Center your story around a person who believes they’re the last human on Earth.

Posted in Dystopian on Nov 29, 2024

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✍️ 64 stories

“End of Time” by Nickneal Writer

Submitted to Contest #279

The city now looked like a million burnt matches in an ashtray. I glanced towards the horizon, but realised there was none, and neither a sky, nor a sun to look up to, all life melted away, a Dali painting in the making. Later I removed my mask, and smelt what I thought was roast pork on a rotisserie, but then saw the human bodies scattered, and vomited up a plume of ash. At least the ash would dull my senses and so I engulfed it, until I could taste nothing, and my mouth was dried, and I was no more, turned to stone, a fossil in waiting, li...

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“Ah! Alone at Last” by Paul Tyree

Submitted to Contest #279

To begin my adventure, of seeking out the proof I needed, I would have to travel near and far, anywhere and everywhere. I would have to look in all the places I knew of and then explore places that I knew nothing about. I would even seek out any explanation of what had happened to cause this to place from the beginning. I first learned of this event, which was never televised or spoken about on TV or radio, since we were a town of past era communications, yes we were still using things that had long since been abandoned by most. It was when ...

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“Benevolence” by S.E. Tomlin

Submitted to Contest #279

I play melodies on my guitar every day for an audience that doesn’t see me. I belt out lyrics and strum rhythms that are lost to the void of space. There’s no one here to listen to my cries, no one to appreciate or despise what I bring to the world. I’m all that’s left of the human race. God, it’s an empty feeling. The intersection of Fourth Avenue and Harper Lane used to be a busy one. It contained multitudes of people who flocked to the corners, sometimes not bothering to wait for the traffic lights to change before crossing the street. Th...

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“Bone Corner” by Matt Keating

Submitted to Contest #279

Bone Corner Suicide Sickness hit the high-country hard as an ice storm and silent as a blight. Too frequently my rides into town were blocked by processions of mourners. The burials had turned to bonfires. The survivors circled the departed, howling around the flames. The ash only made it about a mile from the ceremonies before settling on stilled vehicles and once white windowsills. The snows didn’t wash it away, it clumped, and it dripped, and it stained everything gray. Burn-burials, as they called them, happe...

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“Escaping Nothing” by Ty Thompson

Submitted to Contest #279

I felt the light before my eyes actually saw it, warm and soft, almost tangible, like a blanket draped across my skin. How long had I been lying there? I tried pushing myself up from the ground, but nothing seemed to want to work properly. It was as though I’d never attempted to move before. Finally, begrudgingly, my body began to obey my brain. I turned over and began to sit up as I blinked and squinted against the blinding yellow that seemed less a comforter and more an attacker now. My ears were coming to life as my hands instinctively mo...

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“Scintilla” by Lucas Marrow

Submitted to Contest #279

Small, I was. Like my planet. But what is small when there's no big?Insignificant, I was. But when there's nothing but rubble, what is?Alone, I was. And still I am.Rocks that were cities are rocks again. Rocks that were homes and forges and churches and schools. All just rocks.Empty slate. Again.What to make of it all? What to make of me now? What purpose is there now? I keep finding myself acting like I’m dead already since there's nothing much to do anymore. Just walking ‘round the rocks that my planet has become.But there’s the same old o...

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“Enjoy Yourself” by Summer Austin

Submitted to Contest #279

Hi, I'm the last person on earth?! I just got the news, so good, .. that means I can do things the wayi like, I'll just jump In this car, start it up, over the bills and through the woods we go.So you say, it's all been done before, you say, 'I need a King?Well maybe I should go back in the past, then. But I'm not. I'm forgi g ahead, these songs you know why do they be so poignant asim grieving my loss of the Lovei had, what a day that was, (all happened in a day, one day, 2 1/2 years. But it would've been all the same, anyway so but uh.So h...

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“Everlasting Tears” by Kyra Best

Submitted to Contest #279

It’s been 20 years since I’ve seen a human face. They were all obliterated to shreds by that “Thing.” The “Thing” showed no mercy to anyone. Everyone and everything was decimated upon recognition. Everyone, except for me.There was no warning, no sign, nothing, just absolute destruction the “Thing” yielded. I was standing there in the middle of a street corner, eyes glued on my phone, and a woman screamed. A scream of absolute terror, a scream that induced physical shock in me, a scream that sounded like the angels of death were coming to tak...

