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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.

8560+ 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 255 of 571

Tommy LaFontaine

Submitted to Contest #113

CW: drug dependency, suicideTommy LaFontaine had always dreamt of going to other dimensions. No, he literally always dreamt of going to other worlds, and every time he did, he learned something new.For example, did you know there's a place where books read people? They have libraries instead of homes, and rather than dying they become overdue. The entire world is literal, right off the page... so they find the unpredictability and emotional outbursts of humans, quite entertaining. Their leader's name is Dewey Decimal, and they live a very or...

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Esmerelda

Submitted to Contest #113

Two of the screws in my porthole have fallen out. Five rusty ones remain. The window shakes with every wave that slams into it. Water runs down the wall, making puddles on the floor. If our captain wasn’t oblivious of the world around him, I might bother to tell him we’re sinking. His nose is too high in the air to see the moldy wood at his feet. It’s coming in through the cracks in the wood and the rain from above. We’re being drowned, slowly. He only cares about his pile of broken things. He dreams of fixing everything that lay at his ...

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Drop Zone

Submitted to Contest #113

This is my worst nightmare: heights. I’m terrified of heights.I know I’m not the only one. Some people are just drawn over the edge of things. Like the old woman I saw in Tepee Tonka Park last Saturday. She couldn't even walk across a high footbridge without lying down to keep from falling off.       I think about that woman clinging to the edge of the bridge as I watch the Cessna climbing its way to thirty-five hundred feet. My husband, Tony, has just taken up skydiving. Today is his second jump. When the ...

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The Pantheon

Submitted to Contest #112

As faces turned in the misty snowfall, it was clear to me no man was eager to follow my stride here, but hope was finally gleaming in the hollow eyes of some. There was a wistfulness about the air and it held heavy and unwavering. These men had little protest to my leadership, but it seemed the cold wanted to challenge me. A chill arose over my body before crashing down my spine in the form of some brutal shivering fit. That horrible dread now lurking within my head wasn’t related to the icy crystal fragments hanging from the dead tree branc...

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Falling; A 9/11 Story

Submitted to Contest #112

The gunshots rang in the distance, their cover was getting shredded by enemy rounds and explosives. Private Luke Roberts of the 1st Battalion fought ferociously, his M16 was scorched due to the number of bullets he was firing. However, it was not enough, the situation was hopeless and the squad went down, one by one. Waiting for his time to come, Luke muttered a prayer and continued to retaliate against the army ahead of him.  “Take cover!” The ominous shadow of an explosive loomed over Luke as he dove into the nearby sand. Kaboom!...

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Flash... Boom

Submitted to Contest #112

Flash… Boom!          “That’s about 3 miles away!” Cried Jess.          “It’s getting closer. Hurry up so we can pack up and move out.” Quincy told her as he ran to load up the remaining supplies into the vehicles.           “How do you know its 3 miles?” Asked Bo.           Jess grabbed a small backpack and threw it at Bo, “It’s five seconds for eve...

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The Heart of Demiurge

Submitted to Contest #112

I sat up in my bed, jolted by the sounds of the alarm. The constant ringing echoed in my room, and my stomach turned. I have only heard this alarm during drills, and they were always announced ahead of time. That has been the policy before I was old enough to participate, ever since the Brigand stepped up their attempts twenty years ago. Declan ran into my room before I could get fully dressed. His breath labored as if he had just finished running a race. He looked at me with wide eyes, the rest of his face blank. "Come on, kid." He starte...

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The Sheriff

Submitted to Contest #112

My name is Nick Mitchell I’m an investigative journalist but this story isn’t about me no, it’s about my father who believes he is a sheriff, yes that’s right a western town sheriff the kind you see in western movies sheriff.My father’s name is Hank Mitchell he is 75 years old and he worked all his life as an instrument maker, when he was 20 years old he enlisted to the army and went to fight in Vietnam, when he came back he wasn’t the same anymore, a few years later he met my mom and in 1974 my older sister was born and in 1980 I was born. ...

