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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

“The Monsters Within Earth” by Abigail Knobel

Submitted to Contest #60

I call them ‘moles.’ No, they’re not the funny-looking animals that dig tunnels underground and eat the roots from your mother's garden. These are creatures so terrifying that the first time I saw one, I pissed myself. It all started during a global heatwave, unlike anything humanity had ever witnessed. I like to call it ‘the Heat.’ Dramatic right? Anyways, cities were left without power for weeks, the oceans steamed and left beaches littered with cooked fish, and Antarctica turned into the biggest lake in the world. Scientists worldw...

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“Promethean” by Andrew Robinson

Submitted to Contest #60

By the time people realized that it was critical, it was too late. The virus had slipped through our usually zealous defences of overreaction and sensationalism by appearing much less than it was. That, and the world was crisis-weary. Another plague. Another fire. Another hurricane. It was as though the planet were mustering its own manner of counter-offences to answer the unabating insults of human development. The bacterium mobilized voraciously, and to devastating effect. * * * I looked out over the North Shore. The electric glow ...

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“The Release” by Vineet Bhave

Submitted to Contest #60

‘One is not afraid of the dark because he thinks he is alone, it’s because he thinks he isn’t.’It’s been a year since the Release. The clouds look whiter than before. The wind blows faster. The air is much easier to breathe. I have been wearing the same jeans since 3 months and it makes me laugh at how I used to do this before the Release as well. They’re a bit tattered now at some places but that was bound to happen. All I have to cover my torso is a T-shirt that has been torn through the middle so it looks more like a shirt. And it doesn’t...

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“Until Dawn” by Kimberlie Barfield

Submitted to Contest #60

We crouched there, Eli, Sophie, and I, behind a clump of cars, waiting and on the watch for Mom and Dad. Finally, I spotted them approaching the convenience store doorway. It was then that I saw one. A rogue. My heart dropped at the sight of him, as he walked toward the same entrance my parents were about to come out of. Dried blood lined his forearms and covered his clothes. He was whistling an awful, high pitched tune as he tossed a bloodied hammer spinning it into the air and catching it again, hunting for more victims. ...

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“Her Personal Apocalyse ” by Laura Boynton

Submitted to Contest #60

“The ending is just a beginning worth repeating,” Evie mumbled to herself shaking her long brunette curls, “or was it the other way around?” Realizing that was her first post apocalypse thought, a sharp splinter of dread ripped through her chest and tingled down her spine, as she laid in her bed wrapping herself tighter in her plum colored comforter. In her world ending blur, everything she knew, touched, watched and belonged to was disappearing around her. “Wait…wait! I am not ready,” Evie pleaded. ...

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“Roam” by Raquel Archer

Submitted to Contest #60

Warning: Reader discretion advised.“Shit. Fuuck!” All she wanted was to start a damn fire! Should have known better. Nyx’s lungs burned, she hissed with every breath of carbon dioxide that re-entered her lungs through her face mask. “Screw this bullshit!”The sound of an engine revving assaulted her ears. He was getting closer. The thick soles of her boots crunched under the stone rubble in her frenzied escape. Nyx hurriedly took a left into an alleyway. Maniacal laughter sent chills down her spine. “Can’t run forever, girly!” Her pursuer how...

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“If We Weren't Alone” by Jordan Ok

Submitted to Contest #60

I was never meant to exist. Since I was a kid I’ve always believed that to be true. I never really felt I belonged here on earth. Loneliness was just par for the course. Even in groups, a small part of me would always feel cold inside, like something was wrong. A puzzle piece stuck in the wrong box that didn’t quite fit with the others. So when I was running to a home that had been turned to rubble on that fateful day the sky started raining fire, being the only person left around didn’t scare me. At first I searched for my parents and fou...

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“I Don't Believe Dinah, My Slippers Are Ruined” by John Martin Tilley

Submitted to Contest #60

“How droll,” I say to myself as I look out through the bay window before my desk, “More crumblies.” I’ve just been consulting the cards, more out of boredom than out of real curiosity, and I’ve drawn the Wish Card again — a confounding card to draw in this day and age. ‘One of the most positive cards in the deck,’ my witchy little tarot psalter reads, a gift from my mother who told me to guard it with my life, though she’d become a bit of a drama queen ever since the war had started. ‘Anything your heart desires shall be yours.’ Positiv...

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“New Normal” by Saffron Amatti

Submitted to Contest #60

A newly desolate wasteland would depress most people. Not me. It's a relief from the monotony of regular life. True, it's swapping the evils of endless meetings and cleaning the oven for those of scavenging for food and fighting off bandits, but you win some you win some. Oh, were you expecting me to be worried about those things? Frightened of the little hoards of teenagers who think just because they've managed to lay their hands on a baseball bat and a rifle that they're God's gift to malice? Not at all. There's nothing like being...

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“The Zombigram” by Robin Barker

Submitted to Contest #60

I found it while I was trawling the internet one evening. There wasn’t much else to do at the end of the world. At least not for the living. So, it was the answer to my prayers. I’d been looking for something to give my life purpose and there it was staring me in the face. I had no job, no girlfriend and not much prospect for the future… until now. It was dark outside, but the computer screen flickered with promise. I sent it to the basket and quickly paid for it. The website informed me I could expect my delivery within the next hour. I sa...

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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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