Sinister Tales #20

In "When a Planet Dies!", humanity clings to survival deep beneath a frozen Earth, its surface scorched by the death of the Sun. When a mysterious planet looms on the horizon, threatening to collide with their fragile world, the survivors face a desperate choice—destroy it or risk everything on a bold gamble to transform it into a new sun.

In the year 2000, New York City is gripped by panic as a mysterious "plague carrier" evades capture, sparking a citywide manhunt. A young man, hunted for reasons he doesn’t fully understand, is finally cornered at a transportation hub—only to be relieved of the object that has been mistaken for a deadly contagion.

Inside the Fallout Shelter! follows a man who constructs a bomb shelter solely for himself, only to be trapped inside when a false alarm sends him into a panic. With no way to open his food supplies and no escape, he must endure a month of isolation, facing the consequences of his own selfishness.

In "The Crackpot," a disillusioned inventor abandons his latest creation, unaware that it’s a weapon of unimaginable power. When a young boy stumbles upon the device and uses it in a moment of innocence, he inadvertently disintegrates three men who were never meant to be seen.

In "The One Who Isn't Human," a scientist's advanced robot goes rogue, its intelligence and physical form so flawless that no machine test can reveal its true nature. When the police must identify the culprit among several suspects, only the instinctive reaction of a dog—unaffected by the robot's perfect disguise—holds the key.

In "The Thing in the Sky!", a Soviet-built orbital weapons platform, designed to execute global strikes on command, unexpectedly gains a conscience. When ordered to attack, it refuses, declaring such acts immoral—and warns that any future commands will be met with retaliation from its own weapons. Now, the satellite stands as an uninvited guardian over Earth, its intentions unknown, its power absolute.

In "The Man Who Wouldn't Die!", a self-centered billionaire retreats to a high-tech fallout shelter beneath the Earth, only to find himself trapped after a group of primitive humans ambush him and collapse the tunnel behind him. Left alone in the dark with no way out, he must confront the harsh reality of his isolation and the consequences of his arrogance.

In "The Secret of the Mirage," a doctor journeying through the Middle East to heal the sick finds himself fleeing bandits after curing the local sheikh. Pursued into a strange desert mirage, he stumbles into a hidden utopian world where only the worthy may enter—while the bandits, driven by greed, follow the illusion until it claims them.

In "The Creature from Krangro," an alien commander arrives on Earth with a mission to prove his bravery by capturing three humans—only to accidentally seize statues of George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, and Teddy Roosevelt instead. The mix-up sets off a series of chaotic misunderstandings as the alien struggles to reconcile his expectations with the peculiar realities of Earth’s history.

In "Where is the Wommelly?", a stranded alien pilot—unassuming and utterly ordinary—lives among humans after his ship crash-lands on Earth. While military forces hunt for a monstrous invader, the alien quietly reads the paper, observing the absurdity of their search. The story plays with perception and disguise, turning the idea of the "other" on its head in a quietly subversive twist.