Welcome to Kearney
Novelette 9,110 words Recommended by 2 award/anthology sources
"Ms. Otter came to Kearney when the day was dying, and her shadow ran down the broken road ahead of her like a line of bad luck. Jeremiah saw it when he paused to get a drink, his stained hands leaving brown fingerprints on his canteen. It was hot—all the days were hot now, and they would be until the atmospheric processors..."
Quasar links out; the story lives on Clarkesworld, where the author gets the click.