Vines

My story ‘Vines’ is currently free to read on Interzone Digital, beautifully illustrated by Alex Maniezo.

‘These were the late days after the Work Lottery, what we thought of as a great rebalancing. To align society along a spirit of fairness, the population earned a set wage, and we found ourselves ascribed our lifelong careers through algorithmic whims. People who had been homeless moved to running great corporations. Executives worked in crematoria or dog hospitals. Everyone had a right to appeal, although the process was rumoured to be Byzantine in its bureaucracy and, even if one were successful, the rewards involved either joining the military or handling the appeals process. 

These changes, laughable in their intentions, left the course of normal life mostly untouched. Our population had become numbed by a series of disasters – the avian flu, the civil war and the cult of the Death blogger, the fleeting appearance of the White Ship – and we surrendered to the fate of the Lottery. We were shuffled in our pack and allotted tasks to carry through for the rest of our days. The vines were only the latest drunk dream inflicted on our population.’

Read ‘Vines’ here.