Modus Operandi
- Reads 78
- Votes 2
- Parts 1
Complete Mon, Aug 27, 201221m
In the future... people all over the world have been swept up in a new cult of happiness called The One True Way. Ryan Poole of the Washington Sentinel reports on the harrowing assassination attempt on the cult's leader by a motley crew featuring a priest, a scientist, and a mystic. As the team infiltrates deeper and deeper into the cult's fortress, they'll each reveal their own perspective on the path to eternal happiness – their "Modus Operandi".
This short story is part of the "In-Futura ( In the future... )" collection. To find out more, visit www.JohnKrissilas.com
All Rights Reserved
#142
espionage
Join the largest storytelling communityGet personalized story recommendations, save your favourites to your library, and comment and vote to grow your community.
You may also like
After Moses
*Featured on Wattpad Explorer's Near Future Visions reading list!* A century ago, our AI benefactor, Moses, disappeared, taking mankind's future with him. The dream of the stars is dead. Earth is silent and the colonies of the solar system slowly dwindle. Everyday life depends on technology that we no longer understand. The future is grim. Freelancer for hire Matthew Cole struggles to pay the bills and keep his ship in the air. He's always been a loner, but as the years go on and the solar system grows ever more dangerous, the time has come that he'll have to either find a crew or perish. When the specter of Matthew's past comes back to haunt him, his new crew will have to come together around their captain. They'll find that he is a rare kind of man, a man with principles. And that might be just what humanity needs.Complete
Touch: Awakening
The first touch burns. The second will change her life. In the future, humans will never see each other face to face. Technology will facilitate all interactions, from emails to spoken conversations to a hike up a tree-lined mountain. They'll rely on machines to provide them with their basic needs and favorite indulgences, and they'll never know another person's touch. This is the world Alexis is born into. A grad student slated to become impregnated in a few months' time, Lexi's been struggling with her wild and reckless thoughts. Why aren't they allowed to question the Government's decisions? What if her friend, Parker, is right, and the pill regimen they're on deadens their sense of touch? And why does her heart stop and her chest squeeze whenever she's around Drew? Drew's a dangerous man. He asks the questions she's afraid to voice and makes her think. Makes her wonder. Makes her yearn. He promises to help her find the answers, the two of them fumbling toward something they don't understand. The first touch is painful, the second one less so. Each one awakens feelings Lexi has no words for, until she craves Drew like an addict needing a fix. As they discover what the Government has kept from them all their lives, they fight to find a way to have it all - even as it threatens to destroy them forever. **** Later chapters contain situations intended for a mature audience. Consider yourself warned :)Complete
Seneca Rebel
What if your one chance to change the world means you have to leave everything you love behind?In the not-too-distant future, math genius Doro Campbell is introduced to the Seneca Society: a secretive, technologically-advanced subterranean utopia dedicated to inventing and perfecting the most effective ways to benefit our planet.But there's a hitch. Like all that have come before her, Doro is given the ultimatum: Stay in Seneca forever, or leave now with no memory of the place, its goals, and its inhabitants.She stays.Her ideals are shattered when, together with biotechnology whiz, Dominic Ambrosia, Doro uncovers profound deceptions beneath the surface of this all too-perfect community.Will one teenage girl have what it takes to go up against swarms of drones, psychological manipulation and biological attacks, to uncover the truth and change the trajectory of the world?Complete
Bright Lights & Dark Secrets: A Sci-Fi Anthology
Six stories. Six situations. Six dark secrets. Colorful casts. Captivating worlds. Crazy conclusions. Humanity rises and falls. Some folks set the world on fire, others burn, many don't care what they do as long as something more powerful tells them what's right or wrong. The question is whether it is in our nature to defy our nature, whether it is a good thing, or whether we should know when to stop... Available stories include: * DUPES: Clones vs. cannibals: who will win?! * THE DEUS ISLANDS: A prison ship on its way to a penal colony is jeopardized by the presence of a sinister supernatural entity. * SEEKING SENSATION (ONGOING): A young woman searching for her missing sister becomes acquainted with (and suspicious of) the charismatic employee of a social media platform that allows users to relive other people's memories. If you are a fan of dark sci-fi anthologies such as Black Mirror and Love Death + Robots, then this is the book for you!
