Latest Stories
Most recently published stories in Fiction.
The Morning Shift
There was only a 5% chance the bite would turn me, according to Google. I readjusted the ice pack on my forearm and continued to scroll through the WCC website on my phone. The Walker Control Commission’s official guidelines stated that, though the chances of “conversion” were small, bite victims were nonetheless urged to isolate themselves for twenty-four hours after the walker attack and to contact their local WCC unit immediately if they began exhibiting symptoms of fever, dehydration or tremors.
By Petra Halbur5 years ago in Fiction
DOOMSDAY DIARY CONTEST
The breeze lifted some of the sand off the ground hazing my vision as the sun rose this morning. The air chilled my flesh sending waves of bumps across my body. It was the first time I felt something familiar since the Fall. I grazed my hand in the dirt as I rested outside my bunker. I stretched my legs with my boots sinking in the sand. For a moment, I couldn’t tell the difference whether I was sitting in sand or ashes. In my exhausted state, my graciousness took a backseat to my survival. It’s unclear if grace will ever return in my life. As the sun was finishing its morning rise, I grab my basket and begin my daily walk to the streams.
By Devin Barras 5 years ago in Fiction
Dust
The sun shone down upon man and field, burning and revealing parched crags in both. The summer heat was unrestrained by wispy clouds, nor tempered by humid haze. As he walked along dead and dusty fields, one hand massaged the other, as the twisting of age caught up to him. He stooped and gathered a handful of dirt. Running his hand through, dry silty-brown, crumbled earth more like sand than topsoil. As his experienced hands rubbed the dirt, it blew away in the mild wind leaving nothing but desiccated insects, as even they need water to live. He examined the dead insects, and the dry crumbled earth, no life left in the soil any longer. He turned his sharp blue eyes to the horizon as he stood. Huge clouds of dust were blowing west in the clear blue sky, taking the topsoil that made this the breadbasket of the world and sending it to smother distant lands, not stopping until it hit the front range, or Denver perhaps. He turned and continued walking back toward his distant home. The striking old-style farmhouse painted in fading colors, had seen better days. His path, not walked frequently, was strewn with debris. He had to pay close attention as he walked, with the new pains and swelling in all his joints it became more difficult to walk every day. His eyes squinted with remembered pain, as he recalled his wife teasing him for being too serious, walking this way often.
By Brian Amonette5 years ago in Fiction
Her
The world will never be the same. I will never be the same. The big bang, as some of us ironically called it after it happened, was the start of what I think of as the anti-creation, the opposite of when the big bang formed our universe. The memories of most of those who I gathered with in the beginning are gone. We barely remembered who each other was to begin with. Or how we got here. Now, instead of helping each other to survive, they see me and each other as enemies. Competition for the scarce resources around us. I stay away from them and all others. Rats. Scroungers, as I refer to them now.
By Tessa L Petry5 years ago in Fiction
The Hearts Call-Chapter 4
It was getting late and the temperatures were brutal when Jon finally reached a point he needed to stop. He was pushing himself past his limits, trying to stay on the road as long as he was, and could see the sign telling him he was at the other rim of Umatilla. Jon knew there was a military base there. Military bases were built to withstand attacks. He hoped for some sign of civilized life there.
By Jason Ray Morton 5 years ago in Fiction
From the Cotton Clouds
These cotton clouds are gonna kill us one day, thought Michael. As he looked out of the lounge window weeks after the Moment, as some people called it, or the Summer Snow event going by others’ description, he wondered why the city had turned on itself.
By David Boatswain5 years ago in Fiction
Nuclear Nowhere
Six months ago, Chris and I had been sitting in a cafe in the French Quarter, watching the small elevated TV set in the corner for the news while sipping lattes together. He held my hand across the small wrought iron table. He glanced at me occasionally for my reaction. The news was disturbing but neither of us could really remember a time when it wasn’t. It was easy to become anxious about these headlines surrounding the tension building with axis countries over trade disputes and sanctions but we both thought it would resolve. These things usually did resolve. We could not have been more wrong.
By Heather Foster5 years ago in Fiction
MEDUSA'S EYE
A threat to life can appear from anywhere, at any time! Unfortunately, this wasn't just a threat, but an attack on Earth in 2,394. The enemy that caused our near extinction departed long ago, at least that's what we thought. They took what precious resources they wanted and left a battered, desolate planet in its wake. At last count, some five billion humans and an untold number of interplanetary beings from our galactic federation were lost in the attack. Our weapons and forces were rendered useless against the power, speed and size of their attacking force.
By Robert Schmitz5 years ago in Fiction