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Green Over Yellow Bricks

Submitted to Contest #112

“Keep running! Don’t look back!” Clutching the fur of her small dog closer to her rapidly beating heart, the young girl looks over her shoulder to spot her companion in dark robes trailing behind her, trying not to stumble and fall. “I said don’t look back!” “Where are we going?! Why can’t we take your broom?!” The little girl wailed. “The broom is gone! I had to set it on fire so they couldn’t follow us with it!” “They’re FLYING MONKEYS! They’re already following us! Wouldn’t the broom be faster?!” Her companion doesn’t answer a...

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Good Over Evil

Submitted to Contest #112

Grayson tried to focus his eyes and blinked rapidly. The face above him was blurry but he recognized it just the same. He rubbed his eyes and his vision cleared. He looked up at the face again and was in disbelief not because of the face but for other reasons.  “It’s about time you woke up, Grayson, my son.” The face said. “Look, for the last time I am not your son and where am I?”  “All in good time Grayson, all in good time you will have all the answers to your questions.” The man said in a low voice.  Grayson could ...

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Shoshona and Becky’s Excellent Far East Adventure

Submitted to Contest #112

It had been Shoshona’s turn on the midnight to dawn shift, steering their small boat through the darkness of the Torres Strait and into the Coral Sea.Becky made her sleepy way up the short staircase out of the boat's below-decks living space into the pilothouse and then up a couple more steps to the steering station just aft. She glanced at the morning sun that was barely peeking over the horizon amid towering thunderheads that were already forming. The broad ocean swells were gentle and lazy. Now at sea for many months, she rolled easily, g...

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Deliveries and Driving Rain...

Submitted to Contest #112

“Sorry about the rain. It’s an important delivery. I would say wait for another day, but...” said my boss over the phone.“No problem, I actually love the rain,” I assured.Silence. Aside from a few people who also watch rain channels on YouTube, I was usually met with this kind of pause when I professed my true feelings for the act of water falling from the sky in some form, strength, or capacity.With a cup of coffee in the car console and a lengthy music playlist, I started the long journey to Lleida from the outskirts of Barcelona with a sm...

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Loren Stanton brought back rain.

Submitted to Contest #112

It was a beautiful late afternoon in Kersey, England. Loren Stanton and her family were indulging in a picnic in the middle of a field they owned. The field was full of cattle. The grass was fresh and the flowers were gorgeous, they leaked a sweet pungent smell that filled everyone's nostrils. Evergreen grass blades were bowing to the wind that blew East. Every Sunday, the Stantons would have a picnic as it was the only quiet day but also because Mr Stanton, Loren’s father, was home the whole day so it was a full family. Mrs Stanton, Loren’s...

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Landrise

Submitted to Contest #112

The atmosphere began to fall like rain, freezing the instant it splashed on the thick sheet of ice that was the vast Drekeln Plain. Sharp spines bloomed from the amorphous drops, glistening under the piercing light of the moon Ilbra. Stalking out from a cave in the side of Mount Drekeln, spyglass in hand, a figure, bundled in several layers of patterned clothes stepped out and peered over the edge of the precipice.“Find anything, Arlkna?” The gurgling voice of Brekten preceded the rhythmic shuffle of his steps.Raising her spyglass to her gog...

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Daughter of Slaughter

Submitted to Contest #112

Grey clouds had been promising rain for hours. Leonor city needed the rain to wash away the blood of the siege. Its people were exhausted. The army had been slaughtered. Most men who had not fought in the battle at Worldworm’s Bridge had died defending the wall in the first attack of the empire.             Queen Malin had turned the tables with a curse, not a miracle. Danielle saw, as all the defenders on the wall saw, that the northern wall was now surrounded by a line of deadly t...

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RBE | Illustrated Short Stories | 2024-06

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