The fever spread through the village so quickly, everyone was sick before the first child died. The wise one said they’d been forsaken by the gods. No one listened. They were too busy dying.

In an earlier age, the epidemic, though tragic, would have passed quietly. The village would have been swallowed by the forest and forgotten. But these days, the village sat next to a gold mine, and many of the workers had come to the village for sex, then carried the fever back to the city. Soon the entire world was infected. Sin can no longer be contained.

The margin between her final breath and eternity was shorter than she’d been led to believe, barely enough time to comprehend what was happening. She felt herself suffocated by regret and panic and an overwhelming sense of injustice..

Before she could say goodbye it was over.

Paul steps to the line and takes a deep breath. Were he to sink the next two shots, he will be celebrated globally for the rest of his life. Women will worship him. Children will be named after him. Movies will be made and he’ll be the star. His legacy will be forever secure.

And to think there was a time when basketball was just a game.

Baldwin kept careful track of his place in line. It was important that he always know exactly where along the front he was in relation to the enemy. At this moment, he was 240th back. That didn’t mean he was going to be the 240th soldier to die. Death was random in war. He’d kept track of enough battles to know that sometimes the 240th person would be shot in the head, and sometimes he’d be injured by shrapnel, and sometimes he’d remain unscathed. There was no pattern, but it still helped him feel in control to do the counting.

Daphne had always maintained a strict policy of never doing anything that she was ordered to do. When her mother told her she must always look both ways before crossing the street, she would immediately run headlong into traffic.

Very few people attended Daphne’s funeral.

As she awaited death, memories of her many poor life choices channel-surfed through her mind. Jennifer couldn’t help but think that her life too closely resembled a science fiction novel.

Now that she looked back, Jennifer realized her life story was more of a trilogy.

I was given a simple choice. Pick one basket. Whatever was hidden inside would be my destiny.

I thought having such a choice was wonderful. It wasn’t until later I realized the feeling of control was an illusion, for though I could chose the basket, I had never been asked if I wanted to play the game to begin with.

Joe toggled through the stations on Direct TV, waiting for something to catch his eye. He didn’t want to get caught up in another one of those History Channel documentaries. He needed something mindless after all the drama at the office.

After changing the batteries, Joe happily returned to his slow march to death.

The instruction on the bottle was clear: Don’t fall asleep or you will die!

Eventually she succumbed to the sweet embrace of slumber. When she awoke the next morning, her schizophrenia medication had finally taken effect and her delusions were forgotten.

They had him taped to the floor. When they were holding him down and placing one piece of tape after the other, he’d smiled. Faintly so as not to be noticed, but a smile nevertheless. They didn’t have enough tape to hold a person flat to the ground.

This would certainly be one of the worst ways he’d ever been killed.