Menu

Menu
Prompts
Contests
Stories
Blog
Featured stories
Activity feed

Discover weekly, the best short stories

Looking for a steady supply of adventure short stories? Every week thousands of writers submit stories to our writing contest.

8570+ Adventure Short Stories to read

Submitted by writers on Reedsy Prompts to our weekly writing contest. From riding the high sea to climbing behemoth mountains, there isn’t any action that’s out of reach when it comes to adventure stories.

Adventure Short Stories – Page 146 of 572

The Division

Submitted to Contest #209

As I soar above the New York metropolitan area, the sprawling cityscape unfolds. I feel a flutter in my stomach. I can’t help but feel a mix of excitement and trepidation for what lies ahead as I embark on this road trip to the South. Alone. Although there’s no better way to break in my “new” 3000 Celestial Cruiser. It was a tough journey to not only track down this collector’s item, as it's now over 60 years old, but it was even harder to find one that works. Most of the beginning models of flying cars have an extensive list of mechanical p...

8 likes 4 comments 4
Read story

Leo's Journey to Self-Discovery

Submitted to Contest #209

Long ago in a digital age far, far away, in a small town nestled amidst rolling hills, lived a young man named Leo. He had always felt a deep longing for something more, a yearning to explore the world beyond the confines of his familiar surroundings. One day, he made a decision that would change his life forever - he would embark on a journey of self-discovery. Leo's journey began with a single step, as he bid farewell to his family and friends, setting off into the unknown. With a backpack slung over his shoulder and a heart filled with ...

11 likes 4 comments 4
Read story

Seaside

Submitted to Contest #209

Trust of people began, of course, as a trust of adults, and ended, of course, as the same. Parents, unconditional, friends and teachers, warier but natural nonetheless, strangers, programmed out of us – they were different, we were told, not to be believed, but the instilling of that suspicion just cemented our confidence that the first groups could always be relied on. My trust of adults crumbled on the same day I also lost reliance on my imagination’s accuracy. Perhaps that was the harder loss, as words could now float into my head and mea...

5 likes 0 comments 0
Read story

Riding Shotgun

Submitted to Contest #209

We regret to inform you that the mainline trains beyond Milton Keynes have been cancelled due to a points failure. The voice delivering the bad news was an approximation of a female voice. It was the same voice that would tell you that you’d had your legs amputated or that there was something inoperable growing in your head. It was the voice that death would use if it ever tried to develop a bedside manner. And fell well short. “Shit!”  “Shit!”  The two strangers had expressed their frustration, annoyance and disappointme...

17 likes 15 comments 15
Read story

The Mumbai Chase

Submitted to Contest #209

Title: Midnight Mumbai Dash It was early morning and the rain poured down on Rajesh's taxi and only dim lights lit up his cabin. It was a Hindustan Ambassador from the 90s and was his pride and joy. Black on the sides and yellow on the top, a Buddha hung from the rearview mirror. Not that he was a strong believer, but he and Buddha looked a bit similar so it made him smile. He was parked outside of the Shree Siddihivinayak Temple and munched on a portion of Vada pav. The deep-fried potato dumpling crunched in his mouth and he released a si...

9 likes 6 comments 6
Read story

Cage Rider

Submitted to Contest #209

There’s something about being inside a car that speaks of what it is to be. He thinks this to himself as the ribbon of tarmac unfurls before him. He wonders why this has never struck him before now. Encased in the car, he sees the world outside in a way that it cannot see him. From the outside he is sleek, shiny and smooth. Inside he is so very different. Inside he knows different. Inside the car, he is no longer naked, nor is he weak. The car makes him dare to believe that he could be forever. He’s always loved cars. Not liked. Lov...

8 likes 5 comments 5
Read story

Big Country

Submitted to Contest #209

The plan was to recreate Sal Paradise and Dean Moriarty’s road trip from Kerouac’s On The Road. Jack said he wanted to be Hunter S. Thompson instead. I told him that was the wrong book. We had a fierce argument for three miles (passing by roughly twenty thousand corn fields) until I realized he was just trying to piss me off. He threw his head back and laughed, closing his eyes briefly to enjoy the morning sun before refocusing the road. I yanked on his ear and he laughed again, running his hand through his bleached blonde hair; he was too b...

