Unusual Tales #37

After a car crash leaves Anne with an unexpected ability to read minds, she discovers uncomfortable truths about the people closest to her—including her fiancé Tommy Shaw, whose thoughts reveal his true feelings lie elsewhere. As Anne grapples with this unwanted gift, a chance reunion with an old acquaintance named Simms Atkins offers her a glimpse of genuine affection, forcing her to reconsider what truly matters before Dr. Ormsted's planned procedure.

When an archeology graduate student nearly drowns at a waterfall, she's rescued by Guy of Endroth—a man who claims to be a medieval knight, and who brings her to a hidden valley where time itself has stopped. There, Jill discovers a sanctuary where people from centuries past live unchanged and ageless, unable to die but equally unable to leave, and she must decide whether such a paradise is worth the price of eternal imprisonment. Guy offers her a choice that will test whether immortality without freedom is truly a gift.

A greedy sea captain and his ruthless first mate, Grogan and Bondell, ignore sacred warnings and sail the schooner Mary-Anne to the legendary island of Tiki-Cavaloa, where locals claim the spirit of goodness dwells and pearl-oysters gather in impossible abundance. As they prepare to plunder the island's treasures, strange supernatural voices call across the water, and the jungle itself seems to resist their presence. What unfolds on that cursed lagoon will determine whether these two men of violence ever escape the waters they've defiled.

"Things to Come" explores humanity's next giant leap: after conquering the Moon, scientists and government agencies are already charting the path to Mars and weighing it against Venus and Mercury as future homes for mankind. Through fascinating speculation on Martian gravity, weather, and conditions, this story imagines the challenges and possibilities awaiting colonists under protective domes on the Red Planet, painting a compelling vision of space exploration's immediate horizon.

Five ordinary people—a Hollywood actress, a garage mechanic, a general, a boxing champion, and a munitions dealer—find themselves trapped at a mysterious address, forced to surrender secrets to a foreign operative who claims they know far too much. When Joe Anderson, the mechanic, realizes his Korean War combat training might be their only chance, he fights back against impossible odds and a terrifying new weapon. As the captives are removed one by one, Joe must confront the sinister "Hand of Fate" that brought them all together and decide what he's willing to sacrifice to survive.