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CONTEST ENDED – Thank you for submitting your stories!

#247: The Great Unknown

Few pursuits ignite the imagination and spirit quite like exploration. From sailors discovering new countries and their inhabitants, to astronauts uncovering ancient civilisations on far away planets, we are as hungry to hear stories about exploration as we are to explore ourselves. We often feel the need to venture beyond the familiar confines of our lives, whether that’s simply exploring a new corner of your hometown, or embarking on a mission through forgotten tombs.

This week's prompts delve into the essence of exploration, inviting you to embark on a journey of discovery and adventure. So, ready your maps, steel your resolve, grab your pen, and prepare to explore the unknown...

🥇 Winner

“DANGER: UNSTABLE GROUND” by Madeline McCourt

🏆 Winner of Contest #247

Do not ever step foot on the ground. Charlie had been told this his entire life, but it never really sunk in. He didn’t understand the deep-seated fear everyone else seemed to harbor. He thought it was incredible, a beautiful problem to be solved. Until he was laying on the floor of the lab staring at the ceiling and blinking away tears. The first time Charlie ever saw the ground consume a person he’d been twelve. What the tree-top teachers referred to as “live mummification” was a quick, disturbing process. Dirt crawling over skin to creat...

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⭐️ Shortlisted

“Cities Always Sleeping” by Milly Orie

⭐️ Shortlisted for Contest #247

Winnie didn’t know what a city was like. She asked me about them, one night, her voice floating up from the bottom bunk in the darkness, drowning in the sea of cricket song. The windows were open, like they were every evening. We might as well have been sleeping out in the swamp for all the noise. Leaves rustled as frogs trilled to one another, and the heavy air vibrated with the wings of moths and mosquitos–but we were safe from them. The screens were closed. The sounds of the marsh were our lullaby. They also hid conver...

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“Extrospect” by Lucas Marrow

⭐️ Shortlisted for Contest #247

Transcription - 4:30pm May 8th, 2318It feels odd. Narrating things like this, not speaking, just thinking. Is it even…yeah, it’s working. Um…so, they said this would be a way to fix things, explore all the things I thought I knew. See things from a different perspective and all that. When I was accepted to the Ruminate pioneer program, I was really happy. Jace and Clara begged me not to go, but I told them I needed this. It was only four months, after all. At the very least, I could be a pioneer, you know? It’ll take a few days to prepare bu...

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This week's prompts

Write a story in the form of diary entries, written by an explorer as they make their way through what they thought was an untouched location.

Adventure – 66 stories

Set your story on a spaceship exploring the far reaches of space when something goes wrong.

Science Fiction – 32 stories

Center your story around a character’s personal exploration, whether it's trying a new hobby, visiting an unfamiliar place, or learning something completely new.

Character – 88 stories

Imagine a world where exploration is forbidden, and write a story about a character who defies this rule to satisfy their innate curiosity.

Dystopian – 59 stories

Write a narrative about a group of scientists exploring the deepest parts of the ocean.

Adventure – 13 stories

Stories

“DANGER: UNSTABLE GROUND” by Madeline McCourt

🏆 Winner of Contest #247

Do not ever step foot on the ground. Charlie had been told this his entire life, but it never really sunk in. He didn’t understand the deep-seated fear everyone else seemed to harbor. He thought it was incredible, a beautiful problem to be solved. Until he was laying on the floor of the lab staring at the ceiling and blinking away tears. The first time Charlie ever saw the ground consume a person he’d been twelve. What the tree-top teachers referred to as “live mummification” was a quick, disturbing process. Dirt crawling over skin to creat...

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“Mars: A Pioneer’s log” by Howard Halsall

Submitted to Contest #247

After surviving on Mars for five years, we were unrecognisable to the Agency’s search and rescue mission. It’s obvious from reading my diary, we were too busy to notice the incremental changes as they occurred. We’d cultivated the land, adapted to the harsh environment, but then to our cost discovered, ‘You are what you eat’.* * * The day we arrived on Mars, the Space Agency’s cumbersome vessel landed with remarkable precision, despite the fierce wind that greeted us. We herded our livestock and stowed our possessions on the...