9 likes 1 comment 1
Read story

Marooned

Submitted to Contest #209

The digital sign read, ACCIDENT AHEAD. ROAD CLOSED. FOLLOW DETOUR, and that’s what I did, or thought I was doing. I-25 between Las Cruces and Albuquerque is the personification of desolate nothingness. Becoming lost should have been impossible. The word impossible only applies to a task until someone accomplishes that task and, unfortunately, that someone was me. There were sparsely placed detour signs right up to where the road forked. Then it was the driver’s choice. Waze was useless because there was no cell service. I chose the right for...

6 likes 1 comment 1
Read story

Two Passing Strangers

Submitted to Contest #209

TWO PASSING STRANGERS     In the back of the deuce-and-a-half mud-covered truck sat twelve members of Able company of the Third Infantry Division. They are tired, dirty, hungry, and need a shower. One of the tired and dirty GIs was Stanley Dombrowski, a draftee from the south side of Chicago. This group returns from a ten-day skirmish with Charlie in a delta rice paddy. Stan is not only returning from the battle but is returning from his yearlong tour of duty in Nam. He had just survived the last of many such battles in t...

5 likes 1 comment 1
Read story

Never Follow the Lights

Submitted to Contest #209

Deidre from accounting is going on a year long tour of Europe. The boss made everyone squeeze into the break room to toast pale, flabby Deidre goodbye on her last day. Everyone raised their plastic cup of warm fizzy wine while Deidre clutched a supermarket bouquet of carnations and smiled.Back at your desk you snap your laptop shut, slide it into your satchel and grant yourself an Irish goodbye. You don’t particularly like anyone at this company that you’ve been working at for 8 years now. You walk to the underground station, descend the sta...

17 likes 7 comments 7
Read story

Jack

Submitted to Contest #209

Jack Once upon a time, there was a man named Jack who struggled with mental health problems. He felt lost and alone, and didn't know where to turn for help. One day, he decided to take a journey around the world to see if he could find answers to his questions about mental health. Jack began his journey in Asia, where he met a wise monk who taught him about the power of meditation and mindfulness. The monk showed Jack how to quiet his mind and find peace within himself. carry on with the story Jack felt a sense of relief and hope for...

8 likes 1 comment 1
Read story

Angie's Thought

Submitted to Contest #209

Angie had just turned thirteen.She’d been looking forward to it. It had seemed like a magic number, signifying some mysterious shift in her life. But, after her birthday party, she felt the same as before.She wasn’t upset. She was resigned. Like the quiet part of her had known that after her birthday she would feel the same as before. So around this time, shortly after turning thirteen, Angie entered into a small depression. She couldn’t think of anything to look forward to. After school she went to her room, shut the door, closed the b...

8 likes 4 comments 4
Read story

Tijuana at Five

Submitted to Contest #209

Words woke me and I looked up through the smell of car mustiness and petrol to a smiling moustache on a strange face. I was still curled in the darkness of the backseat and didn’t know if it had been on a long drive or if we had arrived in Mexico. I didn’t know if I was awake but I did know that we were sitting still now with the engine still vibrating. The moustache man wore dark glasses under a slouchy light brown military kind of hat with a shiny bill. I saw brown skin and a smile but he was just a blur with a background of glaring lights...

6 likes 0 comments 0
Read story

Lost in the Loop of Time

Submitted to Contest #209

The golden rays of the morning sun gently kissed the tranquil shores of Cancun as Marcus embarked on an adventurous road trip through the Yucatan Peninsula. Eager to escape the crowded tourist spots, he had rented a car to explore the hidden gems that lay beyond the glittering resorts. Armed with a map and a sense of wanderlust, Marcus set off on his journey, eager to make memories that would last a lifetime. The first few hours of the drive were enchanting. Marcus cruised along picturesque coastal roads, taking in the breathtaking views o...

6 likes 3 comments 3
Read story

Leaving the Almost Palindrome City: Notes from a Second-Rate Villain

Shortlisted for Contest #208 ⭐️

What do you do when you realize you're not the hero of your own story? I, for one, have fallen in love, and as this city squeezes itself ever tighter to fit some preordained golden proportion, I take solace in the chaos my love has caused me. Picture a peacock clock stretching across a city block, all wrought in gold and fashioned after the automatons of old, a nest of gears and sprockets residing in a corner of Miami known as Coconut Grove, a place I've come to call the Almost Palindrome City. My love sits on her courtyard bench, waitin...

27 likes 25 comments 25
Read story
RBE | Illustrated Short Stories | 2024-06

Bring your short stories to life

Fuse character, story, and conflict with tools in Reedsy Studio. All for free.