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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

“TIll Undeath Do Us Part” by ELDRIDGE STIMMEL

Submitted to Contest #60

Till Undeath Do Us Part by Eldridge Stimmel Her description said, “Part dead, but still loving and vital.” The picture claimed ‘early virus,’ and showed a real babe. Blonde hair, natural judging by the eyebrows, porcelain skin, blue eyes, and very dangerous curves. Even so, I’d never really put a lot into looks. I preferred brains and personality. With a Bachelor’s degree in chemistry and a winning smile, she seemed to have it all. The ‘Looking For’ Section had a long column marked ‘any’ next to all the traits. In the paragraph sect...

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“Fleshers” by Lacey Wiggins

Submitted to Contest #60

Heidi Benet was getting ready for the first shift of her new night-clerk position at a local theatre the day that it happened. She was nervous but excited. Heidi was only 19 and this was her first real job. She was also an English major at the local university. She was known to be a little uptight and “stuck-up”, but she was also a little kind. She expected a lot from herself and wanted to make her mark in the world one day. As she looked in the mirror at herself, she practiced her “professional” face whilst applying the finishing touches to...

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“Twelve Angry Scavengers” by John Maygrove

Submitted to Contest #60

Silence in the gymnasium. Six people sat, dirty faced and exhausted, waiting for something, anything to happen. They stirred from their reverie as one to the sound of footsteps, the way a gazelle might respond to the sound of a branch breaking. Three more joined them. Two were armed, one with a handgun, one with a rifle slung casually over his shoulder. The other carried armfuls of canned produce, which he unloaded haphazardly onto a folding table and began arranging them, a single can caught moments before rolling off the table. Severa...

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“THE PROJECT” by Daisy Jackline

Submitted to Contest #60

Greg Marshall had been working all night on the new project. It was 3 in the morning and he was tired, his eyelids kept dropping every few minutes. His theory papers for the experiment lay scattered on the white desk behind him while the apparatus for his project gazed at him, the compounds in the test tubes in the rack contained the many failed samples he had done earlier in the week. He was tired yet he had to keep going on or he would disappoint the CEO of WIT laboratories, he was their only hope at developing a new species of virus that ...

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“Screamers” by Emmett Wrighter

Submitted to Contest #60

No one knew why the screamers screamed. On a good day, when the wind blew in the right direction, you could hear them a mile off. That was when it was time to move, or else they’d come for you with their eyes dripping blood and throats gone raw. Whatever terror they saw, you’d have to be careful not to catch it too and if you looked into the eyes of a screamer, you were lost. People had theories and rumors, of course, but no one really knew was it was like. Something just snapped and you started screaming like the rest of them until you we...

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“Bite” by Caius Van_doren

Submitted to Contest #60

BITEQuinn Dimitri was not in the right state of mind this morning. Or any other day of the week, really. She was hopelessly alone in an abandoned city full of zombies - which to her, was fine. But she wasn’t fine two months ago when they first invaded. I mean, I doubt anyone would be fine with a zombie apocalypse in their area. Yes, in their neighbourhood. I know what you're thinking: ‘A zombie apocalypse? How terrible! Poor Quinn!’ However, that was not how it went down. Most of the city had left in a panic, because they didn’t realize how ...

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“Route None” by Joseph Lombardi

Submitted to Contest #60

Gerald Finch was waiting in bumper-to-bumper traffic on America’s latest 20-lane superhighway, Route None. The massive road stretched from upstate New York where it met Canada’s equivalent to southern Texas and a wide dirt path that continued from there southwards. There were no tolls nor speed limits on Route None-- after all, nobody wanted to be there, not when the sun came out. He surveyed those stuck with him from the relative comfort of his vehicle. Gerald had to crane his head around the giant chromed blower sticking through h...

