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CONTEST ENDED – Thank you for submitting your stories!

#60: Face Your Fears

This week is a special edition of the Reedsy Prompts contest because our friends at IndieReader are taking it over with their own theme, prompts, and bonus prize! We'll let them take it from here...

Hi! Amy from IndieReader here. If you’re not familiar with IR, we’re one of the original (paid) review services for self, hybrid and independently published authors, providing professional book reviews since 2009, in addition to unique marketing and distribution solutions.

We know that 2020 has been a memorable (aka stressful) year for many. According to experts, one of the recommended ways to manage stress and anxiety is by thinking about what scares you most and then writing about it. So fittingly, this week’s theme is post-apocalyptic stories.

Don’t worry if that doesn’t sound like your genre, as we’ve written 5 prompts below that work whether you’re into that kind of thing or not. So pour a glass of wine, take a few deep breaths, and start typing. And we wouldn’t be surprised if, after you’re done, the world around you doesn’t look so bleak. At least there aren’t any zombies!

(As a bonus prize, the winner of this week's contest will receive a discount code for 20% off an IR Pro Review.)

This week's prompts

Write a funny post-apocalyptic story.

Funny – 110 stories

Write a post-apocalyptic story that features zombies.

Science Fiction – 178 stories

Write a post-apocalyptic story triggered by climate change.

Adults – 134 stories

Write a post-apocalyptic thriller.

Thriller and Suspense – 144 stories

Write a post-apocalyptic romance.

Dystopian – 196 stories

Stories

“Decay” by Baisakhi Ghosh

Submitted to Contest #60

Have you heard of Murkshore, the city built on the ruins? If no, then gear up, turn your globes and find out the little city on the far end along the 40th Parallel North, stranded somewhere in the middle of the vast oceans on all sides. If yes, then I am here to tell you a story today. Murkshore is built on the ruins of plastic waste accumulated over the years. The major landmark in the city centre is a statue of an old woman pointing towards the oblivion with her frail, black, arthritic fingers. Her temples are punctured through and...

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“Stranger ” by Lizzie Hall

Submitted to Contest #60

It’s been 456 days since I last saw my family. Wait, no. Scratch that. 457 days, starting today. Counting days has kept me sane. Reminds me that it wasn’t always like this. That I had friends, a family. A roof over my head, food on the table every time I came back from school. Now, I go days without anything. At first, it was hard because I had never gone a day without food or water. My lips have grown dry, my mouth is coarse. I’ve grown used to it, though. Ever since “that day” I’ve found less food as the months go by. You’d be surprised co...

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“The Ark” by Elle Fredine

Submitted to Contest #60

“Is the world crying, Daddy?”Aaron stared through fly-specked glass at the grey, foggy drizzle. Ninety days straight, they hadn’t seen the sun. The damn fog had followed them from San Francisco. Nevada was supposed to be hot. Sunny. A desert, for God’s sake.They’d moved inland after Sam’s mother died. Aaron had always hated winter at the coast. Freezing rain. Ice-rimed streets. But, since the change, it was the same everywhere. Aaron’s head was stuffed with cotton wool. He was never dry or warm. The bed-sheets were cold and clammy when he cr...

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“Rain of Fire” by Shawnalynn Cromwell

Submitted to Contest #60

The weather forecast is calling for another strange day, in the weather world who would complain, it is a warm spring-like day, in the middle of winter. Sandra George is a little down about the warm forecast, she was planning on going skiing later in the day. She cannot believe the difference from the morning to the afternoon. One minute it is bone-chilling cold and snowing and the next the sun is shining and the snow disappears just as fast as it fell! Sandra’s husband arrives home, entering the house, carrying his winter c...

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“Welcome to Sram” by Pamela Berglund

Submitted to Contest #60

Welcome to Sram A New and Bette4 World That is the first thing I remeber seeing in front of me when I woke up from a rather sleepless dream. I seemed to be in a white sterile room which smelled of rubbing alcohol and antiseptic. There was a fresh cool air coming through a vent above me, and the purest white paint on the walls I had ever seen. As I continued looking around the room, I noted the scarcity of furniture. There was a single chair, a hook on the wall, with the clothes that I remembered wearing before I fell asleep...

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“Zero Apples” by Stephen Castro

Submitted to Contest #60

Nobody was safe from the sun. Today was no exception. It shot rays of heat down to the small town of Brinaville. In a small shop full of sweating customers, it melted a fresh scoop of strawberry ice cream almost immediately as it touched the cone. A red stream dripped down Cliffords glove. He tried his hardest to lick it up, but the ice cream only redirected down his chin and into his shirt.“No refunds,” the cashier muffled behind his mask, pointing to the sign on the wall behind him.“Really? But, you saw what happened,” argued Clifford. The...

