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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 – 177 stories

Write a post-apocalyptic story triggered by climate change.

Adults – 134 stories

Write a post-apocalyptic thriller.

Thriller and Suspense – 143 stories

Write a post-apocalyptic romance.

Dystopian – 196 stories

Stories

“Waking Up the Dead” by Arshiya S.

Submitted to Contest #60

The Hargraves had a very keen interest in traveling and exploring different places. Susan, their daughter, was in secondary school when they planned a trip to an island which was assumed to be one of the best tourist places to visit. However, this time Susan had to work hard since her exams were about to start. So, she insisted on her parents to go on the trip without her and said she would live with her granny till that time. It was a two-week holiday, and Mr. Hargrave had booked one of the finest hotels to live in. The destination wa...

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“Our New Ocean World” by Asta .

Submitted to Contest #60

The worst thing about everything is that all of it could have been prevented. Humanity is its own biggest disappointment. In the middle of the Pacific Ocean, miles from what was once civilization, the hour hand strikes twelve on a wind-up survival watch. A girl sits up in her straw-cushioned bed. It’s been hours since everyone else slept, but she could not. Bleary-eyed from the darkness, she walks outside, bare-feet tapping the rough, wooden floor. She doesn’t feel the roughness, though, because her calluses are rougher. While...

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“Doppelganger” by DHANANJOY DEB

Submitted to Contest #60

It was a long tiring day and Lokesh is completely exhausted. Its Sunday tomorrow-hence a bit relaxing. He parked his car and walked towards the elevator. He entered and pressed for the 4th floor. The elevator stopped and the door opened. The corridor lights are dimmed out. He stepped out and started walking towards his flat- # 404. As he approached near his door, he saw a man coming from the other end of the corridor. He past behind him and walked towards the elevator. Lokesh opened the door and threw his laptop back on the couch. He is to...

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“The Keeper” by Emily Gain

Submitted to Contest #60

A man stands at the base of his lighthouse on Cally Island, staring into the blanket of fog that hovers over the open water. His name is James McColley. With his left hand he rubs the crusted sleep out of his eye, and his right hand tightens its grip around a shovel. It’s a heavy thing, that shovel. Its sturdy wood handle weighs against the man’s weary shoulder. The head is wide and sharpened at its point; the cold steel rings in the his ear, ready to do its work. The shovel is his in the same way that the lighthouse is his; inherited, ...

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“Imposter” by Angel Odianjo

Submitted to Contest #60

We walked. Tired, annoyed and hungry. We've learnt to go days without food but our water supply is depleted. We've walked miles and not crossed a body of water and I'm sure we won't see one for miles to come. Two hours ago, we found Rose dead. Parts of her looked eaten. Couldn't have been a one man job. We all knew it had to be at least two out of the seventeen of us left but of course we didn't know who. So now everyone is wary of everyone. I couldn't be bothered to care. My husband was ta...

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“Not A Friend In The World ” by Meg OReilly

Submitted to Contest #60

(Trigger warning: body horror) Your twenty-first birthday is supposed to be a super fun night spent bar hopping with your friends, which is why I believe I deserve some sort of cosmic redo. See before I even had the chance to use my now legal ID, a bunch of aliens from planet who gives a shit, in a galaxy far, far away, invaded Earth and decided to use the human race for their transgenic experiment. Or something like that. The Alien’s gurgle voice boomed out of their spacecrafts and echoed across the world but I was too overwhelmed to really...

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“Redemption” by Izzy Marie Asteri

Submitted to Contest #60

Not a single wind blew here anymore. The land was barren, and it had been this way for thousands of years. Even the slightest traces of life were banished from its surface. All that remained were the marks of the previous inhabitants’ failure: buildings decaying to the elements, bodies strewn around in the streets, crazed messages hastily scribbled, and mass graves. The cause was unknown, as no one intended on actually examining the bodies, despite their curiosity. As a result, they forced me to do it. All I had to do was gather one s...

