21 Futures Blog

Ringcut

Kristina Warlen

Published on: 05/08/2025

Exit moved in silence through the black zone. The road beneath his boots was fractured and blistered from a century of stress fractures, chemical erosion, and neglect. Every surface held the residue of failure. Surveillance nodes blinked faintly in the walls above him. Pale red eyes stared from cracked housing. They still tracked motion and still read heat. Power to the district had been cut hours ago. The Network never really died. It idled, quiet and watchful. It waited for patterns to reestablish.

Fiction

FICTION - Static Between Signals

AZA

Published on: 15/07/2025

Tonight, my pals are meeting to watch movies. Yup. That ancient stuff. Flickering screens. Glowing pixels in the dark. Eyes wide, and hearts racing. Sometimes laughter. Sometimes gasps. Priceless experience most people of this era never felt. Not that they’d refuse—just something they haven’t even heard about.

Fiction

FICTION - The Journal's Alchemists

Gonzalo Coelo

Published on: 01/07/2025

Leo's eleventh birthday party was not as disenchanting as he expected it to be. At first, his anxiety was driven by his father's uplifting promise of a mysterious gift: "I will give it to you after the party." Those words stuck with him for a while, but he unexpectedly forgot about the matter throughout the day.

Fiction

FICTION - The Fixer: Medical Device Exorcist

Eric Kay

Published on: 17/06/2025

It’s that kind of crappy day: so cold the rain’s freezing to the windows and the roads are gridlocked. I don’t drive, and sometimes gridlock is good for business, but I do walk, and no one loves being upright one moment and then cheek-first into the icy sidewalk the next.

Fiction

FICTION - Infinite Debt

Graeme Shimmin

Published on: 27/05/2025

The train shuddered to a halt, its worn-out levitation systems groaning under the weight of too many passengers. Zarah pressed her face against the smudged window, squinting through the haze of pollution that perpetually shrouded the lower zones. Her watch beeped a warning: THIRD ZONE ENTERED. PENALTIES MAY APPLY.

Fiction

FICTION - The Lucky One

Alexander van Aken

Published on: 20/05/2025

Gary stared out the window of the Wireless Fidelity high speed network train. Outside his transport packet, a worldwide web of trillions of individuals started their day. A seemingly infinite amount of bright white electrical circuits flew through the air, getting from point A to B. Many were on their way to work, just like him. Monday vibes.

Fiction