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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

“I Don't Know How, I Don't Know Why” by Robyn Jipp

Submitted to Contest #60

Remember when everyone used to joke about waiting for the Zombie Apocalypse and tease each other about their chances of survival when it happened? Yeah, good times. Well, I am one of the ones who have so far somehow managed to survive. And I can guarentee it's nothing to joke about. It's been two years since the shit hit the fan and still no one is any closer to learning how, why, or even where the initial outbreak began. I guess it doesn't matter at this point. I guess one of the reasons I've made it this far is I used to watch all those zo...

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“Living Things” by Luana Ferraz

Submitted to Contest #60

Your heartbeat matched the pace of your feet. Faster. The trees around you were just a blur of greens and browns. You jumped over rocks and fallen trunks, your usual trail long lost. You wouldn’t give up, though. You were decided you wouldn’t go down without a fight. Or, at least, a last attempt at fleeing. The burning in your lungs worsened with the smell of their stench—they were getting closer. You were running out of time. That was when you stumbled upon a clearing, the sudden light blinding your desperate eyes. The outline of a tall b...

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“Return of the Undead ” by Charles Wasilausky

Submitted to Contest #60

"Run! Run for your lives," screamed Fred, an officer in a small African Village in Rwanda as a nuclear bomb was dropped from an invading army. Fred, who was familiar with nuclear weapons though never seeing or using them because of how poor his village was, knew the dangers that were coming. So far, in the last six months, they had seen their crops devoured by locusts, a massive earthquake wiping out some nearby villages, and a huge outbreak of Ebola. If Fred had any guesses, he would be saying that the apocalypse was upon them. Unfortunatel...

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“The Day the Dead Died” by Rachel Bacon

Submitted to Contest #60

There was a vaccine. Developed in a bunker in the middle of Montana, a bunch of surviving scientists and government officials found a way to counter the infection. And the world was saved. But Gabriella Lotus knew the truth, and she would have to take it to her grave. She was the only survivor of bunker 5624. And this is what really happened the Day the Dead Died. August 18th was a warm sunny day with a gentle breeze. In any other circumstance it would have been the perfect the day. But that was ruined by the flesh-eating cannibals th...

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“Lost and found” by High Jinks

Submitted to Contest #60

It was a sunny afternoon naira woke up and found herself laying in the muds of the sea bed. Her mind tripped to rewire the old memories but she remembered nothing. She is still kind of drowsy and wants to sleep that was the only command given to her body. Yet she tried to outsmart her brain by staying awake and started recollecting the memories. Suddenly she noticed her forearm skin was dark green in color and some deep cuts in the feet that's still bleeding above the mud coatings. Yeah her memory started to expand like a fire ball but ...

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“HAVE YOU BEEN BIT?” by Susan Hudson

Submitted to Contest #60

HAVE YOU BEEN BIT? Susan W. Hudson “Have you been bit?” was a frequent conversation starter among the non-afflicted in Robert Kirkman’s “The Walking Dead.” “If you stub your toe, get an infection and die, you turn into a zombie, unless your brain is damaged. If someone shoots you in the head and you die, you're dead. A zombie bite kills you because of infection, or blood loss, not because of the zombie virus,” concludes Kirkman. I began studying zombies in 2016. I suspected that ghoulish things were going to happen in the next four yea...

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“Logan and the Zombie Killers” by David Dicaire

Submitted to Contest #60

Logan and the Zombie Killers Logan ran as fast as he could without looking over his shoulder. The fence was maybe five hundred feet away. He could hear them and feel their disease and vacant stares. They were supposed to be slow, but these zombies had adjusted their speed and were moving too quickly. His plan was simple: he was going to hop the fence, something the zombies weren’t able to do and then go from there. It would have worked out perfectly except for the two hun...

