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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

“We burn. The world” by Mariam Mansuryan

Submitted to Contest #60

It went like this -A deafening noise. A dark cloud. A world, void of color.People covering their ears. All as one, shaking like epileptics when an attack strikes.Something was going on in their heads. Grown up people begging for their mothers, huddling in on themselves. A lonely girl, with orange hair and freckles, running naked in a sunflower field, looking up at the sky shouting for someone. Some didn't wait for the impact, some lost their minds straight away.I took your head. I pressed you against my body, locked your ears with my palms s...

6 comments 6
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“Widow's Circle” by Matthew Eubanks

Submitted to Contest #60

This is a post-apocalyptic love story about the day of the rapture. It occurred in Tennessee, on October 28th, 1964. This is the story of how the witch saved me.History threads like a needle in the South. Southerners are more conscious of the thread than anybody. Our ancestors are pulling on one end, our grandchildren on the other. The pattern's ours to sew. Truth becomes what it needs to be over time, and with a strong hand it can be manipulated to what the body and mind need. It's the same everywhere, of course. But other places don't keep...

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“My Jimmy” by Cynthia Olsen

Submitted to Contest #60

Barracudas are ferocious opportunistic predators. Relying on surprise and short bursts of speed, up to 36 miles per hour, they overtake their prey quickly and then bite them in half. Kinda’ wish I would have known this.  They are snake-like in appearance with razor sharp fang teeth much like the piranha, all in different sizes set in sockets in their large powerful jaws. Like sharks, some barracudas will attack humans, although such incidents are rare. I was one of those rare incidents. The Florida Keys, mile mar...

0 comments 0
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“Braces” by Kelsey Liggett

Submitted to Contest #60

The apocalypse had started last year, April 27th, 2089, zombies swarmed the streets and wars raged over head. Many families had been found dead, or undead. Some good people had started safe havens for citizens in need, others did crime for fun. Alliances were formed, enemies were made, the world had become a living nightmare. But through it all, you had people like me. Teenagers who, despite it all, still wanted to live a life. At one point we tried to start a school again, but someone decided to burn it down. Now we live in an underground...

1 comment 1
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“Stupid Apocalypse” by Arya PANJWANI [10S2]

Submitted to Contest #60

MY SUPER AWESOME FANTASTIC PLAN Stupid apocalypse. Ruined all my plans. It was simple. I was going to finish high school, the last episode of Cobra Kai and run away. Maybe not exactly run. I hadn't really decided my method of transportation but whatever it was it would help me get away. Why? Cause all my parents really cared about was about me doing stuff, not about me. "Levi, eat your veggies". "Levi, no more dessert". "Levi, don't eat pizza or you'll get fat. Eat veggies". Levi this, Levi that. Now you get why I wanted to run awa...

4 comments 4
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“THE WHOLE WORLD IS INSANE (EXCEPT FOR ME)” by Bryan William Myers

Submitted to Contest #60

"It's almost like the whole world is insane," he said while sitting on my couch, cracking open another beer. “Tell me about it,” I replied. I lifted the beer can above me while standing in the center of my one-bedroom apartment that was about five blocks from the beach in Da Nang, Vietnam. I threw the empty can to the floor. It made a noise that probably annoyed my neighbors. But I didn’t care. “Do you want another one?” I asked my friend as I casually walked over to the fridge. I was barefoot and shirtless. I liked living my life like that...

4 comments 4
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“Goblin” by Chris Wagner

Submitted to Contest #60

People have a lot of ideas about the end of the world.  Atomic annihilation. Disease. Zombies, perhaps zombie bovines if you're being fanciful.  A few have even given vampires a whirl, but nobody would have seriously expected a twelve year old goblin queen. Her three foot tall minions creep up to you from the cover of darkness, inject a magic needle in your body, and you somehow cocoon and metamorphose into an ugly, often diminutive monster.  The cocoons produce...foliage as their occupants depart and their ...

1 comment 1
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“Date to the Undead Dance” by Dede K.

Submitted to Contest #60

Todd walked in the front door, smiling with his brown teeth. Skin that peeled down from his forehead dangled below his chin making his cheek muscles visible.  “Honey, I’m home!” Emily walked past the ceiling falling down in the kitchen, kicked aside stones and glass scattered across the house. The wind blew from the window that had been shattered through her gnat-filled hair as she greeted Todd.  “Welcome home, sweetie!” Emily hugged Todd and gave him a kiss on the cheek. Remnants of blood laid on her lips.  “What have...

