Dead End Bridge

by Will Weisser

Leonard was nothing but a grit fiend, whiling his days away in a high-rise slum on the wrong side of what used to be the George Washington Bridge. That all changed when Camille, a beautiful woman from his favorite dive bar, drew him into a plot to kill her boyfriend, a dangerous and abusive local gangster. Suddenly Leonard is sucked into a world of spine-tapping arachmods and ruthless gang warfare in 22nd-century Manhattan, muddling through a half-baked scheme that may save Camille's life — or cost him his own.

Short 7,360 words.

23 pages, Kindle Edition

First published April 28, 2012

About the author

Born into a literary family (both his parents are authors and college professors), Will fell in love with science fiction and fantasy literature during the comics boom of the early 90’s and never looked back. Now residing in the fantastic realm known as the Philly ‘burbs, he uses his geek talents to program computers by day, while by night he huddles over unfinished manuscripts, attempting to engineer characters who touch the human spirit. In his scant free time he enjoys practicing martial arts (which he is pretty good at) and playing guitar (terribly).

Reviews

[Mark · Rating 4 out of 5]

A nice little story from a new writer. Some excellent concepts here (like "grit" and purpose-built spider robots). I'd enjoy reading some of these ideas injected into longer works as the feel of the environment was also nice and noir.