The Mub
ShortStory 3,620 words Recommended by 2 award/anthology sources
"Somewhere between the black slopes and the longest stretch of the cratered plains, I came across a traveler who I thought might be leaving the city and headed for the nested forests. I greeted him from a distance, just as the road curved around a copse of crooked and dry-skinned pines, but he would not look at me."
Quasar links out; the story lives on Clarkesworld, where the author gets the click.