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“Duped for a coffee” by Rabin Prasad Kalita

Submitted to Contest #60

My Address: Rabin Prasad Kalita H. No. 56C (Near Central School) Azara, Guwahati-781017 Kamrup(M), Assam, India E-mail: rabin1966@gmail.com Mob No. 8638815722 “Duped for a coffee” Mr. Sajal, a loquacious, and was one of the playful staff in a railway office. A fun-loving guy loved creating jokes and willfully applied mostly in his office workforce. Always he strived to open up a window, for a hospitable environment to work with the sagacity of fun and frolic. It enhances the morale of the workers which augment interpersonal attraction...

4 comments 4
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“The Daily Groan” by Shaun Calvert

Submitted to Contest #60

“eeeuuugh, muwuuurrrrr”, you moaned to yourself as you shuffled down the street. As if reading your thoughts Mrs Smith from number 5 replied, “bbrrruuuuueeeeegh”, ‘yeah, tell me about it’, you thought to yourself, shuffling past her as she flailed impotently at the geraniums in her garden, she always did have green thumbs, now quite literally. The birds sang, the bugs buzzed and the squirrels frolicked in the trees. The birds didn’t care. The bugs were loving it. And the squirrels were fine so long as they stayed out of reach. The tasty goo ...

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“Recycling! ” by Tanja Cilia

Submitted to Contest #60

Do you remember, back in 2013 - January I think it was - the fuss made about the remains of a Roman woman who died in her 30s? As I recall, the find was made in a necropolis near Lleida in the Catalonia region of Spain. The woman, who had died some 1,600 years before, had a calcified tumour in her pelvis…and it had a bone and four deformed teeth embedded within it, two of which were still attached to the wall of the tumour. There will always be theories about what causes foetus in foetu. The self-styled experts sometimes call it an ovar...

2 comments 2
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“The River South- Excerpt from the Kara Mason Story” by Jill Davies

Submitted to Contest #60

I can’t get enough air into my lungs. I’ve never been good at running uphill. I look back over my shoulder to see if the creature is still following us. It’s on its knees, mud smeared across a bloody and distorted face. Its gnarled maw hangs open too wide and I can see teeth through the nearly transparent flesh. I hold my breath, waiting to see if it will get back up again. My lungs scream for air to fuel my body’s upward plight. I suck in air at the same time as I collide with Hank’s pack, forcing me to look where I’m going. The creature le...

2 comments 2
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“The Day the Dead got Lively” by Gordon K

Submitted to Contest #60

Like most young children I made the mistake of trying to bite my ma when I was a toddler, and she gave me holy hell. Here we are Thirty Eight years later, and she’s bitten me but all I have to give her is love. Well, I guess she isn’t really herself anymore. She looks like herself but also doesn’t. Nobody’s home. The lights aren’t even on. The electric works but the power has been transferred to a new supplier. The thing you need to understand is that my ma died today, but then she woke up and I don’t know what lives in that body now but it ...

1 comment 1
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“One second” by Carly Rose

Submitted to Contest #60

For the third time in a week, Jacques had to smack a zombie dead faint with his lunch. His lunch, a lame burger that consisted of two pieces of thin bread and a piece of patty in between, had already been considered his best food in a month. And now it was squashed onto the head of some crazily cut and bleeding thing. Never mind eating his lunch, Jacques would have lost his appetite as soon as he saw it. Now let's talk about that ‘it’. Well, it was a human. Not anymore. The human, after being infected by a disease, had turned green and hal...

2 comments 2
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“Lurkers” by Blake Kibler

Submitted to Contest #60

1Walking with a limp, Hunter grits his teeth down route sixty-two feeling all sorts of emotions, holding hands with his son Dalton. He takes a look back to see the city of Hillsboro, Ohio, where he was born and raised, in flames and destruction. Wondering to himself that this was far worse than anything he ever imagined when he thought about the end of times. Every time he takes a second to stop because of his ballooned up ankle that he twisted, he hears moaning and horrible screams of torment and savagery. “Daddy?” His nine year old so...

0 comments 0
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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!

Prompts | Many Hands | 2024-09

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Prompts | Many Hands | 2024-09

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