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“A Life of Lives” by S.N. Beale

Submitted to Contest #60

“…L-Let’s get behind that ridge…make camp. This liquor is really…hmm..."“I gotta wash all this blood off…c-change clothes, at least. It was a good fight. He did well, d-don’t ya think? Got me a bit-"“…No, I’m l-limpin’ because I limp, and I’m hurt because I hurt…s-shut your mind up. Ugh, this guy’s blood reeks! …I-It’s more his than mine.”“Yeah, well, I guess we all smell now, don’t we?”“…H-Have to say…super grateful for this whiskey. Hm. D-Don’t look at me like that. Who-who knew when I said, I’d’ve killed for a drink that it’d end up true....

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“The Lost” by Patrick Hurley

Submitted to Contest #60

“¡Ayúdame! ¡Por favor!” “Help me, please! My family is inside, and I can’t get back in to save them.” The sound of the rushing water almost drowns out the desperate pleas of Marco’s friends and neighbors, but he can hear them nevertheless. He feels guilty (how could any human not feel guilty in times like these?) but at the same time he knows that he and his sister have no real shot at giving help to any of these thousands of people in dire need of it. Suddenly a louder voice comes from behind Marco, breaking through the never ending...

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“The Bunker” by Mx Crane

Submitted to Contest #60

It feels as though the air is aflame, fiery ash and burning rubble. Burning like all the towns before had, all the towns built tall of wood and stone, trapping the heat until it finally combusts and destroys all it can. The sun blazes cruelly overhead, and all he can think about is the towns he passed and left behind, many years ago.There is this buzzing in his ears, an unending and crudely vibrating hum, an aching and dull roar of an engine trapped behind his eyes. He can no longer think, breathe, move. He lies in the dirt, arm thrown over ...

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“The Plague of the Undead” by Magarette Daya

Submitted to Contest #60

Have you ever lived through something so horrific and scary or that killed over half of the population? Well, my grandmother has and she always tells me about it when I visit. I am nine years old and I visit my grandmother once every four months. It is July 12, 2087, and I am so excited to see my grandma. She starts her story at the beginning of the year, almost, with a little information about herself."The date is January 3, 2039, and it is 45 degrees. I am a resident of Hammerfest, Norway, the northernmost city in the world. Usually, about...

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“Outside the window” by J W

Submitted to Contest #60

There was only one window, but it could not be opened. Her mother barely allowed her to carry out the lightest chore, but Jo insisted on helping to clean the window. Every morning, she would wipe away the dust from the inside, as carefully as one would dust a treasured porcelain figure, and her mother would scrub the grime off from the outside on Sundays. Every morning, Jo would attempt to wash the dishes or do the laundry; but she had to do it quietly and almost surreptitiously, as the smallest clatter would bring her mother to her side w...

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“Weather ” by Sandra Claros

Submitted to Contest #60

- There is a weather forecast saying that it is going to rain heavily today – warned Julia, the mother of my kids, but not my wife. - Really ? – I asked her, trying to get some little time before I wake up from a night spent between two bottles of whiskey. - Yes. So you better be careful when taking the kids to school. - Don’t worry. I am as sober as a priest. - Fine. In five minutes they are ready … - Neither am I. - Go and wash your face. Take some coffee. You know I have to go to my job. - Ok.I am going, I am goi...

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“The Way to Eden” by Deborah Landers

Submitted to Contest #60

There was a tune always running through her head, but Blue could never remember the words. They were important somehow, a secret she was supposed to know, but every time she tried to focus on it, the burgeoning sensation on her tongue died away. It always happened near the surface, though. When she went up to the pontoon platform she'd managed to create for the scavenged solar panels she'd found, the tune would slip into her mind like a curious and cautious guppy. She thought maybe it had something to do with the brightness of the Sunlight Z...

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“2099” by David D'EttoreUser

Submitted to Contest #60

2099 There was an eerie silence enveloping the decrepit building that was one of many in the compound that had been ravaged by Millenial forces. It was like the still before a storm, or the final moment as one waits to die. I can’t fathom being 150 years old. I feel better now than when I was 80. Science and technology have come a long way but it is exactly that technology, manipulated by forces of evil, that made longevity a life sentence rather than a...

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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.

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