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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

“Stay Inside” by Kate Ulrich

Submitted to Contest #60

“They’re back.”Mrs. Chandler sighed and swept the curtains closed. Every day, more visitors. None of them wanted. There they were, on her front lawn, milling about in their strange outfits and mumbling voices. They were the crazy ones, she decided. All those times her ‘friends,’ her neighbors, called her senile, expressing their so-called concerns for her and her husband. Being old did not make you crazy, she had said. Now look at all of them. The younger generations, huddled outside, out of their minds. And when was the last time she saw he...

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“The Librarian and the Barbarian” by A.Dot Ram

Submitted to Contest #60

The first time he visited the library he brought a fresh candlestick and, though I was glad for the prospect of some light to warm my evening, I didn’t like him. He had this way of riffling through the books—a careless curiosity—that set me on edge. I met him on the cool slate tile of the foyer when I heard the double glass doors groan and part. “You must be Bolt?” I tipped my head in greeting, a gesture he curtly returned before walking on past me. “Well, let’s see what you’ve got in here…” His heavy, booted foot rang across the t...

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“Scavenger” by Geoffrey Widdison

⭐️ Shortlisted for Contest #60

If I'm being totally honest, my first instinct was to just leave her there. I was fully aware, even in that moment, that the person I was, just a year earlier, would have been horrified at that idea, and disgusted by what I'd become. That wasn't what changed my mind though. I didn't feel a whole lot of kinship with my former self. That well-fed, complacent, self-satisfied prick was free to sit around imagining how noble he'd be in my place, when his idea of a rough time was when the cable went out. &n...

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“Climate Change's Meaty Grasp” by Echo Sundar

Submitted to Contest #60

As I sat at the top of a ruined building I thought of what life used to be. When food wasn't hard to find and you could get water almost everywhere. When you had warnings before, violent storms wreaked havoc everywhere they touched. Back when I despised the cold and wished it to go away. But things were different now, much different. Warm December winds blew trash onto the street, or what was left of it. It was funny how Climatologists had been warning about this for years, and yet when the inevitable happened because no one was brave...

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“Once Upon a Time” by The-Burrowing-Owl- Author

Submitted to Contest #60

Mae knew that Athene Barclay was beautiful. Quite frankly she couldn't imagine anyone who didn’t think so. Athene was a legend, a myth clad in leather and chain mail. She was a large figure, like a walking statue lunging straight out of a storybook, with fierce emerald eyes shadowed under fiercer dark eyebrows. But Athene was a legend, and legends weren’t a part of the real world. They were fantastic, but distant, like glittering starlight. And that, Mae had decided, was all that such a woman would ever be.oOoBy this point most folks had com...

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“The World From Above” by Cal Carson

Submitted to Contest #60

Engineers. Inventors. Nomads. Survivors. There were many names for those left of humanity, but they called themselves Clingers. They clung desperately to the last vestiges of hope, of survival, too stubborn to quit. When the apocalypse had come that fateful day so many years ago and the ground became too dangerous to live on, they rose into the air on their blimps, their planes, anything. Anything to get away. They had made an oath that day. That day they would survive, ...

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“If the world was ending 🌏” by Ari Berri

Submitted to Contest #60

"What's going on?" I scream, sprinting across the field towards my best friend. Shle's running too. I think the world is ending. I'm being chased by some kind of monster. They were peope, and I know, because I watched them change. They have pale green skin, and sharp nails. Their teeth grew into fangs, and now they have bird feet. "Dezi!" Marci shouts. She's been my best friend since we were in kindergarten. She has long black hair pulled into a ponytail, and tan skin. She's on the track, and basketball team. She comes from a really rich f...

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“Sparkle Like A Jewel!” by P. Jean

Submitted to Contest #60

No one she had ever known, and she had known plenty of weird ones, ever lived in a cave. To make matters worse, our cave was a forty-five minute hike away from humanity. Long before the historic wave of preppers , her parents knew it was safer and healthier to be self reliant. She guesses, if truth be told, the cave was why she can sit here writing today.~~~~~The cave had been discovered on one of their hikes, in one of the most remote national forests. Otac and Majka had decided after a few visits, they would like t...