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“The Vision” by Anna Doko

Submitted to Contest #60

Chaos. Violence. Destruction. Pain. That’s what the world would become. Sadly, I didn’t know it yet. My name is Knight. I’m a three year old black German shepherd. This is the story of what happened to me and my brother, December. Bang. Bang. My eyes flung open to the sound of something loud and unclear in the distance. “Stay back!” I heard someone shout from close by. I look around me, taking in my surroundings. I was home, December awake by my side. I got up and stretched my legs from a night of sleeping. I was in my owner’s bedroom, bu...

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“Love Sacrifice ” by Zoha Zulfiqar Zaidi

Submitted to Contest #60

“It’s just in; nuclear waste has been leaked by a biological factory. We advise everyone to pack food, water and essential items and head to the public bunkers. From there we will put people into gro-” Dazai turned the TV off before the news reporter could continue. He was starting to stress. He usually would not leave his house, unless he needed something crucial. “I don’t need to go, my house is way safer than being out with other people,” he told himself, but honestly, he was self-conflicted on whether he should go or not. He tried to tal...

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“The Year 2050 ” by Kathryn Wilborn

Submitted to Contest #60

The world has become a dark and grim place. The year 2020 had wiped out a large portion of the world’s population. Birth’s were not able to keep up with the death rates. This lasted for about five years before some college kid in his basement discovered a vaccine. The scientist around the world were baffled. Ever since then the World Health Organization had begun to fund anybody that might have an idea of how to defeat a deadly virus. I was only two in the year 2020 so most of the stuff that happened are just things that I had read in histor...

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“Dead World ” by Meli Mangos

Submitted to Contest #60

Alana had her hand against her forehead to shadow the sun from her eyes as she scanned the landscape before her. A scarf was secured across her mouth and nose and perspiration showed on the long-sleeved shirt on her back. Clouds of dust were beginning to lift and swirl above the cracked earth. “Alana, we need to hurry.” Lillette called from behind her, near the tunnel door. She kept scanning the landscape. Mounds of trash in the distance looked like mountains and cast shadows just as large. “Alana, a storm is coming. Don...

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“The Cabin” by Bob Ivey

Submitted to Contest #60

“Daddy, I want to go home,” Amy said as she pulled weeds and harvested zucchini from the raised garden bed she was working on. “I miss my friends and I miss going to school.” Working on another garden bed with his back to her Paul said, “I know you do sweetheart, but this is our home now and we have to make the best of it. Besides, I thought you enjoyed coming to the family cabin.” “I did when it was only a couple of weeks in the summer, but now I can’t even go swimming in the lake. It’s so dried up that I have to walk out a half mile th...

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“The Last People on Earth” by Robin ✿

Submitted to Contest #60

It was winter, and it was snowing. The snowflakes of it's different directions was a beautiful cold compass. And Owen was in his house looking out at his window. It was lovely to see the shining snowflakes of winter sparkling down to the ground. His little sister, Mary, was in her red scarf and making a snowman. All the cotton candy snow were piling up on everywhere. The snow settled itself on the roof Owen's house. Night fell. It was still snowing, and the stars in the sky matched lovely with the winter season. There were hardly people outs...

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“Tower of Death” by Rae H

Submitted to Contest #60

It’s the year 2214. Climate change has rapidly progressed over the past century and, despite scientists’ and world leaders’ best efforts, the Earth is nearly dead. The surface is a bleak wasteland ravaged by severe storms that leave death in their wakes. 33 years ago, new incurable diseases began to break out across the globe. Scientists stopped trying to save the planet and started looking for a way to leave it. Although another life-sustaining planet was never found, several space stations were built to orbit the Earth. Only society’s Elit...

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“Blooms From the Ashes” by Lori Koenig

Submitted to Contest #60

It was the rare sighting of a poppy that caught Harper’s eye and held her transfixed for a moment. The vibrant orange struck her as incongruous with all of the ashen browns and grays of her daily tableau. At once, she had been transported to the trip she had taken, some ten years prior, in tow to her older sister and parents, down to see the Antelope Valley poppy preserve in full bloom during their spring break. The sheer number of blossoms had been dizzying and left her utterly speechless in wonder, though she was known fo...

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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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