The Island
"This is The Island, a prison designed for minors like me- too young to be executed, too old to be reformed, and too much of a stain on humanity to let exist. It was 'the answer' to the growing crime rate resulting from a world that was falling apart. The details evade me, but there is one thing I know. The water doesn't seem as scary as it did before." When Jordyn wakes up in the middle of a tropical forest in the mouth of a cat too big to be real, she decides this isn't how she wants to die. The Island has other plans, though. It was designed to kill her, and it will bring out every gun in the arsenal to do so. Her life becomes a game of survival from the mutant and venomous animals, severe temperature changes, and impossible weather scenarios that exist in this government manufactured prison. The twist? She has no idea who she is, where she came from, or why she committed first-degree arson. In this mixture of "The Hunger Games" and "Maze Runner", Jordyn has to unravel the truth before nature kills her- or die not knowing. Highest Ranking: #45 in Science Fiction **2nd Place Winner of the 2017 Rose Awards** **Featured as a Wattpad Pick on 11/8/19**Complete
Project HALO
PROJECT HALO is a YA sci-fi thriller taking place in near-future Norway. It has speculative elements and will appeal to fans of dystopian works such as DIVERGENT, THE MAZE RUNNER, LEGEND, and BLACK MIRROR. All seventeen-year-old Charlie Walker wants is to be free of his father's stupid expectations. Stay in school? No thanks. Get a job? Nope. Stop cursing? Hell no. But if he knew his petty rebellion would result in his own kidnapping, he might've reconsidered. When Charlie wakes up at Norway's largest intelligence agency, the NIC, with a biochip in his brain, he faces problems bigger than his father's disapproval. Charlie is their first successful experiment, and when activated, the chip will give the agency unbarred access to his vital signs and location. So much for freedom. But before his biochip can be activated, a rogue doctor offers Charlie a chance to escape. In return, he has to find and keep a flash drive hidden from the NIC. At first, agreeing to the deal seems obvious. But when NIC sends agents to hunt Charlie down, he realizes the flash drive might be more important than he thought. He's faced with an ultimatum: hand over the flash drive, or a lethal virus will be released onto the population. If he obliges, his chip will be activated and he'll lose his freedom forever. If he doesn't, people will die-including his ex-friend-who-he-totally-still-hates. Including the charming hacker he has a crush on. Including his demanding father. Including himself. In a race against time and his own selfish thoughts, Charlie must decide who to trust with his deadly secret-and exactly how far he's willing to go in the name of freedom. - - - Trigger warnings: Death and dying, blood, swearing, syringes/needles, hospitals, alcoholism, anger issues, nightmares, kidnapping, being drugged against one's will, suicide mention, terrorism/terror attacks, guns/weapons.Complete
Yabbies - a novel
"Yabbies. Funny little things, all in their own world at the bottom of the dam. A bit like us, ain't they? Can't see a thing for all the mud in the water; bits and pieces drift down, in any old order, all out of sequence, an' we have to make sense of them as best we can." This unusual novel explores ideas about sustainability from a different angle: that we can't achieve a sustainable world without a system of law that supports it. For that to happen, we would need a revolutionary change in the way we see our world: a refocus of passion from possession to purpose. In some ways, as one character explains, we may not have much choice: "The whole system is so fragile that there's a real risk it could collapse at any time, in a really big way. Those problems are inherent in the system: the whole thing is held together by little more than wishful thinking." But what if only some countries made that change, and others didn't? What would happen to trade, to international relations, to everyday living? How would they deal with business-visitors, or tourists? We see these themes through story-fragments, each piece drifting down through the waters of time, each character describing their own worlds and experiences in their own unique voice. And perhaps a little magic, too.Complete
Crowd: A Dystopian Social Network Thriller (Final Draft)
