Set your story in a post-pandemic world, where the effects are still felt even as your character attempts to move on.

Posted in Narrative on Oct 25, 2022

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✍️ 115 stories

“Ramen flying across the kitchen” by Michael DeMaria

Submitted to Contest #84

If you asked me what I missed about her the most I’d have a hard time just pointing out one thing. Maybe it was her laugh that carefully mimicked an out-of-breath squirrel. Maybe it was her radiance that quickly filled any room she’d enter, yet maybe it was her touch, that never failed to send shudders down my spine. Be that as it may, it was over and had been over for months. Our once charming relationship was ravaged by the pandemic like many other things. We tried to counter the effects of isolation and loneliness with ideas full of creat...

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“Home is my Quarantine” by Beatrice Smith

Submitted to Contest #84

The day finally came. It was all over. “Ma’am, you don’t need to wear your mask anymore. You may take it off if you like.” A greeter at the local store who doesn’t know what it was like to grow up in my time. I am only 56 years old and I feel like I am 80. The pandemic seized to exist for 6 years now. But I still wear a mask everywhere out of habit. “Oh, thank you.” I tell the young man at the door. My, how time has flown by. Kids are running around and there are no more masks. Everyone was living carefree with no wonder of the world. As I...

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“Little Mikey” by Thomas Ciccarone

Submitted to Contest #84

Little Mikey thumbtacked the cereal box that he had turned inside out to the wall over the silent shortwave radio. Paper in the house was scarce, and there was nothing to write on, so he cut open the empty cereal box. He used it to mark off the weeks, months, and years as a crude calendar. The journal that he kept, Tom's journal, had been filled years ago, and Mike couldn't even remember the last time he had read it, let alone made an entry. The cardboard showed that the date was December 25, 2061. One of the cameras was still working, but i...

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“The Beach” by Jerome Smith-Pula

Submitted to Contest #84

Who would have thought that a year ago we would be naïve of what’s to come. I say naïve, because the majority of us were. This pandemic had us scrambling like ants, under an attack, from being killed off. There were threats from our governments all over the world suggesting this pandemic was going to kill millions, if not, billions. A year ago, life was relatively normal. I had just started a new job, I was in a relatively stable relationship and things were looking bright for the both of us. &...

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“Ripples of an event in time” by Alison Clayton

Submitted to Contest #84

Josie woke to the alarm. It still seemed dark. As dark as every day, where the invisible black ink clouded her, shrouded her, infringing into her very being and seeping through her emotions. She moved over to hit the snooze button and her dozing mind brought her back to the same thought. The one she woke to every day. It's never going to be the same. They're not here. If only she could change things. Groaning, she picked up the phone and squinted at the two smiling faces on the screen. It was sunshine and they were happy. They stood close ...

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“brave new world” by NK Hatendi

Submitted to Contest #84

Samantha was one of the most popular radio presenters, vibrant and topical. Her weekly programme on ZBTQ on 99.1 Frequency, broadcasting all over the country, had been a permanent fixture since 2019 when Covid- 19 was on everyone's lips and impacting everyone's lives. The world had been traumatised by the pandemic, and even now, people were not sure that it had died a natural death or was in hibernation. WHO and other reports had been circulated and were now gathering dust on office shelves. Prevalence figures were no longer a talking point,...

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“Another Day.” by Poonam Desai

Submitted to Contest #84

As I sat on the stairs, my hands pressed around the warm coffee mug, I stared at the street before me, devoid of its usual hustle bustle. The neighbourhood was silent and even the lawns needed a trim. It had been a month since the lockdown was moderated, but somehow the feeling of safety hadn't returned. The malls and shops were barren, and the school playgrounds held a grave silence. They all were a reminder of how Corona had turned our world upside down. There was an odd soul walking down the street, maybe returning back from an errand, bu...

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“Bedtime Story.” by Claire Sim

Submitted to Contest #84

It was the year 2050. The floor creaked as the grandmother made her way over to the room down the hall, a small but bright light illuminating her path. Her back ached, but she had motivation to keep going. You see, it had been several years since she had been nurturing her grandson, and every night they ended with a plate of cookies, some milk, and most importantly, a bedtime story. These bedtime stories were usually about the grandmother’s past, as it reminded her what she was living for everyday. Of course, while sweet and innocent l...

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“Changing for the better” by Olivia Allen

Submitted to Contest #84

2020, the year of surprises. The year where my life flipped upside down. The year the first pandemic in 100 years began. I’m 14, I spend most of my time over analyzing everything, so when this happened I felt totally and completely out of control. The pandemic officially ended a month ago but nothing feels normal. Sometimes there are still the harsh reminders of Covid-19 when I see a “Please wear a mask” sign that hasn’t yet been taken down. I lost my father to Covid-19, and I think about it every day. Covid-19 has single handedly destroyed ...

