People signed on for different term lengths. This meant you never could be sure whether someone was leaving earlier or later than you. Especially if you arrived around the same time. Keith had arrived six months after Marianna. When she shared eagerly that she'd be here for five years, he...

On the third story of the infinity office, Shawn Samuels sat looking at the artificially maintained woods. When his friends saw his view, he self deprecated himself, saying that it was still a view of the inner part of the ring shaped office. The more senior people had views facing...

He looked out the window. earth was in view. He felt small again. Like that moment he realized how high the chewing mouth was above. Keith had tried to get the giraffe to recognize what he had just recognized. That the giraffe was so tall. But the animal gave no...

The bar's patrons fanned out. The  moon shone. It was brighter out here than it was in the bar when the power was out. The power was still out. But out here you could see. See well enough that is. There was a man. In a cowboy hat. In the...

His steps woke Marianna up. She had been falling back into a slumber. In the night she woke up about four times. Apparently everyone did. They just woke up for short enough, that they didn't remember it. People slept in cycles.

She was about to fall right back asleep but then...

They could smell the oil while trailing them. The assistant grew nervous. Once they caught up with the blue man. Would it be as easy as they had planned? They'd been on the road all week. It seemed to soon for it all to end. But there wasn't much to...

Look if you want to leave, you can't. I mean you technically could. But do you really want to go back to earth?

Keith could read the words from the nerdy skinny guy's face. What time was it now? Four am? What the hell were they still doing up? He looked...

Jazz didn't know what the hell she was doing at that bar. She should've stayed at home. She didn't even drink. But after her husband died she had felt so  lonely . So she had gone to the only place there was to go in town. Mack's. But now the...

When he couldn't sleep he went to the den. That's where the insomniacs hung out. Always a few  chess players. Few lively but soft spoken conversations. Even some crazy people drinking coffee . Maybe as some display of their eccentricity.

Each person hanging out in the den too long knew they...

There was a local bar still in town. That was one good thing about this middle of nowhere place. Without it what else would the people there have? Just depression and booze . But alone. At least at the local bar they could drink together. Not that it made their...