Coyoteland
Novelette 14,067 words Recommended by 1 award/anthology source
"Vee doesn’t get why we don’t just dash across the border. The cut-off between New Dirt and the Monument Valley Republic is wide open, at least to her organic eyes. It’ll conserve resources, she argues, which is like-true. I explain that the MVR have trussed up their border in a landmine necklace, the kind that jump out of the ground and cut you in half."
Quasar links out; the story lives on Asimov's, where the author gets the click.