Root Rot
ShortStory 7,349 words Recommended by 3 award/anthology sources
"By the time I hear that my brother is looking for me, and has somehow scraped together enough credit to get on a commercial flight to New Tel Aviv, and that he’s also brought his three-year-old daughter on her first interplanet trip, my insides are already rotten. Can’t get to the doctor without citizen papers, but I know. I can feel it."
Content warnings 3
deathsubstance-useviolence
Quasar links out; the story lives on Apex, where the author gets the click.