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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.

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 5 of 572

Two Large Cups of Cuban Coffee for Sonny Crockett

Submitted to Contest #300

I admit that Miami Vice, the police series Don Johnson starred in in the 1980s, had something to do with my decision to leave New York and move to Miami that same decade. In the harsh winters in the north, while outside the window the snow covered streets and houses with an icy white blanket, the vision on the television screen of a warm, sunny city on the shores of a clear blue ocean offered a tempting contrast. The detectives in the series, always dressed in light pastel designer clothes, always moving aboard speedboats or in exotic cars u...

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A tourism propaganda about planet Joh’yal

Submitted to Contest #300

When I first arrived on Planet Joh’yal, I was captivated by its reputation as the "Apex tourism planet" of the galactic sector. Known for its breathtaking megastructure arcologies and harmonious interspecies society, Joh’yal seemed the epitome of a utopian paradise. As a human tourist planning to stay for 3.5 galactic standard cycles (equivalent to one Earth year), I anticipated an immersive experience in a society that was said to have mastered civility and cultural integration. The planet, known as a hub of intergalactic trade and diplomac...

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Misadventures on a Peruvian Train

Submitted to Contest #300

Misadventures on a Peruvian Train Phillip M Williams2120 words The Desamparados Railway Station in Lima, Peru was bustling at 7.00am. “Get there early to claim a seat” was the advice from other backpackers who we’d met the night before in a bar in the Plaza de Armas. We were all travelling cheaply in South America in September, 1976, and this cohort of multi-cultural adventurers were bound for Machu Picchu, the Lost City of the Incas. Marie joined the queue to purchase tickets for the 8.00am departure to Huancayo at 3,300 metres in the An...

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Red Moon

Submitted to Contest #300

Early that summer morning, Aiyena tribe resumed their journey towards the Serpent River, following the route that the elderly healer, Shima, had indicated just before she died. Muyen never knew why her grandmother had mentioned that name. She just hoped there was good reason for that. The three families had been walking southwards among ferns, bushes and towering Alerce trees. Their fur-wrapped feet sank into some puddles or mud over and over until they found a way out of the forest and continued along the coast, feeling the cool breeze on t...

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Ich habe mich in Würzburg verliebt

Submitted to Contest #300

“Aren’t you looking suspiciously radiant today! Is there a new man in your life?” Doris leaned forward with an eager grin and raised eyebrows. Their regular Friday lunches at Ulele had resumed after Jean’s return from Germany, and Doris hoped to get all the details of the trip. Life in Tampa could be too predictable; she longed for a vicarious adventure. The server approached with menus, but Doris waved him off like a duchess dismissing a footman. “Later, please.” Jean toyed with the straw in her Ulele Sunrise cocktail as her oversized hoop...

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The Wind Does Not Wait

Submitted to Contest #300

The Wind Does Not WaitLeo BatemanIn the far eastern valleys of Veyra, where lavender fields swayed like sighs and twilight stretched long between the mountain spires, there lived a girl called Seren.She was born with too much silence in her, her mother used to say. A quiet baby with wide, storm-colored eyes and a habit of staring just past people, as though she saw a thread unraveling that no one else could see. But when she ran, the wind followed. When she laughed, the birds answered. Her mother called her “little wind,” because she never s...

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Zephria: Beneath the Altitudes

Submitted to Contest #300

They told you not to look down. But in Zephria, the sky was down. Sky above, sky below. Between them, an impossible collection of drifting islands, each hiding something it refused to explain. The bridges connecting them—weathered rope and bonewood—twisted with mossy tendrils and strange feathers that blinked if you stared too long.Talla gripped the wind-skiff's levers, adjusting swiftly as manta-hide wings caught the relentless gale. Her instruments jittered. The altimeter spun erratically. The barometer had been stuck on Imminent Collapse ...