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“The Unbonded” by Wayne Brandenburg

Submitted to Contest #279

He occupied a socially acceptable amount of space on the sidewalk of the urban greenspace. The crowd moved around him like a stream flowing around a stone, each absorbed in their own world. He caught snippets of one-sided conversations: a businessman chuckled at a joke, a woman kissed the empty air beside her, and a little girl holding her mother’s hand spoke to thin air, “Well, mom doesn't fucking care if I call her April.” Eli watched as every single person was engaged in a dialogue with someone only they could see. Each wore augmented rea...

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“A Crowd Makes A Man” by Chris Moznette

Submitted to Contest #279

I remember how silently lively this place used to be when I wandered in during those long nights when I needed a place to relax. The overhead lights would shine a cool navy, and the only other semblances of brightness would be the stage lights lining the edge of that round stage at the far end of the room. The club would be packed yet silent as people from all walks of life sat in their seats quietly as they waited for the nights performer to be on stage. They’d have the...

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“Hunter/Hunted” by Krystian Maj

Submitted to Contest #279

Run. Just keep running. The creature must get tired at some point. It must. Run, even if you cannot see anything because of tears in your eyes. Run even if your body cannot pump more adrenaline into your veins. It will lose your track. Surely. Soon enough, you will be safe. Safe enough to catch a breath at least. You can hear its roar, few rooms and few corridors behind you. It is not the moment yet. You’re not safe for now, but soon, the thing will find someone else to hunt. I’m sure of it.…Everything is so… calm. You didn’t hear its gut-wr...

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“Earth's Hospice” by Laurie Jordan

Submitted to Contest #279

Day 30The power went out on day 15. Laurel knew it was coming. It was the reason she had not left her father’s farmhouse. It had resources she would need to survive: The garden, the stove, the well, and the storage capacity for canned goods and necessities – all vital to her. Thirty days ago, she had woken in the living room to find Papa missing from his hospice bed. The cotton bedding held only the memory of her father’s fragile tiny frame. The house was empty. He had vanished. Her phone calls all went nowhere. Texts all returned as “und...

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“Silo-tude” by Matthew Henry

Submitted to Contest #279

I made my usual breakfast: fried spam and beans mixed with canned crushed tomatoes, seasoned with salt and pepper. It was far from a gourmet delicacy but each ingredient had the key benefit of having an extremely long shelf-life. For a moment, I stared at my bright yellow ceramic plate and missed the toast which used to be included before the bread had run out. Then I picked up my fork and began eating mechanically, hardly tasting the food. Three months had passed since I had last left the decommissioned missile silo I now called my home. It...

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“Refuge” by Leah D

Submitted to Contest #279

But music and singingHave been my refuge,And music and singingShall be my light.-Frank Ticheli; Earth SongACT 1 SCENE 1Jess woke to the sound of silence. The hum of it pressed against her ears. Rolling over on the naked mattress, she sat crouched in a darkness black as pitch, eyes staring forward like a blind man. Her hands patted the dirty floor in search of the matches and the brass candelabra that held her wax candle, which would be next to the mattress, on the floor, where she always kept them. Once recovered, she struck ...

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“The Gray” by Donovan Song

Submitted to Contest #279

Sensitive Theme Warning: Violence, gore, horror, suicide ideation. It's a hole in the ground. Newspaper, leaves, and cardboard. Paracord to the truck behind. Pitfall. The shuffling is sporadic. Moments of silence then... The stomach growls. The creature shuffles. It's a rabbit. An albino. Comes out like an old magician's hat. No fight. I pull it close to my face. Can feel its breath. Its heart beats quick. It doesn't fight. Why? No broken limbs. No signs of tears. The stomach growls. Look in its eyes. Beaty. Red. I sigh. Set it down. ...

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Center your story around a person who believes they’re the last human on Earth.

Submissions are closed

✍️ 64 stories

“End of Time” by Nickneal Writer

“Ah! Alone at Last” by Paul Tyree

“Benevolence” by S.E. Tomlin

“Bone Corner” by Matt Keating

“Escaping Nothing” by Ty Thompson

“Scintilla” by Lucas Marrow

“Enjoy Yourself” by Summer Austin

“Everlasting Tears” by Kyra Best

“The Unbonded” by Wayne Brandenburg

“A Crowd Makes A Man” by Chris Moznette

“Hunter/Hunted” by Krystian Maj

“Earth's Hospice” by Laurie Jordan

“Silo-tude” by Matthew Henry

“Refuge” by Leah D

“The Gray” by Donovan Song

🌟 Similar prompts

Write a story from the POV of a zombie, mutant, or infected creature.

Follow a character who’s looking for someone or something.

Write a story about someone confronting their worst nightmare.

Write a story about a character who’s lost.

Contest #279

Enter our weekly contest!

$250

Prize money

334

Contest entries

146

Stories

Win $250 in our short story competition 🏆

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