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“The Man Who Walked on Water” by Alexis Araneta

Submitted to Contest #247

No one remembers what it was like to learn to walk. No, in the vast seas of our memory, that formative year right after we are pushed out of our mother's womb is all but submerged, lost like an ill-fated ship at the very bottom where corals dwell. And yet, somehow, in the depths of our core, our muscles recall every single process, could always perfectly stretch out and strain in order to execute the routine of us standing up, lifting a leg, and advancing with one foot in front of the other. Meanwhile, to our conscious, the entire orchestrat...

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“How's Your Aspen?” by Mary Bendickson

Submitted to Contest #247

How's Your Aspen?Have I ever told you about the time I learned to ski? Snow ski. Down a mountain. A famous mountain. No? Well, let me tell you about the time I learned, or should I say attempted to learn, how to snow ski down a famous mountain. Stop me if you have heard it before...If you know me at all, you know I'm a rather conservative, cautious type content to live life within boundaries. Follow the rules, don't take unnecessary risks, always sensible, seldom try something unexpected. Okay, go ahead and say it...dull, boring, in all ways...

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“ Field notes from Roscommon Brecken: Amateur Biologist, Professional Time Traveler. ” by RJ Holmquist

Submitted to Contest #247

Field notes from Roscommon Brecken: Amateur Biologist, Professional Time Traveler. Entry 1Geographic Location: Amazon Rainforest Chronologic Location: January, 1825I was unsurprised to discover today a new species of small, brightly colored frog who exhibits an extraordinary relationship with the time field. I say “unsurprised” only because I had come to this forest expecting to find something unknown and wonderous, but in truth the particular talent displayed by these jewel-like creatures has me utterly confounded. I ha...

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“Red Means Stop” by Hannah Lynn

Submitted to Contest #247

Pulling off my boots, I stood them up in the tall grass next to the bucket. Taking off my woolen socks one at a time, I rolled them up and carefully placed them down as well. I then gathered the excess material of my dress, expertly tying it into a knot at my hip. I sighed, reaching for my fishing pole as I stepped into the cool creek.I hoped the waters would work their magic to calm my nerves as I had become more distraught with each passing day. Being the first daughter of my father’s first wife, I was highly sought aft...

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“The Grey” by Trudy Jas

Submitted to Contest #247

The GreyResembling a surly teenager, poised to unleash its unreasonable fury, the leaden clouds hang low in the pewter sky. It isn’t long before it makes good on this threat with a temper tantrum any two-year old would be proud of. Complete with a rain of crocodile tears, a wind howling like a banshee and the thunder of doors slamming.Cerise is driving through this miserable weather because her grandmother, who she has never met, had written, asking her to come and “finally grow into who she’s supposed to be.” Whatever that means. She c...

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“The Howls of the Netterback” by Daniel Rogers

Submitted to Contest #247

Lord Balister bounded up the spiral stairs, leaving his guards in the dust. His eyes danced in the torchlight, and he could not suppress a childish smile that stretched from ear to ear. The sun said hello and blinded him for a moment as he exited out onto the battlements. A small army of men, women, and stumpers stood on the ground below. He composed himself before greeting them, his excitement barely contained."Lady Nimmo! It's been too long!" Lord Balister shouted."You know why we're here!"He exaggerated, scratching his head. "I'm sure I d...

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“What If?” by Yuliya Borodina

Submitted to Contest #247

My college roommate wore a purple hat. Always. Everywhere. Innocent enough stylistic choice, you might think, but here is the thing. My roommate was an eighty-three-year-old near-sighted lady who, on most days, needed the help of her massive walking stick – and often yours truly – to get from the sofa to the kitchen table. She was bald, missing three front teeth, and bent so low she must have once been twice her height. Those qualities would have been more than enough to differentiate Liliana from the rest of the student body at our uni...

