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Write a post-apocalyptic romance.

Posted in Dystopian on Nov 1, 2022

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✍️ 196 stories

The Nightlark

Submitted to Contest #60

"Adrazelle, get back here!" Adrian called, reaching out to her. Adra skirted to the right, laughing, as his outstretched hand grazed her shoulder. She collapsed on the grass a few moments later, panting slightly after all of the running, looking out at the houses dotting the land below the hillside. She glanced at him as he sat down next to her, a slight smile creeping on to her face.  "You see that?" Adrian said, pointing at something off in the distance. She led her eyes to what he was gazing at so intently. "I'm going to be there s...

103 likes 30 comments 30
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Endless Love

Submitted to Contest #60

I don't pick up the mail. I don't pick up the phone. I don't answer the door. I‘d just as soon be alone. I don't keep this place up. I just keep the lights down. I don't live in these rooms. I just rattle around.Ghost In This House,Shenandoah When the apocalypse hit no one else could see it, not really. They came to the funeral, sent cards, and dropped off casseroles never knowing they were witnessing a post-apocalypse that consisted of one zombie. The day Monique died was the end of John’s world even if the rest of the world didn’t kno...

75 likes 43 comments 43
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Everlasting

Submitted to Contest #60

       James clawed his way out of the hole, grabbing at bits of crumbling earth. Barren trees creaked overhead, their boughs bending and twisting like his rigid joints. The sky was empty, no clouds, not even a bird. Silence covered the cemetery like a blanket.           He emerged, brushing himself off. Dust billowed from his tattered clothing. He reached into his front pocket and brought the letter to the place where his nose used to be, remembering s...

72 likes 47 comments 47
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The Patchouli Boy

Submitted to Contest #60

Kit and kaboodle Pop goes the poodleRound and round the booboo bush And never let it drop. I wish I was up I wish I was down I wish we could go round and roundSpinning like the colorful wheelThat never ever stops. Do you have an issueWhat is the deal If I have an orange Than I’d need to peelUnless I just bit The whole thing throughCause that seems like something I would do. She never meant to go to the carnival that night. She would have never left her room, never flicked off Netflix and...

70 likes 31 comments 31
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Silent Death

Submitted to Contest #60

I cross the street to Rafael’s house, holding the file in my hands and carrying the bag on my shoulder. I try to ignore the empty silence of the morning, the stench of wilting plants, and the lack of vehicles on the street. I fail as usual. I open the door, greeted by the aroma of pancakes filling the air. I go to the dining room and find the rest of them sitting at the table, eating breakfast without saying a word. I stand there for a while, wondering how to announce my arrival when Marisa notices me and nods with the faintest of smil...

65 likes 16 comments 16
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Butterflies

Submitted to Contest #60

Act I Otis whistled, so keen and clear it could twist the smirk off the valley’s face. The hills shuddered with their orange shoulders and pat the artificial breeze on the back to keep it from crying. Red came up behind him, slipping her hand into his.  Eyes dry from just a few feet away, hidden behind the velvet curtains, I wished I was that guy. Tugging on thick ropes like the sun’s burning arms, I heard chirps of anxious birds. The sun’s patch was ripped raw from the quilt of the sky. It swung down to quarrel with the humans and mi...

52 likes 36 comments 36
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The World Was Over and They Were Not

Shortlisted for Contest #60 ⭐️

The world was over and they were not.  It did not matter how. The reporters, videos, and politicians had all argued and pointed blame, but they hadn’t listened. They were young and powerless so they decided not to worry. And after everything fell, it didn’t matter what happened first.  They were tired, hungry, and wanted a hot shower, but they were not over. They were lucky, they knew, but that is logic. And logic is not much good for slim stomachs or heavy eyelids. They had been hungry almost until t...

49 likes 14 comments 14
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Not yet

Submitted to Contest #60

Content warning: suicide attempt, allusions to rape. The world had become a wasteland. Until it happened, Tabitha hadn’t understood what that truly meant. When she had read it in novels, seen it pictured on screen in movies, she hadn’t fully appreciated what it meant. Now that she was living in it, she would do anything to not know anymore. All around her, the empty ground had been ruined. What had begun as a few potholes in the street had become gaping holes in the tarmac. Houses were no longer homes, only abandoned buildings with broken...

44 likes 11 comments 11
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Demons Down Under the Sea

Submitted to Contest #60

And neither the angels in Heaven above, nor the demons down under the sea, could ever dissever my soul from the soul of the beautiful Annabel Lee. The Sun dipped down into the water as the bright purple hues started to fade away. It was dark and dreary, yet also warm and calming in a sort of way. It made Dante feel a little bit at ease to know that he wasn’t the only one who rose and fell with the sky and the stars, who changed in phases like the Moon.  In so many aspects, he was the only one. He was the only one alive on Earth, the...

41 likes 25 comments 25
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Can You Fight?

Submitted to Contest #60

           I tapped a green pen against my teeth as I squinted at the clipboard. “Try-Outs for the New Protagonist” was typed in all-capitals at the top. Next to me the resident Antagonist Sarre, pronounced Sarah but spelled that way because some author somewhere thought creative spellings for normal names made them original, banged her bleached-blond head against the casting-desk.           “What’s wrong, Sarre?” I prodded between m...

39 likes 4 comments 4
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The Long Walk Home

Submitted to Contest #60

“I’ve brought water in, put new bedding in the chicken coop, and set out some big rocks to warm up to put in there tonight. I put more wood in the greenhouse yesterday so I think we’re good. The only thing left is to move Lucy and her eggs and we can do that just before dark. So unless I forgot something….” “Wow, my brothers are working their asses off over there, and I get to hang out over here with you. Suckers,” he said laughing.  His mama had sent lunch and dinner with him, so we ate a picnic lunch by the pond. As we were cleaning...

38 likes 19 comments 19
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Before All This

Submitted to Contest #60

Edan screamed, his back arching against the dusty wall of the old subway tunnel. His vision blurred as the cloth was pressed to his abdomen, as the medicine mingled with his overflowing blood. Heat raced along his spine, only for a wave of ice to follow.  Another shriek pressed at the base of his throat, one he couldn't hold in. It echoed down the damp tunnel, so loud some subconscious part of his brain instantly regretted it. Wished he hadn't screamed, wished he'd held it in, for fear someone would hear and their position would be comp...

38 likes 14 comments 14
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Love

Submitted to Contest #60

Love is a strange thing. Love can pull you apart. Love can put you back together. Love can change the way you think. Love can dislike you. Love can like you. It all just depends, I guess. It was 2023, and the coronavirus had finally settled down that it was like the flu. There was a season for it, but there was also a vaccine. Nothing to worry about. The economy and stock market were building itself back up, and things were starting to be pre-corona normal again. I was at my normal job, not wearing a mask, and not working from home. It w...

37 likes 69 comments 69
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The Cockroach and the Crumb

Submitted to Contest #60

Roach scuttled along the street, sidestepping the chunks of broken buildings and shattered glass. The pads on the bottom of his six spiny legs could have easily helped him climb the debris, but he barely had the energy to even hold his antennae up after a long day spent hunting.A long, futile day. Just more decaying bodies and dead wood, a few bits of cardboard here and there. They weren’t terrible snacks, but Roach longed for the days he scratched through the kitchen walls, stealing bits of cheese off the table. Once, he even had the pleasu...

35 likes 20 comments 20
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The Librarian and the Barbarian

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...

34 likes 14 comments 14
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