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“Whispering Willows Care Home” by Andrew Lysack

Submitted to Contest #60

“Today is October 18, 2021. It has been five-hundred and eighty-four days since the pandemic. If you can hear this message, there are survivors. We have a facility in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. Today is October 18, 2021—” The radio repeated itself. The same message had been airing over the radio for over three hundred days. “You think that’s legit?” asked a woman’s voice. The woman pulled out a pistol from her thigh holster as she walked up a long driveway, unkempt grass growing on either side of her. A small stone sign read Whi...

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“New World Feline Friend ” by Hank Vance

Submitted to Contest #60

Elliot Harrell, a boy in his early twenties, stayed in his underground bunker for several months after the nuclear missiles have made waste of most of the world, until one day he ran out of food and he is now forced to explore the new world that is to come, if there is one to come and he can't decide if being alive is worth anything anymore. He wanders aimlessly through the lifeless trees, under the gray sky, on the gray grassless dirt. He wonders until he comes to something he never thought he'd see; a Demi-Human, judging by her...

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“Sister Widows” by Peyton Colston

Submitted to Contest #60

Rachel Peyton Colston (She/Her) 4433 Morgan Ford Rd. Apt. 2-S St. Louis, MO 63116 314-309-5389 wpcolston@gmail.com about 1000words Widow Sisters By: Peyton Cee She stands beside the bed and gazes down at him. He is face down, asleep, and his lanky body, nude, glistens with a thin layer of sweat. He looks absolutely delicious even though she is completely sated for the night. “And quite a night it’s been, too,” she says to herself. “Too bad it’s all we’ll have.” With a sigh she thinks back on their night. It had s...

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“The Apocalypse and Me” by Scott Wiser

Submitted to Contest #60

There are few things in this world of less interest, than any sort of discussion on the Apocalypse. And I told him this. Straight to his face. Or rather, where one would imagine a face, instead it is kind of a blurry empty space. Oh, don’t worry, he doesn’t seem to mind, after all, he wouldn’t be much of an armageddon of any kind, if he cared what we thought, nah to that he could take or leave. Not really one to wear his heart on his sleeve. He usually just reaches for a pint or takes a shot and winks without...

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“After the Virus” by Rodney Owen

Submitted to Contest #60

Amy looked over at the bodies of marauders that lay before her. She had been lucky this time, there were only 3 marauders. She feared for the day that there would be more. Thankfully, that wasn’t today. She quickly searched their pockets and relieved them of their weapons and anything that was useful, lighters, food anything she could use to help her survive. She then dragged the bodies into the bush. They will attract animals into the area that she can hunt. The sky was turning a pinky-orangy hue. It would be dark soon and far to dangerous ...

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“The Apocalypse” by Ebube Anochili

Submitted to Contest #60

Dear diary, It’s been 16 days since the apocalypse. I can’t overemphasize how much I miss the world before it ended. You already know this. But as the days go by, I wish for this new world to be better. I hope for better things in the future. It’s not easy but it’s all we have. Hope. Today, I want to try new things and make more friends. Yeah, more friends cos you know I already have some. Almost everyone here in Spring Hills have been great, save for Mallory, she’s still a pain in the ass. Josh and Adam have been a blessing, always st...

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“Like Theres No Tomorrow” by Jillian Goldbeck

Submitted to Contest #60

The date is September 22nd 2021 exactly 365 days since the second wave of the coronavirus. No scientists could have predicted the effects that have occurred. The virus had mutated to kill within the first two seconds of contracting it. People were dropping dead in the streets left and right. I was living with my parents in Miami at the time. We were trying to escape it, but my parents were not as lucky as I was. They passed away Christmas Eve and I thought that it was my last day as well, but apparently I had immunity. No one ever prepares y...

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“Ending kiss” by Duong Duy Khang

Submitted to Contest #60

As usual, Meg turns on the music in her phone as she wakes up. Then she goes to the bathroom, lays her phone on the wooden tower, and takes a shower while enjoying the music. She quickly dries her body and hairs when she finishes taking shower. She puts on her uniform, sits at the desk, making up and brushes her hair. - Meg, it’s time for breakfast. That’s her mother calling. Meg says “Right away” in reply and runs downstairs. Breakfast is always amazing. After finishing her mother’s little morning feast on her first day of high school, ...

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$50

Prize money

760

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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