Showing results by author "Stephen Huff" in All Categories

As the zombie apocalypse begins, a small group of civil servants find themselves locked in their tollbooths, which are heavily armored against run-away automobiles. Trapped inside their hellish fishbowls, they curse their situation. Yet they are safe... for a time. Cramped, dingy and institutionally depressing, their duty station becomes a backstage view of Armageddon.

Although all children do not become monsters, all monsters begin as children. Somewhere between the innocence of youth and the corruptions of adulthood, an infection of evil festers. In the aftermath, the progeny of apocalypse will always wonder what might have come from an early cure injected as a timely bullet.

They are the outcast, forgotten, overlooked refuse of the world. Nothing matters to them, and they matter to no-one. He retains a zest for life despite its futility, but she has decided to stop the train and step off. He will watch her go without a word, but she will take his heart with her.

In the distant future of humankind, an unscrupulous government embarks on a program of colonization, sending one moon-sized transport after another careening into the cosmic gulf, each utterly dependent upon the one gone before. Stranded far from home, their starship must rise from the ashes of a terrible conflagration, and he must lead them from beyond the threshold of a fiery grave. Billions of lives depend upon his success.

Wrongfully convicted and long confined in one of the worst prisons in the United States, he is bitter and angry. Despite a million-dollar settlement, his thirst for vengeance cannot be peacefully appeased, and his lust for blood ultimately turns on the sort of crooked prosecutors who ruined his life. They say the road to hell is paved with good intentions. He agrees.

The lumps on Tuggle Imp’s head will soon converge atop his dented skull. After eons of review, he suspects this merger will correspond to a portentous lunar alignment. Yet trials of perdition are never simple or easy. During the final desperate hours of his quest, Tuggle must confront the amorous pursuit of Toad Woman and her relentless guide, little-dog. Each in their own way, both are dedicated to his torment. To avoid descending into a lower level of the underworld, he must overcome his infernal nature to embrace a detested change of character. Somehow, Tuggle Imp must learn to love!

He is the worst of the worst; a perverted deviant and an elusive killer who presents himself as an old-fashioned country preacher. She is the distraught widow of a man who successfully embezzled a fortune. With her two young children, she lives amid the dilapidated ruins of a declining estate named Slate Gardens, where rumor insists three million dollars remains hidden. Beguiled by the preacher's psychotic manipulations, the widow takes him into her home as her second husband and a malign father to her vulnerable son and daughter. She longs for companionship and love. He craves only profit.

Humankind knows countless destinations, whether of mountain, river, meadow, or lake. Each domain offers a unique experience, and each attracts visitors with common yet specific interests, but the ultimate holiday destination is a sandy beach. Travel there now to wade through a surging surf toward a sanctuary strand, but be warned and beware... both treasure and tragedy beckon from shores of silver seas.

Insomnia is a special kind of torture. Its short-term effects are something everyone experiences from time to time, but its long-term effects are known only to an unfortunate few. After months of restlessness, a chronically sleepless man loses the ability to differentiate between nightmares, daydreams, and reality. Then, while wandering a slumbering city in this dysfunctional condition, he discovers a sinister secret.

During his service as an intern at the SETI Project, Simian Wynwood fatefully records “first contact” with an alien intelligence. Within months, this so-called SETI-Tech seizes control of nearly every aspect of civilization when humankind foolishly opens Simian's Gate. Perversely efficient in the aftermath, an alien-incepted Terminus Signal drives roving clans of homicidal lunatics to exterminate Immune survivors to a last number. During the course of their apocalyptic odyssey, one such band of desperate survivors must form life-and-death bonds strong enough to withstand Simian's Walk. ...

1943. World War II. The U.S. government drafted him out of his life of normalcy and complacency into the life of a United States Marine Corps officer. After intensive training, he would serve during some of the bloodiest assaults of the war. The violent rigors of combat would teach him the rules of long-term survival amid the most lethal fighting in human history. Those who failed to learn these lessons would not return home to their families.

In a utopian future, humanity divides itself into two kinds. The vast majority of citizens represent the first kind, and they are as physically flawless as they are psychologically perfect. Second-kind live apart, confined to the Deviant Compartment. They are the last damaged remnants of a primitive past defined by genetic ambiguity and reproductive anarchy. They are also humanity's last hope.

The plight of the village is desperate and dire. Once protected by a powerful shaman, their savior has grown old and decrepit, perhaps too weak to save them from a violent storm brewing on the horizon. Though dying, one last time he must perform the ritual that appeases the storm. When she comes, the devil.

A global invasion. A ravenous alien enemy. Generations of slaughter. Near the end, only the very young and the very old remain. Extinction looms. Driven to extremities of existence, a dying people conceive a terrifying last-measure plan – the forced conscription of one billion elderly citizens. Violently regenerated to a youthful state, these unwilling warriors will muster as a single army to feed the gristmills of an endless war. For victory or defeat, an entire generation must gamble their last desperate seconds.

He's a notorious corporate spy. His last job uncovered a disturbing truth long and deeply buried by the powers-that-be. Though his corporate enemies have kept him imprisoned by endlessly flying him around the world, he is neither forgotten nor alone. Driven to rescue one of their own, a dedicated band of hackers will stop at nothing to free him and expose his prison in the sky.

Spoken aloud, poetry is the ultimate masochistic mouthwash. Used regularly, it will sponge your brain and fire your breath. So, crack these covers, sip, swish, and rinse. In time, your silly sense of well-being will slip away, and your brain germs will never feel the same way again.

One of the most pivotal waterborne engagements in history would not be fought ship-to-ship in the traditional fashion of naval warfare, a brutal duel between massive battleships. Victory would ultimately be claimed in the skies, aircraft to aircraft. Will humankind ever fully benefit from the sacrifices made that fateful day in the skies surrounding a tiny Pacific Island?

When they come to cut her out of her third-floor apartment bedroom, a crowd gathers to point and laugh. Yet a twelve-hundred-pound woman is not without recourse. Although she was born with the patient, loving disposition of a child, years of merciless, relentless torment have purged all semblance of compassion from her heart. She has grown weary of the laughter. Be warned. Beware!

In the first days of the zombie apocalypse, a military physician and small team of survivors must gather their wits, their weapons, and their available resources to make a last stand. When nowhere seems safe and no-one seems immune to the rapidly spreading disease, they must choose a destination that is both attainable and sufficiently remote to assure their long term safety.

He hates clowns. His wife thinks they're cute. When they unexpectedly inherit an unimaginable fortune complete with fast cars, fine furnishings, and multiple large houses, they learn nothing comes free. The one catch to their apparent good fortune is a clockworks harlequin. No need to wind it. It doesn't require batteries. This life-size clown runs on the power of black magic!