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“Revolution reborn post pandemic” by Rukhsar Baig

Submitted to Contest #84

This is a letter to whoever is reading this. It is the year 2025 I am a young girl who is living with a happy thriving family. Then came the Pandemic in March 2020 which completely disrupted our cheerful lives. At the start, while everyone was rushing to stock up on toilet paper and canned items for the lockdown, we woke up the next morning and had breakfast with whatever we had in the house. We seemed calm but inside we were all stunned. My mom and dad tried to be as cheerful as possible and kept talking about positive outcome about how I w...

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“The Road to Yesterday. ” by Adanna Aitken

Submitted to Contest #84

Journal entry #35 I have begun to lose my resolve. I have lost track of the days as I have moved camp several times, and the counts I etched into the walls were my only way of keeping track. Each day becomes more complicated than the last, A fight to survive, a battle to stay afloat in the ruins of the old world. The world didn’t end in fire or ice. It ended by our hand. As people began more unruly and began to fight each other over everything, the world and its ...

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“The New Normal” by Maya Writes

Submitted to Contest #84

From the moment they announced the first vaccine, I was hopeful. Maybe life will be normal again, I thought. Then the second vaccine was approved, and then the third. Once people started to take them, life would return to how it once was. But I was wrong. In that year, the entire world lost motivation and its will to live. No amount of encouragement would reinstall that worth ethic so quickly. Nobody was ready to live life. Through the whole year, we’d looked forward to it. For a whole year, we anticipated how amazing it would feel to be abl...

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“Something Like This” by Naomi Coffman

Submitted to Contest #84

Four people – a man, a woman, two boys – sit down to share a meal. They do not look at each other. They have not forgotten how, although they often forget why. If they were to look, they would see something like this. The woman is flush-faced and shaking. Glassy-eyed, she eyes her glass of rapidly diminishing wine, prodding lazily at her food. She lost her appetite sometime around month five, along with her sobriety, and hasn’t bothered looking for either since. Her smile is artificial and unconvincing, poorly-preserved, like something she...

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“Fearlessly Unmasked” by Susannah Webster

Submitted to Contest #84

It was her protection. It was her fear. It was her screams, and it was her safety. It was sky blue, unyielding, and it hid her lower features. The water still ran in the sink when Joelle looked up in the mirror. Her fingertips dripped soap. She was frozen, impossibly mid-moment. Her stomach dropped when she knew. Now? Why now? On her seventeenth birthday. On the anniversary. But it was indeed, for some inscrutable reason, now. The first day of lockdown had been two years ago today. On March the twelfth, 2020, it was announced that the worl...

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“Sibling Survival” by Robert Vucsko

Submitted to Contest #84

Sibling Survival “How do you BREATH through these things?” He screamed into the mask. The face-shield immediately fogged-up and now Aaron couldn’t see either. He squatted down behind a small berm, where a tree had long-ago turned-up its roots. Aaron had run about a half-mile, full-on sprint, and was at the edge of a large wood. He had to risk a breach of his breathing PPE, so he lifted the mask and slid it atop his head. He realized he was hyperventilating, and why wouldn’t he?! There wasn’t supposed to be anyone in that area, and he did...

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Set your story in a post-pandemic world, where the effects are still felt even as your character attempts to move on.

Submissions are closed

✍️ 115 stories

“Ramen flying across the kitchen” by Michael DeMaria

“Home is my Quarantine” by Beatrice Smith

“Little Mikey” by Thomas Ciccarone

“The Beach” by Jerome Smith-Pula

“Ripples of an event in time” by Alison Clayton

“brave new world” by NK Hatendi

“Another Day.” by Poonam Desai

“Bedtime Story.” by Claire Sim

“Changing for the better” by Olivia Allen

“Revolution reborn post pandemic” by Rukhsar Baig

“The Road to Yesterday. ” by Adanna Aitken

“The New Normal” by Maya Writes

“Something Like This” by Naomi Coffman

“Fearlessly Unmasked” by Susannah Webster

“Sibling Survival” by Robert Vucsko

🌟 Similar prompts

Write a story that spans exactly a year and takes place in a single room.

Write about someone who grew up in a bunker, and lockdown life is all they’ve ever known.

Write about someone who’s trying to accomplish a task that used to be easy but is now made complicated by a pandemic.

Start your story with a character struggling to remember the date, because every day is like the last one.

Contest #84

Enter our weekly contest!

$50

Prize money

664

Contest entries

0

Stories

Win $250 in our short story competition 🏆

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