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“The Mountain” by Juliana Jamison

Submitted to Contest #60

The Mountain A Short Story by Juliana Jamison I looked at the mountain as it fell for the 47th time, remembering all who were lost that day: including my parents. The tape was playing for the 100 people out of 5,000 that are left in our small town: Tailors Edge on Channel 35 Action News ( whi...

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“"new" hope.” by Emily :3

Submitted to Contest #60

The first thing I hear every single morning of my “new” life is the irritating “beep beeep” of my alarm clock. Every time I listen to those annoying rings, I wonder whether getting up is worth it or not: every day that goes by I feel like waking up to live my “new” life is a waste of time. There’s nothing to see out there. After a sigh, I get up, leaving the comfortable warmth of my bed. “Time to eat” I mumble to myself, as I need to convince myself that I need to eat to survive. I open the cupboard, looking for something to fill my ...

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“The Commander” by Mutant Llama

Submitted to Contest #60

This isn’t a normal apocalyptic scenario. We spent years preparing for zombies, robots, aliens etc. We don’t even know what this is though. Every so often, we see a mass of people, mostly teenagers and young adults with very view older people, just walking in straight lines. They have no expression on their face. No intent. They appeared to be in a trance. Some skip, some run, some walk backwards, but always in a straight line, never turning. When they reach a building or structure that blocks ...

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“Pets” by Isa Mendez

Submitted to Contest #60

'They were not them. It was as if they never knew me', my thought wanders thinking. "Are you guys okay?", I asked. The only thing that could come out of their mouths was a weird groaning and grunting sound. That's when I definitely knew that there was something wrong. Walking away, I heard a noise behind me, as if someone was following me. Looking behind me, I see my friends, the ones from before, coming from around the corner. I walk faster. All I wanted to do was get home and see my parents to make sure they are okay, at least. Everyone th...

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“LD 50/30” by Cheryl Fulks

Submitted to Contest #60

LD 50/30Sally looked down at her watch realizing she only had 30 minutes to prepare dessert before her in-laws arrived. She wasn’t looking forward to Ralph and Edith’s week long visit. She knew Edith would snub her nose up at the tiramisu and explain what she had done wrong. Michael was no help, she thought, he never defended her to his family and walked off like a little puppy with its tail between his legs. The sooner the visit started, the sooner it would be over.Jodie ran in and grabbed a cart ahead of Sally and headed off...

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“Someplace Safe” by Aburrow Marsh

Submitted to Contest #60

Someplace Safe Ten minutes. Jake closed his laptop and sat thinking. Cold sweat trickled down his back. I’m dead. How could the safety nets have failed Mankind so miserably? So fatally? I’m fucking dead. All had failed -- the politicians, the diplomats, the generals, the spies, the presidents. Now there was nothing left but decimation. Outside his window, the campus mall looked perfectly normal. The sun was out for the first time in days; bees flitted among the hedges. A mockingbird sat blithely on a limb. Normality. Jake’s stomac...

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“Eden's Cage” by Iris Cordova

Submitted to Contest #60

You have no idea what is coming for you once the sun sets. You—my savior, the man who found me taming beasts—can never understand. You—my salvation—are my shackles. Watery ash streams down the walls of the domed aviary and pools in front of us, suffocating what little green survives in the Wastes. You mention how fortunate we are to be far from the coast. I force a chuckle at your joke that at least the hurricane did us some good. It did little good for the Burrowers. I wish I could drown their screams with those of our conures. I wish I...

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“Scavenger Salute” by Cyndy Reads

Submitted to Contest #60

The hare stopped. It looked up from its grazing, ears tall and twitching. A soft shift in the forest floor alerted it and it turned, ready to flee, when the arrow pierced its heart. Halley emerged from the brush. She slung her bow over her shoulder and pulled out her skinning knife, placing the handle between her teeth as she crouched to remove her arrow. Still sharp. She wiped the edges against the loose part o...

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“Mundus” by Angela Morrissey

Submitted to Contest #60

The rain pelted down onto the vast fields and caused the ground to become slippery, brown sludge. As a consequence, this made the task of toiling much harder for the workers who hammered into these grounds, which belonged to their ruler, the Whore of Babylon, Ulrika. She was the supreme matriarch who governed the Democratic People’s Republic of Mundus. ‘Worker 088068-666!’ screamed a voice from the megaphone. Aki, one of the young workers, recognised the voice of their ruler. He looked up into ...

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$50

Prize money

762

Contest entries

0

Stories

Ended on 23:59 - Sep 25, 2020 EST

Won by Ruth Midgley 🏆

Title: Unpaving Paradise

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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