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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

“ORIGINAL AND NOT SECOND SERVING” by SHYAMALA BHUVANACHANDRAN

Submitted to Contest #60

Kalidas was sitting in front of the Dean of the hospital. He had recently admitted a pregnant lady in a very critical condition. She was one of the victims he saved from the ravaged gushing floods, coupled with chopping winds and heavy downpour. It was a tremendous job for him to wade through racing currents and whirlpools. He had virtually lifted and packed her on his back with her back on his back, so that her baby-bump was not suppressed. A miraculous escape for both, from the very mouth of death! How they survived God only knows! That wa...

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“Apocalypse In F-Major” by Micah Ackerman Hirsch

Submitted to Contest #60

When I die, do you know what I’ll see? Sudden, radiating brilliance: the astronomy tower’s weight before it fell. Rolls of shimmering heatwaves, the courtyard cracking under its own opportunistic shove - that first messianic second of uplifted brick, of foundations uprooted. And then nothing else at all.Picture this: the shattering of Edison bulbs, the Jeffersonian ideal flung across the Great Divide and piled high like duct tape and solo cups.Lord, I never could hate those scientists, or the makers of war. I tried so hard to confound their ...

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“Ash” by Evangeline E.

Submitted to Contest #60

Sakurai Kano stared out the window, bored of the class. He wanted to go outside and do something. The sky was clear, and clouds moved at a slow pace. It was peaceful. He turned his head to the side, next to him was his seatmate. Hara Mayumi. Her eyes were closed as her head rested on her palm. She breathed softly, her long eyelashes glimmering in the light. Her short hair pulled into a ponytail, was coming undone from her hair tie. To him, she looked beautiful. Kano turned his head back to the window, and soon enough, the class was over....

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“Entering the door” by Marjorie Kabwe

Submitted to Contest #60

In the year 2222, Earth was invaded by an unknown enemy of alien origin. The military was brought down in less than hour. Before anyone had time to grasp what was happening, the slaughter begun. Countless of UFOs appeared in every city destroying everything and anything that moved with plasma canons. Nearly a third of the world’s population was eliminated. There was no way of fighting back until 10 years later, when I stumbled on something I shouldn’t have. It was spring. The forests were as green but not teeming with wildlife. In all my 19 ...

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“The Sweet Kiss of Plague” by Natalie Johnson

Submitted to Contest #60

Cambridge - October 1349 Isabella hummed as she walked through the almost empty streets of the town. Seven months since the end of the world had passed through Cambridge on its journey north, yet life still felt wrong. It felt as though the worst was still to come. The pestilence had arrived the previous year. At first, it began slowly. A few deaths in distant towns. By the time the population were aware of its existence and its severity, it was too late. During the winter of 1348, the situation became even worse. Virtually everyon...

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“Warmth in the Cold” by Khalid El Achab

Submitted to Contest #60

Warmth in the Cold Prologue The year is 2031; the earth just witnessed a Geomagnetic Reversal, causing a shift in the earth’s orbit around the sun leading to an instantaneous massive drop in temperature. In the blink of an eye everything froze up. Only a few humans who happened to be in an isolated space survived. In the example of our protagonist Mark: a computer science nerd who locked himself in his mother’s basement, offline, coding his time away and only realizing that an Apocalypse took place when his electrical generator ran out of ...

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“Today’s A New Day” by Naomi Hairston

Submitted to Contest #60

I dreamt we danced under the stars. The CVS parking lot was empty and the street light acted as our own personal spotlight. Music played softly from inside your truck as you slowly twirled me alongside it. In my dream, we were alone, not just in the parking lot, but alone from the world. As we danced we created our own. In our world, the static that interrupted our song, didn’t exist. In our world, gnats and moths weren’t fluttering back and forth across our spotlight and we didn’t have t...

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“Stranger than Fiction” by Cassandra Reece

Submitted to Contest #60

“At the end of the world, meet me at the border where the lights fall.“ Even after everything has happened, these are the words that stick in my head. They were loose words, spoken to me amidst the curtains of sleep one night, and yet I hold onto them as if they are a taut rope pulling me to shore. I follow them even though I can’t see the end. To hold onto something as allusive as a dream when I can’t even remember the feeling of my comforter… Well, maybe it’s only natural. Besides, I have given up debating whether my feet walk of the...