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“The Red Waves” by Kylie Wallis

Submitted to Contest #60

It all began to go wrong on Friday the 15th of June 2016. At precisely 12 pm, the small town of Ashford Creek was the first to be attacked. From an underground laboratory, a strange mist seeped through a security door that wasn't closed properly. It moved very quickly. People stopped whatever it was they were doing.They watched in disbelief as the redness began to cover everything in its path. Many tried to run, but it was no use. The mist continued onward, carried by the wind. By the time night fell, hundreds of human lives were lost. That ...

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“my human.” by Lina Oz

Submitted to Contest #60

This story is inspired by my dog, Raven. She's my best friend. She also loves squirrels. And she is my fiercest and most loyal protector. /// the human is close to me. he has been sitting in the middle of the road for a long time. he throws me food. sticks of beef. crumbs. they taste good. he comes closer. i like this human. it is a male. like me. he smells like dirt. but I do not mind. i like dirt. the human holds his hand out to me. his fingers are very long. and they are salty as I lick them. they taste like salt and dirt. ...

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“Dream of Snow” by Harken Void

Submitted to Contest #60

I still remember when my grandfather first told me of snow. It was during one of the firestorms when the whole family was gathered, and grandfather would tell stories to ease our minds. He’d often do that, tell us tales of life before the Wipeout. It was all fairy tales, of course. I doubt that any of them were ever real as the reality I live in seems so utterly different. Still, the stories helped. And even though I didn’t always believe grandfather, when he spoke of things like plants and animals, living on the surface, or things like rain...

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“Night of the Wolf” by Molly Leasure

Submitted to Contest #60

So much for the Gods.Years of enduring have left her marble creased, two dried rivers meeting at the height of her throat. That’s where I begin. Careful fingertips caress her jaw, promising one final act of servitude. A hymn, a prayer trailed to the base, pursuing her tender swallow. On her exposed flesh, the words rest with my straining breath. And as I inhale, I lean into a bow at her breast.Smash! “Ha!” His howls of laughter resound through her hall. “Pray now, Syco.” My beloved Goddess. I needn’t demand to know. Her fate was se...

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“Small Potatoes” by Fplldg Wakdwwdg

Submitted to Contest #60

The doctor was staring at the meatball sitting in front of him. His flesh was loose, the belly was perfectly round and squishy, but it definitely had a little elasticity to give an extra level of pleasure to the person who would tap on it. The doctor didn't touch him, but his long experience told him all that. He knew his patient was an overweight guy who didn't even seem to care about it. He came here for acute knee pain. Who would say to him that his obesity is the root of his problems? But the fluffy man was not at all ashamed of his bad ...

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“Spies + Zombie Training = Really Big Bonuses (Part 1)” by Lily Kingston

Submitted to Contest #60

Agent ConnorsTime: 13:10Location: The Viewing Tank Outside of Pal’s Friendly Zombie Farm“Let me get this straight: because you are so paranoid about having a zombie apocalypse, you hired someone to create zombies so you can train your agents against them?” I asked my boss, Ms. Director. “Doesn’t that seem like… I don’t know… a bad idea?”Ms. Director ripped out the check from her checkbook and handed it to Pal. “Yes, why do you ask?”I turned back to the window wall of the Viewing Tank. On the other side was the complete opposite of the calm, ...

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“Penny, Asha, and Dying Love” by Genevieve Taylor

Submitted to Contest #60

“You know, when this whole thing started, and I mean way back, at the very beginning, when most of it was just rumors and small little accidents blown out of proportion, I Googled the actual definition of an apocalypse,” Penny tucked her hair behind her ear, her dark roots now as long as the bleached section, “And it’s actually ‘an event involving destruction or damage on an awesome or catastrophic scale.’” Asha didn’t turn to her, staring up at the hazy orange sky, straining to see the moon through the smoke, “Okay, and?” “I’m just saying...

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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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