"Battle-mart" a short story by Craig Zimmerman

The first incident of the day was in produce. Two guys got into it over some shriveled tomatoes. It took maintenance an hour to clean up the blood.

As chief of security for Battle-mart, it was Ted Booker's job to keep the violence to a minimum. After the worldwide economic collapse, retail became a highly dangerous business and that is how Battle-mart came to be.

Battle-mart was surrounded by a barbed-wire fence with armed guards at the three entrance gates. Even with all the security, keeping everything under control was a challenge.

The second incident of the day was in the slave market. After the collapse, slavery had once again become legal, but Booker hated it with a passion and did everything he could do to disrupt the trading of human beings. 

Booker noticed that a young girl was being auctioned off on the platform and he shoved through the crowd to take her off the stage. Hessler the slaver tried to stop him but Booker was in no mood and he shoved the barrel of his M-4 into the scarred face of the slaver.

"I warned you about selling kids," Booker said tightening his finger on the trigger. Hess shook his head. "It was just a mistake... It won't happen again," he said in a high-pitched voice. Booker shoved Hess to the ground and took the girl to his office. Like so many other children of the new age, the girl was an orphan. He would have to find a family in the area that could take her in.

Booker's next stop was apparel. Two old ladies were fighting over a ragged dress. By the time things were under control, the dress was torn to shreds.

As Booker was about to go home, he received an urgent radio call that alerted him to a developing situation at the grocery entrance. Booker ran across the store just in time to find three men with several packages of toilet paper trying to get past the door guard.

Booker fired his stun gun and took down two of the men. The entrance guard took care of the third. Fortunately, the merchandise was undamaged.

"Hottest" a short story by Craig Zimmerman

For five years, Jeremy Peach had been searching for the hottest pepper in the world. His travels had taken him to India, South Korea and of course Mexico and Central America.

One day while sitting in a Cantina in Mexico City, he heard the story of an old man who cultivated the hottest pepper on earth. Jeremy had heard many such stories but it was worth checking out.

The old man was reputed to live in a remote village in Northern Mexico. The trip to the village took several days and Jeremy was exhausted by the time he arrived. After a long sleep, Jeremy set out to find the man with the pepper.

After asking around, Jeremy found out the old man owned some sort of social club called: "El Rancho" Jeremy entered the club and found a dozen or so bored people playing cards.  The man in question was watching a Soccer match on a big screen TV. 

Jeremy introduced himself and told the old what he was looking for. After watching the Soccer game for another ten minutes, the old man went back to the kitchen and returned with a small, purple-colored pepper.

Jeremy picked up the pepper and took a small bite. Alarm bells went off in his brain and sweat poured from his brow. Another bite and steam blew from his ears and witnesses claimed that a ball of fire escaped from his mouth. 

When the symptoms finally alleviated, Jeremy smiled at the old man and said: "That was delicious!"

"Play Time" A short story by Craig Zimmerman

Colonel Robert Parker rummaged through his weapons cabinet and selected a pistol and a rifle.

Col. Parker took the weapons and left his bunker for the rubble-strewn streets of San Francisco. Ever since the last war, he had been protecting the city from enemy infiltrators.

A shot rang out and Parker dove behind some rubble. Peeking from behind the rubble, he tried to spot the enemy soldier. There was movement about a hundred yards away and Parker focused his binoculars on the area.

The enemy soldier was huddled behind a wrecked car. As carefully as possible, Parker crawled along the ground until he found himself directly behind the enemy infiltrator.

Despite his long military career, Parker hated violence, but there was no other choice in this case. After jumping to the rear of the enemy soldier, Parker emptied his water pistol at the man and then finished the job with a volley of foam darts from his rifle.

"Silver and Gold" a short story by Craig Zimmerman

With dreams of finding treasure, Jeremy Mason spent some of the last of the money he had saved on a used metal detector. 

Jeremy began his search in the barren fields of his drought-ridden farm, but all he found were bits of old tools and trash. 

In frustration, he looked to the old homestead. While he was growing up, Jeremy had often heard stories of how the  old folks used to bury their savings in the ground.

There wasn't much left of the house that his great-great Grandfather had built- just the remains of an old chimney and part of the foundation.

Jeremy swept the metal detector across the ground and was rewarded with a strong signal. Excitedly, he began digging and hit something metallic. After more digging, he pulled an old lock box from the ground.

After breaking the rusty lock he pulled the box open. Inside was the gold-framed photo of a child and an old newspaper obituary from 1935.

Jeremy put the photo back in the lock box and gently covered it with earth.