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“Is This Real Life or Just Dystopia?” by Cassie Poormokhtar

Submitted to Contest #60

Nobody warned me I’d be playing Scrabble at the end of the world. I thought we would have aliens with laser guns, or zombies at least, but no. The downfall of capitalism was a virus that just killed people, no reanimating involved. How disappointing. The end of the world felt an awful lot like everyday life. Except without jobs and the 40-hour work week. Instead people took up skating, biking, hiking, kayaking, baking their own bread, and doing puzzles, and making all kinds of stupid art. Now that I thought about it maybe this wasn’t the ...

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“Misty Morgan’s Guide to Happiness in a Post-Apocalyptic World” by Heidi Lacey

Submitted to Contest #60

For those of you who are a little fuzzy on your history, let’s review. There are some who insist that the Apocalypse began with the war with China, and while this is mostly true, the real cause is far more mundane. According to my extensive research, it actually began with the demise of the humble honeybee. The loss of the honeybee, a totally preventable occurrence according to my sources, devastated the world’s food supply. For example, do any of you even know what an apple is? Or a kumquat? Let alone what one tastes like? I think not. T...

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“Puff, Putt, Perfection” by Nic Azad

Submitted to Contest #60

Hi! I'm Will. Crazy times we are living in, huh? Or, should I say "I," seeing as how you aren't really here, are you? Crazy times I am living in. Anyway, I know what you must be thinking - "Oh no, the world has gone to shit! Poor Will. How did this all happen?!" Well, the long and short of it is, my world went crazy in all the ways you might expect. The two parties that comprised my government argued themselves into a permanent shutdown/stalemate. The right-leaning children clad in ill-fitting suits argued against the left-leaning childr...

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“Canned beans” by Cliff M.

Submitted to Contest #60

"This is not a test!" the robotic voice said through the TV. "The United States is under nuclear attack. You have exactly 15 minutes to find shelter. Fallout shelters will be open and you will be evacuated by local authorities. Every state is at risk" While almost all news channels were broadcasting the same thing, some of the privately-owned channels were having discussions between the hosts. A particular group of hosts was sitting on the couch. "Its fake news don't believe it." said one of the men "Even if it was, I still have my rights, I...

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“The Last to Die” by WRL Battle

Submitted to Contest #60

I am the last human to survive the Apocalypse. An accomplishment I am most proud of. Now I know you have many questions, so I'll try to answer most of them as best I can. The First and Most Obvious Question: How could you be the last human to survive the Apocalypse? Answer: Well, I have to explain a few things first. Okay. What I say next, you must promise me you won't laugh or sneer. Okay? I'm a time traveler, the only one as far as I can tell. I haven't really bumped into anyone like me durin...

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“The Journal Entries of S. Raake” by Acadia Lajeunesse

Submitted to Contest #60

May 25, 4098 Diary, It’s been one year since the apocalypse. Of course, if you’re reading this in the future, it’s been even longer. Long enough that you may not even know the true story. If, at any point, you were a student, you may have heard a version. But it’s not the right version. If you keep reading, I’ll tell you what really happened on May 25, 4097 at precisely 8:53 A.M. But first, we must recount the day’s action before that time, the time of the humans’ attack. You read it right- the humans’ attack. Not the zombies. Wha...

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“Last Stand at Greater Crest” by Stephen Drivick

Submitted to Contest #60

Last Stand at Greater Crest In the end, I'm the last one left. You would have picked the Allen brothers and their many guns in apartment 1405 to be the last. Or maybe you would have picked the guy in the first apartment near the office to make it to the end. He disappeared one night never to be seen again. Nobody else made it. They either commited suicide, ran away, or died at the hands of the red-eyed menace. Now, it was just me roaming the streets of the Greater Crest Apartments. Lower Cost Living, but with Luxury Style. At least t...

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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.

Read the full terms & conditions or check out the FAQ if you have any questions!

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