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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

“The Cure That Killed Us All” by J. Marc

Submitted to Contest #60

The dinner was served. Three potatoes and a carrot.“Thank you, Lord God, for another blessed day. Please continue to give us your grace and protect us especially Papa. All these we ask in Jesus' name. Amen,” Ben prayed almost sobbing. They all knew that this could be their last supper together. Tomorrow, Leo has to go out to find more stock that he could get for (who knows) a couple of days or months more.After they ate, Leo kissed his sons' goodnight as they went on their bed.Five months, nineteen days. Leo sighed a...

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“After the End” by Claudio G. Henze

Submitted to Contest #60

“You know, I really miss videogames.” By his count, this was the fifth time Matt made the same comment, with the same heartfelt sorrow. “I know it’s not a priority right now, but I just do.” “I would settle for a drive-through,” replied Dan. “Or delivery,” he added just as he finished going through the last drawer on his side of the room. He sighed. “Nothing here either. Looks like we are going back emptyhanded. Again.” Daniel gave an empty can a frustrated kick. Not strong enough that it would make a loud rattle, of course. That would be ...

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“Just Another Day.” by Starla Taylor

Submitted to Contest #60

Zombies are clumsy. I'm gawking at them through the crack of the boarded-up window, in my living room. This is my entertainment for the day. I sip on bottled water and watch as three zombies lurch down the street and trip over old furniture and garbage. I don't know what happened to them but, they're covered in blood and guts, dragging their entrails behind them. Finally, they make it to the end of the block. I flop onto my favorite part of the couch and continue with my crossword puzzle. When tales of zombie attacks started whispering acros...

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“The Crow and The Buttterfly” by Meagan Smith

Submitted to Contest #60

Things never seemed to go his way, ever since he could remember. But now. Hah, now is just the icing on the cake. He was an agent, working on Pentagon-level issues that the government doesn't want to deal with. However, even his designated section was caught off guard with the pandemic. Zombies. Honestly, he laughed at the thought, but when he watched the footage, he couldn't believe it. Especially since the infected were stronger, faster and more powerful than they were when the people where alive. The only good thing is that they seem...

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“Pa Collapsed” by Scott Wiser

Submitted to Contest #60

The east side zombies were always friendly and polite. They felt it only appropriate to ask before eating any brains. Who would just go up to someone and take a scoop. It seems really very rude. “People don’t walk behind the counter to steal ice cream from those buckets, right. So why should anyone, go and scoop peoples brains”. Miley’s father used to say that all the time. Or some variation of it anyway. People rarely repeat themselves exactly. There is always an extra word, an Um, or some other ...

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“The Manor” by Alexa Paredes

Submitted to Contest #60

My family consists of restraint, obedience and perfect. I live on a manor on a tall hill. Not many like to wonder up here. I've lived 16 years of isolation. No friends. My dad never let me outside the walls, but never hid the wonders and horrors of the world. My only friend, my mother died five years ago. Like my mother I was dark haired but my eyes but brown. I was the only one who had brown eyes in my family. My mother's were black and my fathers blue. I was allowed to watch the news, and have social media, but he had control over what I w...

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“Snow Angels” by Spirited Wings

Submitted to Contest #60

The snow falls, like angels who lose their wings. They brush the somber streets, alight with dull lamps that blink occasionally when a breeze flows through the cracks of the window covering the shivering bulb with a chill that can freeze a heart. “Misty times,” said the mayor, “are upon us. We must take advantage of this fog as a time to spend with family and people close to us; if we ventured in the clouds of mystery, there wouldn’t be many alive as there are now.” The park was vastly empty, the creaking branches of oaks the only move...

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“The Warmth of Angels” by Avery Parker

Submitted to Contest #60

Icy winds clawed at Marcus Clodius. Though several layers of clothing covered him from head to toe, he was freezing. He slugged his way through the snow, trekking through a clearing that ran through the woods where a road once was. Whatever remained of it after so many years of dejection lay buried deep beneath the snow. Almost as soon as Marcus laid down his tracks, the wind covered them with a new layer of snow. It bore against his face. He tried to duck into his coat, but only managed to direct the wind slightly higher on his face. T...

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“Anno Domini Relicuum” by Eleanor Inn

Submitted to Contest #60

Winston Churchill once said: ‘To build may have to be the slow and laborious task of years. To destroy can be the thoughtless act of a single day.’ Each inch mankind advances towards a fluorescent future, a single day’s ignorance ebbs us kilometres back. The ignorance of consequence, the blatant disregard of the law, and the indifference towards relicuum - the future. The world is what it is today because of their irresponsible behaviour, and we’re the ones who are paying the price, with added interest.Three thousand years have passed since ...

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“The Aftermath” by Kristy Reynolds

Submitted to Contest #60

We all cheered when the announcement came over the news on the tv. The pandemic was finally over. We were free to leave our homes, free to see people we had only seen via video call for the last twenty two months. The pandemic had swept through our country first, taking a swift run across the globe. Millions had died in the first few weeks and millions more died as they reacted to their cabin fever after month eleven. People began to doubt the validity of the pandemic and doubt the fact that being quarantined in our homes was anythin...

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“The Cold Winter of 2032” by Letitia Reynolds

Submitted to Contest #60

It's so cold. I didn't recognize Kensington anymore, the small town that I had grown to love. I have not seen the light of day in years now. I had been underground with many others, and it's now 2032. The unthinkable happened, in 2029 a blast came from the sky, a flash of light, then suddenly everything went silent. I will never forget people had been talking, the talk was in six about months a catastrophe would hit earth. This was due to the dramatic climate changes over the years. There had been record numbers of: earthquakes, hurricanes...

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“A Mother of Flames” by Stephanie Orrell

Submitted to Contest #60

The perfectly round moon hung high in the inky black sky once more. Its halo cast a velveteen effect on the tree-topped horizon and sugared the nearby grasses, dimpling in the gently trickling river. In another world, another time, the view would have been magnificent. But Juniper sighed as she gazed up at it, her fawn colored hair grazing the top of her tattered linen pants. The moonlight even shimmered against her nose tip and cheek bones, reflecting in her irises as a pinpoint of white light. But to Juniper, the angelic full moon han...

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“Time Telepathy” by SHIPRA JHA

Submitted to Contest #60

Time Telepathy Definition- Climate change is a change in global or regional climate patterns, in particular, a change apparent from the mid to late 20th century onwards and attributed to the increased levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide produced by the use of fossil fuels. Climate change is a topic that has been discussed in every judiciary and has been debated to be directly proportionate with development. Although discussed but not looked after at an intensity it was supposed to be, the development has been told to be constant with a hu...

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“Beginning Of The End” by Raina Banerjee

Submitted to Contest #60

The Beginning of the End The sky looked like an old woman’s face, teeming with the smoke of several bombs. It was for the petty conflicts and politics because of which led to World War 3. Buildings came down like dust, a few entire countries had been wiped out, and plants now grew in only some select places. The temperature of the Arctic was always very cold. It seemed to Ruth...

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“Forced Evolution” by Rachael Clark

Submitted to Contest #60

First the fires, then the floods. Islands sank into the cold depths of the ocean, the skies turned red as the world burned. Crops failed, water sources dried up, people began to drop like flies. Then scientists began trying their hand at something that should have remained untouched; DNA. At first, nobody saw the harm in trying, after all the world was dying and without evolving, it was believed we would die out. The experiments began on insects, little things such as increasing their size and changing their colour. Nobody thought it could p...

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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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