Is this the hill on which you want to die? Garak-Nur should be dead by now. At thirty-five years old, the grizzled orc war chief has outlived most of his kind. His tusks are worn, his knee aches from old wounds, and younger warriors eye his position with hungry ambition. When a silver-tongued messenger arrives offering glory in service to the Witch-King of the North, Garak knows the promises are nothing more than gilded chains. Rather than watch his clan march into slavery, Garak makes an impossible choice. In the dead of night, he leads his most loyal warriors away from everything they’ve ever known, venturing into the wilderness to carve out a new home. But the exodus is only the beginning. Finding shelter in abandoned dwarven ruins built above a dragon’s lair, the newly formed Black Pine Clan must fight to survive the coming winter, rival orc bands, and the simmering resentments within their own ranks. As challenges to his leadership mount and his own harems turn against him, Garak faces battle after battle, both with sword and with words. Each conflict forces him to ask the same crucial question: Is this the hill on which I want to die? In a world where strength is everything and weakness means death, one aging warrior must choose which battles are worth fighting and which are better left for another day.

In a post-pandemic world where life ends at twenty-five, one man’s immunity becomes his greatest curse.

Most people in Isaac Jameson’s world don’t live long enough to see their children grow. The Blight, a mysterious plague that has ravaged humanity, claims nearly everyone before their twenty-sixth birthday. In the mountain valleys of what was once the state of Utah, communities struggle to preserve fragments of the old world’s knowledge while racing against their own mortality.

Isaac should have died like everyone else. Instead, he becomes the Lifewalker, a man condemned to watch every person he loves age and die while he remains untouched by time.

From author Joe Vasicek comes a deeply moving story that explores what it means to be human in a world where life is fleeting and death is certain. THE CURSE OF THE LIFEWALKER is a contemplative journey through a beautifully imagined post-apocalyptic landscape, where ancient ruins whisper of lost wonders and love becomes both salvation and tragedy.

This story was originally published in the Sci Phi Journal in June 2016.