What if an algorithm controls your life? In the near future, California is plagued by civil riots. Exploding rent, high crime, and political corruption threaten the lives of ordinary people. Enter Crowd, an advanced social network that ranks each citizen by their contribution to society, ensuring justice for all. Want affordable healthcare or better employment? If you rank high enough, you can get it. Rayn Cruzada is an ambitious graduate who joins Crowd as a field agent. Her high score allows her to investigate citizens with problematic low ones. Conflict arises as no one understands the algorithms, and losing your ranking means losing your apartment and access to transport. Or worse... With California on the brink of civil war, Rain has to discover whether Crowd is the solution or a problem. Inspired by Black Mirror, The Circle, and The Social Network, Crowd is a pre-dystopian thriller.Complete
Escaping Elysia
A dystopian young adult novel involving romance, secret experiments on human subjects, and a group of teenagers' will to survive. Reader Comments: "I'm gonna gush about your book real quick...all the technology has a purpose and is beautifully explained so I can picture it in my mind...the whole concept of the book is completely original...*moment of silence for your beautiful arch of character development* everything your characters do is strictly them but they develop enough to show more about themselves without you straight up telling the reader about them" -Vairl9023 "Ahh!!! This is so good!! I will be anxiously awaiting the next Chapter!!" -CrystalBagot "Brilliant...ohh, this is very catchy, good work" -IndeeMaynard "I love this so far" -BrianneMorris "You've done a great job at creating a mysterious mood" -poisonedpen *** All Evita Creedy, 17, wants is to finish her degree and be accepted for a prestigious job with the city's Department of Energy. On the way to take her placement test she sees a man take a gun out of his bag. Panicked, she reaches into her purse for her phone to call 911. Instead she takes out a gun. She doesn't know where it came from or how it got there, but when the man turns his gun on her she shoots him. It would be easy for Evita to forget about where the gun came from and let her life return to normal, but its mysterious appearance won't stop nagging at her. When Evita starts asking questions Evelyn Sheer, the head of the city's Department of Energy, takes her captive and places her in a secret, underground research facility. Evelyn Sheer and the researchers are trying to create a genetic modification that enables humans to photosynthesize. Once in the facility, Evita is tagged as a test subject and loses all say over what happens to her body. She has to escape. By the time she comes up with a plan there is only one problem. Evita isn't ready to leave.Complete
Glitch | #ONC2020 ✔
Waking up in a cold sweat is a normal occurrence. Usually, it happens when you are under immense stress during your REM state. It is what is known as a nightmare. But what if you wake up after seeing something you don't recognize? What if you dream slowly makes you realize how good your world is. No, not how good your life is. How good your world is. There aren't murders, or robberies, or car accidents. Everyone's life is perfect and happy. Everyone is happy, yet no one is sad.Everything is exactly how you would want.What is going on? Cyrus one night has the strangest dream, and misfortune only follows. A story of betrayal, action, and the future. Are you ready to log into the system?Complete
*Featured on Wattpad Explorer's Near Future Visions reading list!* A century ago, our AI benefactor, Moses, disappeared, taking mankind's future with him. The dream of the stars is dead. Earth is silent and the colonies of the solar system slowly dwindle. Everyday life depends on technology that we no longer understand. The future is grim. Freelancer for hire Matthew Cole struggles to pay the bills and keep his ship in the air. He's always been a loner, but as the years go on and the solar system grows ever more dangerous, the time has come that he'll have to either find a crew or perish. When the specter of Matthew's past comes back to haunt him, his new crew will have to come together around their captain. They'll find that he is a rare kind of man, a man with principles. And that might be just what humanity needs.
More detailsContent Guidelines