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Once upon a time in Barcelona

Submitted to Contest #300

Barcelona... How long have I wanted to visit the city whose founding is attributed to the mythological hero Heracles? A city of ancient history, a center of world culture, where all roads and flight paths lead the tourist, where one can admire the creations of the wizard of architectural design, the great Gaudí. The Sagrada Familia... Although not everyone likes this building, what kind of monstrosity with four bottle-like spires is sticking up here? However, there's no accounting for taste. Barcelona must be seen!.. And here I am. By my own...

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Whispers in the Canopy

Submitted to Contest #300

"Whispers in the Canopy" The rotors thundered above the canopy like a war drum, beating a rhythm that drowned out the jungle’s natural song. A UH-1 Huey helicopter sliced through the thick, humid air, its olive-drab frame camouflaged in the shifting light of early morning. The pilot, Captain Elias Granger, had sweat slicking his temples beneath the snug embrace of his flight helmet. His hands, however, were still—steady as iron on the cyclic stick. Below him, the jungle rolled in dark, endless waves—an ocean of green broken only by jagged cl...

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A Bunch of Hooey

Submitted to Contest #300

As Rocco drove, Angelo read from a brochure about Sedona, Arizona. His son, Rocco, had been pestering him to visit him from Idaho to go hiking for the past six months. His garden was harvested, and Angelo booked a flight. He was excited to see this place Rocco had described as paradise. “Sedona’s beauty overwhelms visitors as they drive into the town on State Route 179, also known as the Red Rock Scenic Byway.” Rocco and his wife had retired and relocated here to start a healing salt-air business. It was Angelo’s first visit to Sedona. He h...

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Scenes From a Trailcam

Submitted to Contest #300

Bobby Gass 2,900 words921 S. 103rd St West Allis WI 53214 USAbobg03504@gmail.com Scenes from a Trail Cam There wasn’t much between the young couple and spongy muskeg of Ninavut a hundred miles north except spruce forests, moose, bears, isolated villages of Thule Indians. Denny was an experienced pilot, he said, promised Erica a thrilling time at his late grandpa’s remote cabin fifty miles north of Churchill. He hadn’t been there since childhood, had been trying to pe...

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Solitary Island

Submitted to Contest #300

I have no idea where I am. I remember a boat sinking and people screaming, then blackness. I awoke on this island where it seems I am it's only inhabitant. I'm not sure how long I've been here, but counting the days I do remember, this is day 10 and I've saw no trace of another human being. There is a hut here that is very old, but livable for now. It keeps me somewhat sheltered in spite of it's dilapidated state and until I can find a way off this island that I have named 'Solitary Island'.Funny how I used to dream of quiet times with no ot...

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The New Society of the Underground Sun

Submitted to Contest #300

The power had been off since the start of the revolution. The government had bombed the major power stations and shut off the rest in their unsuccessful attempt to force the remaining population into submission. Though she had been cursing them for the entire week prior, Serene now found herself grateful that the subway tracks had no electricity. Muted sunlight shone gently down the tunnel stairs, illuminating the platform just enough to see the bright yellow paint lining its edge. After checking over her shoulder a final time, Serene crawle...

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Round Trip

Submitted to Contest #300

It's too much: full Just too much. Intense group therapy twice a week, individual therapy once a week. Articles and books to read, dream journals to keep, journals to write, secrets to keep - no public acknowledgement of group members if you meet them out in the streets someplace, anyplace.How was i supposed to even guess she owned a used bookstore around the corner from my house?Used bookstores and libraries- my safe places. I usually find those books, essays, articles, assigned by a well meaning therapist in one or the other. And since I'v...

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The Orchard of Memories

Submitted to Contest #300

The desert stretched endlessly before Eida, a barren sea of dunes shimmering under the merciless sun. Heat rose in visible waves, distorting the horizon. Beside her, Tal stumbled, his frail body drained by the fever that threatened to consume him. The sand shifted treacherously beneath his uncertain steps, as if the desert itself were trying to pull him down."Just a little further," Eida urged, though she had no way of knowing if this was true. The grit of sand had worked between her teeth and into the folds of her clothing, an ever-present ...

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RBE | Illustrated Short Stories | 2024-06

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