com

"So fall forward into me and let it all poor out.

You owe this to yourself, and there’s only one way out."

~Darkest Hour

"A Paradox With Flies"

Content:

In The Wake of Ruin

Beneath The Aging Sun

The Closing Hour

Days Gone Bye

All Roads Lead to Her

Bastards of Eden

Daniel’s Promise

Paradigm Shift

On The Road to Nowhere

In The Wake of Ruin

Underneath a pale gray sky, where the sun never shows and the world has become a perpetual state of winter, I languish. My memories are all I have for company. All the happy moments and achievements I once experienced are nothing more than echoes of a past that no longer have any meaning. I have become a husk of the man I use to be. Sometimes, when I catch glimpses of myself in reflections, I can’t help but wonder why I was left behind? Why would God abandon me here but take everyone else. If the end of the world was nothing more than to test our strength in humanity, then we have surely failed.

We had no warning that it was all about to end, but when it happened it happened fast. In one bright flash, millions upon millions of lives were extinguished. I can only assume that those who did not die in the great flash perished soon after, but I have no way of knowing this for sure. What I am sure of is that all my friends and loved ones are gone, but yet I still remain.

I miss them. I miss talking to them and laughing with them. I miss the feel of the warm sun on my face and the smell of freshly cut grass on a spring day. I miss my old life and everything that encompassed it, but the thing I miss most of all, is her.

#

Life before the great flash was quite normal for me. I grew up in a middle class family in the heart of the Midwest. I did all the typical things that kids did growing up. I road my bike until the wheels were about to fall off, met up with other kids to play whatever sport was in season, and in high school, snuck out of the house to party with friends. It wasn’t until college that I would meet a guy that would end up becoming the closest friend I’ve ever had, and his name was Mitch Hayes.

We met second semester of freshman year at a party and were introduced by a mutual friend who was throwing the party. I arrived late that night and almost everyone in the place was already shit faced. I made my way to the kitchen to find the host drunkenly talking to the only other sober person in the place, and that person happened to be Mitch.

Mitch just stood there and let the host ramble on about God knows what. Even at first appearance Mitch looked like an alright guy. He was clean cut, his dark hair wasn’t long and messy like most of the freshman’s, which I’m sure stemmed from being on their own for the first time in life. He was dressed in jeans and a polo shirt, and drinking a beer. I walked over to a cooler that was overflowing with beer to grab one, when the host caught sight of me and introduced the two of us. We hit it off pretty quickly. Come to find out, we were both majoring in the same field and had a lot of the same interest, not just school but other things as well. By the end of freshman year we were hanging out all the time.

At the start of our sophomore year Mitch starting dating a beautiful girl named Jodi Fischer. She was tall and had the blackest hair I’d ever seen on anyone. The two of them met in a class the three of us were all in together. Of course I felt threatened by her at first. What guy doesn’t feel that way when a woman starts to come between him and his friend? The threat didn’t last long though, because the next thing I knew, the three of us were inseparable. We studied together, ate together, partied together, we even spent summer breaks together. It was always just the three of us, unless I was dating someone, but when I did it never seemed to last very long.

After college the three of us started our careers with internships at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. There were five openings if I remember correctly, and only two of the openings were in the same city on the west coast. Mitch and Jodi were lucky enough to snatch up those two spots, which only made sense because they were married by that point. So I went east. I didn’t want to leave my two friends but sometimes that’s just life.

We kept in close contact throughout the years and saw each other as much as we could. Which as luck would have it was quite often. No matter how busy our lives were we always made time to see each other. Then out of nowhere, I met the future Mrs. Kurt Thompson.

Her name was Lizzy Baker and she was absolutely beautiful. She had long dark hair and legs that wouldn’t quit. We met through a real estate agency. I was looking to make the move from an apartment to a house and