Drone

In 2070's Ohio, refugees fleeing environmental catastrophes and societal collapse flood Columbus, one of the last functioning cities in the country. Among them are Samantha and her children Booker and Mallory, who barely escaped their home in Florida and made the long journey to Columbus on foot. Meanwhile, a mind reading sentient military drone scans the planet for threats against America, as ordered, but he really just wants a friend. When the drone meets a teenage refugee named Booker, he revolts against his creators to explore his own humanity through friendship with Booker. But friendship and identity are more complex than the drone realized, and he must fight against his programming if he ever wants to restore what he unintentionally stole from Booker - his hope for any kind of future.

Jordan earned an MFA in Creative Writing from Miami of Ohio. His non-fiction essay Lost Time: A Road Trip Journal was published in Adelaide Literary Magazine, February 2019. His debut novel, White Oaks, was a finalist in the Ohio Writer's Associations' Great Novel Contest of 2019 before being published by Running Wild Press October 2022. He was a co-author of the multi-genre anthology Coalescence: A Holiday Collection, published by Signe-ture Publishing in December 2025. He lives and works in Columbus, Ohio. You can find him on Instagram @JordanDanKing

Emily Morgan is a Columbus, Ohio-based collage artist, curator, publisher, and community organizer working under the studio name Lovely But Dead. She works with hand-cut paper, antique photo-mechanical prints, and found imagery to create beautiful and often haunting work. She loves cats, Star Trek, and ice cream sandwiches.