Earth Girls Strike Back: Of Schoolgirls and Starships
Early morning was perfect for a run in central Texas in September. Temperature was around 70, with a light autumnal breeze. Sunrise had barely begun to crown the clouds in the sky with coral and crimson. A light veil of mist hung in the sky, illuminated by the still lit street lamp in the humid morning air. Jessica Monfort got out of the white FJ Cruiser with her longtime friend Millie Baltegan. The parking lot was empty besides the vehicle t

Earth Girls Strike Back: Chloe's Tale
Chloe Harwell sat back in the worn office chair in the garage of her family's filling station, listening to the fan lazily chop the air above her head, and the crickets singing in the night outside. She let out a frustrated sigh as she absent-mindedly played with her dark loose pigtails. Her work was finally done for the day. She had meat cut and marinating. Her veggies were cut. What needed to be sautéed and stored had been sautéed and stored.

Hazardous Area
It was a beautiful sunset when Krista came home from cheerleading practice and spent nearly an hour on the phone talking to her bestie about her favorite kinds of socks, and about how she secretly desired to go on adventures and be in danger. Her friends just didnt understand. Shopping and boys, sure, but danger and death, "no thanks" her friend told her. She hung up the phone feeling bored. No, not just bored, frustrated. After shuffling through her thousands of pairs of cute soc

Earth Girls Strike Back, part 1
It was a perfect summer afternoon in the small college town of Juliet, Indiana. There were a few clouds drifting lazily past, and the sounds of birds and crickets and people mowing yards filled the air. The sun cast a perfect warm orange glow over everything, including the 12 perspiring girls of the Northgate University cheerleading team, who were sitting on the grass at the school's football practice field in their athletic shorts and tee shirts in lieu of offici