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“The Push-Up Challenge” by Marty B

Submitted to Contest #247

Calvert Barrows, known to friends as CB, couldn’t do 10 push-ups in a row. He actually couldn’t do 2 push-ups in a row, but it sounded better when he said 10. Like he had gotten up to 9, and fell just short on his way to 10. A real man was strong enough to do 10 push-ups right? He needed to show his boys, Ben 6, and Theo 3, how to be a man, and push-ups seemed like a good place to start. He charted his plan out, designing a multi-tab spreadsheet in Excel with progressive increases, rest days, and of course a nutrition pla...

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“Cities Always Sleeping” by Milly Orie

⭐️ Shortlisted for Contest #247

Winnie didn’t know what a city was like. She asked me about them, one night, her voice floating up from the bottom bunk in the darkness, drowning in the sea of cricket song. The windows were open, like they were every evening. We might as well have been sleeping out in the swamp for all the noise. Leaves rustled as frogs trilled to one another, and the heavy air vibrated with the wings of moths and mosquitos–but we were safe from them. The screens were closed. The sounds of the marsh were our lullaby. They also hid conver...

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“Wonders Calling from the Mystical Coast ” by Kristi Gott

Submitted to Contest #247

Something large was moving through the emerald fir trees that touched the golden hour colors of the sky.Mama Black Bear crashed through a tall shrub with plate-sized red flowers. She was growling and huffing.Eileen screeched.Rupert dropped the four-month-old, ten-pound Black Bear cub that he was cradling like a pet dog next to his chest.It was a Spring afternoon in 1898 in the green wilderness of the Mystical Coast.Baby Black Bear had looked cute and lonely hanging onto the Douglas Fir tree. Rupert did not see Mama Bear, but she was not far ...

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“Five Days to Bliss” by Hazel Ide

Submitted to Contest #247

The crickets chirped in unison, their lively crescendo fleeing the darkened forest, making me wonder, not for the first time this week, if this were the life I'd have chosen all along had I known this place existed. The heavy thud of a boot propping up on the cooler beside me doesn't detract from the beauty of the dark, whispering trees. Five days. It's been five days, and already I'm listening more closely, attuned to and relishing every sound, every symphony of the universe. Magpie's heavy boots, the glug glug of the wine sh...

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“A Belly Full of Apples” by Story Time

Submitted to Contest #247

Well, explain to me what it was doing on the tree if I wasn’t meant to eat it? I had a long, hard day, Adam. If you remember correctly, you were supposed to name all the animals with tails, while I handled the green ones. The next thing I know, you’re passed out by the water circle taking yet another one of your naps. That left me to come up with all those names, and by the time I was done, I was famished. The apple tree is the closest to the water hole, and that’s why I picked an apple. It was convenient. I wasn’t deliberately trying to dis...

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“PARROT CHRONICLES” by Darvico Ulmeli

Submitted to Contest #247

Parrot sound recording number 1.Okay, this is going to be a little weird.I just named this strange animal—a bird, more precisely a parrot (it came to me suddenly - I have no idea why or how). It turned out that the parrot could repeat everything I said. Since I don't know how to write, (but I know everything else - at least that's what the Dude told me), I thought I'd use that parrot's ability to remember where everything is.This place is huge, I mean - huge.I've only been here since yesterday. I opened my eyes and there I was, surrounded by...

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$250

Prize money

258

Contest entries

102

Stories

Ended on 23:59 - Apr 26, 2024 EST

Won by Madeline McCourt 🏆

Title: DANGER: UNSTABLE GROUND

Submissions must be between 1,000 - 3,000 words and will be approved and published on Reedsy Prompts within 7 days of the contest closing.

Read the full terms & conditions or check out the FAQ if you have any questions!

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